What Can We Do About Back Fat

“I don’t like my back fat.”

This is the number one thing we hear in the fitting room after we fit you in an appropriately snug bra band. Let’s make something clear: the words “back fat” aren’t words we use. We are quoting virtually every single person who comes in for a bra fitting. At Bliss Beneath, we call it what it is: skin. We all have it. We’re not made of plastic like the mannequins, and we don’t have the ability to Photoshop and edit it off our real bodies. We’ve been brainwashed to think and feel that the bumps on our back shouldn’t be there when we’re wearing a bra. Every single image we see online, in magazines, in advertisements… those normal, natural bumps on our back and sides have been edited out. A couple of weeks before Bliss Beneath officially opened Tamara had the opportunity to fit some fitness competitors. These are women who had dedicated months of time and effort in the gym and in the kitchen building their muscles and whittling down their body fat to levels so low they stopped getting their periods. When Tamara fit them in appropriately snug bras, these fitness competitors (to their utter dismay!) had bumps around their torso from their bras. People, we are made of skin! The only way to get rid of the bumps on your back is to A) wear a bra that is so loose it doesn’t support you at all; B) don’t wear a bra; or C) wear so many layers that the bumps are smoothed away. There are bra styles that have wider bands that can provide a smoothing effect to the back. Bear in mind the width of the band as well as the width of the straps generally are determined by the band size and the cup size. That means the smaller the cup size and smaller the band size, the narrower the band and straps are, and vice versa.

Let’s explain why the bra band needs to be snug around your torso. The bra band is the part of the bra that provides most of the lift and support. It’s the foundation of your fit. If the fit of your bra band is compromised, everything else is compromised as well. It needs to be comfortably snug around your torso to support the weight of your breasts in front and to prevent the bra from moving up your back and around on your body all day. If you read last week’s bra questions post, we addressed the problem of bra straps falling off your shoulders. If you recall, the usual culprit for straps falling off your shoulders is a bra band that’s too loose. Picture a teeter totter in your mind: the bra band on your back is one side of your teeter totter, and your breasts in front are the other side of the teeter totter. If the bra band goes up your back because it’s too loose (one side of your teeter totter has gone up), your breasts in front go down. What goes up must come down. When the band is snug enough around your torso to stay across the middle of your back all day roughly parallel to the floor, your breast stay lifted all day. For the bra band to stay across the middle of your back all day, it has to be snug. Don’t blame yourself for having skin…it’s physics and gravity! Accept that your body is made of skin, not plastic. Accept that you’ve been brainwashed all these years to think that you shouldn’t have bumps on your back, and maybe get a little angry at that as well. The next time you’re waiting in line at the grocery store and you see a girl or a woman in front of you with bumps on her back, nod and say to yourself in your head, “Good for her! That girl or woman is wearing an appropriately snug bra band. She has skin.”