Tomima - Lingerie and Underwear Expert

There’s a fairly new phrase that’s popped into our vernacular: back fat. When a woman is walking away from you, and the back of her shirt is bumpy because her skin isn’t laying smoothly, this is considered back fat. Bras are the major contributor to this unattractive look. But the right fitting bra can also be the solution.

There are several reasons for back fat. The first is not wearing your bra correctly. Many women put their bra on by putting their arms through the straps and fastening the bra in back. However, they forget the final step - pulling the bra back down so that it anchors under your shoulder blades. Left unadjusted, the back will creep up pushing your back skin up with it and back fat occurs. Another reason for back fat is wearing a bra with a band size that is too large. That’s right. Contrary to what you may think, back fat is created when your band isn’t tight enough. This means your bra back will creep up and push your back skin with it. The proper bra band size will anchor the back of your bra keeping it in place and giving your back a smooth look. IF the wings and back of your bra are too skimpy, this too can cause back fat.  Wider sides and back are more flattering under fitted clothes and create less bulge.  I know, it looks too "granny."  But, who’s going to know but you?  I’d rather have a wide back on my bra and no back fat, than some skimpy bra that leaves bulges. .Finally, back fat is created with age. As we get older our skin becomes less firm. And, with additional weight gain, our skin tissue becomes soft and spongy. Consequently any form-fitting garment we wear will create some indentation on our back.

I have a couple ideas for us older women. First, consider wearing one of the new shapewear camisoles instead of your bra. They are a great solution in that they give you support and smoothness all the way down past your waist. A couple of great choices:

	This is the Flexees One Fabulous Body Everyday Control Camisole. The reviews have been very favorable with several D cup women finding the support acceptable enough to be worn without a bra. For firmer control, this is a winner. Again, the reviews are raves and even from D cup size women who wear this camisole without a bra.
	The Nancy Ganz Sleek Underneath Camisole is a long-standing favorite, even with D-cup sized women. The cup area of the camisole is actually molded, so it provides support without that smushed-together look. It also receives rave reviews at HerRoom for comfort and a fresh, clean style.
	This camisole from TC Fine Shapewear is also another winner with great reviews. Unlike the others, this Seamless Firm Control Camisole 444 has a built-in shelf bra for added support, and has a gripper edge along the bottom to prevent creep.

HerRoom takes "before/after" shots of all it’s firm control shapewear to show you what kind of control and smoothness to expect. You can see from the images, that this camisole gives great lift and support to your bust, pulls in your tummy, and smooths your sides

There is a company out there that specializes in creating undergarments to eliminate back fat. They are called Sassybax. Started by a former model, the Sassybax line includes a bra, a strapless bra and two camisole styles (with and without underwires). There are no openings on any of these garments, so they are stepped into and pulled up. The back is very smooth. This comes in sizes S to XL. However, I don’t recommend it for women above a C cup because the support just isn’t there.

The Spanx company has recently launched a new bra called the Bra-llelujah. The claim is that their non-adjusting straps will remove any signs of back fat. However, the jury is still out on this one.  So far, several D cup women have complained in our reviews that there is a lack of support.

You can find more bra fitting solutions on HerRoom.

Sports bras are really in a category all their own. You see them less in lingerie departments, and more in the active sportswear stores. This is because sports bras are all about performance. And that performance is their ability to reduce breast bounce. It’s a pretty standard occurrence that a sports bra will declare itself to be one of 3 support levels: light, medium or maximum in its breast support.

Maximum support sports bras are claiming their design will keep your breasts supported during high impact sports such as running, tennis, basketball, etc. This is all great, but do we really know if a bra claiming to be maximum support is doing its job? Before answering this question, let’s talk about breast bounce. The leading researcher in this field is Dr. Joanna Scurr — Professor in the Department of Sport & Exercise Science at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

Dr. Scurr has done extensive research and testing in this field. Her findings are rather interesting. The first interesting point about breast bounce during running is that breasts move in 3 directions: up and down, side to side, and in and out. And, because of the alternating movement of our arms, the up and down and side to side movement looks like a sideways figure eight.

This movement happens both with and without a bra on. Testing 20 D cup women (ranging from 32D-36D), Dr. Scurr was able to measure the movement. Without wearing any bra, these women’s breasts had a total movement of 15.4 centimeters or a little over 6". That’s a lot of breast movement! Dr. Scurr than set out to find if this breast bounce was reduced significantly by wearing various bras. What she found is that breast movement reduced by 49% just by wearing an average everyday bra, and that wearing an encapsulated high impact sports bra reduced breast bounce movement by up to 73%.

Given this research, can one conclude that all maximum support sports bras will reduce your breast bounce by 73%? Well, HerRoom put all their 35 sports bras claiming to be maximum support to the test. With a 34D model running in place, a still video was shot of the model both in front and to the side. The results of "The Bounce Test" showed that the label of "maximum support" or "High Impact" on these bras did not guarantee a consistent reduction in breast bounce during high impact sports. The poor performers included:

	Champion Double Dry Seamless Sports Bra 2893
	Donna Karan Casual Active Underwire Sports Bra 35160
	Lily of France In Action Sport Underwire Bra 2111210
	Moving Comfort Sera Seamless Sports Bra 705360

Another point Dr. Scurr observed is that encapsulation style sports bras reduced breast bounce more than the traditional compression style sports bras. The Bounce Test proved this out, with the best performers being encapsulation, or a combination of encapsulation and compression. The best performers included:

	Enell Sport Bra 100
	Lunaire Coolmax Underwire Sports Bra 11111
	Anita Active Front Close Sports Bra 5523
	Goddess Sports Bra Soft Cup 5056
	Moving Comfort Melbourne Racerback Sports Bra 720960
	Panache PS Sports Bra 2001

See all the Bounce Test videos on HerRoom.

Let me just state up front that if you wear a D cup size bra or smaller, you can ignore this posting - you won’t know what I’m talking about. IF, however, you’re bigger than a D, read on - I’m finally going to explain to you why you think different bra brands don’t fit you right when you buy what you think is your size.

Here’s the set up. Okay, you purchased a 36DDDD in Lunaire. You love it. It’s the perfect fit. You’ve found your size - hurray! Now, you see a bra by Freya that you want. You pull down the sizing options and… no 36DDDD. What’s going on? You find a Chantelle bra you like. Again, you look for your size; it’s not there. You see a Goddess bra. Again, no 36DDDD. “What is going on?” you say. “Is my size unique?” “Am I stuck with only one bra brand that fits me?”

Well, here’s what’s going on. Sizing for A to D cups is the same for all brands I’ve ever worked with. So, a C cup in one brand should be the same cup size in any other brand. And most of the time, this is absolutely true. However, once a brand goes beyond a D cup size, for some reason the naming of cup sizes became a free-for-all with every brand deciding for themselves what to call those cup sizes. Put another way, It’s not that your bra size is different in the various lingerie brands, but rather your size is simply called by another letter or group of letters.

In the scenario above, here are your proper bra sizes in the aforementioned brands:

Lunaire = 36DDDD

Freya = 36F

Chantelle = 36G

Goddess = 36F or 36FF

Here’s another frustration. You are told you’re a 36F. So now, armed with this fact, you march into a lingerie store and start trying on 36F bras. But many of them don’t fit. Why?

Again, 36F is not the same across all brands. If you are a perfect 36F in a Goddess bra, a 36F in Freya will be one cup size too big. In Elomi, their 36F bra will be 2 cup sizes too big. And, in some specific Goddess bra styles, your 36F could actually be too small.

After seeing this, I know you probably want to throw up your hands in disgust and frustration. Well, I don’t blame you. It took me a long time to wrap my arms around all the sizing names myself. But, having gone through this analysis, I discovered a simple trick to help you find your correct size in any lingerie brand. So, pay close attention, I’m about to make your bra sizing/fitting dilemma go away.

First, know that regardless of the cup size name, your band size number will always be the same. In our example of a 36DDDD, you can count on your band to be a 36 throughout all bra manufacturers. Now, for the cup size. Here’s my trick: don’t try and find a specific cup size when shopping. Instead, know how many cup sizes you are larger than a D cup. In our above Lunaire example, Lunaire sizes their cups as follows: D, DD, DDD, DDDD. As a DDDD wearer in Lunaire, you are 3 cup sizes larger than the standard D cup. So, when you want to find your size in another brand, simply find what out what cup size letter (or letters) they give to the 3rd size past D. Let’s look at a Chantelle bras. Chantelle cup sizes go D, E, F, G, H. The third cup size after D is G. So, you’re a 36G in Chantelle. Let’s look at Panache. They size D, DD, E, F, FF. You’re a 36F in Panache. Voila! You’ve got it!

Now, I can’t help it; I’m an Internet retailer. I would be remiss if I didn’t drop a pitch in for why you women above a D cup size should shop for bras on-line. So, here’s my argument. Online retailers have a greater selection of plus size and full figure bras to choose from, AND at HerRoom, I make sure the sizing is displayed sequentially from the smallest to largest on every style. This makes figuring out your size in any brand much easier. You can’t do this at a retail store, because the bras are not hanging in any specific size order. There’s my pitch.

After reading all this, if you’re still finding it all a little confusing, this chart is the ticket. Simply find your best fitting bra by size and brand. The vertical column will be your size in all other brands on the market today.

Here’s the chart: available at HerRoom.com