Trying to navigate and smooth out cellulite fact from fiction isn’t easy but there is a small amount of good news: there are options that may make a difference. The bad news is that even the treatments that have some potential of working rarely live up to the claims asserted, but improvement as opposed to merely wasting your money is definitely a turn for the better. A great way to start is to straighten out some popular myths about cellulite.
Men don’t get cellulite.
To some extent, that’s true. Physiologically, women are far more prone to accumulating fat on the thighs and hips while men gain weight in the abdominal area. In addition, for women, the connective tissue beneath the skin has more stretch and is vulnerable to disruption, which is the perfect environment for developing cellulite. Some men do get cellulite, just statistically not as much as women do.
Drinking water helps.
If water could change skin structure and reduce fat, no one would have cellulite, or for that matter, be overweight. Drinking water probably is beneficial, but there is no research showing water consumption will affect fat anywhere on your body, let alone the dimples on your thighs.
Water retention causes cellulite.
It’s ironic that low water intake is considered a possible cause of cellulite, and the polar opposite – retaining too much water – is thought to be a factor as well. There is a lot of speculation about how water retention can affect cellulite, but there is no actual research supporting this notion. Furthermore, fat cells actually contain only about 10% water, so claiming to eliminate excess water won’t make a difference and any measurable result would be transient at best. It is true that water retention can make you look bloated and feel like you’ve gained weight, but water itself doesn’t affect fat or the appearance of cellulite.
Eating a specialized diet can help.
A healthy diet that encourages weight loss may help your entire body look better. However, because weight is not a cause of cellulite, dieting won’t change the skin structure of your thighs. For some people, cellulite is made worse by the accumulation of extra fat. In those cases, weight reduction may decrease the total area and depth of cellulite.
Cellulite is different from fat on the rest of the body.
Theories abound about how cellulite differs from regular body fat. However, few studies show how cellulite clumps differently than other fat on your body. Overall, most researchers feel cellulite is simply fat. Besides, even if cellulite is different in how it congregates, what you can and can’t do about fat on any part of the body remains the same.
Exercise can help.
Exercise helps almost every system in the human body, but it won’t necessarily impact the appearance of cellulite. Exercise doesn’t improve skin structure and it can’t affect localized areas of fat. In other words, you can’t spot-reduce fat accumulation in a specific area.
Detoxifying the body reduces the appearance of cellulite.
As used in the scientific community, “detoxifying” the body is the process of reducing cellular damage caused primarily by antioxidants or enzymes that prevent certain abnormal or undesirable cell functions from taking place. There is no doubt this is helpful for the body. Whether or not detox reduces cellulite is completely unknown because toxins in the environment do not cause skin structure and fat accumulation.
What We Do Know…
There are three leading theories about cellulite formation:
1. Women have unique skin structure on their thighs, which causes cellulite to form easily
2. The connective tissue layers on the thigh are too weak or thin to maintain a smooth appearance, thus allowing fat contour to show through
3. Vascular changes and possible inflammatory conditions may be to blame
What has been your experience with cellulite? Let us know in the comments below!