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How to Burn Chest Fat with Exercises & a Balanced Diet

Nobody likes to have too much body fat, but many men struggle with chest fat. In this article, we will discuss how to burn chest fat, and what causes it in the first place.

Table of Contents

What Causes Chest Fat?

There are two main causes of chest fat in men: Increased body fat (weight gain) and a hormonal imbalance (low testosterone and high estrogen).

Gynecomastia is not technically chest fat, it is the development of breast tissue in males. But, anyone who has gynecomastia (often called “man boobs”) will struggle to tell the difference – or care.

As weight gain can lead to an increase in estrogen and a drop in testosterone, chest fat is often accompanied by gynecomastia. Studies have shown that 30% of men suffer from gynecomastia at some point in their lives [1].

Men usually carry body fat around their abdomen, waist, and thighs. But once a man’s body fat percentage passes 30% they will start to store excess fat around the chest and shoulders.

As body fat increases, so do estrogen levels. Once the estrogen/testosterone balance is changed it can lead to gynecomastia and/or body fat around the chest [2].

How to Burn Chest Fat?

The best way to burn chest fat is to make changes to your diet and lifestyle. Creating a calorie deficit will help to reduce your body fat, and addressing your testosterone and estrogen levels can help to reverse gynecomastia (provided it is not too far advanced).

In this section, we will look at ways in which we can burn chest fat and reduce breast tissue, helping you to build a muscular chest. We will split this into two separate sections:

1) Creating a calorie deficit to burn fat
2) Increasing your testosterone levels

Burning Chest Fat with Diet and Exercise

Here are four ways that can help you to burn excess fat. It is not possible to specifically target chest fat with diet and exercise. However, as men are genetically predisposed to store fat around the stomach and thighs, fat from the chest will drop quickly once you start to lose weight.

Reduce your Calorie Intake (Diet)

Fat burning is all about creating a long term calorie deficit. This is where you burn more calories than you consume. There are three ways to achieve this:

1) Increase the number of calories you burn
2) Decrease the number of calories you consume
3) A combination of the two

The third option is by far the best. It will get you better results in a shorter timeframe and doesn’t require extreme measures.

Reducing your calorie intake (dieting) can be quite simple, at least in theory. Structure your day around 3 main meals, and choose 2-3 high-protein snacks.

Each of your meals should contain a good amount of protein, 2-3 portions of fruit and/or veg, and some healthy fats. Carbohydrates should be measured, as these are often overconsumed. Just find the recommended serving size (usually found on the nutrition label) and use that.

After a few weeks, you can make your portions slightly smaller still, and continue your weight loss journey. Once you have reached your ideal weight, you can find your maintenance calories (use an online calculator) and stick to that.

Increase Protein Intake

Increasing protein serves three functions when it comes to burning chest fat. Firstly, it can help to preserve muscle mass, meaning that your pectorals will not become smaller as you lose weight.

Secondly, the protein in your diet is highly satiating. It can keep you feeling full for longer. This makes dieting easier, as you are less likely to feel hungry and snack.

Thirdly, a high protein diet will raise your metabolic rate slightly. Not enough to make a huge difference, but every little helps.

Follow a Full Body Training Program

Often, articles on this subject tend to suggest you train the pectoral (chest) muscles to burn chest fat. This is highly unscientific.

Performing a pectoral exercise such as the bench press will give you bigger pectoral muscles, but it won’t cause you to lose fat from your chest. You will lose fat from all over your body (including your chest).

The exercises that burn the most calories, will lead to the most fat loss. Even though a barbell squat doesn’t target the chest, it will burn more calories than a bench press, and is, therefore, a better fat burner.

That does not mean that you should only perform squats though. It’s just an example of why exercising to spot-reduce body fat from areas of your body is pointless.

The best method for fat burning is to follow a full-body training program that prioritises compound exercises. These are exercises that work multiple muscles at the same time. Some examples of compound lifts would be squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses, pull-ups, burpees, and leg presses.

Adding in some cardio such as rowing, cycling, or running, can also help with fat loss, but a full-body training program should be sufficient without adding any cardio.

Increase your Daily Step Count

One way to burn fat is to increase your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which is a measure of the calories you burn during the day while not exercising. Walking the dog, cleaning the car, vacuuming the house, climbing stairs, or even sitting down and reading this article burns a few calories.

None of these activities burns many calories, but cumulatively NEAT represents a lot of calories burned each day. Most of the activities that fall under the umbrella of NEAT are unconscious. Making them hard to increase for fat loss purposes.

However, walking counts. Increasing your daily step count is a great way to raise your metabolism and burn some more fat. Doing this alongside your gym sessions will provide you with amazing results.

Boosting Testosterone to Prevent Chest Fat

One of the best ways to boost testosterone is to burn excess fat, which you will do if you follow the above advice. However, there are a number of other ways in which you can boost your testosterone and lower your estrogen levels.

Eat Foods that Block Aromatase

Aromatase is an enzyme produced by your body that converts testosterone into estrogen. It is this enzyme that is often responsible for the accumulation of body fat around the chest. So, eating foods that block aromatase can help to lower estrogen and restore your testosterone.

Examples of aromatase-blocking foods include cruciferous vegetables, mushrooms, cherries, organic honey, and oats. Prime Male contains luteolin, which also works as an aromatase inhibitor, so keep this in mind.

Reduce your Alcohol Intake

Alcohol is fine in small doses, but if you drink too much it can raise estrogen levels. So, keep your alcohol intake to a minimum while trying to lose chest fat and you should see success. Check out our article on testosterone killers for more information.

Sleep Better

Bad sleep has been associated with low testosterone. A 2011 study found that sleep restriction over the course of a week led to a 10-15% drop in waking testosterone levels in men [3]. Sleep longer, and you will see a marked improvement. Sleep can also help to regulate appetite, making dieting easier and helping with weight loss.

Reduce Stress

Reducing stress can help to prevent chronically high cortisol levels, which can affect sleep and harm testosterone production [4]. It is impossible to remove stress completely, but you can take steps to lower it.

Take Natural Testosterone Boosters

Prime Male is packed full of ingredients that can reduce stress, improve sleep, protect testosterone production, inhibit aromatase, and naturally raise testosterone levels. Taking it alongside these other steps will enhance your progress, and lead to a stronger, leaner, fat-free chest.

How to Burn Chest Fat: Final Thoughts

By now you should understand how chest fat is formed and why. You should also have a good idea of how to burn chest fat using exercise and diet, and how to prevent man boobs by naturally raising testosterone levels while lowering estrogen. All you need to do now is get started!