Q: i have been told all types of different training methods at my local gym and it all seems confusing because everyone gives me differant advice, i want to loose my man boobs and side love handles around the lats, is decline bench press any good for my chest workout? should i train heavy for weight loss? what excersises are good for loosing fat around the lat area?

A: Yes, in general you should always train heavy, 6-12 reps to failure. That is the optimal training for burning fat, building muscle, and developing strength (actually developing strength is a little more involved than that, but that's a separate topic). As far as exercises, your goal is to engage all muscles to maximize fat burning over your whole body. It's not that doing chest presses will burn chest fat or lat pulldowns will burn lat fat. The fat will always come off your whole body and the more muscles are being trained, the more fat will be burned during muscle recovery process.

The second and even more important thing is, of course, the diet. You can have the best workout routine in the world but if you eat too much or you eat junk, you won't lose any fat and might actually gain more of it.

To see what you should be doing for both exercises and the diet, fill out http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/fitnessguide specifying 'Lose Fat' as your goal. Carefully read through the exercise and diet routines that are suggested to you, adapt them to your specific needs (some suggestions are given in the paragraph before the diet), and follow them closely for best results. Remember: heavy whole-body training + fat-burning diet losing 1-2 pounds/week = SUCCESS! Good luck!