For the past several years, I have periodically found myself going to sites and threads like these in order to rid myself of what I self diagnosed as gynecomastia. I'll begin by describing a little about myself. I am 21 years old, I am roughly 5' 9'', 155 lb, and I would say I am in pretty descent shape. I have always been the athletic type, so for me putting on weight was never really an issue. But like everyone else, if I don't exercise I can put on the pounds just like everyone else. (I found that out during my freshmen year in college) I guess it was in the 6th or 7th grade when I first noticed the enlargement under my nipples, so I guess I was 12 or 13. It was painful and I could definently tell something was a little different. And I can recall my Dad mentioning he had the same thing and it just goes away. So years would go by, and nothing seemed to change. I started wearing under shirts to hide my embarrassment. By the 9th grade, I was tired of being embarrassed so I want to try and figure out what was happening. So after a little research, I can to find I had gynecomastia. In its description, it says how it occurs in about a third of all boys going through puberty so I really wasn't to worried, but it also said how it should disappear in six months to 3 years. So I had been thinking to myself, why hadn't this gone away? I played soccer and sports my entire life and I just couldn't figure it out. I figured it would eventually recede and it somehow just took longer for me. Just to let you know, my condition was pretty much large nipples that protruded about an inch. I had gone on websites like this and heard stories and experiences much worse than mine, so I didn't feel as bad but it was still so incredibly embarrasing. Not people would make fun of me, but I was just extremely self-conscious. Anyways, years went by and nothing really changed. I did research and heard of things such as those "special creams" or taking anti estrogen drugs or whatever those were. But after reading stories that claimed these were all fake, I wanted to find some other way. Also, by this point I was a senior in high school, and I was still playing soccer and probably in the best shape of my life, except for my chest. Nothing really seemed to help make it dissapear. At one point I almost asked my parents for surgery because I was so sick of it. I tried other ways like lifting weights. I had learned that doing high weight and low reps would build muscle and just protrude the nipples even more, so I decided on doing alot of reps at low weights thinking that I could "rip" it off. Thinking back it might have been a good idea, but in my experience it wasn't that effective.
I thought that maybe if I did alot of cardio, I might eventually be able to make my chest smaller. I had research concentrated fat burning, the idea that you can burn fat from specific areas of your body doing certain exercises. however I found that in most cases this is impossible, and you cannot control where you lose fate. Up to this past spring, I thought I had tried everything. I had even dieted at several points, even though I was already fairly lean and trim, and throughout my life I have always eaten pretty healthy. So I began what I called a dedicated diet, sounds pretty lame I know. In this diet, I cut sugar and fats , saturated especially down to meager levels. I would normally eat about 10 to 15 % to the daily recommended dosages. I didn't consume high amounts of sugar and I stayed away completed from fast food. Normally I would eat rice, tortillas( made from rice ,cheese, salsa) low fat yogurt, fruit, salad, and the occassional bowl of cereal. Along with that I would exercise 2 to 4 times a week, playing basketball or soccer. Occasionally I would splurge on ice cream, but I tried to keep that to a minimal. I followed this routine for about 3 months and to this day I am gynecomastia free. Although I am not sure if it will return, if I go back to eating fat ridden foods, I just wanted to let people know there are other options besides surgery. It just took alot of dedication because for awhile I didn't see a whole lot of results. It worked for me but everybody's different. Trust me it sucked going to the beach not feeling comfortable, as I am sure lots of you know. That is my story. If you have any questions email me.
bucsfan117@yahoo.com
Topic: What worked for me (Read 3280 times)
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