Would frequently chewing gum slim your jaw line?!
Would frequently chewing gum slim your jaw line?
Just curious. I chew maybe three pieces a day.
Answers:
Three reasons why it won't.
1. The muscles that open your jaw are in your neck, while the muscles that keep your jaw from falling open extend from the jaw upward through the cheeks and into the forehead area — even around behind the ear to some extent. Muscles that handle chewing are located in the cheek area. So, chewing gum works your cheeks.
2. If chewing gum were an exercise, it'd be a muscle toning exercise (think aerobics, cardio, pilates), because it's repetitive motion with little resistance. This type of exercises doesn't build muscle, unlike, say, weight lifting. Now, if you hung a 10lb weight from your jaw and did a lot of reps opening and closing your mouth, you'd build the muscles that keep your mouth from falling open. However, since those muscles are very delicate, they're not really a factor in your jawline, and you'd probably damage the muscles instead of experiencing any muscle growth, which would make you look...really bad. Think puffy cheex bigger than any chipmunk you've ever seen.
What shapes your jawline is primarily your jawbone, and surrounding fat deposits. Since you can't spot-reduce fat in an area by exercising that area (think of a snowman melting. it melts all over, not in one spot), chewing gum all day would only give you a sore jaw.
Actually, you'd get 10 times the workout of those mandibular muscles from talking. That's because talking moves more facial muscles much more vigorously over a wider range of motion.
3. The amount of calories you'd burn from chewing a stick of gum are far less than the amount of calories in the gum.
If you want to slim your jawline, a diet and exercise plan that help you lose a few pounds is one option. Another is plastic surgery. However, the diet is easier, because even though fat is lost all over the body, people tend to notice weight loss on their faces before they do on the rest of their bodies.