The muscles in the cheek area of your face are the zygomaticus muscles. You have the zygomaticus major and the zygomaticus minor. They both work in controlling your lip movements, and as a result are the muscles that control your smile and other facial expressions, such as the ability to purse or pucker your lips, pout, and so forth. When you do exercises that work out the facial fat in your cheeks, you will be working with these muscles. This is why many of the cheek exercises involve smiling and moving your lips.

When we work out our cheek muscles, we tone our cheeks which gives us a thinner appearance. This facial toning will enhance your cheekbones, making it slightly more prominent. Prominent cheekbones always give the illusion of a thinner face, which is why people with high cheekbones always have slim looking cheeks. Though facial exercises can help make our cheekbones more prominent, remember that there is no changing the structure of the cheekbone unless you undergo plastic surgery and put in cheekbone enhancers which give the appearance of high cheekbones.

While plastic surgery on your face such as reconstructive surgery and liposuction are options you have in order to get a thinner face fast, I would never recommend anyone to go under the knife. In the long run, facial exercises are much healthier and better for you. You will look better through the years, and as you get older you truly benefit from following a facial exercise regimen. Plus exercises are much cheaper too!

Chin & Neck

Though the chin and neck facial fat problems are two separate problems, the muscles you need to work out to address these areas are the same, which is why they have been grouped together for this chapter. This muscle is the platysma muscle. It is a long, large muscle which can be likened to a band that surrounds the chin and jaw area and comes down around the neck. This is the muscle we use when we bring our lower lip up and down or stretch our necks back and side to side. You will find that the chin and neck exercises often involve lower lip movements, neck stretches, and other actions which draw tension to this muscle.

When we work out the platysma muscle, the facial fat underneath the chin and in the neck get worked out of the area and absorbed back into the body. This gives the chin and neck better definition because the jawbone or jawline is more prominent or more easily seen. Even if you don't have a naturally strong square jawline like that of square shaped or triangular shaped faces, giving yourself a more prominent jawline through neck and chin exercises can make your jaw seem squarer, which will make a world of difference at giving you a slimmer appearance!

Like cheekbones, you cannot change your jawbone unless you undergo surgery. However, you will find that simple neck and chin exercises can already give you really striking results at enhancing your appearance, and will also strengthen the platysma muscle to the point that it will stay strong longer.  

You see, as we get older, the platysma muscle weakens and separates, forming two bands instead of one. This is the reason for turkey necks in many older people. If you begin working out your platysma muscle now, while you're young, you can strengthen it so that this separation will happen later in life, and will also be less noticeable when it does happen.

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Now that you know which muscles you are dealing with (zygomaticus major and minor, and the platysma), and which bones will mark your progress (cheekbones and jawline), we can move on to discuss the different facial fat problems, and what causes them.

Next Article: Fat Face Problems