New user. Opinons on my condition.

[SeriousSam]

Do you think I have it?  Or is it somewhat stubborn fat?

Won't bombard you with a background story to start with so for now I'll just say I'm 5'9" early 20s and 210 lbs currently.

http:// imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/getridsoon.jpg/

http:// imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/getridsoon2.jpg/

(get rid of the space after the http://)

[SeriousSam]

Hmm no response? 

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

You are overweight with a BMI of 31 (anything over 30 is considered obese).  Most overweight men have fat preferentially deposited on the chest, abdomen and love handles -- you are no exception.

Rather than wonder "if I have it", you should really do what you already know -- lose some weight.  Then re-evaluate and see if there is still excess tissue on your chest after a 20+ pound weight loss.  It is doable!

Dr Jacobs

[SeriousSam]

Thanks for the response!

I guess now I can state my case in more detail.

I was overweight most of my life up till I was about 16 (I was the same height then as I am now) when I started to get obsessed with weight loss. I started off doing it wrong and overzealously (ran for hours at a time and skipped meals) and I went down from 230 to 170 in a couple of months or so. I lost a lot of water and muscle weight along with fat and I didn't like how that looked.

Once I realized that was the wrong way, I started to slow down my weight loss and eat more/smarter. And I got as low as 150 lbs--though my bf% probably still on the high side.

From there I started to weight train and build back up, and I got up back to around 180 lbs from the weight training. The pec work outs started to push my fatty lower chest outward and once I realized that over the next couple of years, I cut back on the lower pec exercises and focused on upper chest solely. I think my lower pec muscles have been slow to atrophy over these years, but I think they are getting there so that should help it look better--but I still wonder if its stubborn fat or gyno or both?

When I got into college when I was 18, I had less time to work out so I did so maybe once a week (if that) and over those 5 years I ballooned back up to my current 210 lbs. As you can see I do have a fair bit of muscle from all that weight training prior so its not like I'm an outright obese 210 lbs.

I'm finally out of college so now I can start back to training in earnest and try to do so smarter than ever.

But I do wonder if I feel gyno or not; When I grab my lower chest/nipple area horizontally ( thumb and fingers across each other), the whole area feels pretty soft and empty. But when I grab it vertically (thumb above the fingers), I feel some sort of lumpiness. I wonder if that's glandular tissue, but the thing is, when I grab any obviously fatty part of my body, like my lower abdomen near my naval, I can feel the exact same lumpy feel.

So what do you think it is? Thanks for sitting through all of that. : p

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

You "ballooned" up to 210 pounds.  Why not try to take some of that off?  Assuming you have some good muscle on your chest, losing weight will certainly make the chest smaller.  You can then check it out with an experienced gyne surgeon.  Self-diagnosis by feeling one's chest is a fool's errand -- it is very deceiving.  Too many guys do it and drive themselves nuts over what is gland, what is fat, do I have it, etc?

Dr Jacobs