Q: Hey mike, i have multiple things i need your help to adress. right now im a 200 pound sophmore(im 6'3 so you dont think im fat) but, i have manboobs.. im gonna start a cutting diet til they are gone, but next year i want to try out for our schools football team. Probably an offensive line position, or something doing with defending the QB or going for theirs. What can i do to getmyself big enough for that, without getting my manboobs back once i have them gone? (when i say manboobs, i mean like i have puffy nipples and a little bit of fat, but if i flex my chest i can feel alot of muscle in there)

A: Don't try cutting at your age and physique. You're not overweight at all at 6 foot 3 200 pounds and by cutting now you not only lose valuable time you can use to build muscle but also jeopardize the completion of your growth and development. Right now you're at THE perfect age to build some serious muscle -- don't throw away that opportunity by wasting time on cutting and getting your manboobs smaller.

Clean up your diet, cut out all junk, and substitute it with whole healthy foods. That alone will go a long way to reducing those manboobs. Your continuing growth and maturation will finish the job. So that problems is taken care of. A bigger decision should be whether you'll try to eat to gain some weight (in muscle of course, not fat!) or whether you just want to make the most of your existing physique. If you choose the former, you'll be overeating slightly to gain about 2 pounds of weight per month. In conjunction with a good weightlifting program, most of those 2 pounds will be muscle, though it's almost unavoidable that some will be fat. How much of each will depend mostly on how clean and steady your diet is. If you choose the latter, you'll eat just enough to maintain your present weight and with good weightlifting burn off some of the fat and build muscle in its place.

In either case, fill out http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/fitnessguide specifying 'Build Muscle' as your goal. That'll give you both a workout program and a diet program. Try to stick with that diet (read the paragraph preceding it to see how you can customize it) and depending on whether your goal is to keep your weight or try to gain a bit adjust the calories up or down to stay on track.

As for your football position choice, your height should give you good advantage at either the offensive tackle or defensive end positions. I don't know your team and competition, obviously, but 200 pounds is probably a good weight for the end position and may be a little light for the tackle. Good luck and once again remember that you're in the perfect position to build muscle now so focus on that first and let good diet and exercise take care of manboobs.