Can I Change My Breast Density With Diet Or Exercise? Is My Breast ...

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/ Patient FAQs / Can I change my breast density with diet or exercise? Is my breast density related to the fat in my diet?

Fat content in what you eat and exercise do not directly change breast density. But if you lose or gain a lot of weight, your breasts can look more or less dense on your mammogram – though the amount of dense tissue will stay the same. This is because if you gain weight, there will be more fatty tissue (non-dense) in your breasts. If you lose weight, you will lose fatty tissue from your breasts. So, although the foods you eat and exercising do not change your breast density, your overall body fat can affect your breast density.

While exercise does not decrease the actual amount of dense tissue in your breasts, regular physical activity does decrease the overall risk of developing breast cancer.

For more information, see Q+A, “Will my breasts always be dense?”

Learn More:

• 5 Facts Every Woman Should Know
• Video Series: Let’s Talk About Dense Breasts
• Patient Risk Checklist (print)
• Patient Questions and Answers

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