By Peter High
Cellulite has nothing to do with weight, and it shows up on the skinniest legs. We reveal how to avoid them, smooth them out and what you can use to fight them
Cellulite is primarily a cosmetic issue, and it has to do with ideals of beauty, self-perception, lifestyle. Beautiful is what is tight – cellulite dents are the opposite.
The pressure is excellent, anti-cellulite products sell like hotcakes, fighting cellulite is a kind of popular sport. We will tell you essential information about the supposed flaw.
What is cellulite?
Cellulite is first and foremost a skin condition. No illness. You can find the dents ugly or ignore them, and that’s your decision.
Numerous studies have shown that cellulite occurs in the more or less pronounced form in more than 80 percent of the women examined – regardless of age.
Every woman is predisposed to cellulite. Men can also develop cellulite if they cause a loss of androgens through constant stress in combination with obesity and muscle loss.
Then their connective tissue also becomes weak and dents. Different from women because men have a lattice connective tissue while women have a vertically structured one.
The development of cellulite
Stage 1 :
Superficially, the skin is tight and smooth. But if you squeeze the skin on your thighs, buttocks, or stomach with your hands, honeycomb dents appear – you have the predisposition to orange peel skin.
Stage 2 :
The cellulite is visible without pinching the skin, and pinching the affected area is painful.
Stage3:
The cellulite is visible. The skin is flabby, has an irregular structure, and is gray due to poor blood circulation.
What causes cellulite?
A combination of hormones, body fat, stress, a fatty, sugary diet, lack of exercise, and alcohol and smoking all-cause cellulite.
The more fat the cells store, the more the fat cells push outwards through the grid-like connective tissue. There are bumps and valleys, i.e., dents.
Coffee, nicotine, and alcohol affect the connective tissue, wear it out, so to speak, by impeding the metabolism. Energy flows more poorly through fat than through muscles – this creates sluggishness. The stabilizing fibroblasts, the mother cells of the connective tissue responsible for firming collagen and elastin, are also weakened by an immoral lifestyle.
In this way, the fat cells fed by poor nutrition can bulge outwards.
An old wives tale has to be unveiled here: jogging doesn’t cause cellulite. Unless you don’t have any muscles and you’re running like crazy with no strength training first.
Dents can then form at first, but they disappear with regular training.
This is how you fight cellulite.
Anything that promotes blood flow and the breakdown of body fat will help fight cellulite. Inside and outside. In the broadest sense, cellulite is the result of metabolic sluggishness.
- You can contribute more vegetables, especially green ones, lots of still water, lots of sleep, massages and relaxation.
- And use products that refine the complexion and promote the removal of energy thieves from the connective tissue. Above all, sport helps to combat cellulite.
- Coffee grounds leftover from the last coffee brew are a cheap way to promote blood circulation. Mix with about a tablespoon of olive oil and apply to the skin after the shower like a scrub. Massage gently and rinse off.
- Dry brushing is an excellent way to combat poor circulation, a cause of cellulite. But be careful: dry brushing can make spider veins worse. So don’t scrub like crazy, but massage gently.
- Kneading, pinching, plucking, pressing – professional massages are perfect measures that can ensure tight connective tissue in addition to exercise and a balanced diet.
Anti-cellulite products
The market offers many high-tech products with exotic ingredients that promise a lot.
Caffeine, power plants from the Amazon (Peru liana), licorice extracts, ginseng, green tea for blood circulation, salicylic and glycolic acid for the peeling effect.
Although many anti-cellulite products feel very influential on the skin, unfortunately, cellulite cannot simply be creamed away.
For this, the cream would have to penetrate deep under the skin to the fat cells. But they can still help a little.
After all, the active ingredients tighten and strengthen the outer layer of skin, thus offering more resistance to fatty tissue.
The anti-cellulite creams must be applied and massaged
regularly so that they improve blood circulation, stimulate lymph flow and fight cellulite.
How does exercise help against cellulite?
Fighting cellulite is proven to work through exercise. The best prerequisite for firm skin is, therefore, taut muscles. “Where there is a muscle, fat tissue cannot settle so easily. Muscles increase the basal metabolic rate, and they burn more calories than fat tissue,” explains dermatologist Dr. Michaela Axt-Gadermann.
Due to the better metabolism, the tissue is firm and purified. Non-sports people should do endurance training twice a week and strength training once a week.
Swimming, cycling, yoga, and equipment training are perfect.
Four workout quickies
Just a few minutes of exercise a day tightens the tissue. These exercises can easily be incorporated into everyday life:
Wall sit Lean
with your back against the wall, slide down to the 90-degree angle. Hold the position for 30 seconds, then rest 15 seconds, seven reps.
Squats
Stand up straight, feet hip-width apart. Bend your knees as if you are going to sit in a chair. Lean your upper body slightly forward, stretch your buttocks backward, and keep your knees over your toes: 10 squats, 15-second rest, two reps.
Stand lunges
Upright. Take a big step forward with one leg. The torso stays upright. Return to standstill and change page. 15 to 20 lunges per side, rest, three sets.
Very easy, by the way
When brushing your teeth, slowly stand on your toes and lower your heels again.
The proper diet for cellulite
The more fat the cells store, the greater the pressure they exert on the surrounding tissue. If you eat a lot of sugar, fat, and salt and drink a lot of coffee and alcohol, you will never get rid of your fat.
Nutrition tip from the professional: take enough vitamins and minerals. Vitamin E in particular, which is found in nuts and whole-grain products, among other things, does a good job.
Citrus fruits and vegetables, rich in vitamin C, are also good for the connective tissue. Amino acids in meat and protein support the body in building new connective tissue.
By the way, nothing is worse when it comes to fighting cellulite than weight gain and weight loss. Crash diets weaken the elastic fibers of the tissue by releasing free radicals. If the fat cells are filled again, the connective tissue is overwhelmed.
