Can You Lose Weight From Your Face?

July 9, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

You’ve probably heard it before:

“Ya can’t spot reduce fat!”

Talk to any body shaman out there trying to spirit the thickness off your body, and they’ll tell you: to lose fat from one somatic locale, ya gotta lose it all over. And I have two responses to that: “agreed” and “agreed, but…” The “agreed” bit is simple. To banish adipose, you’ve gotta do your cardio a few days a week (half an hour to an hour.) You’ve gotta lift your weights a few days a week (muscle burns a fudge ton of fat). You’ve gotta manage calorie intake, eat clean, and balance macros (knock off the processed food, don’t binge, and do properly partition protein, carbs, and fats) more than just a few days a week. More like – all days, save for maybe one or two. This collectively helps you lose weight from all body parts, including (eventually), whichever one you’re particularly insecure about.

(Sadly, we can’t all be Squidward and just deflate our faces.)

That said (and here comes the “agreed, but” bit), have you ever done all of this and acquired that coveted thigh gap or bikini bridge, only to still be stuck with Cabbage Patch face? WTF, right? I faced this (pun not intended, but I’ll take credit for it) all through college. I got down to an unhealthy 120. (I kinda look like a lollipop at that weight.) But I still was rockin’ the inflate-a-face look. And it wasn’t until later that I realized what the problem was: I didn’t have a fat face; I had a fluid filled one. And here’s why.

First reason? Too much salt and not enough water. I may not have eaten much, but when I did, my meals were teeming with sodium. And I wasn’t drinking nearly enough water to flush it out. The result? An aqueous chipmunk. The fix? It may seem counter-intuitive, but when the front of your head’s filled with liquid, you wanna add more water to your system to get rid of it. Why? Well, it’s only stuck there to balance out the salt. Once you’re sufficiently hydrated, however, it can pack up, journey to your urethra, and finally let the bones in your cheeks show again. So, go easy on the salt and keep your drinking mug full of water – so your face mug won’t be.

Unfortunately (and this is reason 2), my mug was filled with other stuff – like sugar. (See: mochas and mudslides) On top of constipating you, processed sugar also can make you puffy. And, while most of us think that doesn’t apply to us (since we turn down tiramisu and bypass the candy machine sans a problem), we’re often forgetting something. From Starbucks to soda to soda with our favorite liquor whisked into it, sugar’s in a whole lot’ve places we don’t consider. (And if we don’t consider them, they don’t count right?) Not only do drink calories count, but the sugar level in ones like these get easily converted to fat, and can also cause the fluid retention you’re mistaking for more fat. Unlike salt, which you (should still be moderating but) can counteract after a night of some too-rich dinner, processed sugar’s such a Trojan Horse of delicious deception that you’d do better to avoid it at all costs – or treat it like that tiramisu you’re saving for cheat day. (Example: Boo thang and I do a weekly “Faturday” – our one night’ve the week to throw caloric caution to the wind.)

And the third reason? Sleep.

In college I got next to nada of this. And it showed. When you’re young, you can kinda bounce back. But, I’ll be honest. I have a fresher looking visage these days, thanks in part to doing all the healthy obvious stuff I write about with exercise and diet – but also due to getting to bed earlier and keeping the right sleeping posture so that fluid doesn’t sink to my face, morphing it into a porky Mylar by morning. Getting rest is crucial in general for not looking like a petrified plum. But sprinkle sufficient sandman dust on that shiz and you’ll both de-poof and rejuvenate your face.

In the end, it’s true: to lose fat from somewhere, you do hafta lose it from everywhere.

(Although some parts might indeed seem to lose it faster.)

That said, sometimes what we think is “face fat” is really just your body hoarding hydration, thanks to a few bad habits. And, when we’re doing so much to lose weight, we don’t care what the cause is. We just want it gone so that every section of us matches our efforts. (Especially the part people see first every day.) So, if you’re still having trouble reducing the mug pudge after assuming a healthy exercise and diet regimen, see if it’s the salt, sugar, and sleep you’re overlooking.

The bonus?

Unlike actual fat-loss (which takes time), when you fix this issue, you’ll see a difference far quicker.