Does a Breast Lift Always Result in Dramatically Smaller Breasts?

A breast lift alone should not alter breast size. The skin removed from a breast during a breast lift has very little mass. Perhaps you had a breast reduction, a lift combined with a reduction in the size of the breast. It is also possible that the size was not actually reduced, but the lift caused the breast shape to change and for you to feel more comfortable in a different size bra.

If you were a G cup, it probably would have been very difficult to give you the amount of lift you desired without making you smaller.  The breast tissue simply would not have fit in the smaller skin envelope.

There are many ways to do a breast lift.  Depending on one's anatomy, in order to achieve the best result... a small reduction of some tissue may be required.  Especially when there is significant ptosis or extra skin.  Sometimes, a circular
scar around the areola will be sufficient to do the lift without removal of tissue... other times a keyhole or lollipop
type or anchor scar may be needed. So, depending on the technique that is used, it is common to make the breasts slightly smaller when performing a breast lift.  Anything more than that would be considered a breast reduction.  

A breast lift does not technically change the size, since no breast tissue is removed during this operation.  Nonetheless many patients feel that they are slightly smaller after this operation due to the way they fit into their bras after excess skin is removed.  Many factors determine which cup size you wear, so I tell my patients not to focus as much on what the tag on their bra says as much as how they look and feel in the mirror.  

Breast lift surgery usually involves removing only the superficial layers of skin on the breast, but little or no breast tissue.  Therefore there should be very little change in the overall volume of tissue.  However, bras may fit very differently after breast lift surgery because the breast shape changes so much.  Patients may find that they no longer need the same cup size even though there was very little tissue removed from the breasts.

The breasts are not typically smaller following a lift, but they will fit differently in bras because of their more ideal shape.  Unless some breast tissue is removed from one side to improve symmetry, breast tissue would not be removed with a breast lift.