The Truth About TikTok’s ‘Cortisol Face’

TRUE: WE’RE THE most stressed out we’ve ever been.

Also true: it’s impacting our health. According to a study done by the American Psychological Association, 76 percent of adults have reported experiencing at least one stress-related health symptom in the last month, including fatigue, headache, or feelings of depression or anxiety.

TikTok is saying all that stress can cause your face to swell, too. Influencers are calling it “cortisol face”—named after the stress response hormone. And, they’re are offering up tips, tricks, and products to help solve the problem. But doctors are calling bull.

We caught up with Sandeep Dhindsa, M.D., endocrinologist and MH advisor, to explain.

Do you need to worry about ‘cortisol face’?

To understand what cortisol face is, we first need to understand what cortisol is.

Cortisol is an essential hormone that has a role in regulating your sleep/awake cycles, your immune and nervous systems, and your stress reactions. It has an effect on nearly every organ in the body, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

When you come under stress, like during exercise or an intense meeting at work, cortisol is released. It’ll spread signals throughout your body to tell you to mobilize blood sugar and increase your blood pressure in order to keep you alert.

“It’s a necessary hormone,” Dhindsa says. “We all need it every day.”

And, yes, it is possible to have too much cortisol. That typically happens when there’s a greater medical issue, such as a tumor in the adrenal or pituitary glands.

It’s true, too, that too much cortisol can cause a strange distribution in fat across the body. People with this issue typically find more of their fat sits in their face and trunk, rather than their limbs. They might have small arms and legs, but a larger torso.

So, what TikTok is telling you is that if you’re constantly stressed, you’re going to develop a similar fat distribution pattern to those with medical issues. That’s not how it works, Dhindsa says.

“That just does not happen. You can’t have 24/7 high cortisol of such magnitude [that it] starts giving you a disease just through stress,” he says. No matter how stressed you are, your cortisol will never reach the same levels as those with a legitimate medical issue. And, only cortisol levels of that intensity will cause a change in fat distribution.

So, the next time TikTok tries to sell you some kind of plan to bring down your stress levels and de-puff your face—don’t buy it. Your stress level is certainly not causing the fat distribution in your face.

Losing fat in your face means doing all the same things you would to lose fat anywhere else: creating a calorie deficit by prioritizing healthy eating and exercise. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to lose fat in just one part of your body, no matter how much you exercise that area (please don’t start doing face exercises). Where you lose fat first is fully up to your genetics. As long as you stick to a calorie deficit, you will eventually lose weight all over.

Not sure where to start? Check out our list of tips and tricks to help you get there.