Can Exercise Reduce Cellulite?

A colleague of mine Had a health check and he was 25 pounds overweight. By strict dieting and a lot of will power, he managed to lose the excess weight. In the process, he lost more than just weight; he also lost his ‘get up and go’. He was always tired, and his friends, seeing his gaunt, drawn face, had concerns about his health. Two years later, the diet had become a distance memory and he had put those 25 extra pounds back on. As part of the fitness program he resolved, once again, to lose the surplus weight. After 6 months of exercise and rigid dieting, Mike had slimmed down again. This time he felt better than he ever had, brimming with energy and glowing with good health.

What was the reason for his different energies?

The first time Mike lost weight; the second time he lost fat.

The distinction is important. Research has shown, a major part of the weight lost by dieting alone is active tissue, such as muscle and connective tissue, while a smaller fraction is excess fat. Exercise has the opposite effect to dieting. The exercising raised his lean body mass and lowered his excess fat.

The same thing is true for cellulite. Most people tend to think that cellulites are only present to people who are seriously overweight. That is why they sometimes associate cellulite with fats and obesity.

In actual fact, even if cellulite refers to the chain of wrinkled ‘fat cells’ and ‘subcutaneous connective tissues’ beneath the layer of the skin, it should never be associated with people who are fat or obese. There are many people who suffer from cellulite but who are not fat at all.

In reality, there is no known explanation of the main reason why some people accumulate cellulite. However, there are some theories that health experts are considering such as the structure of the fat cells or the poisons that enter the body. Some experts say it may be caused by some hormonal changes in the body. But there is still no agreement as to the cause of cellulites.

However, it is known that the reason why most of the cellulite cases occur in women is that the connective tissues of women are more rigid and firm than men. Hence, whenever a woman gets fat, the fatty cells tend to swell and get bigger. It creates a protruding appearance to the skin producing the infamous ‘orange peel’ look.

This is the reason women are more prone to cellulite than men. That is why it is important for women to be more careful on their body as they have higher chances of accumulating cellulite.

Fats and Cellulite

With many of the cases where obese people have cellulites in their body, most of them believed that their cellulite is caused by being too fat.

Even though not everyone who is obese will develop cellulites, being overweight can trigger the development of cellulites. This is because too much fat under the skin will tend to push the connective tissue, so creating a strain on the skin. The result is that cellulites form.

However, this is still dependent on the structure of the cells. If an individual’s cell structure restricts the tendency to bulge or expand as fat deposits accumulate, then there will be no cellulites.

So, the most important thing to remember here is to keep the connective tissues firm and strong and so that they avoid accumulating the excess fats that develop into cellulite.

How can this be achieved? Regular exercise.

Transforming food into fat is all too easy for most people. Losing fat is far more difficult. To accomplish this, there are only three alternatives: (1) decrease food intake and keep exercise constant; (2) raise exercise and keep food intake constant; or (3) mix both approaches: diet and activity.

Physical exercise can help reverse the results of inactivity. An hour of vigorous exercise burns up 300 to 600 calories. If it is possible to also remove 300 to 500 calories from your daily diet, it is possible to shed weight at the rate of one to two pounds every seven days.Without exercise, you would have to consume 500 to 1,000 fewer calories each day to lose the same number of pounds in a week.

Exercise is not for everyone who wants to lose weight, particularly if you are severely overweight. If you are an obese person then you should exercise only under medical supervision to prevent placing too much strain on the cardiovascular system and connective tissue. Anyone who is very overweight should never drastically reduce their food intake without consulting doctor. Both exercise and diet should be treated with respect and carefully planned.

Rushing into physical activity may only make the matter worse. Remember what happened to Mike? He thought that when he began to lose weight, he would eventually get rid of all the excess fats that he had gathered. The problem is that he lost those connective tissues rather than excess fat.

For people who are prone to cellulite, this will be a major issue. Losing connective tissues instead of fat by rigorous dieting may only make the aggrevate the situation as the fat cells are still there. That means that the problem is not solved and the cellulite is likely to remain.

So, if you want to remove that cellulite, it would be sensible to get rid of the fat first. The idea here is to burn the fat by increasing your metabolism by somewhere from 7.5% to 28% more than your normal rate.

This is the reason why exercising is such an important element of losing cellulite. So for a more cellulite free body, you must maintain a regular exercise routine.

Roger Titley is the webmaster of the successful weight loss and diet web site www.BiggestLoserPlan.com which is designed to help anyone lose weight and become the person that they want to be.

– Roger Titley