There is no shame in a double chin! It’s just that much more to love. We are all susceptible to sagging skin and muscle as we age, and there should be no shame in that! Of course, just because it’s natural does not mean we have to take it lying down.
If you are unsatisfied with the appearance of your double chin, never fear! Here are 7 ways to treat a double chin.
Improved Posture
The fastest, most painless method for relieving a double chin is to improve your posture. Most office jobs force us into sedentary lifestyles which does little for our physical health or appearance. As we become accustomed to hunching over our keyboards and bending our necks to look at our phones, our bone structure and muscles both adjust to compensate.
Over time, these structures change permanently. In turn, the way our skin sits on our bones compensates. When we don’t sit the way our bones were meant to, our skin can’t sit properly, either. Thus, your skin will sag and look increasingly aged with time.
But you can stop and even reverse the damage that poor posture has wrought on your skin! Keeping cognizant of your posture is an easy way to help correct a double chin. Sitting up straight is a good start. You can also correct the “posture” of your jaw regularly until it becomes second nature. Jut your bottom jaw out, turn your head left and right and raise your chin when you come back to center. Then recenter your bottom jaw and look at yourself in the mirror.
Weight Loss
Excess fat is the most widely recognized cause of a double chin. While you cannot spot reduce fat (which means targeting a specific fatty place on your body to lose fat while maintaining other fat stores), your face will show weight loss fairly quickly compared to other places on your body.
The key to weight loss is simply reducing the amount of calories you eat to below your Total Daily Energy Expenditure calorie count, also known as your TDEE. After several weeks eating below your TDEE, you should see a visible difference in your chin. A helpful way to keep motivated is to take progress pictures every week or so. (Just don’t take them too close together—you won’t see results magically and may actually end up psyching yourself out!)
Injections
There are a variety of cosmetic injections and treatments that have been found to decrease the appearance of double chins—or even eliminate them entirely! If other methods have fallen short, and you feel as though your double chin is making you look unacceptably aged or tired, you may want to consider injections.
“Kybella is an FDA-approved injectable treatment that destroys fat cells under the chin on contact. Allergan, the maker of Botox and Juvederm, created this non-surgical, non-invasive treatment to help individuals with moderate to severe submental chin fat resculpt their profiles,” says the Iconic Skin Clinic, which provides Kybella injections for clients.
Collagen
Collagen is the basis of the elasticity we see in our skin, so making sure you are taking in enough collagen to compensate for the loss of elasticity as you age is a surefire way to keep skin taut and supple. Admittedly, taking collagen as a supplement probably works better as a preventative measure as opposed to a retroactive treatment for a double chin.
Regardless, it is never too early to begin taking collagen as a powdered supplement, which doctors prefer over other forms of ingestible collagen.
Diet
A balanced diet has so many benefits. From preventing heart disease and cancer to simply making us feel good, eating well has a host of benefits. Fortunately for us saggy skin sufferers, a diet full of diverse micro- and macronutrients yields great results for our appearance, too! There are a litany of vitamins only available through a varied and whole foods based diet that you will miss out on if you rely on processed foods for sustenance.
Chin Exercises
Some sagginess found in double chins could be a result of saggy muscles as opposed to excess fat. To combat this, you should focus on chin exercises which tone the dominant and accessory muscles of your neck and chin.
There are a variety of exercises which can help firm up these sagging muscles. With regular practice, you will find your skin to be firmer and more elastic over time—just like you would find when toning other muscle groups!
Liposuction
If all else fails, you can try turning to liposuction. Liposuction is a surgical procedure which removes excess fat and skin from the targeted area. Of course, the costly and involved nature of this procedure means that you should save it is as a last-ditch attempt when all else turns up short.