Is there anything more annoying than cellulite?
Well, this annoying thing is so common that around 90% of women have it. And it affects all types of women bodies. Even the women we would consider as skinny and otherwise fit can have cellulite.
What is cellulite and why it appears?
Cellulite is actually an underlying deposit of fat.
When that fat deposits start to push outward, troughs layers of collagen fibres or connective tissue under the skin, it starts to appear on outside of our body looking like orange skin or the cellulite that we know.
It usually appears on problematic areas like buttocks and thigh areas, but sometimes also on our tummy, arms, and legs.
Cellulite is mostly a women’s problem. Around 90% of women have cellulite in contrary to only 10% of men.
This is because of our hormones and the fact that women carry more fat around their tummy, hips and thigh areas.
Women also have less supportive connective tissues than men do.
Our hormones are dictating mostly everything in our body. As we get older our body produces less estrogen, and that means poorer circulation and decrease in new collagen production.
All of this means that cellulite will become more of an issue as we get older.
Even though cellulite is so common and almost everyone has it, there are still things we can do to, at least, decrease its appearance.
Don’t expect that you’ll be able to get rid of it forever, but you may put it under control.
Exercise regularly
Exercising is beneficial for our health and good looks, but it’s not going to make your cellulite disappear.
There are lots of people exercising and still have issues with cellulite.
But, exercising will help you increase your circulation and blood flow that will definitely help in controlling cellulite.
Don’t do too much cardio as it is not effective against cellulite.
Add strength training to your regime and try HIIT exercises. Building muscles will decrease the overall percentage of fat in your body and with HIIT training, you can target better than underlying fat that causes cellulite.
USEFUL TO READ: Why Women are so Afraid of Strength Training?
Eat healthily
A healthy and clean diet with lots of green veggies and a high intake of protein can help with cellulite too. A healthy diet can help with maintaining the healthy weight and it will reduce inflammation throughout your body.
One of the most important things is water intake. You need to drink plenty of water and eat veggies and fruits with high water content. This will make your connective tissues strong and supple.
Try to eat more cucumbers, tomatoes and bell peppers. Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day and try to incorporate some herbal teas to help detox your body.
FURTHER READING:
- Do you Dring Enough Water? Here’s How to Stay Hydrated?
- The importance of clean eating on a fitness journey
Use body scrubs regularly
Even there is no proven evidence that scrubs actually work, some people swear by them.
Scrubs have an exfoliating effect on our skin removing dead cells from it. Scrubs and massage can also stimulate blood flow that strengthens our skin.
Especially effective is a coffee scrub that not only exfoliates and stimulates blood flow, but it also has a tightening effect helping you reduce the cellulite and tighten the skin.
Try dry brushing
Dry brushing is another one of anecdotal ways to get rid of cellulite.
Brushing will help the blood flow and it can feel great.
You can do dry brushing daily. Your brush and skin should be dry. Best time for that is before you get into the shower.
You should only brush towards your heart. Start from the feet, towards both of your legs onto tummy and towards your back and chest.
Dry brushing is a great way to achieve healthy-looking skin. It will also promote tighter skin, stimulate blood flow and help with cell renewal.
Moisturize your skin daily
You need to moistures and feed your skin daily.
Use creams and lotions that have active ingredients like vitamin E and additional collagen. These will feed your skin and help with tightening.
Use coconut oil or almond oil for a natural alternative to creams and lotions.
Use supplements
Using supplements can help you with controlling cellulite. Some of them might be especially beneficial.
Omega-3 fatty acids area great way to improve your circulation, lower your blood pressure and lower cholesterol. All this can make you and skin cells healthier. This could mean less cellulite will develop.
Vitamin C is one of the most effective vitamins out there for anti-ageing and skin improvement.
Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant and has a major role not only in your immune system but in collagen production as well. If your body doesn’t have enough vitamin C collagen can’t be produced and absorbed.
And collagen is essential in preventing early ageing and cellulite. Also, vitamin C will strengthen your skin cells, decrease inflammations in your body and help with overall healing of your body.
Collagen, as mentioned before, is essential in preventing ageing and developing of cellulite.
Its production is naturally decreasing as we age so older person will have less naturally developing collagen than a younger one.
But, you can boost your collagen levels by taking additional collagen supplements and by taking additional vitamin C along with it.
You can also find lotions and creams that have collagen as an active ingredient. This is a way of getting extra collagen directly into your problematic areas.
USEFUL TO READ: Supplements in pregnancy – why are they so important?
Try cosmetic treatments
If nothing else works for you, there is always an option of cosmetics treatments.
There are lots of different treatments and some are really basic like anti-cellulite massages and there are others that are more complex like laser treatments.
What you’ll choose will depend on how bad is your cellulite and how much it bothers you.
Just remember, not every treatment will be effective and you might need more treatments to get some visible results.
These treatments can often be very expensive so keep that in mind.
Cellulite is really something that most women will have whatever they do.
There’s sometimes nothing better to do than to live as healthy as we can, try to be the best version of ourselves, and embrace the flaws we may have.
