Does eating dairy foods give you big boobs and belly fat?
In my experience – yes it does. But let me explain why I’m not quitting dairy altogether.
So before I was on a Ray Peat style diet, I was Keto for 10 years and dairy free. I lost all the weight I wanted, bust was down to a nice C cup and I had a flat stomach as well.
All was dandy until my health fell apart and my hair started to fall out, along with a dozen other symptoms pointing to hypothyroidism. So I had to stop that quick smart and found Ray Peat’s teachings.
He espoused the value of dairy as a great balanced protein with little downside, as well as the all important calcium content. I needed the calcium part as my teeth were suffering as well from the past dairy avoidance.
The only reason I had stopped dairy in the past was that everyone said how bad it was for you and when I would have a lot of it, I would get sinus blockage. So I started again, slowly at first. But soon I was having four glasses of skim milk, low fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and some cheddar cheese for my protein and calcium. I didn’t even have the full fat versions, it was all skim or low fat.
But very soon my bust started to grow as well as belly fat. I wasn’t overall gaining more weight necessarily but it was a definite shift in weight distribution. Boobs grew to DD cup and became bloated and sore. Belly fat felt like I had a fat suit on the front only, where I could grab at least 3 inches before I felt the abs underneath. I was sure it was the hormones in dairy causing my big boobs and belly fat.
But there’s only a tiny amount of hormones in dairy
Now Ray says that the hormones in dairy are negligible and granted, when I look into it, the data says the same thing:-
So when you convert nanograms (ng) to say millilitres, you are only looking at 0.01 ml per litre of milk for the progesterone for example. So IT IS tiny and you are never going to have such a vast quantity of butter or cheese.
But when I was having butter, a litre of milk, yogurt, cottage cheese and hard cheese, all of these little amounts add up and just must have tipped my previous hormonal balance to get these effects.
Further reading says too that both estrogen AND progesterone contribute to a large bust and belly fat. And that’s exactly what I was getting. Another story I read the lady said, “I quit dairy for a while and my boobs completely went down.”
The crazy part is though that it doesn’t happen for everyone. Another person can eat all that dairy and not have these effects at all. Perhaps their previous hormone levels were lower, and the dairy intake just served to balance it all nicely. You just never know.
This is why this all diet stuff is so difficult, because everyone is different.
Someone said to me, “so do you think I should quit dairy again all together?” And I think Ray has convinced me that the intake of good quality dairy is really important for health, but it’s just the optimal quantity of it that will vary from person to person.
So personally I had already the reduced the amount I was having to only 2 cups total of any dairy per day. This has had the effect of reducing my bust to a D cup and the belly fat has definitely gone down as well.
My latest reduction now is the following daily:-
2 TBS skim milk powder in coffee*
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 slices of cheddar cheese
2 tsp butter
(*you can have fresh milk, I just can’t be bothered getting it for the small amount I have now.)
Now just remember too the greatest concentration of the hormones is in the fat portion of dairy. So if you are having skim or low fat then you are definitely having less of it. But even though I was always having mostly skim, it still had an effect anyway.
So you’ll find some articles that will say the hormones make no difference and others that say it definitely does.
Do you think dairy is causing big boobs and belly fat for you? Make your own decisions and conduct your own experiments on yourself to gauge the effects. The more we can share our stories of our own experiences, the more it helps everyone.
Kristy x
All beautiful images in my 5 books are by www.adrianalfordphotography.com. Oh his Youtube channel he actually shows exactly how he sets up and styles the shoot and the camera settings he uses. View video here.