How to Lose Weight in Your Face Quickly and Naturally With Expert-Backed Tips
One study found toning your facial muscles helps you look up to three years younger
While it’s a little easier to disguise unwanted pounds on your midsection or thighs, your face is out there for everyone to see. And whether that extra weight manifests as rounder cheeks or a double chin, many wonder how to lose weight in your face.
First thing’s first: You can’t spot-reduce fat. But there are things you can do to promote overall weight loss and lose facial fat in the process. Read on to find out why extra weight tends to show up in your cheeks and chin, plus see five effective strategies to reduce excess body fat naturally so you can put your best face forward.
Why does weight gain show up in your face?
“We have fat cells all over the body, and the skin on your face is made up of fat along with collagen—a protein important for skin’s strength, structure and elasticity,” says Meghan Garcia-Webb, MD, internist and obesity specialist with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Wellesley, MA, and the host of the weekly YouTube series, “Weight Medicine with Dr. Meghan.”
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Facial fat is contained in fat pads, such as those under your eyes, above your cheekbones, in between your cheeks and jawline. When you gain weight, those fat cells expand. But when you lose weight, those fat cells shrink and can make your face appear slimmer.
Although everyone is different when it comes to where those extra pounds can show up prominently, there are certain factors that contribute to facial weight gain, says Dr. Garcia-Webb. Common reasons include the decrease in hormones during menopause and aging, both of which affect your metabolism. “Your genes play a role too, since there’s a genetic link to obesity,” Dr. Garcia-Webb adds.
How to lose weight in your face naturally
Whatever’s behind your excess facial fat, if it’s bothering you, you likely want to know how to lose weight in your face quickly and naturally. These easy, effective strategies can help:
Scale back on salt
“Salt (sodium) acts like a sponge in our body, and when we eat more of it, we hang on to more water or fluid all over our body, including our face,” says Beth Goodridge, RD, a registered clinical dietitian with Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek, CA. Goodridge says excess sodium can show up as overall fullness in your face, for example, as bags under your eyes or puffy cheeks.
One way to curb your sodium intake is by minimizing the amount of times you eat out and instead, prepare meals at home, says Goodridge. “Most Americans get their extra sodium from dining out in restaurants or from grabbing fast food,” she explains. “You can easily find that one restaurant meal contains an entire day’s worth of sodium.”
But eating at home, scaling back on processed foods and monitoring how much salt you use can help you lose weight faster, adds Goodridge. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), people should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day. For most adults, the ideal limit is no more than 1,500 daily, especially if you have high blood pressure.
Take your cardio up a notch
We all know that diet and lifestyle changes are two of the biggest contributors to weight loss. And the basic concept of weight loss is to burn more calories than you consume. One key to doing that? Bumping up your physical activity. “Cardio burns calories, and the more you do, the greater amount of calories you’re going to burn,” says Dr. Garcia-Webb. And that can help you lose weight in your face.
Both high and low-impact cardiovascular exercises are effective fat burners, but if you’re looking for faster results, you may want to try high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. With a HIIT workout, you alternate between intense intervals of heart-pumping exercise with shorter rest periods. For instance, you may do 20 to 40 seconds of jumping jacks or squats, then recover for 10 to 15 seconds before starting again.
One study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found fat oxidation (the process of breaking down fatty acids into molecules for energy) is substantially higher after HIIT workouts. This means the body burns a higher proportion of fat for fuel, contributing to greater weight loss—including facial fat loss.
Looking for a beginner HIIT workout to get started? Try this 10 minute one:
Tip: Along with cardio, incorporate at least two days a week of strength or resistance training, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends. Strength training, like lifting weights, builds muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn while resting.
Tone your facial muscles
Practicing face exercises can help firm up the muscles around your cheeks, mouth, jawline and neck, all places excess fat can show up. And a more toned-looking face not only makes you look slimmer, but younger, too.
One study in JAMA Dermatology had women aged 40 to 65 do a half hour of facial exercises daily at first, then every other day for a total of five months. At the end of the study, researchers found the women looked three years younger and showed a significant decrease in fullness in their upper and lower cheeks.
“The exercises enlarge and strengthen the facial muscles, so the face becomes firmer and more toned and shaped like a younger face,” reported Murad Alam, MD, a professor of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and one of the study’s authors.
Check out the video below to discover how to lose weight in your face with easy exercises:
Drink more water
“Drinking enough water is important because if we get dehydrated, the body tries to compensate by actually retaining water and hanging on to the fluid,” Goodridge explains. “That can contribute to the appearance of a puffy face.”
Staying hydrated wards off fluid retention that triggers facial puffiness and helps with overall weight loss, too. In fact, a study in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics found people who drank between one and three additional glasses of water a day consumed up to 205 fewer calories a day. The study also found people reduced their daily sodium intake by as much as 235 mg.
Tip: Chugging H2O isn’t the only way to up your water intake—certain foods can also help you reach your goal. “Fruits and veggies have the most water, including cucumbers, apples, celery and watermelon,” says Goodridge.
Fill up on protein and fiber
When it comes to optimizing your weight loss and potentially losing weight in your face, your diet plays an important role. “Protein is helpful in terms of building and preserving muscle, and is a key signal to your stomach that you’re full and satiated,” says Dr. Garcia-Webb. “Fiber is another way our bodies know we’re full, and fiber and protein help with blood sugar regulation, too.”
Being satiated from protein and fiber prevents overindulging, which aids weight loss and helps with reducing facial fat. According to a study in Obesity Science and Practice, people who added 20 more grams of fiber and 80 more grams of protein to their daily diet over the course of a year lost nearly 13 percent of their body weight.
Dr. Garcia-Webb says plant-based foods are an easy way to get both of these key nutrients. Foods both high in protein and fiber include nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains (oats, brown rice, quinoa) and peanut butter. If you enjoy meat and fish, lean sources of protein include salmon, tilapia, turkey, skinless chicken breast and pork tenderloin.
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