When it comes to looks and appearance, cellulite is probably one of the worst issues to deal with. But exactly what is it, and why do women seem to suffer more from cellulite than men, and some women more than others? And is there anything you can do about it? Here you might find some answers to this problem.
When fat is stored in the body resulting in the skin appealing lumpy and uneven, you are likely to suffer from cellulite. It is often called orange peel skin, resembling the look of skin being pinched. In general, cellulite is more commonly found on the hips, buttocks and legs, more than other parts of the body.
The difficult truth about cellulite is that it is made up of exactly the same kind of fat, or ‘adipose tissue’, as any other. Adipose tissue sweeps up fat that the body wants to store as an extra amount of energy. When the blood is exposed to a high concentration of sugar for a very long time, coming from calories, the body stores this in adipose tissue.
What gives cellulite its characteristic appearance is the fact that the adipose tissue almost squeezes itself in between the rather stringy connective tissue that makes up the skin. It is a little bit like butter being squeezed through a knitted sweater. The butter will come squeezing through the various holes in between the strands of wool and you’ll get an effect very like cellulite in the body.
It particularly affects women because we put on fat in a totally different way to men. In men, adipose tissue settles more around the waist and abdomen, as well as close to internal organs. Women however, tend to build up adipose tissue around hips and thighs, and this is more likely to create visible cellulite. Also, the adipose tissue squeezes through connective tissue if it is more elastic, and sadly as we all get older, our connective tissue tends to loosen up.
But enough of the science – how to get rid of Cellulite? The key is simply to lose weight and there are two main ways to do this. Firstly, use up more energy than you put into your body as calories. It is useful to exercise, as using up energy is only one result of exercising. The metabolic rate in your body will increase with aerobic exercises done regularly, resulting in using up more energy stored in the body. It also helps improve muscle tone. As working the muscle fibres in the skin results in tighter muscles, cellulite will become less visible.
Losing weight can also be achieved by making sure your blood sugar levels are stable, when avoiding eating all those lovely sugary things we like so much. To achieve this, it is best to stay away from foods containing lots of sugar, French fries, white bread that has been processed, noodles, rice and alcohol. As the body needs blood with a high concentration of sugar to be able to store fat, it will be physically impossible to gain weight.
Massage and creams that hydrate the skin are also used often. T hese will have the effect of swelling the skin around the cellulite to temporarily reduce the lumpyness associated with it. There is no long-lasting substitute for a low-calorie, low sugar diet that is fairly high in protein, fruit and vegetables however. Treating cellulite is the same as treating any other fat in the lobby – the only ways to fight it are exercise and diet.