Man Boobies: a post for the fellas

I have been reading Tim Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Body" and have found it extremely interesting.  Mostly cause the guy isn't siting studies and research about various body/health issues, he IS the studies and research.  There's nothing in his book that he talks about or gives advice on that he didn't do to himself first.  And he is meticulous about recording his findings.  The chapters that really gave me pause (I expected the weight loss/body building chapters to be more fine tuning of stuff I already knew) were the chapters on male issues and the ones on injury rehab and prevention.  But since I just watched "The Biggest Loser" and yet again faced the barrage of man-titties on that show, I wanted to look farther into men's health issues. (Also, as much as I prompt Norm to check out this book, especially the part about rehabbing injuries and, who am I kidding, the chapter about the 15 minute female orgasm, he has picked up the book once.  This is how research and development goes at my house: I read and say I'd like to try The Paleo Diet/The 4-Hour Body/The Art of Raising a Puppy/Green for Life smoothies/The Sleep Lady book and I suggest Norm should look at it as well to see if he wants to try it, and he agrees and then doesn't read it and patiently waits me out till I give him the cliff notes version.  Mostly he goes along with it because he has no choice--I do the grocery shopping and most of the food preparation.  And he pretends to be buying into it until one day I go to drive his car and reach down to move the seat up and find a large rolled up bag of Cool Ranch Doritos hidden under the seat.  Bastard.)

In his book, Ferriss talks about testosterone and sperm production of the modern man.  Or I should say, the lack of production.  And it isn't just a little bit and it isn't some random study he pulled it from.  Guys my age are producing a considerable smaller amount of testosterone and viable sperm than their grandfathers.  And then there's the man tits that seem to abound nowadays.  Is it possible that "Fight Club" was on to something?  Are we not only feminizing men emotionally but even more importantly, physically?  Don't get me wrong, I am not the girl who falls for bad boys or testosterone heavy asshats who get in a fight every weekend.  The men I have loved in my life have been sweet, considerate, and sensitive.  But they haven't been pussies.  They still have enough of a pair to definitely be masculine and, well, dudes.  If I wanted to be with someone who is as sensitive and hormonal and nurturing as me, I would have just been a lesbian.  (I played rugby for many years and have a lesbian for a best friend--I have been to many pride parades and gay bars.  If I was into women, I would definitely have known by now).

So man boobs.  What really causes them?  Let's get the obvious ones out of the way: genetics and weight gain.  If you are genetically tagged for man boobs (the proper term is gynecomastia) and you put on extra weight, guess what? You will need the bro.  That being said, there are certain kids of food and drink that will give you moobs even if none of your grandfathers had them.  One of the reasons that certain foods and drinks can cause training bra shopping is that they are phytoestrogens. What they do is mimic estrogen.  If you can't guess why putting large amounts of something in your male body that mimics estrogen can have emasculating effects then you have more problems than just having jigglies.  "But wait!" you say.  If food and drink cause that serious a hormonal effect, wouldn't the FDA or someone put warnings on these dangerous foods? Nope. Because its a slow build up of all the different phytoestrogens we consume little by little.  Some work faster and are a little more obvious.  I'm sure it would surprise no one that alcohol creates hormonal chaos and man boobs, especially when consumed in constant, high amounts.  But our frenemy soy is also a huge contributor to unbalancing male hormones.  Does that mean throw out your soy milk if you are lactose intolerant or vegetarian? No but almond milk is a better bet.  (and I remember when some guys starting going nuts about not using soy milk or soy protein shakes anymore and they cited a study where a guy got swollen B cup sized breasts.  That particular guy was drinking 3/4's of a gallon of soy milk A DAY.  You suck down most anything that excessively and you are going to have adverse results).  So its not really that soy milk in your cereal that is doing the damage.  Its the soy product that is in all our foods PLUS the soy milk that is causing the problem.  Additives from soy, oil from soy, and soy based feed given to animals we eat--soy is EVERYWHERE.  Look at your food labels.  Words you don't know? (glycine max, HVP, lecithin, monodiglyceride, monosodium glutamate or MSG, etc. All soy) They are either soy or corn additives. Things I would really consider non-food.  Like plastic.  Which is another product in our lives that can cause hormone issues in men or in pregnant women.  That's right, we might be doing some "Children of Man" shit to our society.  Statistically we have seen a drop in male births.  Some might say its not a significant enough drop, but it is persistent over the last few decades so to me, that's significant.

What do you do if you have man boobs? I feel a mantra of sorts coming on, hold on....yep: The less steps a food product takes from being alive to being in your mouth, the healthier you will be.  Cut back on the booze.  Replace your soy protein shakes with whey protein shakes.  If you want healthier sperm and an increase in testosterone, eating well is only the beginning.  First, keep your cell phone away from your junk.  Don't always bring it with you, and try to wear it somewhere other than your pants.  Don't believe me?  Look at some of the more recent objective studies about this (some studies are funded by cell phone companies).  Exercise more, sit less.   Eat meals high in cholestorol later in the day so your body can produce testosterone over night.  Tim Ferriss has more ways to increase your swimmies and juice, so check out his blog/book.  Just FYI, it involves cold showers and brazilian nuts.

Week 9 Measurements

Alright, alright.  Week 7's measurements never happened and when I measured week 8, I was, again, in the same place as week 6.  This last week I thought, "well, since I've hit some sort of stand still with my body, what would happen if I ate one crappy thing a day, say like a bowl of ice cream every night, but ate really well during the day?  How much difference does a bowl of ice cream really make?" (when I say bowl of ice cream I am talking about a portion size that is 1.5 cups.  Not that big, maybe 2 scoops at a ice cream parlor.  That's right, I said parlor)  Apparently, not that much as you will see in the measurements.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I have been walking the baby a little longer everyday so I have increased my caloric output.

Here are the measurements:

Some of my measurements went down slightly.  That may seem like an improvement but since my overall size hasn't really gone down too much, what we have here is a Mexican Standoff with my fat.  Either I need to get real real strict about what goes into my belly or I need to carve out some time everyday for a workout.  I guess I could try to run.  But honestly starting running when I am this tired and especially this out of shape is like what a hoarder must feel like when they decide to clean their house.  Overwhelmed and mentally unstable in other words.

Weight: 198 lbs.  I really don't care about weight.  I care about my jeans fitting again.  If they fit well at 200 lbs instead of 170, I don't care.  As long as they fit.

Measurements	3/4	3/10	3/18	4/1	4/8	4/15	4/30	5/7
Neck	38 cm	36.5 cm	37.5 cm	36 cm	36.5 cm	36.5 cm	36.5 cm	36.5 cm
Right Bicep	32.5 cm	35 cm	35 cm	35.5 cm	33 cm	33 cm	33 cm	33 cm
Left Bicep	31.5 cm	33 cm	33 cm	33 cm	32.5 cm	32.5 cm	32.5 cm	31 cm
Belly	107 cm	101 cm	98 cm	96.5 cm	100 cm	100 cm	100 cm	98 cm
Hips	111 cm	108 cm	105.5 cm	105 cm	107 cm	107.5 cm	107.5 cm	105.5 cm
Right Thigh	66 cm	65 cm	65 cm	64 cm	63.5 cm	63.5 cm	63.5 cm	63.5 cm
Left Thigh	66.5 cm	64 cm	64 cm	63 cm	63 cm	63 cm	63 cm	62 cm