Fat deposits on the lower back and hips are a concern for most women. A defect in appearance traumatizes the female psyche and forces her to wage a desperate struggle for an ideal figure. Statistics show that the problem mainly affects the female part of the population, but sometimes cellulite also occurs in men. Many people are concerned about how close the connection is between the pathological state of subcutaneous fatty tissue and excess weight. To find the answer to whether cellulite will go away if you lose weight, you need to understand the mechanism of the phenomenon.
Causes and risk factors of cellulite
It must be remembered that women of reproductive age are at increased risk. The female sexual hormone estrogen is responsible for the deposition of fat deposits in the hips, abdomen and lower back - this is how nature protects the pelvic organs responsible for childbirth from mechanical damage and hypothermia. Adipose tissue is not sufficiently supplied with blood, so this area of the body suffers from the accumulation of toxic substances, and the appearance of the skin deteriorates.
The main causes of cellulite:
- features of the hormonal background of a woman’s body;
- decreased elasticity of collagen fibers;
- overstretching of the fat cell membrane and its increase in size;
- disturbance of blood circulation and lymph flow.
Risk factors for cellulite that provoke the formation of changes in the skin and subcutaneous tissue are:
- unhealthy diet with an excess of refined high-calorie foods;
- passive lifestyle and lack of adequate physical activity;
- bad habits: nicotine addiction and alcohol abuse.
To achieve an ideal figure, it is not enough to eliminate one of the factors. Success can be achieved after comprehensive work with mandatory lifestyle correction.
Why doesn't cellulite go away when you lose weight?
Let's first admit that the problem of cellulite has always been encountered in women and it is not a deformity or a personal shortcoming of yours! Cellulite is not a disease and yes, (almost) all women have cellulite
. If we count the other way around, we will have to admit that 8 out of every 10 women are sick.
98% of women have cellulite; even supermodels can boast of it.
A tendency to change the state of subcutaneous tissue under the influence of hormones is normal for the female body. And although the more excess weight you have, the more cellulite you have, the extra pounds themselves do not cause “orange peel”
.
Well, who are these lucky women who are included in the cherished 2% who do not have cellulite? Cellulite professionals say it's simply women with thicker skin, and the vast majority of them are of African descent.
Let's talk about why uneven skin forms? Let's call on medical science for help and turn on logic.
The human body contains adipose tissue. It is mainly located under the skin (so it is called subcutaneous fat) and inside the body (so-called visceral fat). In adults, it is mainly present in the body of the so-called. white adipose tissue.
Adipose tissue has many functions: providing energy, thermal insulation, protecting organs from mechanical damage (fat pad), endocrine function, etc. Adipose tissue consists of special cells - adipocytes
. These cells contain a large drop of fat surrounded by a ring of cytoplasm. The nucleus of these cells is smoothed and is located at the periphery of the cell. In turn, adipocytes are collected in peculiar bags in which thousands of cells are combined. These bags are in turn combined into larger structures.
Adipose tissue in humans is loose, heterogeneous and consists of round, elongated lobules.
If you schematically imagine the structure of subcutaneous fat, it looks something like this:
Each individual adipocyte is programmed to store fat. And the problem is that each fat cell accumulates as much fat as it wants - thanks to its ability to stretch, adipocytes can increase in volume hundreds and even thousands of times! It turns out that this is the problem - each adipocyte increases in size in no way consistent with the others
(i.e., some swell more from accumulated fat, while others swell less). In turn, adipocyte conglomerates also increase unevenly, followed by larger structures. Each visible lobule of adipose tissue has its own size!
That is, if all fat cells worked equally, then the adipose tissue would have a smooth surface.
But they don’t do this. This is absolutely physiological and is not a health disorder!
Mechanism and solutions
To get the answer to the question of how to deal with cellulite, you will need to work on your habits and lifestyle, and also seek help from professionals. To increase skin firmness and elasticity and reduce fat, the following measures are needed:
- Diet. The diet should include fresh vegetables and fruits, natural juices, whole grains, and animal protein. You will have to exclude fast food, high-calorie foods, and confectionery products.
- Water balance. To improve lymph outflow, a sufficient amount of clean water is required (about 2 liters per day).
- Massage. This manipulation improves blood circulation, promotes the removal of toxic substances from subcutaneous tissue, and tones the skin. The course purpose of the procedure is important.
- An active lifestyle with physical activity helps to activate metabolism. Exercising in the gym and walking help solve the problem.
Anti-cellulite treatments and how they work
Beauty salons offer a variety of procedures to improve the appearance of problem areas with cellulite. The effect is provided by:
- Wraps (with seaweed, chocolate).
- Massage (manual and hardware).
A more pronounced effect can be observed after laser exposure. In advanced cases, they resort to liposuction (surgical removal of excess fat).
At home, you can use anti-cellulite creams and oils, which should be applied to the area with cellulite.
Weight loss and cellulite: is there a relationship?
Many women are trying to get an answer: if they lose weight, will this lead to the elimination of cellulite and should they make efforts in this direction. A high-calorie diet causes weight gain, and the layer of subcutaneous fat increases. Fat cells stretch, collagen fibers responsible for skin elasticity lose elasticity.
The appearance of unsightly pits and compactions on the thighs, buttocks and abdomen signal the progression of the process. Weight correction is an integral, but not the only condition for a comprehensive struggle for a beautiful body. Cellulite does not go away with weight loss; the cosmetic defect may even get worse.
Will cellulite go away if you exercise?
But there is such a strange moment that puts girls into a stupor and they begin to sound the alarm: “I play sports, but cellulite does not go away, what should I do?!”
First of all, calm down. Indeed, when you begin to exercise intensively, cellulite becomes more pronounced, especially on the buttocks and thighs. Why is such a nightmare happening when they promised something completely different?
1) When burning fat, adipocytes simply contain a minimum content of fatty acids, and connective fatty tissues in problem areas become softer and less elastic
.
The fact is that when playing sports, the “orange peel” becomes more pronounced for one simple reason - training leads to a decrease in body weight and the removal of excess fluid from the body, which is actually fat burning
.
When a person does not diet or exercise, he is like a water mattress, swollen and inflated. Yes, now many people suffer from edema, and not from excess fat (as everyone is sure). Such people do not eat anything, but for some reason they get even fatter, “plump from hunger.” This is all due to swelling and salt imbalance.
So, when losing weight, when the fat burning process is successfully launched, roughly speaking, the fat cell becomes “softer”, and the skin in problem areas ceases to be stretched.
Contrary to popular belief, fat cells do not dissolve and are not removed from the body!
And, by the way, the number of fat cells in the body of adults remains
constant
and does not depend in any way on a decrease or increase in body weight - only the size of these cells changes.
We remember that fat is not converted only into energy - this violates the law of conservation of mass of matter. When the body needs energy, fats begin to break down. But energy is not the only product of their breakdown, and this is not why body weight loss occurs. Kilograms leave the body through exhaled carbon dioxide and water. This means that as you lose weight, your swelling will gradually disappear
. It is at this moment that many notice cellulite and think that it came from sports, although this is impossible.
In a free position, the muscle fibers are relaxed - the tubercles and depressions are not noticeable, but if they are tense, the defect appears in all its dubious glory. When the muscles get used to systematic physical activity, everything will pass and recover. How quickly this moment comes depends on the stage of cellulite.
Don’t worry, in individual cases such an adverse reaction occurs, but after a while, subject to further training, the cosmetic defect of the skin goes away.
2) Sports without diet
- this is another reason why cellulite becomes more visually noticeable. If muscle mass grows and fat is not burned, then the muscles will (we put it in crude language to make it clearer) seem to tightly press the structured subcutaneous fat to the skin, and as a result we have what we fought for - even more pronounced cellulite.
Of course, we simply cannot ignore sports! Thanks to active movement, muscle tissue is worked out, contraction is achieved in problem areas, which in turn destroys lipids - groups of compounds including fats and organic fat-like substances that compress capillaries and disrupt general blood flow.
Muscle activity improves metabolism at the cellular level, restores blood circulation in small vessels, activates lymph outflow and accelerates venous blood flow.
Dear ones, don’t worry too much: you shouldn’t let yourself down, but it’s simply stupid to bully yourself every day because of cellulite!
Alas, some will never be able to get rid of this “disease”, but Broad Bone hopes that she has convinced you that there is nothing ugly or terrible about it: it is just nature.
The most common mistakes when fighting cellulite
An unexpected response of the body to a sharp decrease in weight can be a paradoxical situation when, despite losing weight, the appearance of the skin indicates the progression of pathological changes in the subcutaneous tissue. A strict diet leads to the body losing fluid and beneficial microelements, which increases sagging skin and muscle fibers. It seems that the silhouette sags, fabric defects appear more clearly.
Losing weight without physical training gives the opposite result. You will have to make every effort to create sculpted muscles that compensate for the decrease in body fat. A visit to the pool will be an addition to physical exercise and beauty treatments. Cellulite will not disappear after losing weight; this requires cosmetic procedures and exercise.
Prevention of cellulite
In order not to have to spend money and effort on combating the problem in question, you need to work on preventive measures that will help prevent the appearance of “orange peel” in problem areas. Systematic adherence to the proposed recommendations will help maintain your figure, and will also contribute to the harmonization of metabolic processes and the overall health of the body.
The following rules must be adhered to:
- Reduce or completely abandon high-calorie foods and sugary carbonated drinks (this list can include almost everything that fast food chains offer).
- Lead an active lifestyle that includes physical exercise and walking.
- Regularly engage in water procedures (swimming, contrast showers, baths).
- Periodically perform massage or self-massage sessions on the thighs, abdomen and buttocks.
- Control your weight.
- Drink at least 1.5 liters of purified water during the day.
- Enrich your diet with foods rich in vitamins and microelements, take pharmaceutical vitamin-mineral complexes several times a year.
- Use seaweed or chocolate wraps. This can be done in salons or at home. After manipulation, cellulite goes away and the skin becomes smooth.
It is recommended to follow tips for preventing cellulite regularly: this will help avoid not only uneven skin, but also many other health problems.
In an effort to defeat cellulite and get answers to troubling questions, fanaticism should be avoided. Many women, in pursuit of quick results, strive to lose weight through a strict diet. The body's response to weight loss is often a decrease in tissue elasticity and turgor. For this reason, this method can only be used in a set of measures. Even simply switching to a different type of diet without losing kilograms can give results that will please any woman. Once the body is healthy, the “orange peel” will disappear, and the owner of a slim figure will no longer need to be afraid of the beach season.
How to fight cellulite
Before you start taking any action against the “orange peel”, you should understand what stage it is at. There are only four of them:
- First. It has the most minor visual manifestations. Cellulite is represented by slight swelling, lumps appear only when pressed.
- Second. It is characterized by the fact that the “orange peel” becomes visible even without pressing. The swelling is more pronounced.
- Third. The area of skin affected by cellulite increases significantly, and numerous nodules appear. The skin may take on a bluish tint.
- Fourth. All irregularities in the dermis are visible to the naked eye: large dimples, nodules. Cellulite is also accompanied by quite severe tissue swelling and hardening. When pressed, pain is felt.
Stages of cellulite development
Of course, cellulite can be completely cured only when its first signs appear. In more advanced cases, it can only be reduced. Depending on what stage is identified, as well as in accordance with physiological characteristics, you should choose a method of combating cellulite. At the same time, it is important to pay attention to nutrition, activity, and also carry out additional procedures that will speed up the smoothing of the skin.
Diet
This is one of the most common options to help reduce the appearance of cellulite. In order for your diet to help smooth your skin, you need to reconsider your diet.
The first thing to do is start counting calories. This habit will be very useful in the fight against cellulite after losing weight, because it will allow you to ensure that you do not eat too much. The number of calories should be calculated based on your level of physical activity. If a girl leads a sedentary lifestyle, about 1400 kcal per day will be enough for her. Those who visit the gym a couple of times a week will need a little more - 1700.
It is also important to consider the number of meals. Scientists and nutritionists have long proven that it is better to eat more often, but less. The best option is five times a day, reducing the volume of portions.
Another tenet of a diet that helps reduce cellulite is a properly composed menu. The daily diet should include foods such as legumes, fruits and vegetables rich in fiber, low-fat dairy products, nuts, fish, vegetable oil, eggs. It is important that the body receives enough protein.
As for drinking, you should drink enough water. It helps the fiber entering the body to act more effectively and cleanse the intestines faster. But it is better to exclude salt completely: it promotes fluid retention, which then turns into fat deposits that accumulate with cellulite.
