New and happy to have found this place! I need advice. My looong gyne story...

[Christopherson]

I realize I've written a full book worth of info here, so if needed, just read whats in bold so you dont have to go through everything, but still be able to comment and hopefully give me some advice on my workouts and my plans.  This is the first time I've mentioned any of this, so excuse the length of it

So first off I'm Chris, I'm a 24 year old business owner, married man, and fan of extreme sports.  I'm 6'3 and currently 202 lbs.  I've recently shed some of my inhibitions of going out in public shirtless, and just having fun for the first time outdoors in 10+ years.  I have a tan for the first time since I was in the 4th grade, and it pisses me off, cause it took 2 days to get golden again, after 10 years of being stark white everywhere but on my hands and arms (redneck tan lines).  I've wasted a ton of time to my shame, and lots out on countless fun trips to the beach, water parks, pool parties and just chillin out in the spa with good lookin girls (pre marriage days). 

My wife is a huge support, and was actually the one to find out about the term Gynecomastia a year or more ago.  She tried as hard as she could to just get me to go out, and have a good time with her at the beach or at the pool.  She's a georgeous 6" Blonde who's been modeling (up till recently) for the past 9 years.  She had no clue what I was feeling.  But never the less, she supported me, even from early on.  The first time she tried to run her hands up my shirt, lol, I seriously freaked out and pinned her hands near my stomache so that she wouldn't find the bandaids that were taped over my nipples (areola's anyway).  She found out about that later.  But after years of feeling like I was a shameful sight, she supported me when I said I was going to find a way to get past it, even if that meant surgically.  Its hindered me too much, and its not fair to myself to keep up the pitty parade. 

I was so embarrassed, I wouldn't go to the gym without bandaids on for years, which mean I almost never went.  The bandaids tore the skin just about everytime I wore them, so while I didn't have them on, as was the case when I actually WAS in the pool, I usually had little red marks and patches where skin had been pulled off as the bandaids started to peel up.  That sh*t SUCKED.  So anyway, I decided to finally take a big embarrassing step, and head out to Raging Waters, a Socal waterpark nearby, and I actually felt quite liberated (albeit embarrassed as hell), that I got to do ANYTHING like that.  I didn't feel people staring nearly as much as I always figured I would.  From there, its slowly gotten to the point where I'm dealing with it much better, but still far from accepting it flat out, which I cannot. 

I have been about 30 lbs overweight for my whole adult life, and had Gyne from the time I was about 13.  I just didn't know that's what it was, but I thought my chest looked funny when I was younger, but rather than looking womanly, it just looked too broad for the rest of me.  I developed strong pecs when I was 8th grade, but that's about when the Gyne had become more pronounced as well.  By the time I was a freshman, I was noticing that all my T-shirts showed off my puffy nipples pretty bad, even though that's about the only real sign of gyne I had aside from slightly bigger pecs, which were about 80% muscle.  I had a very close friend of mine who was a few years old tell me that I had a bunch of Estrogen in my system, which meant I was getting girl boobs, and I instantly became self concious to this, and embarrassed beyond words.  People would walk up and pinch the nips, not picking on me, but just cause they saw them sitting there pushing slightly outward (tentlike) just begging for a pinch.  They didn't mean to add to the embarrassment, and I never showed them how bad it felt, yet I was dying inside, for sure.  So I never did much sports like I'd wanted to, since half of them meant playing shirts versus no shirts, or just didn't appeal to me.  I was HUGE into skateboarding, with local sponsors and free clothes and parts to keep me motivated.  That lasted until I was around 16, and had been injured quite a few too many times in the ankles and back to keep it up much longer.  Plus I grew about 8 inches that summer, and finally the Gyne had just got me to be wearing nothing but button up shirts, which made me look fatter that I really was. 

I wasn't motivated to work out, and was just stuck hating the shoes I was in.  I was also smoking a bit of pot, then more later.  As I got older, I worked high stress positions in various companies, as well as attending college full time, and I just smoked to relax.  I had no clue that may have been helping along the Gyne, but it was quite developed by the time I even started.  I didn't stop until I decided to start trying for a baby with my wife a little ways down the road, and wanted to have a nice clear system without any of that.  So granted its not something most people would mention as part of a first impression, I just thought was a valid point to hit in this post.  I'm not going to say anymore on that subject.  BUT, I will say that after being down for so long, I finally decided to stop eating so much sweets, or fast food (which I didn't do much anyway).  My wife got me to stop drinking soda years ago, and I do all the cooking for us, so it was pretty simple to adjust the diet aspect.  I also decided on my last vacation it was time to get a tan again after years and years being so white, and shortly after that a good friend of mine got a nice wake boarding boat.  The year before I went to the river with them, and felt like a fat white dork with puffy nipples, lol, its sad how recent that was. 

Now I'm working out, if not at the gym, before bed doing a quick little routine I'd like suggestions or comments on.  I've been doing this for about a month and a half, and I like the results, but maybe somebody could tell me a better way to improve on them?

Start to finish I do:

15 Diamond push ups
40 Crunches
15 Regular push ups
20 left, 20 right side crunches
15 Diamond push ups
40 Crunches
15 Regular push ups
20 left, 20 right side crunches
25-35 Diamond push ups

Then I'm burning in my abs, and my arms feel tired but tight and good.  My friends and family have noticed the change, and I've dropped from 220 which was my normal weight when I wasn't doing anything about it, or eating very health conciously, down to 202.5 last time I checked.  I also try to get on the treadmill at the gym at least once or twice a week, as well as a water aerobics class every thursday with my wife (she's 6.5 months prenant).  We're the youngest people in the pool, but this particular instructor kicks my ass every week.  She doesn't tell you to just go at your own pace like the others do, she pushes everyone, young, old, obese, pregnant, etc.  When I work on the treadmill, I have been trying to not push it too hard, as I used to get very sick at the gym, and sometimes even throw up and get mean headaches.  So I've been first walking a mile or more, then a tiny bit of jogging.  Then I worked my way up to mostly walking, and a little bit of light running (but being 210+ meant I was falling hard on the belt which sometimes even slowed the machine down if it wasn't in tip top condition). 

Now my treadmill routine is:

walk 3.8 mph for about .4 miles
walk the next .1 miles at 4.2 mph
then I run at 7.5 mph for .25 miles
then I walk at 3.9-4.2 for the next .25 miles.
I alternate running and fast walking ever quarter mile, and keep my heart rate between 180 (fastest) and 130 (sometimes 120 if I've walked for more than a few minutes).  I'm trying to make sure to go more often, and I'd like to run everyday to see better results.  My goal is to get down to 185 before I get my breast reduction surgery.  I figure I have at least another 2-3 months before I'll reach my goal, unless I'm mistaken and it'll take less.  I eat pretty well, but every few weekends I'll crush a good 15-20 coors lights with my buddy, and eat a couple pieces of pizza.  I still do my routine before bed through, drunk and bloated or not.  So without further adu here is my plan and my pics (weird that I've been so ashamed of this for so many years and now I'm posting ABOUT it and showing my pics, headless of course, haha). 


Plan:
I want to finish dropping weight.  I went from 220 down to 202.5 so far.  I'd like to continue to drop weight to at the very least 190, and from there based on my muscle build up decide if I'd like to drop another 5 lbs by continuing cardio, or to start my focus on working my abs and arms more.  My legs are strong as hell already for all those years skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, etc.  But when I reach my goal, I'd like to have some money saved up, and get my surgery, and have my recovery time during the winter so that next summer I can have a good 9 months worth of time behind me.

Here's the worst of it, last summer, when I had been eating bad, and was the heaviest I've been before.  This was also my first trip out with my friends to the river.  I'd never been before, and never wanted to go cause I didn't look good.  Couldn't have chosen a worst time to go fitness wise, but I also couldn't have had more fun.  Liberating for sure:



My buds were all nice and fit.  All the pics of the river rats have buff dudes, with hot broads.  Me and my girl were not fittin in to that, lol.

This was in December, after being on vicodin for oral surgery for a week, and I dropped 10 lbs. from not eating much, so this doesn't really count.  I was still bigger than now though.  You'll notice I dont have the puffy nipples, as I'm constantly pinching them to make them harder when my shirt is off.  I try to do this when I don't think anyone is looking, but logic tells me I probably draw even more attention to myself as a result



I wasn't too mad though, I was in Vegas, 10 lbs. skinnier, with 3 naked chicks in the huge tub that I had just jumped out of for pics hehe.  1 was my wife.  nuff said. moving on...

This was me on my 3 year anniversary in early June with the wife, finally detirmed to get a tan cause I knew my buddy just got a boat and I'd be at the lake.  I was laying out for day one, stark white, back at 220. 


Now finally, some pics from the other day when I got a Daddy to be gift (little black race car baby walker that looks like my hooked up car).  I took some pics with my wife, and felt like an idiot when I saw I had to retouch them to get rid of the creases in my shirt, even though I had been pinchin nips like crazy for the shots.  Some still showed through quite a bit.  These shots have been treated opposite, made to show the creases.  But I did feel a bit better knowing that I was a tad bit slimmer than I've been for a lot of years.  I'm just barely starting to see any definition on my arms, and any advice on that would be great. 

[Cellar_Door]

Ok, that was quite the novella. Are you planning to get surgery? No matter how ripped you get, no matter how much muscle you add, it won't get rid of the gyno. Surgery is the only solution.

The exercise routine sounds ok. I would advise that you try a weightlifting routine, 3 times a week, to add lean muscle. There are countless programs out there.

Cardio is overrated for losing weight. It's really about what you eat. Having more muscle speeds up your resting metabolism.