Neck rolls and scrunching and releasing your facial muscles won’t do much to help you lose fat. You’re better off increasing total body circulation and burning calories with cardiovascular exercise, such as brisk walking or light cycling. To lose weight, work up to at least 250 minutes per week, says the American College of Sports Medicine. As you age, your skin and facial fat might naturally shift downward, leaving you with a more jowly neck, saggy cheeks and possibly a double chin. You can’t stop aging, but you can make the effects less severe if you keep your body at a healthy weight, wear sunscreen to protect from sun damage, eat mostly unprocessed foods, exercise and don’t smoke.
Over time, skin loses collagen and elasticity, causing it to sag around the neck and chin, a process that begins around age 20, according to Dr. Suzan Obagi, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Factors like sun exposure, smoking and poor diet can intensify the process. Two main muscles — the sternocleidomastoid and platysma — make up your neck, and toning them can help pull the overlaying skin tighter for a younger, healthier look.Neck fat, sometimes referred to as a “turkey neck”, lies just beneath the skin of the neck. It can be a pesky spot to tone up. The best way to get rid of neck fat is by combining general weight loss practices with exercise to support your weight loss. Since it’s impossible to spot treat (toning one specific area or losing weight in one specific area), general weight loss and exercise are the most helpful measures to reduce the fat around your neck.Unfortunately it isn’t something you can get rid of overnight. However, sticking to a healthy eating pattern and exercise routine can help you minimize the look of excess fat or skin around your neck. Aerobic or cardio exercise will help burn calories and support your weight loss.
The CDC recommends that adults perform about 150 minutes of cardio exercises each week.You could do 30 minutes of cardio 5 days of week to meet this minimum goal. Try a variety of exercises like: walking, jogging/running, biking, using the elliptical, swimming or dancing. There are a variety of exercises that have been promoted to help get rid of neck fat. However, most have the opposite effect. Although you might think that working or strengthening the muscles around your neck could help get rid of fat, these exercises may only bulk up your neck muscles. Bulky muscles will make your neck look thicker, not smaller. In general, when you lose weight, you will notice a decrease in the amount of fat that you carry around your neck.
