How To Lose Neck Fat: 7 Easy Ways To Get Rid Of Neck Fat In 2024

Excess fat in the neck area is often called a double chin and can be particularly difficult to shed. If you want to know how to lose neck fat, it is possible with the right strategy and effort. However, the solution may not be a simple matter of losing weight or doing a detox.

Just as you can’t choose where excess fat ends up, you can’t choose where you lose it either. The best way to get rid of neck fat depends on the factors that caused it to form in the first place.

In this guide, we’ll cover the causes of neck fat and the potential challenges of losing it. We’ll also provide seven tips, tricks, and exercises for reducing neck fat.

Best Ways To Get Rid Of Neck Fat

Before starting a program to reduce fat in your neck region, it’s wise to talk to your doctor. It’s important to understand the underlying cause of your fat neck in order to change it.

If you have excess fat cells in your body, whole-body weight loss may be the best way to reduce neck fat naturally. Another tactic may be more effective if it’s loose skin or weak facial muscles. Here are seven ways to get rid of stubborn fat around your neck.

Reduced Calorie Intake

If you’re wondering how to lose neck and face fat, ask yourself whether it’s the only area you want to shed weight from. In many cases, neck fat results from weight gain, and the solution is simply to lose the excess weight. Reducing your daily calorie intake is one way to do it.

Before going on a diet to lose weight, determine how much you need to lose and plan to do it safely. Eating too few calories to speed up weight loss is neither sustainable nor good for your overall health.

Instead of counting calories, try simply reducing your portion sizes and focusing on healthy, nutritious foods. If you’re still not losing weight, incorporating an exercise routine to burn more calories daily may help.

Healthy Diet

Moderating your daily calorie intake is essential, but what you eat also matters. Eating healthy can help you change your body composition, shed excess fat, and build lean muscle. Try building your meals^[1] around lean protein, fresh vegetables, and healthy fruits with moderate portions of whole grains and low-fat dairy.

Sometimes just changing the nutrient balance of your diet can help you swap fat for muscle. For example, switching from fatty cuts of meat to lean beef or turkey can reduce your total fat intake.

In addition, you can replace junk food snacks with fresh fruits or veggies. Anything you can do to start living a healthy lifestyle could make a difference.

Cardiovascular Exercise

Exercise is key when it comes to getting rid of neck fat. Cardiovascular exercise, in particular, is a great way to increase your daily calorie burn and shed more pounds.

The recommended amount^[2] of physical activity for healthy adults is 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise. You might need to do more depending on how much weight you need to drop.

If you’re not used to regular exercise, be sure to start off slow. Walking can be just as good for weight loss as running, biking, or more intense forms of exercise.

Resistance Training

While shedding fat is important, building lean muscle mass will help you keep off any weight you lose for longer. Resistance training helps tone your muscles and may also help reduce skin sagging as you lose weight.

If you’re trying to lose excess neck fat, having a toned overall appearance may help keep things in balance. 

Neck Exercises

While targeted exercises aren’t effective in spot reduction, neck exercises may help you tone and strengthen the muscles in your neck.

As you reduce your body weight, having more lean muscle can help give you a leaner, healthier look. Here are a few neck exercises to try.

Neck Stretch 

1. Stand up straight with your head and neck in a neutral position. 
2. Tilt your head back, raising your chin toward the ceiling. 
3. Keeping your mouth closed, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
4. Hold this position for five to ten seconds, then release and repeat ten times.

Neck Squeeze

1. Standing with your spine straight, place a 9-inch stress ball under your chin.
2. Keeping your shoulders relaxed, press your chin downward into the ball. 
3. Repeat for eight to ten repetitions. 
4. Complete three sets of this exercise several times daily. 

Neck Tilts 

1. Stand up straight with your head and neck in a neutral position. 
2. Tilt your head back, raising your chin toward the ceiling. 
3. Carefully tilt your head to the right.
4. Jut your lower jaw forward and hold for five to ten seconds.
5. Release your jaw, then turn your head to the left.
6. Jut your lower jaw forward and hold for five to ten seconds.
7. Repeat 10 times on each side of your neck. 

Tongue Stretch

1. Sit or stand upright with your shoulders relaxed.
2. Look straight ahead and stick your tongue out as far as possible.
3. Lift your tongue toward your nose and hold it for ten seconds.
4. Release, then repeat the exercise ten times
5. Perform three sets several times a day.

Laser Lipolysis

If you want to know how to lose neck and chin fat without months of diet and exercise, lipolysis may be a safe and effective solution. This treatment involves the use of laser heat to melt away excess fat. A local anesthetic is typically required to prevent pain when treating neck fat.

Keep in mind that lipolysis is only effective in reducing fat. If fat loss leaves you with a turkey neck, you may need additional treatments to tighten or remove excess neck skin.

Mesotherapy

If other methods aren’t providing the desired results, you might consider an FDA-approved procedure for fat loss called mesotherapy. This procedure involves the injection of deoxycholic acid,^[3] which helps the body absorb submental fat cells in the neck area.

Mesotherapy is a generally well-tolerated alternative^[4] to more invasive procedures like liposuction. Treatments take about 15 to 20 minutes, and the recovery process is usually minimal. Some cases may require multiple treatments, and a one-month waiting period is recommended between treatments.

Causes Of A Fat Neck

Every person carries their weight differently. Two people of the same height and body weight may have completely different body composition. For example, one person might have a double chin, slim arms, and muscular legs.

Another person might have an hourglass shape with a trim upper body and extra fat around the hips, thighs, and buttocks.

The factors contributing to body fat distribution^[5] vary, including everything from genetics to hormones. You’re more likely to have a fat neck if you’re overweight or obese. Aging can be a factor as well.

As you age, your skin produces less of the proteins that help provide strength and structure, collagen and elastin.^[6] This can lead to sagging skin, which may, in some cases, create the appearance of a fat neck.

Sagging skin around the neck, sometimes called turkey neck, typically sags in the middle, however, so it looks different than a double chin.

Other factors that have been linked to increased neck fat include cardiovascular disease,^[7] health conditions that contribute to obesity, and thyroid or hormone disorders that increase fat accumulation^[8] around the neck.

Is Neck Fat Hard To Lose?

In theory, losing neck fat shouldn’t be any harder than losing fat from other body areas. The trouble is that you can’t target fat loss from whatever body parts you like. The reason for this has to do with the way the body burns fat.

Fat is the body’s storage solution^[9] for excess calories. When you eat more calories than you can burn daily, your cells store the extra energy as triglycerides. When you’re eating less than usual, your body can draw on stored fat for energy, but it has to break those triglycerides down into free fatty acids before they can enter the bloodstream.

The free fatty acids used for energy can come from anywhere in the body. In other words, you can’t burn fat from a specific body part^[10] simply by exercising it. Exercises targeting the facial and neck muscles may help tone the area but won’t necessarily help you lose your double chin.

Numerous studies have shown spot reduction weight loss techniques to be ineffective. In a 2015 study, abdominal resistance training was not found to be more effective^[11] in reducing abdominal fat than diet alone. The few studies that show increased localized fat loss have generally contained very small sample sizes.

Conclusion

If having a double chin negatively affects your self-confidence, you’ll be glad to know that there are steps you can take to change it. Losing weight, improving your diet, and exercising regularly will improve your overall health and may boost your appearance as well.

Sometimes, losing neck fat is more complicated than simply shedding excess weight. If hormonal imbalances or other health issues are involved, your doctor is the best person to ask how to get rid of neck fat.

They’ll be able to advise you about the best form of treatment for your health concerns, and if that treatment doesn’t provide the desired results, they can help you explore other options.