An obvious sign that the cups are too small is if the underwire presses in at the sides of the breasts or if you have red marks on your breasts when you take your bra off in the evening. The underwire should enclose and cradle the breasts; it shouldn't pinch anywhere. If it does, you need to go up a cup size.
Skin Abrasions and Chafing
A bra that is too tight can easily cause skin abrasions and chafing from the constant rubbing against your skin. You may see red lines anywhere the bra falls, including your overbust, underbust, back, or shoulders.
In order to determine if your cup size is too big or small, look to see if you have an extra bump of breast tissue at the top or at the sides of the cups or if you have a wrinkle in the cups or extra space in the cup.
The breasts should not spill out of the bra at the sides or in the middle. Double breasts must not form between the cups, nor should the breasts be pushed out towards the armpit. If they are, you have chosen a bra with a cup size that is too small: try a bigger size. The cup must not be too loose either.
Gapping at the top of the cup is an issue that will be more noticeable in more structured bras and padded bras. If you can see the inside of your cup while you are wearing the bra, consider sizing down a cup size as you want to ensure that you fill the volume but without spilling over.
Proper cup fit is influenced by band size. As the band size changes, so does the cup size. For every band size you go down, you should go up one cup. If you are in a 34D with a good cup fit, but want to go down to a 32 band, you would go to a 32DD for a tighter band with the same cup fit.
A bra that fits is comfortable and supportive. There should be no gaps in the cups, no digging in of the band, and the straps should not fall off or be too tight.
The breasts are mostly made up of adipose tissue, or fat. Losing body fat can reduce a person's breast size.
This happens because breasts are primarily made of fat (adipose tissues) and just like you lose fat from the rest of your body, you lose some size there too.
“Roughly every 30 pounds lost is a band size,” says Melissa. “Women who experience rapid weight loss—say 60 or 90 pounds within a few months—usually don't lower their band size enough. At my heaviest, I wore a 36. When I started losing weight, that number dropped way faster than I expected.
If the fit is too snug and the shoulder straps dig into the skin, many women suffer extreme pain in the neck and shoulders. This pressure on the neck can cause stiffness, cervical pains, shoulder and backaches, as well as headaches! Improper blood circulation in the chest region is another side effect.
In most of these surveys, majority of participants including men and women have voted in favor of C cup breast size as the perfect boob size. In one of the most comprehensive surveys involving around 1,000 Europeans and 1,000 Americans, more than 53% of men voted for average breast size as the ideal boob size.
Understanding “Ideal” Breast Size
Likewise, 49% of men and 52% of women concurred that a C cup is the ideal breast size, which is close to the average breast size of women in both the United States and Europe.
It turns out, over half of women polled thought a C cup was the perfect fit. At the same time, close to 26 percent preferred a B cup. Nearly 2 percent said an A cup was their preferred breast proportion.
Globally, a natural female breast has an average size somewhere between a large "A" and a smaller "B" in the US size system. According to European or Australian classifications, this would be a "B".
Injury prevention. Although the injuries are usually mild, it is possible to hurt yourself when sleeping in a bra. The buttons, hooks, straps, and underwire can repeatedly poke at and rub against your skin, resulting in redness and chafing. Taking off your bra before bed prevents this from being a problem.
Is it OK to sleep in my bra? There's nothing wrong with wearing a bra while you sleep if that's what you're comfortable with. Sleeping in a bra will not make a girl's breasts perkier or prevent them from getting saggy. And it will not stop breasts from growing or cause breast cancer.
According to the 15-year study, there's ample evidence to suggest that wearing bras for extended periods of time can cut off the circulation by your midsection and ribcage.
With standard sizing, you can expect a 32C and a 32D to be bracketed together as a Small, a 34C and a 34D to both be Medium, a 36C and 36D to equate a Large, and so on, up through the fit range.
A 32C is one cup size smaller than a 34C. That also means a 34 is two cup sizes bigger than a 30C, and so on.