Working out and eating right

[CaliKid8]

Hi guys, I just wanted to start a thread to talk about working out and eating right, more importantly working on your body as a whole to try to help deal with our embarrassing conditions.  I've noticed that the in the majority of the pictures that I have seen, the person has been either a little overweight or at least not toned.  Please don't get me wrong here, I am not trying poke fun or ridicule the community, but rather I want to ask why do people let their condition that only really affects our chests, affect the way we take care of the rest of our body? 

I am only 20 years old, but have hated my body for as long as I could remember.  I've always  been in decent shape because I played sports in high school, so I was satisfied with how I appeared to other people, but never happy with what my body looked like with my shirt off.  It wasn't till this past year that I decided to actually get a gym membership, stop eating fast food, drinking soda, and see what I can really do with my body.  Even though I knew that no matter how hard I worked out I could never change my condition, I did really start to like the rest of my body which sort of took my mind off my chest.  Instead of every morning taking off my shirt to get in the shower and looking at my man-boobs, each day I would be looking at how my six pack was coming along or how big my arms were looking.  I got a lot of positive feedback from other people about my appearance and really helped my self esteem a lot. 

I'm only telling you guys this, because I'd hate to see so many guys torment and hate themselves because of 1 part of our bodies.  Why not work on losing a weight or working on your arms?  The chest isn't the only thing people see.  As embarrassing as our conditions are, we cannot let them define us. 

What are your guy's thoughts, I really want to know.  Am I just crazy?

[iginla23]

no bro good point i have played high level sports my whole life, and have had to deal with the ugly ass nipples forever, the past year i have really been hitting the gym hard and have seen some outstanding results and building up the rest of my body has taken away the attention i used to give my nips. Getting in shape really does help the condition look the best it can without surgery, but thank god i am getting surgery free of cost in a couple weeks here.

[CaliKid8]

I just had my surgery done a week ago and my chest looks awesome.  I've been wearing under armor to keep the swelling down and for the first time I want to show my chest off.

[iginla23]

nice man i cant wait for mine aswell my chest looks really good when my nips are compressed, i cant wait to not have to worry about them again

[oldspice]

yeah i could stand to lose about 10-15 lbs. gonna go for surgery after i do. im not looking to be overly ripped or nothin, but just in solid shape for the surgery.

[paramount]

for some people with hormonal gyne (myself included) the lack of testosterone makes it hard to lose weight and put on muscle. in my case couple that with having high prolactin levels and weight loss becomes even more difficult.

i do however agree that working out will give you the confidence that gyne has dented.i think  it is important to remember that people do not look purely at your chest but at you, the whole of you, from head to toe. if you are in good shape generally then i think if people notice you chest they will not pay as much attention to it because it it obvious you make the effort to stay in good shape whereas if people see an overweight person with gyne they will make negative assumptions about that persons lifestyle.
and lets remember that a good pair of arms will get you a long way!

[AnyGuy]

It's great that this works for some of you, but for those of us who have more than just puffy nipples, i.e. maybe at least a b-cup no matter how well you eat right and no matter how much exercise you do, there isn't much hope. I've actually read here on several occasions that too much upperbody work (on the pecs) will increase the size of your pectorial muscles and push out the breast tissue, resulting in an even worse look. Exercise is great with self-esteem but I (and I'm sure I'm not alone) feel too demotivated to get down to the gym every other day in hope of losing these things when I've tried it all before and know it doesn't really help .

[CaliKid8]

It is impossible to exercise your gyne away, what I wanted to get out there was that you can work on other parts of you body and making them look better.  Before I got my surgery I was still pretty self-conscious because my nips showed through my shirt but then I would just look at how my triceps were coming along or flex my bicep.  Not to mention, it is always good to be in good physical health.

[Chodel]

For me personally I have avoided the gym and find other exercise difficult too because of my gyne.  This does sound like an excuse I know.  However, in order to go down the gym I would need to wear a t-shirt and frankly that will never happen because of the gyne.  Similar with other sports; I tend to avoid them because of this very reason.

However, I have recently purchased an underworks vest and although it is far from comfortable I believe I could go down the gym in it, consequently I am hoping to sign up soon.  This will hopefully time well with my possible surgery nearer the end of this year.  I figure it makes sense to lose some weight and generally sort the rest of my body out so that once I eventually get the surgery I can maximise the best results.

On a more general note in terms of psychology, I personally think that ones thoughts and feelings related to gyne can jade ones view of our whole body.  In the sense that we feel 'well if my biology has done this to me, i really dont feel very inclined to work on the rest of my body' - which is part of the depression associated with the condition.  Least for me anyway.

But it is important as you have said that we take care of the rest of our body, at the very least to minimise some of the fat on our chest and secondly just to be in a better state of health.