Looking to lose face fat? Nobody likes to carry weight in their face, but unfortunately, many of us do.
No matter what you think of your body, it’s easy to flatter your figure with the right clothing styles. If your face flaunts your extra pounds, however, you can’t exactly wear a ski mask for the rest of your life.
Part of the problem is genetics. If your face is round or you have a tendency toward a double chin, you may never exhibit hollow cheekbones.
Also, there isn’t much you can do to target the fat in a specific area, although you can scroll down to find out how face yoga can help give you a slimmer look.
You can lose face fat by shedding some weight overall, making quality food choices, lifting weights, and avoiding water retention. When all else fails, focus on your skincare for a slimming effect.
Why You Can’t Shrink Just Your Face
Fat is stored throughout your body so that it can be drawn upon for energy. When you burn fat, what your body is actually doing is transforming some of the fat stored in the cells to energy that it can use.
The part of the body from which the fat is mobilized is genetically predetermined. Even though you consider your face fat to be a problem, your DNA might not agree.
As you age, you lose collagen, which provides that plump appearance. Some anti-aging regimens restore firmness to the skin. That can also make you look a little chubbier in the area.
However, the tradeoff is that your skin won’t sag as much.
Your facial structure is also responsible for how fat your face appears. If you don’t have a strong jawline, you may look like you have a double chin.
If you are struggling to make your face look thinner, try the tips below. Losing overall weight can help, but I have provided you with some other strategies that you can use if you still want to slim your facial appearance at your target weight.
1. Lose Body Fat
Even if you’re at a healthy weight, you probably have more body fat than you need. I say probably because A) most people do and B) you’re reading this article for a reason.
Muscle & Fitness makes a good point about where your mindset has to be to lose body fat. If you view a fat-loss program as having an endpoint, you’re more likely to rebound when you reach your goal.
Make losing body fat a lifestyle choice, and it will be something that continues throughout your life.
This is something that we advocate heavily in our 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge. Some of the best feedback we get from our clients is how they were able to modify the diet to fit their needs in the long-term. You can read more about it at the end of the article.
Some other ways to lose body fat are:
- Drink more water – You’ll help your cells mobilize the fat that needs to be burned. We recommend 100 ounces a day!
- Create a calorie deficit – Eat fewer calories than you burn.
- Eat fewer sugars and starchy foods – Consuming too many sugars in one sitting gives your body more energy than it needs, leaving excess energy to be stored as fat.
- Cycle your carbs – Limit your carb intake on rest days. Eat carbs to fuel up on days that you’re working out.
- Drink black coffee – Increased energy, fat burning, and metabolism. Read more benefits here.
2. Lift Weights
While we’re on the subject of muscle, let’s talk about how increasing muscle mass can help your body burn fat. Women’s Health Mag references a Penn State study that found that people who do cardio and strength-training exercises may lose the same amount of weight, but the strength trainers lose more fat.
Penn State researchers go further to say that starting in early middle age, we lose six to seven pounds of muscle every ten years. This allows the fat to creep on and make your face look rounder (1).
If you lift weights, you will help your body look slimmer instead of just shedding pounds. You will also be more likely to keep the weight off.
That’s important if you’re concerned about your facial appearance. If you yo-yo diet, the skin on your face is more likely to sag as you quickly lose and gain weight.
3. Practice Face Yoga
Face yoga and other facial exercises are designed to strengthen the muscles in and around the face, creating a slimmer appearance. One exercise to tone your face involves smiling as widely as you can with your lips closed. Hold the smile for two seconds before releasing it.
Do 25 repetitions per day.
To tone your jawline, tilt your head back and look at the ceiling. Pucker your lips into a kissing position and hold for 5 seconds. Return to a neutral position before repeating the exercise. Do 5 repetitions.
To get rid of a double chin, roll your head around in a clockwise motion 5 times, then roll it around counterclockwise 5 times.
Because the muscles in your face are smaller than many of the muscles in your body, you should see results relatively quickly.
4. Practice Healthy Skin Care
If all else fails, treat your skin well to make it glow and put your best face forward. Cleanse it gently at night to remove environmental residue, and moisturize it regularly.
Exfoliating with some sugar mixed with coconut oil can slough off dead skin cells and reveal brighter skin.
If you really want to accentuate your facial structure, practice using lighter and darker shades of makeup to contour your face. Adding darker tones to the areas that naturally fall into shadow, like under your cheekbones and below the jawline, can have an immediate slimming effect.
5. Make Quality Food Choices
What you eat can affect the way your face looks. Processed food can contain more sodium than you expect, leaving you looking puffy.
Chemically processed foods are also often high in sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Researchers have found that eating too much sugar can dramatically lower your metabolism (1).
What’s more, sugar can cause inflammation. Inflammation can manifest itself as redness, puffiness or acne on the face, adding more issues to part of your body that you may already consider a problem area.
If puffiness is often a problem, make sure that you’re drinking enough water to flush out toxins and swelling.
One way to make better food choices is to eat more vegetables. Veggies have fewer calories and more nutrients than many other foods.
Most vegetables contain a nutrient or antioxidant that’s beneficial for your skin health. If you’re not full after eating a healthy meal of quality protein and vegetables, chances are you need to up your veggie intake.
Speaking of protein, eating enough of the stuff can help you feel more satisfied from a meal. It also prevents your body from using your own muscle as energy as it burns off fat.
And if all else fails, give our 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge a try. Our clients lose an average of 10-21 pounds in their first 21 days.
Other side effects may include:
- Fitting back into old sexy clothes hiding in your closet
- Strutting from the extra confidence
- Just general feelings of awesomeness about yourself and your body
Even better than the weight loss is the feedback we get from people about how the program has taught them how to change their eating habits and find a diet that truly works for them in the long-term.
We have over 1,000 people in our private support group going through the Challenge together, and every day they are sharing experiences, results, motivation, and lots of recipes!
If you are ready to make some changes in your life, this is the ONLY place you should start. We will teach you exactly how to make the necessary changes in your diet and your lifestyle and how to keep them “beyond the diet.”
Click here to start YOUR 21-Day Fat Loss Challenge today.
Leave me a comment below if you enjoyed this article on how to lose face fat or have any questions!