The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons have today announced that the latest figures reveal that consultations and operations for male breast reduction surgery has increased by 28% since last year.
As more people become obese, there is are increased cases of excess male breast tissue, also known as “man boobs” or even “moobs”. Breast reduction is now the second most common form of cosmetic surgery for men.
One consultant doctor, Rajiv Grover, told the BBC that he believes that they increase in breast reduction surgery is not so much as a sudden increase in obesity levels, but due to an increased awareness of the problem and the solution.
Tummy Tucks Became Popular in the 1990’s
The 1990’s saw the rise of the tummy tuck and other plastic surgery, usually preferred by women, to reshape the body to get the perfect looking physique without all the hassle of eating a healthy diet and exercising. Now there is a new trend, and amongst men – breast reduction surgery.
Although “man boobs” are a real medical condition called gynecomastia, many men who are just overweight are opting for surgery to remove their breast tissue. Some even have some sculpting done to give the impression of having developed pecs (the pectoralis major muscle) which most men develop with exercise, such as press ups and bench press.
90% of all cosmetic surgery is still carried out on women, however the number of men undergoing breast reduction surgery is rising each year by about 80% per year. These rises are in defiance of the global economic downturn too. The medical community blame the ever increasing peer pressure and male fitness magazines on the rise.
Fortunately many doctors do advise their patients that exercise and diet are the key to removing their excess breast tissue, and not surgery. For men, the same rules apply to losing excess breast tissue as losing any type of fat, and these are set out in our article “start losing weight today“.
The best solution to losing male breast tissue is to combine a healthy, lean near sugar free diet with plenty of exercise that should include bodyweight exercises such as press ups and also weight training workouts concentrating on the big moves such as squats, bench press and rows.
Diet And Exercise Solution
Around 30% of all men that see a consultant about their man boobs are actually prescribed a healthy diet and exercise – many cases are simply that people are overweight, and reducing total body fat will eliminate any sign of excess breast tissue in men.
However, some men do experience very stubborn areas of fat that diet and exercise do not seem to shift, while others do have a genetic disposition to develop more breast tissue than the average man. For those with the genetic condition Klinefelter’s Syndrome, surgery is often the only solution. Other people that are at risk of developing man boobs are people taking steroids (the body starts to produce more oestrogen to balance the high levels of testosterone) and those on medication to treat prostate cancer.
Surgery to reduce male breast tissue takes around 90 minutes in total and can see anything up to 1 liter of fat being removed. Operations are not cheap though, costing in the region of £2000 ($3200) for the surgery.
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