Starting your weight loss journey can be both exciting and a little scary. Just with the way your body changes during weight gain, your body will also go through changes with weight loss. One thing people wonder the most is: how does losing weight affect your face?

Your face is often the first thing people see when talking to you. It’s essential to understand how weight gain and losing weight affect the body, especially your facial skin.

Keep reading because we’ve got the answers to all of your weight loss questions.

How Weight Loss Affects the Skin?

Due to how elastic our skin is, our bodies and appearance can change without any harm coming to us. When you lose a significant amount of weight, your fat cells shrink.

Our skin, however, doesn’t have the same elasticity shrinking as it does growing. So how does losing weight affect the skin?

Sagging skin

When you lose a significant amount of fat, close to 50 pounds or more, you might find that your skin isn’t shrinking the same way the rest of your body is. It’s because of your skin’s elasticity. You may find that the skin around your arms, stomach, thighs, and face aren’t as tight as it used to be.

The more sagging skin you have, the more careful you need to be. With the skin sagging, you may find that you’re more susceptible to rashes or sores between the skin. Make sure you’re keeping yourself clean and dry in between workouts so you don’t suffer from any dermatitis.

Stretch marks

Most people will get stretch marks at some point in their life. It’s a natural result of growth in our bodies. If you had fast growth spurts as a child, you might already be familiar with them.

But when you start losing weight, you can also be faced with new stretch marks across areas that have gained a significant amount of body weight, such as the arm, chest, stomach, and hip area.

Soreness

When you begin to lose fat, you may find that your skin is feeling a little more sore than usual. It might even feel bruised. This is a common side effect of significant weight loss. The skin can feel sensitive and bruised to the touch. However, this side effect tends to go away quickly.

What Are the Effects of Weight Loss on the Face?

When you begin your healthy lifestyle journey, you’ll see the effect in two different places: on the scale and in inches. Both of these changes can have a drastic impact on someone’s appearance, especially when it comes to the face.

You’ll most likely see the numbers on the scale begin to go down before you see any visible change in your body. The weight in the face tends to go down slower than the rest of the body.

When it comes to how the face and its appearance changes with fat loss, the differences largely depend on how fat gain affects your face in the first place. Some people don’t gain body weight in the face very much, and weight loss might have minimal effect on the shape of their face, too.

But for other people, their extra weight gain might have resulted in a fuller, rounder face in the cheek, chin, and neck area. So what are the effects of fat loss on the face?

More defined jaw

When you begin to lose weight, you may notice that your face now has a more defined shape. No longer is your face as round as it was when you had slightly more face fat. 

Loose skin

When you begin to burn fat, that fullness in your face will start to recede. Human skin is very elastic. That’s why we can gain and lose weight without harming our skin.

However, when you begin to lose a lot of weight, your skin has trouble snapping back to its former size. When you lose extra weight in your face, you may notice that you have some loose skin around your jaw and neck area.

Wrinkles

Your skin may also show more wrinkles with less weight in the face. A thinner face naturally has less stretch to it. Those wrinkles are a result of your skin not being as full as it once was. You may notice these wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.

Does Losing Weight Make You Look Younger?

Shedding weight looks different for everyone. As we get older, our metabolism tends to slow down. With a slowed metabolism, if we’re not counteracting it with diet and exercise, it can cause us to store fat and gain some inches in our body. A larger body often corresponds with age.

Getting rid of those extra inches often signifies youth and can make some people seem younger.

But what about the face? If you lose a lot of weight too quickly, you might be left with extra loose skin around your face, which can expose more wrinkles. 

A good way to make sure your face isn’t developing any new wrinkles during your weight loss journey is to make sure that you have a good skincare routine and minimize sun exposure.

If you want to shed fat in a healthy way and make sure that your body stays as fit as possible, you’ll want to look into a healthy diet app.

Does Your Head Get Smaller When You Lose Weight?

The answer is no. While you may start to look smaller around your face area, such as your chin and jaw, the physical size of your head remains the same. It may look smaller, but your skull is still the same size.

Some people may find that their head actually looks a touch bigger; since they lost all of the weight around their face and in their body, their head might look a little bigger in comparison. But all in all, the physical size of your skull remains the same.

A Word From RD

Taking a step into a healthier lifestyle with a weight loss journey is always a little daunting. You’ll want to make sure that you’ve got professional medical advice from your doctor backing up any weight loss plan that you’re planning to explore.

It’s essential to know how to maintain the health of your skin as you begin your journey. While loose skin may be discouraging, it is also a sign of how far you’ve come. To keep your skin as elastic as possible, you want to make sure you take care of your skin throughout every step of your journey.

Always wear sunscreen to reduce sun damage. Also, make sure you’re taking the recommended amount of vitamin C every day. This helps reduce skin damage and keep your skin looking healthy and natural. 

Another way to take care of your skin is to make sure you’re not falling for a crash diet or losing weight too quickly. The weight loss process shouldn’t be rushed. When you lose weight too quickly, it can cause a more significant sagging of the skin, as well as potential heart problems.

Be wary of becoming a yo-yo dieter as well. Gaining and losing fat in rapid succession can also damage your skin. It’s important to get down to a healthy weight that you can maintain for the best results in both your overall health and the health of your skin.

You know what they say: slow and steady wins the race! For the sake of your skin and your health, make sure that your healthy weight loss journey is as safe as possible.

Conclusion

It can be difficult to predict our bodily changes when it comes to weight loss. For many people, the idea of their appearance changing can be a little scary. Losing weight can have a significant effect on the skin and the way one’s facial appearance.

Lost fat can result in a smaller face and a more significant jawline. But if you neglect to take care of your skin, it can also cause aging, sagging skin, and wrinkles.

It’s essential to make sure you’re taking care of your skin and healthily losing weight. As directed by a trusted medical professional, diet and exercise can reduce any negative effect on the skin caused by weight loss.