# Lose weight in the face.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072 "2003-03-13T11:01:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![SoulSearching](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@SoulSearching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoulSearching)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072/1 "2003-03-13T11:01:46Z")

</div>

How do you do it? It there a particular excercise for it?

It is possible to lose weight in certain areas of the body without really affecting other parts of the body. For instance you can do crunches to have a flatter stomach but your legs may still be fatty, and vice versa.  
So is there a way to lose weight in the fatty areas of the face?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MissBungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@MissBungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissBungle)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072/2 "2003-03-13T11:25:44Z")

</div>

if you do crunches, you don’t lose weight in the stomach. you simply tone the muscles there.

no. you can’t lose weight where you want to. you can tone which will help mold and shape the area, but you cannot control WHERE ya lose. that’s determined by your genes.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072/3 "2003-03-13T12:06:02Z")

</div>

Well, you can tone the muscles in your face so that everything’s firmer, and you can lose enough weight that your face overall is thinner, but you can’t change the basic shape and contour of your face with anything short of plastic surgery.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072/4 "2003-03-13T13:58:25Z")

</div>

Body fat, which includes facial fat, will come off proportionatly the same way it went on.

You cannot ‘spot reduce’. For your face to be thinner, your whole body will have to become thinner.

You can body shape by adding tone/muscle/firmness, but the most dramatic effect is loss of body fat, which is attained by eating fewer calories than you burn regularly.

Every time you create a 3500 calorie deficit between eaten/burned cals, kiss a pounf of fat away.

Generally, someone is considered to have a 'thin face" when their body fat % is low for their age/sex/body.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lose-weight-in-the-face/161072/5 "2003-03-13T14:57:02Z")

</div>

Though I was still overweight, losing 10% of my body weight really helped define my cheeks and jawline.