Breasts And Weight Loss – What Happens To Your Breasts When You Lose Weight
Image: Shutterstock
You are dieting and exercising religiously by controlling all your food cravings and working every muscle of yours at the gym to burn all the excess fat. You are waiting to not just watch the number on the weighing scale to go down but also to see a drop in the size of your pair of jeans. But surprise, surprise! You are in for a shock when you notice that the size of your bra has dropped too.
Women are very concerned when it comes to their breasts; even the slightest change in them can get them worked up. The impact of weight loss on the size of the breasts is something that most women are concerned about. So, we did our homework and educated ourselves well to clear your doubts. And here’s the ugly truth— losing weight definitely makes your breasts smaller. We’ll tell you why.
It’s Got To Do With The Breast Tissue
A major part of the breasts is made up of fat tissues (1). Therefore, when you put on weight, these fat cells expand. And when you work out or diet to lose some weight, the fat cells in the breast begin to shrink. This makes your breasts smaller in size. Also, the reduction in the breast size depends on the number of fat tissues in the breast. Some women have less number of these tissues and therefore have denser breasts, thus not much of a size drop occurs in their breast size as they lose weight. (Aren’t they the lucky ones?)
The amount of the fat tissues stored in your breasts, or how dense your breasts are isn’t really in our control. It’s all a gamble of the genes! But we can definitely find out about it through medical imaging procedures like mammogram (2).
Breasts Speak About Your Body As A Whole
The size of your breasts can speak volumes about your overall body weight. Studies have determined that women with larger breasts tend to have a greater body mass index. They weigh more and have more fat content in their bodies when compared to women with smaller breasts (3).
Do They Become Just Smaller Or Even Saggier?
When a woman experiences drastic weight loss, the collagen and elastin (which support the breast tissues) break down because of the stress experienced by them. This leaves the breast flaccid and saggy in nature. The severity of this condition increases especially if you’re a yo-yo dieter. The constant loss and gain of weight stresses the body’s muscles and tissues at a rapid pace, resulting in saggy breasts. Yo-yo dieting fills up the fat tissues of your breast during weight gain and then removes some fat during the weight loss. This strains the breast tissues.
But, how can you avoid sagging of breasts? One simple way is to lose your weight on a slow and steady rate; this will retain the shape of your breasts and prevent them from sagging (4). You can also change some of your everyday habits that may affect the firmness of your breasts —like wearing a bra on 24×7 (yes, it defies the purpose if worn all day) (5). Don’t go for a targeted fat loss program. Exercise smartly and eat whole foods and leafy vegetables. This will help to keep the shape of your breasts intact.
Is There Anything We Can Do To Keep Our Breasts From Downsizing?
Like how every problem comes with a solution, so does this problem (and we aren’t advising you to consider doing the push-ups or use a padded bra). Whenever you decide to lose some pounds and jump on the weight loss bandwagon, make sure that you have incorporated weight training as well. There are a certain set of exercises that help the body to stay strong even when the body is shedding kilos. Cardio exercises mainly burn was fat whereas weight training will lead to a healthy and improved metabolism.
Strength training helps to strengthen your pectoral muscles (these are the muscles which lie directly under your breast tissue) of the body. Exercises like rowing, chin-ups, and bench presses will aim to build the muscles of your chest and hold the breasts up instead of leading them to sag.
Precaution: It is very important to wear a supportive sports bra (it is as important as choosing the right running shoes) when you work out, especially if you’re doing a chest workout. And always make sure you have spoken to the trainer and picked the right exercise regime (6).
If you are holding on to TMI (too much information) about weight loss and breast size that you want to share, leave them in the comments below.
