Extra pounds in your chest and the resulting bulge around the back of your bra line can cause sore shoulders, slouching and back pain. You may also be self-conscious when the extra fat rolls show through fitted clothing.
Directing your body to lose fat from this area isn’t possible, but you can slim down all over — which will eventually reduce fat from your chest and back. Certain exercises can also help you strengthen the muscles of the area so that you can carry the weight of your chest with better posture and comfort.
Understand Your Body Fat
You store fat as triglycerides, an unusable type of fuel, in fat cells all over your body. Your breasts and back may have concentrated amounts of these cells, but that’s determined by genetics. When you create an energy deficit, by eating fewer calories than you burn, your body turns to this stored fat to help correct the deficit. A complex chemical process turns the triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol, which your body burns for fuel. You can’t tell your body to activate only the fat cells from your breasts or back to yield this energy, though.
Generously sized breasts are made up mostly of subcutaneous fat, which lies just under the skin. Subcutaneous fat is often harder to lose than fat found deep inside your belly, known as visceral fat. This visceral fat is more dangerous to your health; it releases compounds that increase your risk of major disease, such as type 2 diabetes. While you may not like how the extra breast and back fat look, know that they aren’t nearly as dangerous as a protruding middle. Losing back and breast fat takes time. If you’ve always had a large cup size, losing significant breast fat may be difficult because of your genetics.
