I have a huge half marathon coming up this weekend and am going to use the opportunity to gather information from fellow large-busted runners. Â I still see women running long distances without proper bras. Â There have been times when I wanted to jump the barricade and stop them because I swore I could hear their breasts crying out in pain! Â I’d like to find out where women who train and run get their information on sports bras. Â I also want to encourage the leaders of other running groups to make an effort to be sure their female members are properly informed when it comes to sports bras.
My primary goal, however, is to find out how common it is in this crowd of runners for large-busted women NOT to lose cup size as they loose weight. Â As I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t lost any cup size even though my band size has gone from a 36 to a 32. Â How “normal” is this, I wonder? Is this more common in large busted ladies?
I’m looking for input from my readers on this one.  I’d love to know what your experience has been?  Have you lost cup size as you lose weight, or are your bountiful  breasts here to stay?  Are there any other questions you think I should add to my list?
You might go down a cup size eventually, but you might not. Growing up, I was always a bit chubby. The summer before high school, I was at a summer camp that had me active all day and then I’d go to a youth exercise group and lost a healthy amount of weight. Everyone complimented me on my new look so I took things further until I hit some unhealthy habits. From somewhat overweight to rather underweight, my breasts reduced in size oh so slightly so that I went from being between two sizes to consistently fitting the smaller cup size.
tl;dr It’s totally common, even when the weight loss is drastic.
Here to stay! It doesn’t matter what my weight is. My band size might change, but cup size has remained consistent.
I’m currently a 32DDD (US) and was down to a D in the same band when I was 20 pounds lighter and underweight a few years ago. It came back when I regained some weight. But, I’m not huge.
Oddly enough, I’ve never lost my cup size when losing weight. I believe my band has gone down, but I haven’t resized myself yet to confirm it. The only time my boobs changed was when I was pregnant and I went from a 34G to a 34H
It varies if I loose bust volume when I lose weight or not. The first ~20lbs didn’t really have an effect on my cup size, the last 10 did (30H to 28FF UK.) This might be that my body comp had the largest change over the last 10 because of increased exercise and the loss was much quicker (3 months v. 3 years)
Doesn’t matter how much weight I have lost (80lbs so far) no loss in bust size (I was a 38 H) for health reasons I had a reduction (now a 36DD) and have lost weight after the surgery. I think if you are naturally endowed and not just busty due to weight it won’t change.
Only change i got was in pregancy was increased cup sizes mega style and never went down really even with having lost 5st and only went down 4 sisiter sizes mainly due to going down 4 back sizes 40g/38h to 32j/32hh so don’t see them leaving any time soon.
I lost 40 pounds a few years back and was excited because I thought I would have lost a bit of cup size when I did. NOPE! When from a 38H to a 34H (and one fitter kept trying to put me in a 32 but I did not agree with that).
Also, I play roller derby so I have quite the collection of big busted sports bras at this point. My current favorite for full contact is the Freya Active but I also have a couple panache sports bras that I love and a couple of big size uncupped ones that I like for yoga or any low impact sports stuff.
Some women go down cup sizes with weight loss, some don’t. It’s quite unpredictable, but the larger and more dense you are more chances you don’t loose cup size. Your female relatives of the same body type can also give you some clue about what’s going happen.
About running without proper sport bra. It may sound odd I know, but being 30F/32E I’ve never had problems running braless, so for average and small sizes this can be not a problem really.
No matter how much weight I lost, my boobs never went down. In fact my cupsize got larger because my bandsize went down. I’m not a runner but I am singing the praises of the Lynx sportsbra. It is amazing and their customer service is fantastic. I’ve told all of my runner friends about them.
According to the saleslady who fit me for new bras after I lost >30 pounds, *actual* cup size for different band sizes is not the same as the *nominal* cup size. So the cup size (in actual capacity) is the same for a 36D and a 34DD. So as my band size went down, my *nominal* cup size went up, suggesting things actually stayed kind of the same.
As for running bras, my busty cousin and the local running store have been my most helpful resources. My current running bras (Moving Comfort) are both a band size and a cup size smaller than my street bras (30DD as opposed to 32DDD), by recommendation of the fit specialist at the running store. Getting it on requires hooking the bra around my waist and shimmying it up to get the straps over my shoulders, but I’m so much more comfortable running now. I (affectionately) call my new sports bras super-strapper-smashers. 😉
Have a great race this weekend! You are strong!!
I’ve gone from a 32E to a 30F to a 28FF, but yes, my boobs have shrunk a bit, even though supposedly these cup sizes are all the same volume. If your “cup size” hasn’t changed, it does still mean that the volume of breast tissue has gone down along with the shrinking band size.
I was skinny-but-with-boobs as a teen, so I don’t really have any hope of them going down with weight loss! I even gained 5 cup sizes with pregnancy (but barely a band size). I’m still breastfeeding and I’m still up about 2 cup sizes from my pre-pregnancy size, but I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Pregnancy does such weird things to your breasts!
Lost 30 lbs and actually *gained* a back size. I went from a 32J to a 34HH, as the 32J begun to hurt my skinnier ribcage.
I lost a cup size for the first time last year for no reason I could tell (no weight change). Previously though, I lost weight and actually gained a cup size (my band size never changes, as it’s more ribs than squish).