Woman Want to Lose Fat and Breast Size

[lucylui23]

A little about me. I played basketball in college (graduated in '04) and at one point had 15% and a 36C cup. Needless to say perfect size. After I graduated college work-out routine diminished and I have gained about 15 pounds in two years and now have 36DD. I would like to lose weight again and get to about 140 which was college weight and would like to tone chest area and if possible make them smaller.

They are just TOO big, and I am not happy with them, and surgery is not an option.

I notice that women bodybuilders have little to no chest, so I figure if I work out enough and target the right areas with the right exercises that I may be able to get them to a size I want. So can you please:

#1 - Recommend exercises that specifically target chest area, and recommend how many times per week at how many reps and weights. Is it low weight, more reps, or more weight low reps, or a mixture of each. I have never developed a firm workout routine, so I need to know how many times a week should I focus (2x? 3x? 5x?)

also

#2 - Not related to the chest size, but overall. I would like to lose weight, and tone, and become more slim/slender then muscular. With that said, I have read that I should do low weights and high repetitions. how many repetitions should I do exactly? (50? 25?) etc...if someone could give me a firm workout suggestion. Also I just recently read about proper weight training techniques where it is like 1 second up, and 3 seconds down. I have always done just up, down, up down etc...I guess like most people do. So now that you know goals can someone please recommend firm repetition and weight suggestions that will accomplish the goals I have set above.

I am 5'9" weigh 156, would like to be 140 again and smaller chest.


Thanks for your help

[SarahPT]

Doing specific exercises will not reduce chest size. That's a myth and is physiologically just not possible. You can do chest exercises as much as you want, but as you lose fat you will lose it everywhere. The reason female bodybuilders have such small breasts is that the breast is comprised mostly of fat, and a bodybuilder up on stage has an extremely low level. So, you will lose chest size through good nutrition and exercise.

Low weights and high reps is a myth as well. There is not really any point to it. You burn more calories when you do heavier weights with lower reps and you are more likely to preserve your current msucle mass or even gain some lean mass. Doing the very light weights primarily only hits the slow twitch muscle fibers, and it's important to hit the fast twitch as well. Fast twitch fibers are what we naturally lose more of as we age.

That being said, there is no certain number of sets/reps that will be right for you. Everyone is a bit different. But don't be afraid of the heavy weights. Just starting out you will want to take it easy the first few weeks. But then don't be afraid to keep increasing the weight. In general I owuld say to keep your reps at 12 or lower.

Please let me know if I can help more.

Sarah