Can you reduce face fat by chewing gum?

Chubby cheeks look adorable on babies, but not all grown women are fans of face fat. That’s exactly why some look for facial exercises. Many believe that chewing gum can reduce face fat. After all, it engages some of the muscles in your mouth. However, a 2019 study published by National Library of Medicine revealed that chewing gum can make muscles in your cheeks and tongue strong, but it will not really affect your jawline. Read on to find out what experts have to say about chewing gum and reducing face fat.

Health Shots connected with Dr Ajay Aggarwal, Director – Internal Medicine
Fortis Hospital Noida, and A Keerthanya, Executive physiotherapist, Cloudnine Group of hospitals, Bellandur, Bengaluru, to find out if you should chew gum to reduce facial fat or not.

Chewing gum for face fat reduction

Chewing gum involves a lot of movement, so it can engage the muscles in your face and jaw. It primarily exercises the muscles involved in chewing and may contribute to overall muscle tone in that area. But chewing gum does not help to get rid of facial fat, says Dr Aggarwal.

Risks of chewing gum

Chewing gum once in a while is fine, but if you do it too much then there can be some risks or side effects. Here are some of them:

• Too much gum chewing can strain your facial muscles as they are overworked. This can lead to tightness, pain and sometimes headaches.
• When you chew gum frequently, you swallow excessive amounts of air and that can lead to bloating and dyspepsia, says Dr Aggarwal.
• Some sugar-free gums contain artificial sweeteners like sorbitol or mannitol, which can have a laxative effect and cause digestive issues in some people.
• If the gum is not disposed of properly, it can become a choking hazard.

Facial exercises to reduce facial fat

If not chewing gum, you can try out facial exercises that might provide some benefits. The list includes improving muscle tone and potentially reducing the appearance of wrinkles and better-defined facial contours, says Dr Aggarwal. Keerthanya has a list of facial toning exercises that you can try.

1. Cheekbone lift

• Place your fingers over your each cheekbone and gently lift the skin up until you feel some tightness.
• Open your mouth to create a circle and hold it for five seconds.

This is going to help to strengthen your Zygomaticus muscle, giving you contoured cheek bones, says Keerthanya.

2. The cheek squeeze

• Pull your cheeks in until they meet each other inside your mouth, just like a fish.
• Hold this fish-like position for five seconds.

3. The jaw flex

• Tilt your head back until you’re looking at the ceiling and try to get your lower lip over your upper lip as much as you can.
• You should be able to feel this in the jaw muscles. Hold it for 10 seconds so that you can get a defined jawline, says Keerthanya.

4. The puffer pose

• After you close your mouth, puff up your cheeks.
• Start moving the air from one cheek to the other and repeat this for 30 seconds on either sides to strengthen the cheek muscles.

While facial exercises seem like the perfect way to get a nice jawline, you must focus on overall weight loss too. That’s because if you burn calories, it will show on your face too!