33 Band, 41 Bust: Or How I Lost My Boobs

Last year I was around 170 pounds with a bust measurement of 35 beneath the bust and 44 around the bust. I hated my weight but I loved the fullness of my breasts. 44 just sounded so nice, like boobs that shot out into outer-space.

I did the periodic check on my body. I lost quite a bit of weight. Today I weighed 159 pounds, but what surprised me was my bust measurements. I lost weight---everywhere! From a 36 inch measurement beneath my bust I went down to a 33 inch measurement. Worse, I went from a 44 inch bust line to a 41 inch bust line. I checked three times, yes, 41 inches when pulled tightly across my bust. Where did the remaining 3 inches go?

Many women complain about the size of their breasts being unsatisfactory. They are self-conscious about their breast size. Or else they complain about back pain. I do get back pain, sore breasts, and that self-conscious posture where the shoulders are hunched. Yet I liked my breast size. More importantly, I had spent a few hundred dollars finding bras that fit my size (my size used to be a 36FF in UK sizes). Now what do I do? I have hundreds of dollars worth of bras that don't fit properly! They are suddenly too wide in the band, causing back pain, and those dreaded wrinkles in the cups have appeared, indicating I need to go down a cup size.

This is very awkward for me. My weight goes up, my weight goes down, my boobs engorge, my boobs shrink. Now, I not only have to purchase another two hundred dollars of bras (with which I can buy all of four bras since each costs minimum fifty bucks), but I have to go change all my facebook and myspace pictures to show the lighter, flatter me.

I am getting financial aid in August when I enter a Master's program. Likely, I will have to spend quite a number of Benjamins to find new bras that are flattering, lifting, tight in the band, and comfortable in the cup. I will go to Nordstroms and get properly fitted, since I am really tired of playing the guessing game with expensive bras. I will likely be a 34FF or a 34F instead of the 34G that just barely fits me right now.

Men are lucky. They buy boxers or briefs and they never have to get their goods fitted in order to buy the right pair of briefs. Women, on the other hand, are a custom fit. That would be fine if being a custom order didn't cost so much money!

On the up side, despite losing 3 inches, I also lost weight which makes me look bustier in some weird circus mirror way. Just the other day I was at a store when some man said something to me about my breasts. While this comment was unwanted and made me uncomfortable, it did show me that my boobs have not entirely disappeared off the face of the planet, for better or for worse.

Thanks for reading! :)

Shopping For Bras When Busty

Shopping for bras when busty is an expensive endeavor. You would think that the lack of cotton stuffing that makes your cup size look bigger would equal a cheaper price. But apparently not, the added features of push-up bras, padded bras and water bras do not come close in price to making a sturdy bra for larger breasted women. The latter is way more expensive to purchase, though they never have water or cotton padding, or any real push-up structure. 

I feel like talking about breasts today.

My breasts are a little heavier than the norm. Then again, I am heavier than the norm, coming in at 163 pounds and only 5' 1" or 5' 2". It only makes sense that my breasts would be heavier, as breasts are largely tissue and fat, and I have lots of both! 

Finding the right bra is like finding the right man---some don't fit right, some fit okay for a while, others you just try on and then never bother with them again....so it goes. Right now I am wearing a bra that just came in the mail. I ordered it on amazon dot com. It is a transparent, lace-trimmed Panache bra. I got this bra on sale and it still cost me over thirty bucks. It is a 34G. It fits well, in fact, I might be in love. I wore a 36F bra by Mio Destino to school today and I had a lot of cleavage. The day before I wore a 36FF bra and I still had a lot of cleavage. Sometimes, I wear a 36G bra and a 38DDD bra. The 38DDD bras are all too loose in the band and they do not support my breasts, so I quit wearing them. The 36G bra is great for total coverage, but it doesn't let me have any cleavage. 

Bras are so hard to figure out. Right now I really like the fit of the 34G bra---it is tight enough in the band to keep my posture correct and it fits snugly (without causing that unsightly bulging effect). Right now my measurements are 34.5 inches beneath the bust and 45 inches around the bust. That is about 10 inches, slightly more, of a difference, so you can imagine that my back gets sore if I am not properly supported. 

Yes, I know, some might feel that bras are a hold-over from antiquated times when women were kept in corsets and given love seats to faint onto, but try doing 2 minutes of jumping up and down for a judo class warm-up without a heavy duty sports bra and then tell me bras are a feminist issue. Lipstick, maybe. Bras, no way! Bras are like shoes for my boobs!

New Bra Hunt

Well, I don't fit into any of these expensive bras anymore. What a shame, I didn't mind being a 36H/36FF (UK measurement is FF for US H), but I am bursting out of these cups and the under-wire is hitting the side of my breast rather than the resting naturally on my torso. So, sorry Panache bra, you don't fit me anymore. Another 40 bucks down the drain...maybe there is a bra charity that will give my non-fitting bras to needy, big busted babes.

I like my Cacique bras sooo much, but the cups are also too small and my boobs look like helium balloons about to fly off into outer-space. Those bras were 38DDD, and I have about 4 or 5 of them, having purchased them a couple of months ago when they were buy 2 get 2 free. Alas, it looks like I'll have spend my next check on a bigger sized bra. The question is, which one? The 36 band fits snug, but I prefer 38 because 38 bands tend to be more elastic, why, I don't know, maybe it's the manufacturer, but whatever it is, the band is always wider, with more hooks, and more flexible than a 36 band. If DDD cups don't fit, what comes next? 38G (or 38F in the UK) is the next size up, according to yahoo answers.

So confusing! AND I've spent lots of my free time watching youtube videos on how to fit yourself for a bra, searching websites for tips, and measuring, re-measuring, and re-re-measuring my torso and breasts with measuring tape. I also used calculators, which state I should start by trying on a 40E (US), but a 40 band sounds too loose for me. This 38 DDD bra is snug but I can tug the back band about 2-3 inches away from my body with no real effort. Darn bra math. I need a math major to figure this out for me! Measure circumference of torso beneath the breasts....round up by 3 inches, measure the breasts, don't round up, subtract the difference....between what and what? Gee, it's a miracle I passed trigonometry with a B!

Exercising While Top Heavy

I have found certain things are out of the question. For example, running while top heavy is not a good idea for me. It is painful to my breasts and back and I get comments. This would be a problem if I was a neanderthal who had to outrun a vicious sabertooth tiger, but I'm not so I am free to find other ways of exercise.

I found a great rowing machine on sale at amazon dot com and I have used it maybe 3 times the last two weeks. That's not that much, but if you consider that it's hitting over a hundred degrees in the Central Valley you'll understand why. Plus, I've been grieving over my cousin, but I can't just lie in bed all day and cry. I have to channel my emotions into something else. Like rowing.

Rowing is an excellent exercise if you're top heavy. There's no bouncing, no leaping, no jumping jacks. You just sit on a sliding seat, set the arm handles to the hardest level, and push off the foot rests for 20 to 30 minutes. I can feel the burn in my butt and thighs. Rowing is also good for strengthening the back muscles which will help to alleviate any back pain caused from large breasts. According to the internet, it's the second best all over exercise to do, second only to swimming. It also helps posture, which top heavy women often have a problem with. Myself, I often hunch over or lean to one side or the other and put my weight on my arms when sitting. Not good. Sometimes I just plop my chest onto the table when I'm using my laptop so that they can stop bothering me. I think I may need a chiropractor or a good masseuse.

Another thing to do is yoga. I took a yoga class my first year at the University, when I was thin, and I loved it. Due to my weight gain and sudden growth of breasts into a 36H cup (or 38DDD, depending on what bra I'm wearing), I can't do some of the trickier poses I used to do like that pose where you put your legs over your head until your feet touch the floor. Or anything that requires me to lift my upper torso. I still do some poses though, just to keep my body stretchy. I do sun salute and various other sitting poses where I look like a pretzel.

Sit-ups are out of the question. Each breast is like a weight that I have to lift every time I do a sit-up. I'm not being lazy. It hurts, especially my neck muscles, which get strained from all the tension. Then my back starts to get sore. Doing 100 is like crazy painful and I've never made it that high in one exercise session. There was this contraption at the community college I used to go to: a board with two arms rests. You step up and hang there, putting your weight on your arms, and you lift  your legs up. That was nice. I used that thing every class period. It not only toned my flabby tummy but it also made my arms a lot stronger.

Ellipticals are good, too. It's more like skiing than running. The University gym has a bunch except I hated the locker room experience and everybody else was thin or buff and I felt so out of place in my overweight frame that I quit going and went back to lifting a 10 pound weight at home. I'll give it a go next semester since I guess I'm being silly about feeling so out of place.

I've heard pilates is really, really amazing for everybody, regardless of size, but I haven't tried it yet. It looks like I'd need to buy a good DVD, invest in a mat and a giant inflatable ball, and find a place to exercise with lots of space (my room is little). So, maybe I'll try that later on. Another thing I'd like to try is resistance training but my mother banned any more exercise equipment after I spent about 2 hours in the living room trying to figure out how to put the rower together. My family complained about the giant pieces of rower they had to step over to get to the kitchen. I finally got it together and dragged it outside, but my mother was all, "was a rower something you HAD to have?" and "No more exercise equipment!"

What I really need is a good sports bra. But in my size that's pricey, around 40 bucks or even more! There's this woman who went on British television arguing that bra manufacturers should stop charging more for larger size bras. I agree. If you charged 30 bucks for a size 2 pair of pants and 40 bucks for a size 5, people would be howling. It's only because bustier women tend to be a little heavier (there are exceptions) that people feel it's right to overcharge them. It's fat discrimination. Not fair! People like to argue that it's because you use more fabric but it's not. Look at some of the 34AA bras out there. Sure, they're little, but they're always stuffed with expensive padding and dolled up in shiny fabric, lace, and other types of bling that isn't used on full figure bras. Full figure bras don't get the same flashy treatment, which should actually make them cheaper since manufacturers don't have to pay for all that padding, print designs, lace, and more padding. It's like they know we have no choice but to wear a bra since we're well-endowed and they feel free to charge whatever they feel like. A flat chested person can run around with no bra if she chooses and the manufacturers know this so they cater to them with pretty designs and padded cups. A busty woman is frowned upon if she steps out in public with no bra. The last time I went out bra-less (my ill-fitting bra had left a red welt on my torso and it hurt to wear it so I went without a bra) I was hooted at, leered at, and some jerk yelled, "Nice tits." I felt pissed off, powerless, and very conspicuous. As soon as that cut disappeared I wriggled back into a bra. Manufacturers know that large chested women have little alternative than to shell out a wad of cash. Considering that there are plenty of heavy busted women nowadays and not that many 30AA cups, you'd think the profits they make in a year would justify lowering the price just a little bit. But no, I have to shop at expensive places for custom bras. Or "specialty bras" as they're humorously called. What's so special about them? There's like a trillion overweight, large busted women running around and it's totally normal now. Why am I being segregated from department stores and fashion outlets? Anyways, I'm done griping.

I got 4 cute bras in the mail today through Cacique. 38DDD bras. They fit alright. Mostly, I like that they're not matronly or minimizing or plain. What is the deal with minimizing bras? It's like saying, "Sorry, you don't fit the acceptable range of boobs, please flatten those out so they don't distract my boyfriend." Plunge bras are way better than any minimizing bra. They're much more flattering. Especially if you're overweight like me and want to move attention away from your plump figure, a plunge bra with a low cut blouse works nicely. By the time men realize I'm fat they're already hooked! I was very insecure, being an older student at 28, going to the University my first semester with very slender and pretty sorority girls, so I started wearing cleavage-revealing tops. It might not have made me fit in with the thin sorority girls, but it didn't hurt my grades, either!

BRAS, bras, and BrAs

We covet them. We dismiss them as "nothing but bags of fat." We play with them. We admire them. We may hate them. But they're there (unless you see surgeon) no matter what. Breasts. Some are big, some are small, some hang down low, some are like rockets launching into outer space, some are natural, some are man-made, some point up, some point down.

Mostly I'll be writing from a full figure perspective, meaning that I wear a higher than average cup size, but I don't mean to exclude the petite frames. All breasts have a story to tell.

Here is a link to Oprah's bra revolution on her website. It's entertaining and there's nothing like seeing the bewildered expression of women who suddenly feel free in their bras which actually fit now.

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Bra-Revolution

There are tips for every size, from petite to ginormous.

There are people who might say that bras are but a modern day man-imposed corset, a symbol of patriarchal manipulation of the female body, but they probably haven't had to exercise with no bra on. Bras are one of the best inventions ever!

Bras!

Bra, Where Art Thou?

I was one of those women who wear a bra that doesn't fit. The band was too loose and it left a welt on the side of my back. The cups were too small and I was always bursting out in a rather vulgar way. I thought being a 38DD was pretty large already, what would I need with an even bigger bra? But when my mother bought me a 38DD bra from Target I realized I would have to find a seller who catered for large chests. The poor bra seemed about to snap on my first attempt to wriggle my breasts into the small DD cups. I finally squeezed my breasts inside the cups and I got that bubble effect, you know, when the breasts are just so cramped that they look like two fleshy bubbles popping out. As much I liked the nice "wow"'s I got on campus from random guys, I felt conspicuous. University is not the place to run around in class looking like an escort service reject.

I went on the hunt for that elusive bra: one that fit snugly in the band, improved my posture, lessened my back pain, and didn't cause my breasts to look like two helium balloons about to fly out of shirt and off into the blue sky. My hunt took me everywhere, Target, Kohl's, Ross, Cacique, and that's on foot! I also wound up spending all my hard-earned University grant money on buying bras through the internet that I hadn't tried on. It was an expensive guessing game, one that I hope you don't have to go through.

I am not there yet. I am still calling, "Bra, where art thou?" If you sew all my ill-fitting bras together you could probably build a nice sized tent to sleep inside of; that's how many I now own.

I've learned through trial and error where to go for a bra. That place is not a department store. It's not a discount store. It's not any store in America. If you want a bra that fits you'll have to have a credit or debit card or at least a paypal account, lots of cash,  a measuring tape, and a good sense of humor.

Here are tricks I've learned the past few months on my quest for the elusive Perfect Bra.

~The band size is probably one size smaller than you think you are. I made the mistake of assuming I was a 38 band size. My back pain should have told me otherwise. A scar on my back from an ill-fitting bra (38DD) should have told me otherwise. The bra depends on a tight band to keep your breasts up. It's not the straps, it's the band. I ordered a 36 band and voila my posture improved!

~The cup size is probably at least 1 cup larger than you think. Here, it gets tricky. Breast math isn't taught in college trig class, so I had to navigate on the internet through multiple techniques of finding the correct cup size. The general rule of thumb is that you measure tightly beneath the breasts and around the back to give you a band size. Mine is actually around 35, but being a 34 band size with my cup size is hard to believe.
Next, you measure loosely around the largest part of your breasts. Don't turn the measuring tape into a corset. Make sure the measuring tape is loose enough for your breasts to breathe.
Some people endorse measuring above the breasts. This technique means you take the 2 numbers, above and beneath the breasts, pick the biggest number, and compare it to the measurement of your bust line.

For example, I get topless and wrap the measuring tape below, at, and above my bust. I look at how many inches it reads. Below is 35. Across my breasts equals 45 inches. Above my breast is 37-38 inches. I would take 38, the largest number, and then compare it to my bust measurement (45). There is some magical chart on line that lets you look at the comparison number (7 inches from top to bust line) and it shows you the corresponding cup size. Mine, is in those foreign letters, H or HH or whatever DDDD equals.

BUT, yes, there is a but, BUT it doesn't always work. For me, the tops of my breast are rather plump, thus screwing up my band size. According to the guidelines, I would be a 38 band. But 38 is too loose. I need a nice, tight fit. The band should buckle on the tightest and the loosest bra without a significant amount of discomfort. So there goes that...

The best way to do this is to wager on a smaller band size and a larger cup size than you think you are.

The closest fit I  have right now is a 36H (36FF in UK measurements). And 36 D*2 squared is  not a size they carry in Kohl's, unless I don't mind being minimized into a C-looking, Playtex, hidden-boob syndrome bra (more on hidden-boob syndrome later). Where to go?

ONLINE!! The UK is notorious for having such voluptuous breasted women that BBC even devoted an hour long documentary to the topic of heavy chested women ("My Big Breasts And Me", check it out!!). Unlike the US, they don't ignore the new "epidemic" of heavy busted women, some of whom are obese. They actually will ORDER large cup sizes and OFFER them for sale!! This still amazes me. I thought I was going to have to go the ace-bandage route.

Here are some places for Americans to go. I've sorted through them by hard-to-find all the way to what-kind-of-letter-is-K-for-a-bra.

CACIQUE

If you have at least a 38 band try Cacique, which is under the Lane Bryant chain. Just type in "Cacique" into Google and you're set. The problem is, if you're a smaller band size than 38 or 40, Cacique will only carry cup sizes up to DDD. At the band size 40 and up, however, they do carry up to an H cup. They offer cute bras: t-shirt bras, plunge bras, lacy bras, minimizer bras, and so forth. Their prices range from twenty bucks to forty bucks.

http://cacique.lanebryant.com/

BARE NECESSITIES

This place is your one-stop booby shop. Are you a 28DD (I envy you)? What about a 56J (whoa, J?!)? Then come to bare necessities. They carry lots of brands, lots of styles, lots of sizes, and lots of sales. They sell the most popular brands for big breasted babes: wacoal, chantelle, la mystere, Goddess, and more! Sign up for their email notices and get first dibs on big sales.

www.barenecessities.com

Here are some more, but be prepared to dip into your piggy bank, as these designer bras can reach 150 US dollars!
www.figleaves.com

http://www.wacoal-america.com/ (Around 40 bucks for my size, not too bad, not too cheap)

Okay, but what if you want more variety? What if you don't mind mentally converting US dollars into UK currency? Then check out:

http://www.bravissimo.com/ Their prices start around 30 UK pounds, which converts to....well, you do the math. Okay, fine, I will. It comes to about 48 bucks in American dollars.



http://www.miodestino.co.uk/boutique/ is another great place to find bras! Prices range from 30 pounds to upwards of 130 pounds.



What if you don't want to convert currency or shop in a fancy boutique overseas? Well, luckily, there are importers who make these bras available to the US market on major sites.


www.amazon.com They accept credit cards and debit cards. Amazon is seen as safe to store your financial information. They have Freya bras, La Mystere bras, Elomi, Panache, Fantasie, Anita, and more!


www.ebay.com is another great place to shop. Just activate a paypal account, transfer money from your bank into paypal, and start shopping. You can either search for "buy now" merchandise or make a bid on an auction item. Just some tips, if you don't want to wear hand-me-downs, select the "new" feature on ebay that lets you weed out second-hand bras. If you don't mind wearing second-hand bras, make sure you handwash your bra and hang it out to dry before you put it on, just in case the person before you was a nursing mother. There is a huge variety of bras on ebay, just not in the KK range, but still, enough to get your bra collection started at a reasonable price. Also, they don't always convert US bra cup sizes into US sizes, so be aware that an American H cup equals a UK FF cup...and so forth.



So there it is, bras, bras, bras. If you need more advice, check youtube for bra fitting advice, or stop by Oprah's website and get some good info on her bra revolution.