Taken literally, your bust measurement is the circumference of your torso measured around the largest part of your breasts. This measurement may be used to help make a rough calculation of your percentage of body fat and, over time, provide an idea of how your body fat changes; this is a very rough gauge of your fitness level. The bust measurement is also frequently paired with a chest band measurement to assess what size sports bra you should wear. Because of this, the following instructions include how to take both chest band and bust measurements.
Step 1
Remove your shirt but keep your bra or a light camisole on.
Step 2
Inhale and then exhale normally, but hold the air out on the exhale.
Step 3
Wrap a tape measure around your ribs just below your bust--about where your bra band normally sits--before inhaling again. The tape should be parallel to the ground and snug and flush against your skin, but not tight. If you don't have a friend to help you, note the measurement in a mirror.
Step 4
Add 4 inches to the measured number if it was even, or 5 inches if it was odd, to get your bra band size. So if you measured 25 inches, your bra band size would be 30 inches. If you measured 26 inches, your bra band size would also be 30 inches, but an original measurement of 28 inches would give a bra band size of 32.
Step 5
Stand up straight and let your arms hang straight at your sides. Have a friend wrap the measuring tape around the largest part of your bust, parallel to the ground, snug against your skin but not binding. This is your actual bust measurement. Round the measurement up to the nearest whole number; so if the measurement was 33 1/2 inches, you'd round up to 34.
Step 6
Subtract the band measurement you calculated in Step 3 from the bust measurement in Step 4. You can roughly estimate your cup size by adding one cup size, starting with A, for each inch of difference between the two measurements. If there's 1 inch of difference, you wear a cup size A. If there are 3 inches of difference, you wear a C cup. See the Resources section for a more precise conversion chart.
Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
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