How to Get Rid of a Double Chin: Treatments That Actually Work

A double chin is a layer of fat, loose skin or both under the jaw that blurs the line between the chin and the neck. How to get rid of a double chin depends entirely on what is causing it. Weight loss helps when it is fat, chin liposuction removes fat that will not shift, a neck lift tightens loose skin and muscle, and chin augmentation corrects a chin that sits too far back.

It is a common concern. In a survey of almost 2,000 adults, even a small amount of fat under the chin was linked to feeling self-conscious, and the more fat people had, the more they avoided photos or chose clothes to hide it.^[1] This guide explains what causes a double chin, why you may have one even when you are slim, what actually works to lose chin fat (naturally and with treatment), and how to choose between the options. If your concern is more a heavy neck than the chin itself, see our guide on how to get rid of a fat neck.

What Is a Double Chin?

A double chin, also called submental fullness, is extra tissue under the chin that creates a second fold or a soft, sloping line from the chin to the neck. Doctors call the area under the chin the submental area, and the fat there submental fat.

The fat sits in two layers, separated by the platysma, a thin sheet of muscle across the front of the neck. A 2014 cadaver study in Aesthetic Surgery Journal ↗ weighed every fat compartment in the neck and found that only about 45% of neck fat lies above the platysma, just under the skin. About 31% lies beneath the muscle, and the submandibular glands account for most of the rest.^[2] That matters, because liposuction can only reach the fat above the muscle. It is the main reason chin liposuction transforms some necks and only partly improves others.

What Causes a Double Chin?

Most double chins come from one or more of five causes. Working out which ones apply to you is the single most useful step, because it decides which treatment will help.

Fat Under the Chin

The most common cause. Weight gain adds fat everywhere, and the area under the chin is one of the first places many people notice it. Genes decide where your body stores fat, so some people carry a fuller chin at a healthy weight while others stay lean there even when they gain weight elsewhere.

Loose Skin With Age

From the late 30s onwards, skin makes less collagen and elastin, so it loses its spring. Sun damage and smoking speed this up. Loose skin under the chin can look like a double chin even with very little fat, and it often comes with sagging jowls along the jawline. When the skin hangs in a fold down the front of the neck, people call it a turkey neck.

Neck Muscle Bands

With age, the two edges of the platysma muscle can separate and loosen, forming vertical cords down the front of the neck and letting the fat beneath the muscle bulge forward. Our guide to platysmal bands explains how they form.

A Short or Receding Chin

The chin bone holds up the soft tissue in front of the neck. If it is small or sits further back, there is less support, so even normal amounts of tissue gather under the jaw. A weak chin is one of the most common reasons slim people have a double chin.

A Low Hyoid Bone

The hyoid is a small U-shaped bone at the top of the neck. When it sits low and forward, the angle between the chin and the neck is naturally wider and softer. Surgeons have recognised a low hyoid as one of the features that makes a sharp neck harder to achieve since the 1980s, although surgery can still improve the neck considerably.^[3] It is inherited, so it often runs in families.

Posture and Camera Angles

Looking down at a phone or laptop folds the tissue under the chin, so a double chin can appear in photos and video calls even when there is very little fat. This is not a cause in itself, but it is why many people only notice their chin on camera.

Rarely, fullness at the front of the neck comes from something else, such as a swollen thyroid gland or an enlarged lymph node. A lump in the neck, swelling on one side, or a neck that is getting bigger quickly should be checked by your GP.

Why Do I Have a Double Chin When I’m Skinny?

If you are slim and still have a double chin, the cause is usually not general body fat. The most common reasons are:

• Genes: your body stores fat preferentially under the chin, so it is the last place to slim down.
• Jaw shape: a receding chin or low hyoid bone gives the neck less definition whatever your weight.
• Fat beneath the muscle: fat under the platysma does not always shrink much with weight loss.
• Posture: a forward head position creates a fold that looks like a double chin.

This is why diet and exercise often fail for slim people with a double chin, and why the answer is sometimes structural, such as a chin implant, rather than fat removal. Our guide to the weak jawline explains how to tell fat from bone.

How to Get Rid of a Double Chin Naturally

If your double chin is mainly fat and you are carrying extra weight, losing weight is the most effective natural way to reduce it. Chin fat shrinks along with fat everywhere else as you reach a calorie deficit, through a balanced diet and regular activity.

What does not work is trying to burn chin fat by exercising the chin. Your body does not take fat from the area being exercised. In a 2011 randomised trial in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research ↗, 24 adults did either seven abdominal exercises five days a week for six weeks or no exercise, with diets unchanged. The exercise group got stronger, but abdominal fat did not change.^[4] The same principle applies to the chin.

Other natural steps help the appearance rather than the fat itself:

• Posture: keep screens at eye level and your head stacked over your shoulders.
• Sun protection and not smoking: both slow the collagen loss that loosens skin under the chin.
• Stable weight: repeated weight gain and loss stretches the skin.

If you have lost a lot of weight quickly, the face and neck can deflate faster than the skin can adapt. Our guide to facial changes after rapid weight loss covers this.

Do Double Chin Exercises Work?

Chin tucks, “ceiling kisses”, tongue presses and jaw exercise devices are widely recommended, but there is no good evidence that they remove fat under the chin. They strengthen the muscles under the jaw and can improve posture, which may make the neck look a little tidier. The main study of facial exercise, a small 2018 pilot in middle-aged women, looked at overall facial appearance and cheek fullness rather than fat under the chin.^[5] Exercises are harmless, so do them if you enjoy them, but do not expect them to replace weight loss or treatment.

How to Get Rid of a Double Chin Fast

There is no safe way to get rid of a double chin overnight or in a few days. Here is how long each option realistically takes:

• Chin liposuction: the fastest lasting change. Most people are back at work in 7 to 10 days, with the final result at 2 to 3 months once swelling settles.
• Fat-dissolving injections: usually two to four or more sessions about a month apart, with results building over several months.
• Fat freezing: one or two sessions, with fat reduction showing over about three months.
• Weight loss: months, depending on how much there is to lose, and it may not shift fat that is genetic.

For an event in a few days, the only quick fixes are about appearance: good posture, a camera held at or slightly above eye level, and clothing with a higher or open neckline.

How to Lose Neck Fat

Neck fat follows the same rules as chin fat. It shrinks with overall weight loss, cannot be spot-reduced with exercise, and is removed most reliably with neck liposuction, which treats the chin and the front of the neck together. If the neck is wide or heavy all the way around, or the skin is loose, a neck lift may be needed. Our guide on how to get rid of a fat neck covers this in more detail.

Double Chin Treatment: Matching Treatment to the Cause

A simple test helps. Look straight ahead and gently pinch the skin under your chin. If you can grasp a thick fold, fat is the main problem. If the skin is thin and loose, or there are vertical cords when you clench your teeth, skin and muscle are the problem. If your chin sits behind your lower lip in profile, bone is part of it. Many people have more than one cause, which is why an in-person assessment matters.

Non-Surgical Double Chin Treatments

Fat-Dissolving Injections

Deoxycholic acid injections destroy fat cells under the chin, which the body then clears. They have the strongest evidence of any non-surgical option. In REFINE-1, a 2016 randomised, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial in Dermatologic Surgery ↗, 506 adults with moderate or severe fat under the chin had a course of injections or placebo. A one-grade improvement, rated by both doctor and patient, was seen in 70% of the treated group against 19% given placebo, and MRI confirmed a measurable reduction in fat in 46% against 5%.^[6]

The trade-offs are several sessions, marked swelling under the chin for a few days after each one, and a small risk of temporary weakness of the nerve that moves the lower lip, seen in 4.3% of treated patients in the trial and usually resolving on its own. Injections suit a small, well-defined pocket of fat with good skin. They do not tighten loose skin.

Fat Freezing

Cryolipolysis cools the fat under the chin until some fat cells die. In the main study of 60 people, the fat layer thinned by an average of 2 mm and 83% were satisfied.^[7] It is gentle but modest, and results take about three months. We do not offer fat freezing at Centre for Surgery; our guide on whether fat freezing works explains why.

Skin Tightening

For mild loose skin, radiofrequency treatments can tighten the skin under the chin. Morpheus8 combines radiofrequency with microneedling from the skin surface, and FaceTite heats the tissue from underneath through a tiny incision, often alongside liposuction. They tighten rather than remove fat, and cannot replace a neck lift when skin is very loose.

Double Chin Surgery

Chin Liposuction (Submental Liposuction)

Chin liposuction, also called submental liposuction or double chin liposuction, removes fat from under the chin and along the front of the neck through two or three tiny incisions, under the chin and sometimes behind the earlobes. It takes about an hour, usually under local anaesthetic with sedation, and you go home the same day. The fat cells removed do not grow back, so the result is permanent as long as your weight stays stable.

It works best when the main problem is fat above the platysma and the skin has good elasticity, because the skin needs to shrink back onto the new contour. When skin is loose or neck bands are visible, liposuction alone tends to under-correct, and careful patient selection is the key to avoiding a disappointing result.^[8]

Chin Liposuction Recovery

Expect swelling and some bruising for the first few days, with a compression garment worn as your surgeon advises. Stitches come out at around day 5 to 7, most people return to work within 7 to 10 days (sooner if working from home), gentle cardio is fine from week 2, and weights from week 4. Numbness under the chin is common and settles over two to three months, when the final result shows. Our guides to chin liposuction recovery and how to sleep after chin liposuction have more detail.

Neck Lift

When loose skin, neck bands or fat beneath the muscle are part of the problem, a neck lift is the more complete answer. It removes excess skin through incisions hidden around the ears, tightens the platysma muscle (platysmaplasty) and can remove fat from both above and beneath the muscle. A mini neck lift suits milder laxity, and when jowls are also present, a lower facelift treats the jawline and neck together.

Chin Implant

If a receding chin is behind your double chin, a chin implant brings the chin forward and supports the tissue in front of the neck. It is often combined with chin liposuction, because the two together sharpen the jaw-neck angle more than either alone. Chin filler can test the effect first, but it is temporary.

Double Chin in Men

A double chin can be more noticeable in men because a defined jawline is a large part of how a male face reads, and a beard line can make a soft neck more obvious. The causes and treatments are the same. Men often have thicker skin, which can tolerate liposuction well, and chin liposuction combined with male chin surgery is a common way to strengthen the profile. When the jowls and neck have both loosened, a male facelift may be more appropriate.

How to Prevent a Double Chin

You cannot change your jaw shape or genes, but you can reduce the chance of a double chin forming or getting worse:

• keep your weight stable rather than repeatedly gaining and losing
• protect your skin from the sun and do not smoke, to slow collagen loss
• keep screens at eye level to avoid a constant forward head posture
• treat a small pocket of chin fat early, before the skin has stretched, if it bothers you

How Much Does Double Chin Removal Cost?

The cost depends on the treatment. Non-surgical options are priced per session and usually need several, while chin liposuction is a one-off procedure. A neck lift or a combination such as liposuction with a chin implant costs more because it takes longer and treats more. Your surgeon will give you a fixed, itemised quote after your consultation, and our chin liposuction cost guide sets out current prices and what affects them. Finance is available through Chrysalis Finance, subject to status.

Frequently Asked Questions

Double Chin Treatment at Centre for Surgery

At Centre for Surgery, double chin treatment starts with a consultation with a GMC-registered plastic surgeon, who examines your neck to work out whether the cause is fat, skin, muscle, bone or a combination. The surgeon who assesses you is the surgeon who performs your surgery. We offer chin and neck liposuction, neck lift and mini neck lift, chin augmentation and skin tightening, so your surgeon can recommend what your anatomy needs rather than what a single clinic happens to offer. We recommend a two-week cooling-off period before any surgery.

Surgery takes place at our CQC-regulated hospital at 95–97 Baker Street, London, which is rated Good overall. Centre for Surgery has been caring for patients for over 10 years. We publish our clinical outcomes and patient safety data, and finance is available through Chrysalis Finance, subject to status (see our finance options).

Phone: 020 7993 4849 | Address: 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6RN
Contact us to schedule a consultation

References

1. Baumann L, Shridharani SM, Humphrey S, Gallagher CJ. Personal (self) perceptions of submental fat among adults in the United States. Dermatologic Surgery 2019;45(1):124–130. doi:10.1097/DSS.0000000000001648 ↗
2. Larson JD, Tierney WS, Ozturk CN, Zins JE. Defining the fat compartments in the neck: a cadaver study. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2014;34(4):499–506. doi:10.1177/1090820X14526406 ↗
3. Ellenbogen R, Karlin JV. Visual criteria for success in restoring the youthful neck. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 1980;66(6):826–837. doi:10.1097/00006534-198012000-00003 ↗
4. Vispute SS, Smith JD, LeCheminant JD, Hurley KS. The effect of abdominal exercise on abdominal fat. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2011;25(9):2559–2564. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181fb4a46 ↗
5. Alam M, Walter AJ, Geisler A, et al. Association of facial exercise with the appearance of aging. JAMA Dermatology 2018;154(3):365–367. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.5142 ↗
6. Jones DH, Carruthers J, Joseph JH, et al. REFINE-1, a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial with ATX-101, an injectable drug for submental fat reduction. Dermatologic Surgery 2016;42(1):38–49. doi:10.1097/DSS.0000000000000578 ↗
7. Kilmer SL, Burns AJ, Zelickson BD. Safety and efficacy of cryolipolysis for non-invasive reduction of submental fat. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine 2016;48(1):3–13. doi:10.1002/lsm.22440 ↗
8. Koehler J. Complications of neck liposuction and submentoplasty. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics of North America 2009;21(1):43–52. doi:10.1016/j.coms.2008.10.008 ↗