Do you look in the mirror and see chipmunk cheeks?
While this feature can look adorable on your nephew or niece, it’s not nearly as desirable when you’re an adult. Unfortunately, the rounded mass of fat sitting in the hollow of your cheekbone - known as buccal fat - has the potential to affect the entire shape of your face.
Worse still, you can’t jump on a treadmill and try to blast away this specific mass. With options seemingly limited, many women are turning to surgery to surgically remove buccal fat. This looks great in a brochure or on Google, but the painful incision, expensive cost of surgery, and risk of scarring mean that all-natural alternatives are becoming increasingly popular.
So, if you want to skip a trip to the local plastic surgeon (we don’t blame you), read on to learn everything you need to know about buccal fat and how to blast it away for a shapely cheek that would make Angeline Jolie jealous.
What is Buccal Fat?
New to the term ‘buccal fat’?
You won’t be alone. Although millions of women and men wake up feeling frustrated about areas of their face that they’d rather change, not many know the scientific terms or muscle names in question. Unfortunately, it’s tough to change what you don’t understand.
With that said, here’s your crash course on buccal fat.
In short, the buccal fat pad is a collection of fat in the middle of your cheek. This area of fat lies between the muscles you use for chewing and for making facial expressions. Over time, this area of fat recedes naturally so you’re not left with “baby fat” as an adult.
However, for some people, buccal fat remains and causes rounded cheeks or a “chubby” cheek appearance that can cause distress, frustration, and confidence issues.
While it’s true that your face will change as you age, you don’t need to live with unwanted buccal fat if your cheeks are more rounded than you’d like. Read on to discover 4 natural buccal fat removal strategies.
Face Yoga Fact: The word ‘buccal’ comes from the Latin word for ‘cheek’. Although buccal fat is vital for infants who need help nursing, these fat pads can cause overly rounded cheeks in adulthood, causing significant feelings of stress and anxiety.
Buccal Fat Removal Secret #1 - Make a few small lifestyle changes
You are what you eat… literally.
However, you’re also the result of your sleep and the amount of water you drink each day, so you may be able to sculpt your cheeks and help slim down rounded features through small lifestyle changes that can add up to make a lasting impression.
This won’t address the underlying cause of your chipmunk cheeks, so you won’t be targeting buccal fat, but drinking more water can help reduce fat - as studies show a connection between water intake and shedding pounds. You can also cut back on salty foods and booze as these can lead to facial inflammation.
Finally, try grabbing more shut-eye. This isn’t just because your body needs rest to look and feel great (though that is true). It’s also because you’re more tempted to snack if you’re staying up late. More than a way to clear the fridge of last night’s leftovers, late-night snacking may interfere with your body’s circadian rhythms. This can stop you from getting enough sleep, and since lack of sleep leads to stress and the stress hormone (cortisol) is linked to a slower metabolism and increased appetite, you can be making your chubby cheeks WORSE.
Buccal Fat Removal Secret #2 - Remove unwanted fat naturally with Face Yoga
With medical procedures becoming more and more common, you’d be forgiven for thinking that surgery is the only option. In reality, there’s a non-surgical way to reduce buccal fat that’s 100% natural, organic and chemical-free.
Facial exercises can target specific muscles of your face to help strengthen underused muscles and tone the face. The combination of activating your facial muscles and working out your face helps slim your cheeks, reduce the appearance of buccal fat, and help keep your cheeks from dropping as you age.
Just as the rest of your body benefits from exercise to stay fit and toned (like lifting weights in the gym or practicing squats for your booty), you can keep your facial muscles tight and toned to prevent rounded cheeks and make unwanted buccal fat a thing of the past.
Keen to explore our top cheek sculpting exercises? We’re giving them away for FREE here:
- 4 Ways to Lose Weight From Your Cheeks
- How to Keep Your Face Young with 15 Minutes of Face Yoga
- 3 x Easy Ways to Get Rid of Chubby Cheeks
Buccal Fat Removal Secret #3 - Melt fat cells with Cryolipolysis
This technique for targeting buccal fat may be tough to spell, but it may also help you get on top of your facial shape.
Cryolipolsysis - also known as cool sculpting - uses technology to melt fat cells and encourage tighter collagen fibers in your lower face. As the building blocks of your skin, collagen helps keep things tight and toned - but it naturally decreases the older you get.
With the aim of targeting and losing fat pockets, cells are targeted and selectively destroyed so you’re melting away fat (literally) but not damaging your skin. As cooled fat cells die and are naturally removed by your immune system, you enjoy a face-sculpting treatment that doesn’t involve cuts, incisions, or scalpel of any kind.
The catch?
This buccal fat-melting approach is expensive. Seriously expensive.
Expect to pay thousands of dollars for treatment. In addition, this approach to treating buccal fat won’t target the underlying cause, so you may see your rounded cheeks return which means, yep, you guessed it, more expensive treatments.
Try Buccal Massage in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Buccal fat is a natural part of your facial structure, but that doesn’t mean you should feel like a chipmunk every time you snap a selfie or catch yourself in the mirror. Slimming face techniques are available to help you take control of your appearance and love the way you look.
At the same time, non-surgical changes like diet and exercise won’t typically move the needle on your buccal fat removal goals. For lasting change, you’ll need to opt for a long-term strategy like surgery (which is expensive, painful, and stressful), or a 100% natural and chemical-free strategy like Face Yoga.
To get started on your Face Yoga journey - and join 300,000 Face Yoga members around the world - complete the simple quiz below to tell us about your unique skin type. Your buccal fat loss goals are unique, so your facial exercise program should be too.
Click below to start the quiz and receive a 100% custom Face Yoga program in minutes.