Avoid Having Sagging Breasts as a Young Woman

Many women worry about when they will lose their youthful appearance, including when their breasts will start to sag; however, by exercising, protecting your skin, eating well, and avoiding major weight fluctuations, you can prevent the sagging from happening early.

Steps

Retaining your Youthful Shape with Exercise

1. Keep your body young and fit by exercising. It will make you look and feel good by controlling your weight and giving you a trim waist to help emphasize the perkiness of your breasts.
   • Aerobic exercise like jogging, walking, or swimming will help keep your waist small. Try to do 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
   • Aerobic exercise will also release endorphins which will relax you, lift your mood, and make you feel better about yourself.
2. Strengthen the muscles in your chest with weight lifting. While your breasts themselves do not have muscles in them, toning the underlying muscles might still help them resist the pull of gravity. Try to do weight training at least twice a week.
   • Strengthen your pectoral, shoulder, and triceps muscles with chest presses. Lie on your back on the floor with a weight in each hand. Your elbows should be touching the floor with your forearms straight up in the air. Push the weights straight up until your arms are extended. Lower back to the starting position. Repeat.
   • Build your biceps with biceps curls. Stand straight and hold a weight in your hand with your palm facing up. Bend your elbow and bring the weight towards your shoulder. Bring it down and repeat.
   • Do push-ups to strengthen the muscles in your arms, chest and back. Lie on your stomach on the floor with your palms on the floor next to your shoulders. Prop yourself up on your toes. Extend your arms and lift your body off the floor, keeping your back straight and your abs pulled in to protect your spine. Your arms should be fully extended. Gently let yourself down and repeat. If you cannot do a pushup from your toes, start by bending your knees when you go up, rather than keeping your legs straight.
3. Wear a well-fitted sports bra during exercise. During exercise your breasts may bounce between 4 and 15 cm. This strains connective tissue that attaches your breasts to your chest and the skin that covers your breast tissue. A properly fitted sports bra can hold your breasts in place, reduce the bouncing, and prevent the skin and ligaments from stretching. A sports bra fits properly when:
   • The underwire does not move around when you run and jump. But it shouldn’t be so tight that it restricts your breathing or hurts. This is where most of the support comes from.
   • The cups should be fitted around the breasts with no areas where your breasts are spilling out. The material should also not be loose. You should completely fill the cups.
   • The shoulder straps should not slip off your arms when you move nor press painfully into your skin.
   • The band band should be even all the way around the body. No part of the band should be higher or lower than the rest of the band.
   • If the bra has an underwire, it should be underneath the breast without pressing on the breast tissue.

Protecting Your Skin's Health

1. Preserve the youth and elasticity of your skin by not smoking. Nicotine constricts the blood vessels in your skin causing it to get less oxygen and nutrients. Other chemicals in cigarettes harm the collagen and elastin in your skin making it weaker and less stretchy. This causes wrinkling and sagging.
   • As the skin of your breasts loses elasticity, your breasts will sag even if you are still young.
   • If you already smoke, quitting will still help. Many resources are available to help you quit, including support groups, hotlines, and nicotine replacement therapies.
2. Protect your breasts from skin damage. Low V-neck shirts are cool and sexy during the hot summer months, but they also expose the skin above your breasts to harmful ultraviolet radiation. UV rays damage the collagen and elastin which are vital to the skin’s connective tissues. This makes the skin less supple and prone to sagging.
   • Apply sunscreen when you will be outside for long periods of time, even if it is cloudy. Clouds do not prevent you from being exposed to UV rays.
   • Avoid dark tans. While tanning might help protect you against sunburns, your skin is still absorbing UV rays and sustaining damage.
3. Keep the skin on your breasts smooth, supple, and young looking with simple care techniques. Sweat and dirt may collect on an around your breasts. You can care for your skin by:
   • Removing dirt and sweat either by showering or washing quickly with a warm wash cloth. Not only will this feel good, but it will remove oil, dead skin cells, and debris and prevent you from getting pimples on your breasts.
   • Use a mild cleanser or plain water that won’t strip the natural oils from your skin.
4. Keep your skin hydrated by applying moisturizer daily. Use a non-oily moisturizer that won’t clog your pores and will let your skin breathe.
   • Always moisturize after a shower. Keeping your skin soft and supple will prevent skin damage and help it heal quickly.
   • If you are outside a lot, look for moisturizers with sunscreen in them. If you live in a very sunny place or near the equator, it may be possible to get burned through light layers of clothing.

Maintaining Good Skin Quality through a Healthy Diet

1. Keep your skin resilient by eating enough protein. Your body uses protein to heal, and this includes damage to the skin, connective tissues, and muscles which help your breasts resist gravity.
   • The average adult should eat two to three portions of a protein-rich food per day. This can be meat, milk, fish, eggs, soy, beans, legumes, or nuts.
   • Lean meats and low fat dairy products are good because they won't simultaneously increase your fat intake.
2. Give yourself the energy to exercise regularly by eating complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and provide you with energy for a longer period of time than simple sugars do.
   • Excellent sources of complex carbohydrates are beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, potatoes, corn, green peas, parsnips, and whole-grain breads.
   • Simple sugars should be avoided and are found in candies, pastries, cake, soda, cookies, and table sugar.
   • Carbohydrates should make up approximately half of the calories you consume each day.
3. Keep your youth by eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. This will provide your body with the vitamins and minerals it needs to keep your breast tissues young and healthy looking.
   • Adults should consume four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables each day.
   • Tasty options for getting your servings of fruits include berries, cucumber, apples, grapes, cherries, papaya, bananas, and more. Vegetables include broccoli, beets, carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes.
   • If you think you are not getting what you need, vitamin and mineral supplements are widely available over-the-counter at drug and grocery stores. If you believe you have deficiencies, first talk to your doctor, and then if they recommend it, try adding particular supplements or multivitamins which contain lots of different vitamins and minerals.
4. Avoid putting on and losing weight too quickly. Most women will gain and lose weight from their breasts as well as other body areas. Such rapid changes can cause your skin to stretch as you gain weight faster than your body can handle. Similarly, when you lose weight too quickly, you can wind up with excess saggy skin.
   • If you plan to gain or lose weight, see a nutritionist so you can plan to do it slowly and steadily to prevent your skin from stretching.
   • Avoid becoming overweight. As you do, your breasts will become larger increasing their weight and making them more likely to sag over time.
   • Avoid yo-yo dieting. Major weight fluctuations — going from very heavy to much lighter and then back to your original weight — is another way your skin can stretch out. Try to lose weight by losing 1 to 2 lbs. per week (cutting about 500 calories from your daily calorie intake), and make lifestyle changes to keep the weight off. Fad diets may cause you to lose weight rapidly, but it rarely stays off.
5. Don’t be afraid to breastfeed your baby. Not breastfeeding won’t prevent the sagging that comes with pregnancy. Your breasts sag as they get larger and heavier during pregnancy. This stretches the ligaments, leaving lasting sagging.
   • This sagging will happen regardless of whether you breastfeed and breastfeeding will not make it worse.

Tips

• There is no definitive proof that wearing a bra causes your breasts to sag. What's more important is to try and prevent major breast growth, then shrinkage, as you might experience with major weight fluctuations.

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