Our faces are one part of our body that we look at many times every day. And now, as more of us work remotely and appear frequently on Zoom or other video conference calls, we are looking at our faces, even more frequently every day. So it’s natural that when we gain weight, we notice it in our faces and want to get rid of it quickly. The best ways to lose weight in our faces are: eat a healthy diet and lose weight; avoid or limit alcohol intake, drink more water, avoid sodium, keep stress levels down, and eat a plant-based diet.
Eat a Healthy Diet and Lose Weight All Over
I’m sure you’re thinking “that’s obvious.” But the reason I put it first is the only way to truly lose fat from your face is to lose fat all over your body. There is no way to spot reduce fat from our faces. When you lose weight, it will naturally come off all areas of your body at a pretty similar rate including your face.
However, the good news is that we don’t have a lot of fat on our faces. In fact, it may be the least fatty part of our bodies (other than maybe wrists or fingers). So, when we lose weight we are likely to first start noticing the change to our face. In fact, even after losing just five pounds many of us will notice a reduction to our faces when we look in the mirror – which is helpful to not keep beating ourselves up and also as an inspiration to keep going if we have more to lose.
When Can I Expect To See Results?
With weight loss, results take time. But since we don’t have a lot of fat on our face expect to see noticeable results within 30 days.
Avoid, Or Seriously Limit Alcohol Intake
Have you ever noticed that you can spot a heavy drinker just by looking at them? Heavy drinkers often have red and bloated faces. The bloating is because alcohol is dehydrating. When we are dehydrated, our bodies try it’s hardest to hang onto every ounce of water in our tissues and causes us to look puffy. This can also lead to puffiness under our eyes which is another factor that can make our faces overall look “fatter.” Heavy drinking also causes chronic inflammation throughout the tissues of our bodies. (https://www.liverdoctor.com/alcohol-affect-way-look/). Inflammation leads to more puffiness and is a leading cause of aging to our skin (second only to sun damage) (https://www.insider.com/stop-drinking-what-happens-to-your-skin-2018-8)
When we hear the term “heavy drinker” we often think of a severe alcoholic who is passed out drunk daily. But actually, you will probably be surprised to learn that according to the CDC, heavy drinking is defined as 8 drinks per week for a woman. So if you have one glass of wine every night and a second glass on Friday that is considered to be a heavy drinker. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/faqs.htm#heavyDrinking You can see how many people would easily fall into the heavy drinking category.
If you google stop drinking alcohol before and after the differences are truly amazing and inspirational. If you are in the habit of having a couple of drinks a night, it may be catching up to you on your face. Try giving up alcohol completely for 30 days. You will likely be rewarded fairly quickly when you look in the mirror. If you don’t want to give up alcohol completely then try limiting your intake so that you don’t fall into that “heavy drinker” category.
When Can I Expect To See Results?
When you eliminate alcohol, the bloat and redness begin to diminish immediately. Expect to see results within two weeks and a visible change in 30 days.
Limit Sodium Intake
Sodium is just the fancy way of saying Salt. When he have a high sodium meal or add extra salt to our foods it can cause us to retain water. It is similar to the dehydration that comes from excess alcohol. We’ve all had the experience where we go out to dinner and the next morning we feel bloated and heavy, we can’t get our rings off, and the scale unexpectedly goes up five pounds. That is often the result of a lot of salt in the meal the night before. Same as with alcohol, this bloat can show up in our faces making us suddenly appear puffy.
The good news is that this type of bloating usually goes away quickly. In the mean time, it is helpful to drink extra water to help flush the sodium out of your system.
The best way to avoid this type of puff is to limit sodium regularly. So how much sodium are we supposed to consume? The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting sodium intake to less than 2,300 mg per day. That amounts to about 1 tsp of salt each day.
Most of us are aware not to add a ton of salt on top of our food but be careful because there are a lot of unexpected foods that are very high in sodium:
Sneaky Foods That Are Surprisingly High In Sodium
- Pickles (785 mg in 1 medium pickle)
- Canned Beans (varies)
- Canned Soups (varies)
- Soy Sauce (878.9mg in 1 TB)
- Lite Soy Sauce (531 mg in 1 TB)
- Teriyaki Sauce (610 mg in 1 TB)
- Sunflower Seeds (1706.3mg in 1 oz)
- Hash Browns (533 mg in 1 cup)
When Can I Expect To See Results?
Thankfully the salt bloat goes away quickly. If you flush your system with water, expect to see reduction in the puff within 5-6 hours and return to normal by the next morning.
Drink More Water
Like we talked about above alcohol and sodium can dehydrate our skin. There are other things as well that can dehydrate us. Our bodies need hydration to survive. When we become dehydrated, our body thinks “oh no, water is very limited. I need to survive so I’m going to hold onto every ounce of water that’s currently in my tissues.” As a result, we can both feel and look puffier. Ironically one of the best ways to get rid of the puff is to drink extra water. When our bodies are dehydrated and we drink extra water it lets our bodies know that there is hydration coming and it can release the extra water in our tissues.
How much water should we drink each day? Regularly we should at least drink half our body weight in ounces each day. So if you weight 150 pounds you should aim for at least 75 ounces each day in water. If you are exercising or sweating heavily aim for more. On the days that you are feeling bloated aim for 16-20 ounces above your daily requirements to help flush your system and let your body know that it is not suddenly going through a drought.
When Can I Expect To See Results?
Our bodies adapt quickly to proper hydration. Expect to see results in days to a week.
Eat A Plant Based Diet
I am a huge fan of a plant based diet and believe that It is the healthiest way to eat in general and also the best diet for weight loss. But a huge benefit to eating a Whole Foods plant based diet is that you can see the benefits quite quickly on your face.
There are a few reasons for this. The first is that when you eat a diet consisting of whole food plant products it is usually easier to fill up on fewer calories causing weight loss over time. Second, a whole food plant-based diet is usually lower in sodium than a diet that includes animal products. Finally, “plant-based diets reduce inflammation. A 2015 study found that participants randomized to a two-month plant-based dietary intervention experienced reductions in inflammatory scores, when compared to those eating diets higher in fat and animal products. ” (https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/new-review-highlights-benefits-plant-based-diet-rheumatoid-arthritis)
When I switched to a plant-based diet, the first changes I noticed were in my face. Within the first couple months, even though the scale had only gone down a few pounds, my skin looked noticeably clearer and less “swollen” or “puffy.” I believe this was mainly due to the decrease in sodium, the small weight loss, and the change to a plant based diet lowering the inflammation and swelling in my body.
When Can I Expect To See Results?
Our bodies begin responding quickly to a healthy plant based diet. While everyone’s results vary, I noticed changes within two months.
In the photos below, the photo on the left was taken about two months before I switched to a plant-based diet. I was so miserable not happy when I looked in the mirror. The photo on the right was taken two months after I started a plant-based diet. While I had only lost a few pounds overall the changes in my face were noticeable.
Did any of these tips work for you? Let me know below. Or do you have a tip that isn’t mentioned above? Let me know in the comments below.
If you found this post useful, you might want to save THIS PIN below to your Pinterest Weight Loss Board to refer to later.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/699043173409258869/
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