Once in ketosis, you can lower the fat percentage, and raise the protein. The exact percentage to raise is very personal, use the ketosticks to check to make sure you still are in ketosis.

I can relate. This is a body type which I have had in the past, I dont think its as much that my chest was flabby and had a roll of fat around my mid section - just had no definition. I think the thing is that my legs has always been big (muscularly) in proportion to the rest of me. So, for a given overall condition, my chest would appear out-of-shape. Same with upper arms too (maybe not as bad as you say, but it was there).

What al of these guys are referring to is the Ketogenic Diet - aka the Atkins Diet. There is SO much misinformation on this diet - even a lot of what I have read on this board is wrong. They key is that for a while, you eat like NO carbs NONE. By that I mean less than 20 G per day (and you wont believe how quickly that adds up). This puts you through a mild hell for a few days until your body gets into a state called "Ketosis" - where your body is actively metabolizing fat for fuel. ONCE you are IN ketosis, its actually easier to deal with. GETTING there is tough, You go through a period where you are about ready to kill someone for like an Apple. Your body is SCREAMING for fuel - I had a mild headache. Then your body goes "oh, wait... uh ..... I'll shift over to burning fat". And its gets easier.

Then you stay in that state. Staying there, you can raise the level of carbs a BIT a day - maybe like to 30-40G max. That�s it. If your body see enough carbs around - it goes "oh COOOLLLLL I know what to do" - and it start burning carbs again. Then when you try to get back into ketosis - you have to go through the discomfort again.

But if you stay in Ketosis � the fat will melt away. There are test strips that you can piss on which will verify the fact that you are in that state (although they are not very reliable).

Working out while in that state is NOT easy. In fact, its tough. Its one thing to just live in that state, but vigorous workouts are tough. Aerobics (low intensity) are probably OK. But don�t try any squats!

This may be a good course for you � just get on that diet and melt off a lot of the fat. Getting rid of it is much harder than keeping it off if you are an active person. I would take like 2-3 months, and just do that diet and some mild cardio. Maybe some light weights (trust me � you wont want o do much else).You will eat like a damned pig. Bacon. Eggs. Sausage. Hamburgers � get this ��.. I used to go to Wendy�s and get 2 double cheeseburgers, and get rid of the buns (that�s right NO BUNS - scrape it ALL off - every last speck) and that was lunch! And fat was melting off!

But if I so much as had ONE muffin, or one sugar packet, or one Pepsi � BAM � I blew it. Out of ketosis.

(There is a school if thought that says you can be in ketosis, and then like ingest some small amount of carbs right before a workout � the theory being that you will burn all of those carbs in the workout session. I never found that to work for me.

I have seen dramatic results on Keto-based diets. And have read many sources on the subject. The best for the lay person is to just go get Atkins book.

Also, the newsgroup: alt.support.diet.low-carb is good. But seriously, spend the 5 bucks or whatever and get the book. Actually, I would recommend the book on tape too.