How Much Do Breasts Weigh?

[ultrafilter]

@Chez Guevara

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.

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.

[Spice_Weasel]

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

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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]

@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 :eek: 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.

@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!

[Chez_Guevara]

@Biggirl

If I can ask a related question— what IS all that stuff inside my breasts?

See description and schematic at breastimplants4you.

The title and subject matter of that site is by no means a recommendation to utilise the services available therein.