Some tips to reach or maintain a moderate weight include:
Can You Lose Fat in Your Face?
Many people gain weight. It’s common to want to lose weight in one particular area of your body – like your face. While you can’t reduce fat in one area alone, you can take steps to slim your face and lose weight overall.
Losing Fat in One Body Part
Some people believe that they can lose fat in a single area of their body. This concept is also called spot reduction. There are many exercises that target specific body parts, like your stomach or thighs. While exercises do help build specific muscles, they primarily improve your definition after weight loss. Exercises, including strength training, help you burn fat from your entire body.
If you want to lose fat in your face, focus on healthy weight loss goals to better your overall health. You may be tempted to follow an exercise regimen or diet that boasts desired results, but don’t be fooled. Spot reduction is a myth. When you lose weight in general, you will also slim your face.
Each person loses weight differently. Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t see a difference in your face right away. Be patient and persistent in pursuing your weight loss goals. If you do strength training, the scale may not move as much as you want. This happens because your body is adding weight in lean muscle. You will still see a difference in your face and overall appearance with time.
Face Exercises
While you can’t fat burn for your face alone, you can tone your facial muscles. Benefits of facial exercises include:
- Improving your appearance
- Slowing down aging
- Improving your muscle strength
Examples of facial exercises include:
- Holding air in your mouth and pushing your cheeks out. Move the air from side to side to stretch your muscles.
- Puckering your lips in the middle and then alternating your pucker from side to side.
- Holding a big smile while clenching your teeth together.
- Stretching your neck out while pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth. This stretches the muscles under your chin.
One study showed that completing facial exercises twice a day for 8 weeks added muscle definition. It also improved the appearance of aging in participants. The key to making a difference in the appearance of your face is consistency.
It’s important to understand that there is no data showing that facial exercises reduce facial fat. You can only reduce fat through diet and full-body exercises like cardio and strength training. Facial exercises are a good way to enhance your results.
Healthy Lifestyle
When you want to lose weight to improve your appearance overall, you may research popular diets. You can use any strategy you want, but it all comes down to eating less. To lose fat in your face, you want to have a calorie deficit each day. You can focus on eating more healthy foods and cutting back on sugar and fat. Losing weight burns fat from all over your body. While there isn’t a diet that targets facial fat specifically, you will notice results after some time.
Cut carbs instead of fat. You may think it makes sense to cut fat from your diet in order to lose fat from your body. This is a myth that may actually hinder your weight loss. Instead, follow a low-carb diet that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and healthy fats.
Get Active
You burn more calories each day when you exercise and do strength training. To maintain your weight, you should get 150 minutes of moderate cardio each week. If you want to lose weight and reduce your fat, plan to spend even more time active. Examples of moderate cardio may include:
- Walking at around 4 miles per hour
- Doing light yard work like raking and bagging leaves
- Shoveling snow
- Playing outside with your children
- Riding a bicycle
If you’d rather spend less time active, aim for 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week. These activities make you breathe heavily and challenge your body more. Examples of vigorous activities may include:
- Jogging or running
- Jumping rope
- Playing a competitive sport
- Swimming
- Skating or rollerblading
- Skiing
Stay Hydrated
If you drink soda and other sugary drinks, cut them out of your diet. Calories from juice and soda add up quickly. Instead, drink more water. Studies show that drinking a glass of water before a meal makes you feel fuller faster. Drinking more water also increases your metabolism, so you burn more calories throughout the day.
Show Sources
Ace Fitness: “Myths and Misconceptions: Spot Reduction and Feeling the Burn.”
Aesthetic Surgery Journal: “Effect of a Facial Muscle Exercise Device on Facial Rejuvenation.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight.”
Harvard Medical School: “Diet & Weight Loss.”
Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research: “Enhancing Facial Aesthetics with Muscle Retraining Exercises-A Review.”
Journal of Clinical Nutrition Research: “Effect of Pre-meal Water Consumption on Energy Intake and Satiety in Non-obese Young Adults.”
What to do to reduce facial fat
People often gain fat around the face when fat develops around the rest of the body. However, some strategies may help reduce facial fat. Tips include facial exercises, getting enough sleep, drinking more water, and making dietary changes.
Making certain lifestyle changes can help a person lose weight and achieve a slimmer-looking face.
This article outlines seven effective tips that may help prevent and reduce excess facial fat.
Weight loss in general tends to have a slimming effect on the face.
Cardio exercise, also known as aerobic exercise, may be particularly beneficial for weight loss.
According to one 2019 study in 24 women with overweight, following a 12-week aerobic exercise program resulted in significant reductions in fat mass and waist circumference, along with an increase in lean body mass.
People can perform cardio exercises at a low, moderate, or high intensity. According to some research, performing higher intensity cardio workouts several times per week helps burn more fat.
For example, a 2015 study investigated the effects of different amounts of exercise on body fat in postmenopausal women. All participants took part in moderate-to-high intensity workouts for 12 months. Those who worked out for 300 minutes each week burned more fat than those who performed workouts for 150 minutes per week.
Although these studies did not measure facial fat loss directly, they suggest that cardio exercise is particularly effective at burning fat.
Overall, weight loss, in general, is likely to have a slimming effect on the face.
There is some evidence to suggest that exercising the facial muscles can help reduce facial fat.
For example, an older 2014 article suggests that performing facial exercises may help strengthen and tone the facial muscles. However, it is not clear whether these exercises also help reduce facial fat.
In fact, there are no studies that look at the relationship between facial exercises and loss of facial fat. Nonetheless, facial exercises may help the face appear firmer as a person loses weight.
Excessive alcohol intake can cause dehydration, which can prompt the body to retain water. In some cases, this may lead to water retention in the face, which can make the face appear bloated and puffy.
Alcohol may also contribute to weight gain. It contains empty calories, which offer no nutritional benefit. Consuming empty calories increases a person’s total daily calorie intake, promoting weight gain.
Also, some research suggests that alcohol can suppress hormones that help people feel full. This can stimulate a person to take in more calories from their diet.
A 2015 review of alcohol consumption and obesity suggests a link between weight gain and excessive alcohol consumption. Heavy drinking and binge drinking appears to pose the greatest risks for weight gain.
Some people experience the same effects in response to moderate alcohol intake. However, for most people, moderate alcohol consumption does not promote weight gain.
People who find it challenging to lose facial fat or weight, in general, may wish to consider reducing their alcohol consumption.
Drinking a glass of water before a meal can help a person feel fuller.
This can help reduce the total number of calories a person consumes. For this reason, drinking water before a meal can lead to gradual weight loss.
According to a 2016 review of hydration and weight loss, water consumption also promotes lipolysis. Lipolysis occurs when the body breaks down fat stores into fatty acids that it can use as energy. Making use of these fat stores is key to losing weight.
Getting the right amount of sleep has a range of health benefits. Conversely, not getting enough sleep may lead to weight gain.
For example, lack of sleep affects the levels of certain hormones that promote feelings of hunger and fullness. Specifically, lack of sleep seems to increase levels of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, and lower levels of the hormone leptin, which tells the body that it is full.
As a result, a person who has sleep loss may eat more, and they may turn to foods higher in calories.
Getting adequate sleep can help prevent weight gain. This, in turn, may help decrease the amount of fat stored in the face.
Diets high in processed foods, including refined carbohydrates, may increase the risk of weight gain and obesity.
Processed foods tend to contain more calories, salt, and sugar than whole foods. Refined carbohydrates are a group of highly processed, grain-based foods. During processing, these foods lose fiber and nutrients. As a result, they are high in empty calories.
Refined carbohydrates can also cause rapid spikes in blood sugar, which may encourage a person to overeat.
Examples of refined carbohydrate foods include:
- pasta
- white rice
- white bread
- sucrose
- syrups and frostings
- most breakfast cereals
- reduced-fat products
In most cases, people can find reasonable replacements for overly processed foods and refined carbohydrates. A person can decrease their caloric intake and increase the amount of nutrients they consume by eating fresh whole foods.
When combined with exercise, a healthy, balanced diet may help people lose excess fat in the face and body.
Diets high in salt cause the body to retain water. Water retention causes swelling and puffiness in various parts of the body, including the face. This may give the illusion of excess facial fat.
People who suspect they are sensitive to fluid retention should try to limit foods with high salt content. This includes most processed meals and snacks. Preparing meals and snacks at home gives people greater control over the amount of salt in their diet.
As the body stops holding onto fluid, the face should start to appear slimmer.
Losing extra body fat and maintaining a moderate weight may help the face appear slimmer and prevent excess facial fat.
However, there is little evidence to support spot reduction or targeted fat loss from a specific part of the body.
In fact, fat cells stored throughout the body can be broken down and used as energy while working out, regardless of the specific part of the body that a person is exercising.
For this reason, it is better to focus on reducing overall body fat through healthy diet and lifestyle changes rather than losing fat from a certain area, such as the face.
The best way for people to prevent facial fat is to maintain a healthy weight by making lifestyle changes. A person with overweight or obesity is more likely to have fat around their face than a person who maintains a moderate weight.
Some tips to reach or maintain a moderate weight include:
- exercising regularly and incorporating plenty of cardio routines
- eating a balanced diet rich in lean protein and whole fruits and vegetables
- limiting the consumption of processed foods
- drinking plenty of water and avoiding sugary drinks, including energy drinks, juices, and sodas
Here are some common questions about reducing facial fat.
How can I lose face fat in a week?
Reducing alcohol consumption, getting plenty of sleep, staying hydrated, and limiting salt intake are a few simple ways to reduce swelling and fluid retention, which may make the face appear slimmer.
What foods make the face fat?
There are no specific foods that can increase facial fat. However, consuming more calories than a person uses each day can contribute to weight gain, which could lead to increased facial fat over time.
Why is my face getting fat but not my body?
Increased facial fat is typically due to weight gain. It may also be as a result of water retention, which can make the face appear puffy or swollen. Making changes to a person’s diet and lifestyle can help support weight management and prevent excess facial fat.
Few studies have investigated ways to reduce facial fat directly.
The best way to prevent and reduce facial fat is to maintain a moderate weight generally. People can achieve this by altering their diet, exercising regularly, and getting the right amount of sleep.
Cardio exercises are particularly beneficial for burning excess body fat. Weight loss, in general, should make the face appear leaner.
If a person is struggling to lose weight, they may wish to consult a dietitian, a doctor, or a personal trainer. People should always talk with a doctor before making major changes to their diet or exercise routines.
Last medically reviewed on June 8, 2022
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- Bradley, P. (2019). Refined carbohydrates, phenotypic plasticity and the obesity epidemic.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987719306462?via%3Dihub - Cordova, R., et al. (2021). Consumption of ultra-processed foods associated with weight gain and obesity in adults: A multi-national cohort study [Abstract].
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34455267 - D’souza, R., et al. (2014). Enhancing facial aesthetics with muscle retraining exercises-A review.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190816 - Friedenreich, C. M., et al. (2015). Effects of a high vs moderate volume of aerobic exercise on adiposity outcomes in postmenopausal women: A randomized clinical trial.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2396584 - Harris, M. B., et al. (2021). Scientific challenges on theory of fat burning by exercise.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8290478 - Kordi, R., et al. (2015). Effect of abdominal resistance exercise on abdominal subcutaneous fat of obese women: A randomized controlled trial using ultrasound imaging assessments [Abstract].
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25766455 - Lin, J., et al. (2020). Associations of short sleep duration with appetite-regulating hormones and adipokines: A systematic review and meta-analysis [Abstract].
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32537891 - Myers, A., et al. (2019). Structured, aerobic exercise reduces fat mass and is partially compensated through energy intake but not energy expenditure in women [Abstract].
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30414399 - Thornton, S. N. (2016). Increased hydration can be associated with weight loss.
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