How Much Do Breasts Weigh?

[olivesmarch4th]

Inspired by the ''bouncing breasts'' thread.
And utterly serious.

I've been wondering this for a while, trying to figure out the appropriate weight for my height. I don't think those charts on BMI are really accurate for me (because breasts are mostly fat, right?), and to guess accurately I need a rough estimation of how much extra weight I'm carrying around.

Anyways, so how much do breasts weigh? At what proportion of the total weight are things considered normal, or does it vary wildly from person to person? AAA to DDD, what kind of poundage are we talking here?


Thanks.

[cwthree]

I was told (by a friend about to undergo a mastectomy) 5-10 pounds for a pair of breasts, depending on size.

[Exapno Mapcase]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20725154/

A pair of D-cup breasts weighs about 15 to 23 pounds.

[Plynck]

Can we get a link to the ''bouncing breasts'' thread?

[KneadToKnow]

Can we get a link to the bouncing breasts?

[vetbridge]

Hey, that bouncing breast thread, anyone got a link?

[stolichnaya]

Jiminy Crickets! 20 pounds? That would suck.

[Mindfield]

Thread link. Not quite as uplifting as you might have hoped.

[Chez Guevara]

The OP (and anyone else who is interested) can get an estimate of their breast weight by using a kitchen scale, as follows:

How I can find how much my breasts weigh?

First, measure the height of the scale. Now stand straight and measure the height of the bottom of your breasts. Now try to find a table/counter etc. that is shorter than this height by the exact height of the scale. You can place books etc. on a counter to get that height. The idea is to put the scale in a way that you can rest your breast on the scale without bending. That way you will not be adding your body weight to it. Since both breasts do not have same weight, you can measure both and then take the average. According to our research, the average breast is about a pound (~450 grams).

I guess the researcher must have had very specific tastes in the mammary department to arrive at that estimate. Let's hope his limited horizons don't invalidate the instructions as described above.

Actually I prefer this method:

Jan Wethersby has the following tip: Find a medium sauce pan that will fit over your breast with some room to spare. Fill this pan with water and set it in a larger pan. Bend over and submerge your breast completely in the water. Weigh the water that spilled into the large pan. Since flesh weighs about the same as water, this is a good approximation of your breast weight.

Is that Archimedes Principle in action by any chance?


Cite (Question 39).

[Giles]

Originally Posted by Chez Guevara

Is that Archimedes Principle in action by any chance?

Yes -- the volume in litres will be the approximate mass in kilograms. (See why the metric system is so useful!)

[BunnyTVS]

True Story:

The Landlord of my local had a mother with a "canny set of lungs" as we'd say. One day a bloke asked if she'd ever had them weighed. On saying that she hadn't, blokey grabbed onE in each hand...







"WHHEEEYYY!"

[Gaudere]

Jan Wethersby has the following tip: Find a medium sauce pan that will fit over your breast with some room to spare. Fill this pan with water and set it in a larger pan. Bend over and submerge your breast completely in the water. Weigh the water that spilled into the large pan. Since flesh weighs about the same as water, this is a good approximation of your breast weight.

Ok, now I must call shenaingans on the 15 - 23 pound answer. if water volume rougly equals breast volume, a 10 pound breast would be 20 cups of water in volume, or a gallon and a quarter. Gallon-size is considerably beyond all but the very largest breasts.

[olivesmarch4th]

15-23 lbs for a D???????????

How much would a DDD be then?

[Martiju]

Originally Posted by BunnyTVS

True Story:

The Landlord of my local had a mother with a "canny set of lungs" as we'd say. One day a bloke asked if she'd ever had them weighed. On saying that she hadn't, blokey grabbed onE in each hand...

Damn you! Damn you to hell. I only joined this thread to tell the second best joke ever! Now I have to wait for the numb clitoris thread...

[BunnyTVS]

He shoots... He scores

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

15-23 lbs for a D???????????

No way. I haven't seen a D cup in many years - I think I'm somewhere around an "I" by most charts, but most charts aren't very accurate at my size.

Anyway, I've always wondered this myself, and since I have this scale sitting on my dining room table right now....


7.2 pounds each. They're a little too wide to get a good read on together, but that should make 'em around 14 or 15 pounds. That's measured by sitting in a chair next to the table, lifting up a sister and setting it down on the scale - where it rests with a flat bottom and I don't feel the weight tugging at me anymore. Short of the volume method (which is too messy and noisy for me to attempt while the baby's sleeping in the next room), I think it's a pretty accurate read.

[marshmallow]

Originally Posted by Martiju

Now I have to wait for the numb clitoris thread...

*googles*

*fails*

Do go on.

[herownself]

And they're not mostly fat. When boys get boobs, that's fat. Female mammaries evolved with a purpose - and there is all kinds of stuff in there in order to facilitate that purpose.

Depending on BMI, there could be a lot of fat, too. But they don't start out as fat.

CITE: any physiology text you choose


<sorry if that came off snarky. and no, I don't have PMS>

[BlakeTyner]

A girlfriend and I did an unscientific experiment about breast weight about ten years ago. She got on the scale, and we noted what it read. Then I, standing on the floor behind her, cupped them and lifted. There was about a 5 pound drop on the scale. She had C cups.

[Santo Rugger]

Originally Posted by Gaudere

Ok, now I must call shenaingans on the 15 - 23 pound answer. if water volume rougly equals breast volume, a 10 pound breast would be 20 cups of water in volume, or a gallon and a quarter. Gallon-size is considerably beyond all but the very largest breasts.

15-23 pounds for a pair of Ds. WhyNot claims 7.2 apiece. 14.4 for her pair. She must have some pretty small Ds.

ETA. Oh. She says she's Is. My bad.

[Chronos]

Female mammaries evolved with a purpose - and there is all kinds of stuff in there in order to facilitate that purpose.

Female mammaries evolved with two purposes (at least, in humans), and there's stuff in there to facilitate both of them. One purpose is milk production, and the stuff which facilitates that fits comfortably into an AAA cup. The other purpose is to attract men's attention, and the stuff which facilitates that is mostly fat.

[nashiitashii]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

No way. I haven't seen a D cup in many years - I think I'm somewhere around an "I" by most charts, but most charts aren't very accurate at my size.

Anyway, I've always wondered this myself, and since I have this scale sitting on my dining room table right now....


7.2 pounds each. They're a little too wide to get a good read on together, but that should make 'em around 14 or 15 pounds. That's measured by sitting in a chair next to the table, lifting up a sister and setting it down on the scale - where it rests with a flat bottom and I don't feel the weight tugging at me anymore. Short of the volume method (which is too messy and noisy for me to attempt while the baby's sleeping in the next room), I think it's a pretty accurate read.

I've got a food scale, so I played the "weigh each boob separately" game for comparison and ended up with about 8.2lb for each boob. So, total, that'd be 16.4lb. It's within the range. Maybe I've got really "heavy" boobs comparatively, as I'm still a D/DD, depending on the sizing scale.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by Pygmy Rugger

15-23 pounds for a pair of Ds. WhyNot claims 7.2 apiece. 14.4 for her pair. She must have some pretty small Ds.

ETA. Oh. She says she's Is. My bad.

Heh, yeah. Not small D's, much, much larger than D's. (Like I said, the charts get wonky in my range, but my bust measurement is 10" larger than my ribcage measurement.) So I don't think that statistic will be well...uh...supported. So to speak.

[silenus]

Originally Posted by BlakeTyner

A girlfriend and I did an unscientific experiment about breast weight about ten years ago. She got on the scale, and we noted what it read. Then I, standing on the floor behind her, cupped them and lifted. There was about a 5 pound drop on the scale. She had C cups.

Let me guess....you were the one who suggested the experiment.

[olivesmarch4th]

And they're not mostly fat. When boys get boobs, that's fat. Female mammaries evolved with a purpose - and there is all kinds of stuff in there in order to facilitate that purpose.

Depending on BMI, there could be a lot of fat, too. But they don't start out as fat.

CITE: any physiology text you choose

Thanks for the useful info. So does that mean breast size doesn't affect the BMI all that much?

I am a 38 DDD, unfortunately we don't have a scale.

WhyNot, as for your Is, you have my sympathy. I am just at the borderline of ongoing back pain and general discomfort, and I can't imagine how miserable you must be!

[herownself]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

Thanks for the useful info. So does that mean breast size doesn't affect the BMI all that much?

I am a 38 DDD, unfortunately we don't have a scale.

WhyNot, as for your Is, you have my sympathy. I am just at the borderline of ongoing back pain and general discomfort, and I can't imagine how miserable you must be!

Actually, Olives, I think it's mostly the other way around. BMI impacts breast size and composition. Meaning, if you have more fat on your body, you'll have more fat in your boobs. Loose the weight, loose the fat from all over your body, it will come out of your boobs too. But you still have all the important stuff that would spring in to action should you need to nurse your baby. Just not cushioned by as much fat. (all this I know from personal experience ... I thought my boobs would get much smaller than they did when I lost the weight. and I was a 38DD)

But, I guess having big ones could impact your BMI. 15 extra pounds of flesh hanging from your torso could easily tip you over the line from one category to another - and it's not like you can exercise them away!

[olivesmarch4th]

15 extra pounds of flesh hanging from your torso could easily tip you over the line from one category to another - and it's not like you can exercise them away!

Yeah no kidding! I lost 50 lbs and went UP a cup size! They never bothered me so much until I dropped the weight--because for some reason, they didn't.

[SailedTheOceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Gaudere

Ok, now I must call shenaingans on the 15 - 23 pound answer. if water volume rougly equals breast volume, a 10 pound breast would be 20 cups of water in volume, or a gallon and a quarter. Gallon-size is considerably beyond all but the very largest breasts.

I call shenanigans too. I have a food scale and wear a D-cup. The total weight of my breasts is about 2.5 lbs.

Don't bra cups get bigger along with band size? I'm normally a 34D but around that time of the month, I have to go up to a 36D otherwise I get quadboob.

[danceswithcats]

Originally Posted by Chronos

Female mammaries evolved with two purposes (at least, in humans), and there's stuff in there to facilitate both of them. One purpose is milk production, and the stuff which facilitates that fits comfortably into an AAA cup. The other purpose is to attract men's attention, and the stuff which facilitates that is mostly fat.

Which is why breasts have been compared to electric toy trains. Designed for the children, but Dad loves to play with them every chance he gets.

[ultrafilter]

Originally Posted by Chez Guevara

Actually I prefer this method:

Is that Archimedes Principle in action by any chance?


Cite (Question 39).

Be sure to use cold water for best results.

[essell]

Originally Posted by marshmallow

*googles*

*fails*

Do go on.

NSFW
Direct link to dirty words, no pictures.

[nashiitashii]

Originally Posted by SailedTheOceanBlue

I call shenanigans too. I have a food scale and wear a D-cup. The total weight of my breasts is about 2.5 lbs.

Don't bra cups get bigger along with band size? I'm normally a 34D but around that time of the month, I have to go up to a 36D otherwise I get quadboob.

I posted significantly higher results further up the thread and I'm a 38D. Hmmmm.

Bra cups do get bigger along with band size, otherwise "sister sizing" wouldn't work with anyone. Technically, if I measure as a 38D but the 38D doesn't quite fit right, I could try the sister sizes of 40C or 36DD to see if the adjustment (up/down a band and cup size) helps.

Thing is, this doesn't always work in the same way that measuring yourself doesn't guarantee that the bras that match "your size" measurements will actually fit.

[BlakeTyner]

Originally Posted by silenus

Let me guess....you were the one who suggested the experiment.

Lessee...ten years ago I'd have been 16, so absolutely!

[olivesmarch4th]

I call shenanigans too. I have a food scale and wear a D-cup. The total weight of my breasts is about 2.5 lbs.

Did some investigation. Just by my own estimation (I'm pretty good at estimating the weights of plums and radishes, so why not boobs?), I'm thinking they have to be 4-5 lbs each, which is a far cry from 15-20 lbs. This would also fit in with WhyNot's assesment.

Hahaha, boobs. I love the Dope.

[Exapno Mapcase]

I just quoted an article about a study, so I don't have anything to lose if the number is wrong and no reason that it must be defended.

However, it occurs to me that the subject of breast weight is an awful lot like the subject of penis size. The answers you get will vary tremendously depending on exactly where you start measuring from.

When you place a breast on a scale, you aren't relocating the entire breast, just the more easily movable bit. The area where the breast fits into the chest is probably not being weighed at all.

No idea how the scientists get an accurate and systematic weight for their study, but I'm betting that these anecdotes aren't really answering the question well.

[RedRosesForMe]

Once, when I was younger and more prone to idiotic acts in public, I put a boob in one of the hanging scales at the supermarket. It said 8 pounds for my C-cup breast.

I'm sure it wasn't very accurate.

[Chez Guevara]

.....

[Chez Guevara]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

At what proportion of the total weight are things considered normal, or does it vary wildly from person to person?

From here:

Breast volume and body composition were measured in 45 adult females to determine the contribution of breast weight and breast volume to total body fat. Plaster casts were filled with sand of known density to obtain breast volume. Breast weight was computed as breast volume times its density. The correlation between total breast volume and percent body fat was r = .40. Breast weight (X = 484 grams) accounted for 3.5 percent of the total weight of body fat, and at most, 12 percent of the estimated quantities of sex-specific fat. A theoretical model is proposed for the distribution of body fat in the female which subdivides total body fat into three components: reserve storage fat, essential fat, and expendable storage fat.

The bolded X has a horizontal line above but won't copy.

If someone could explain that function, also the equation r = .40, the abstract might prove instructive even with such a small sample. I can't reach the full article.

[beowulff]

Originally Posted by RedRosesForMe

Once, when I was younger and more prone to idiotic acts in public, I put a boob in one of the hanging scales at the supermarket. It said 8 pounds for my C-cup breast.

I'm sure it wasn't very accurate.

I'll take two.
Wrapped to go, please.

[Carol the Impaler]

I actually have had my breast tissue weighed by a professional.

The pathologists who did the post-surgery work after my breast reductions.

I started out as a 38DDD. The surgeon removed 7 lbs of tissue. I was then a 38DD.

I had a re-do. The surgeon removed an additional 3 lbs to bring me down to a 38C.

So, in the end, 38DDD to 38C, 10 lbs off total.

[ultrafilter]

Originally Posted by Chez Guevara

From here:

The bolded X has a horizontal line above but won't copy.

If someone could explain that function, also the equation r = .40, the abstract might prove instructive even with such a small sample. I can't reach the full article.

The bolded X with the overstrike denotes the sample mean, so this study found that the average breast weight was 484 grams. Without the standard deviation or variance, that doesn't tell us much.

The r = .40, roughly speaking, indicates that 16% of the variability in breast size can be explained by the woman's bodyfat percentage. There's a relation, but not much of one.

[olivesmarch4th]

Chez, that was a great answer!

If I remember right from STATS, r is supposed to measure the correlation between factors, in this case, breast size and total body fat percentage. The correlation can range from -1 (negative correlation) to positive 1 (positive correlation.) r squared is supposed to be the percentage of the independent variable attributed to the result of of the dependent variable. So if r=.4, r squared= .4x.4 =.16

Originally Posted by niblet_head

The pathologists who did the post-surgery work after my breast reductions.

How'd that work out for you, Niblet? I've considered it very seriously. I wouldn't want to be a C though. I'd be pleased with a solid D.

[Martiju]

Originally Posted by essell

NSFW
Direct link to dirty words, no pictures.

That'll be the one!

[Aspidistra]

OK, in the interests of Science, I had to try out the Archimedes method on my G-cups.

Method: One 2-litre icecream container, part-filled with water. One boob. Place tab B in slot A.

The point at which the icecream container started overflowing was when the water was 1/4 of the way up the side (this was a fairly long thin container, basically no slope to the sides). Therefore, total boobage volume ~= 2*(3/4)*2 = 3 litres.

Assuming roughly equal breast density to water that would make their weight 3 kg, or about 6.6 pounds. That's pretty much in line with Chez Guevara's link's estimate of a mean weight of .484kg (presumably per-boob). Based on their behaviour in water though, I'd say they're probably a bit lighter than that.

I honestly thought it would be a lot more. This is a very instructive thread!

[Carol the Impaler]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

How'd that work out for you, Niblet? I've considered it very seriously. I wouldn't want to be a C though. I'd be pleased with a solid D.

Well, the not having to wear a bra is a sweet, sweet freedom I'd not felt since sixth grade!

Here is a site you should read: www.breasthealthonline.org . Everything you've ever wanted to know about breast reduction (I mean everything), everything you should consider, how to find a surgeon, etc.

[WhyNot]

Originally Posted by Aspidistra

Based on their behaviour in water though, I'd say they're probably a bit lighter than that.

My boobs, at least, float in water, which means they're less dense than water, right? I don't know by how much or if it's significant, though. "Body fat density" gets me a lot of irrelevant googlehits.

[Lunar Saltlick]

Originally Posted by BlakeTyner

A girlfriend and I did an unscientific experiment about breast weight about ten years ago. She got on the scale, and we noted what it read. Then I, standing on the floor behind her, cupped them and lifted. There was about a 5 pound drop on the scale. She had C cups.

I'm going to go look up the word unscientific in the dictionary, and I fully expect to see a picture of your girlfriend's breasts being weighed using the lift-from-behind method. Then I'm also going to check out the terms shameless and scammer.

[Biggirl]

Now I'm wondering about individual breast density. I know that I have dense breasts. So dense that my mammograms must be augmented with a sonogram. I've got a feeling that my 42DDD's would weigh much more than the average person's.

All right, the average person doesn't have 42DDDs but you know what I mean.


If I can ask a related question--- what IS all that stuff inside my breasts? It's packed full of all kinds of structures. Some stringy, some round, some stringy stuff radiating away from round stuff. Some transparent, some opaque. There was a lot less going on in the MRI of my knee than my breasts.

[Aspidistra]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

My boobs, at least, float in water, which means they're less dense than water, right? I don't know by how much or if it's significant, though. "Body fat density" gets me a lot of irrelevant googlehits.

Yes. They themselves float - so they're lighter than water. But they don't, you know, hold me up or anything so I suppose not by all that much

[Ellen Cherry]

In the many hours total I've spend nursing babies over the years, I have pondered this question. Mostly pondering the difference between the weight of my breasts when nursing (normal looking size B) to when I'm not (flat as a pancake). I'm somewhere in between at the moment; I am nursing a toddler and all the equipment is activated, so to speak, but I've got nowhere near the rack on me as when I'm nursing a young infant full-time.

So anyway, I think I'm too small for any of the weighing methods mentioned, be they scales or ice-cream container water-displacement. Maybe I'll get my husband to try the boyfriend-cup method. Just giving them a heft myself, I'm guessing they're around a pound to a pound and a half each.

Because bra size has come up, allow me to paste in advice I have saved for some time, from a Dope thread roughly titled, "Ask the Women's Lingerie Sales Clerk," in which she details the proper way to measure yourself for a bra.

Originally Posted by Doper Bra Expert

Measuring for bra

Get a tape measure, and measure snugly underneath your breasts, around the ribcage. On myself, this measurement comes out to a 27.

Next, add 5 to this number. The result will be your band size. My measurement was 27. Add 5, and you get 32. I wear a 32 size band.

Next, for the cup (you have to have some sort of bra on to do this, otherwise you won't be able to accurately measure), measure around the fullest part of your chest. On me, this measurement is 34 and 1/2.

Now, what you need to do is subtract your band size from the measurement around your actual bustline. On me, this would be 34.5 - 32. That gives a difference of 2.5 inches.

A difference of 1 inch would be an A cup, 2 inches a B cup, 3 inches a C cup, and so forth.

Ta-da!