A surplus of fat under your chin can make button-down collared shirts uncomfortable to wear and even diminish your self-confidence. Although you might feel discouraged if you have a significant amount of weight to lose, the answer lies in healthy lifestyle changes. It's not possible to selectively burn your chin fat, but you can slowly melt away this issue through exercise and diet.

Spot Reduction Isn't a Possibility

You're far from being the only person who questions whether you can burn the fat in a chosen area. According to CNN Health, this premise -- called spot reduction -- is among the most persistent of misconceptions surrounding exercise 2. Working any group of muscles burns calories, but doesn't decrease the amount of fat around the muscles in question. Thus, trying to find a neck exercise isn't the best use of your workout time.

Set Your Sights on a Deficit

Fat loss takes place on a concurrent basis from several areas of your body when you're able to reach a caloric deficit. In this deficit, you're consuming fewer calories through food and drink than your body needs for energy. If you can consistently keep your body in this state, you'll experience fat loss. You can lose between one and two pounds per week if you create a weeklong caloric deficit of 3,500 to 7,000 calories.

Get Moving to Burn Fat

Regular aerobic exercise is a key component in your quest to achieve a caloric deficit and get rid of fat under your chin. If you wish to exercise at a moderate rate by performing activities such as walking briskly or performing water aerobics, aim to exercise at least 300 minutes per week. For vigorous aerobic activities, such as aerobic dance, jogging and swimming laps, exercise at least 150 minutes per week. Each of these activities burns calories at a different rate. For example, a 200-pound person burns about 426 calories in 60 minutes of walking at 3 mph and 613 calories in 30 minutes of jogging at 7 mph.

Skip the Fries and Dessert

Successfully burning fat often requires changes to your diet in addition to regular exercise. By considering your exercise and diet, you can develop an overall healthy lifestyle. The key dietary change to make is a reduction in your caloric intake, and especially a reduction in foods that are high in sugar and saturated fats. Cut calories by avoiding sweetened beverages and high-fat foods such as potato chips and fries; opting for dairy products made with skim milk and limiting unhealthy meals to one "cheat day" per week.

Strengthen Your Fat Burn

Strength training should play a role in your workout regimen if you're intent on losing weight. These exercises, which include using weight machines, lifting free weights or performing body-weight exercises, increase the strength of your muscles. Examples of exercises to include in your workout are the barbell bench, squats with dumbbells and pushups. Stronger muscles, in turn, escalate your metabolism to speed up your ability to burn fat. Find time for at least two strength-building workouts every week and remember to perform exercises to strengthen each of your body's major muscles.