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Cellulite is the name given to the puckered and dimpled skin where a woman's thighs, hips and buttocks are the prime locations for it. It is a descriptive term, not a specific disease or condition; it is a popular term for a certain pattern of body-fat deposition that causes the dimpled skin appearance. The fat pattern is a normal human variation but unfortunately, women are obsessively concerned with having it and getting rid of it.
Cellulite is no different from plain old ordinary fat, despite claims that it is an insidious type of flab made up of waste products and toxins.
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It has been biopsied and analyzed by a number of medical authorities and the results are always the same. It does not differ structurally, metabolically or chemically from the fat found in other areas of an individual's body. However, unlike ordinary fat, cellulite is always localized and mainly confined to the lower half of the body and more particularly, the buttocks, the insides and tops of knees and upper thighs.
How to Recognise Cellulite
It is very easy to differentiate cellulite from plain, ordinary fat. To discover whether you have cellulite, here is a simple test - Press or squeeze a particular area between the palms of your hands or between your thumb and index finger. |
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If cellulite is present, the skin ripples and has an orange-peel appearance. At a more advanced stage, these ripples are evident without any squeezing at all. Regular fat when squeezed is smooth in texture and does not show any ripples or bumps.
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What
Causes Cellulite
A woman's fat is stored in pockets and the connective tissues, the septa surround the fat and anchor it to the underlying muscles. The septa can be described as fibrous “strings” as it hold, the skin flat against the muscles and the fat layer of the body, much like the threads in a quilt. As a woman gains weight, the fat swells and bulges out of its compartments (think of a cupcake filled with too much batter). As a result, too much fat in a certain area
can cause surface rippling because the septa can't hold the fat smooth. Certain areas like thighs, stomach, buttocks have fewer septa, so you are more likely to see the mattress-like effect there. |
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Genetics - your heredity is the main cause. The amount of fat or cellulite one person has is not an abnormality, it is an expression of genetic difference. Genetics determine how the fat is deposited, the more uneven and irregular the layer is, the more likely a cellulite appearance will result.
Gender plays a role too as most women have thinner skin than men. An irregular fat layer beneath thin skin is what ‘causes’ surface dimpling. The same amount of fat
under thicker skin does not ripple. Male fat is exactly the same as female fat but the septa are arranged in a different and more random pattern in men. Even though this pattern isn't neat and orderly , it does effectively inhibit fat from protruding out of the pockets. This is one of the main reasons why men usually don't have cellulite.
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Males have other built-in cellulite resisters. For example, when a women is heavy, she tends to carry the excess weight in her thighs and buttocks, an overweight male puts the weight in his belly, the spare-tyre look. Furthermore, bulging fat cells are not as visible as in men because they have thicker skin on their legs and abdomen. And men have more body hair than women do. The hairs extend into the fat itself, which tends to make the skin less inclined to sap.
When your body circulation is poor, water accumulates between fat cells, causing them to spread apart. On the surface, your skin adopts a strippled, wavy appearance. Therefore, accumulations of fat and water just beneath the skin and your inherited genes result in the characteristic orange-peel effect of cellulite.
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How to
Eliminate Cellulite
The problem with this fat pattern is that your genes, more than your life-style determine it. On the other hand, maintaining an optimal weight and a balanced diet as well as engaging in a regular exercise program can help in controlling how much cellulite you get.
Don't get heavy to begin with. If you are overweight when you are twenty five or younger, your skin still has enough resiliency to bounce back and contract once you lose weight.
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But if you are older and you lose weight, you'll look better but you will never look as good as you haven’t stretched out your skin in the first place. So, once you see a tendency towards bumpy and thickening thighs, zero in on potential trouble areas. It is not wise to attempt crash dieting as it tends to stretch both the skin and the septa, which can encourage skin irregularity. Rapid weight gain will also accentuate the rippling appearance of the skin.
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Follow a well-balanced diet so that you burn about as many calories as you consume. Any excess fat will be stored as fats. Diets designed to reduce the trapped “toxins” of cellulite aren't real solutions to the problem. Cellulite is fat not cellular toxins that are deposited in fat cells. Dieting alone will not affect the fat pattern determined by your genes. However, diet combined with a regular exercise regime may modify body contours. Exercises reduce overall body fat and it also improves superficial skin circulation, which may improve the skin tone. It can't change the irregularity of the fat layer or the regular thickness of the skin - the factors that basically account for the cellulite appearance. Hence, you should not expect a total metamorphosis.
The amount of fat or cellulite one person has is not an abnormality, it is an expression of genetic difference.
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Creams and lotions specially targeted to reduce cellulite may offer some help. Penetrating biological extracts combined with a massaging action increase local metabolism of fat pockets by stimulating both the circulatory and lymphatic systems to carry away trapped fluids and fat. Rubbing the
skin causes microscopic breakdown of cells but it's not enough to visibly change the appearance. Massage may be effective , at least there's some rationale for it. If you really push the skin and apply a lot of pressure, you could conceivably stretch the septa.
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Your skin may hang a little more loosely after massaging, so it won't be as taut and attractive but you will get rid of some of the puckering.
The last resort is liposuction, surgical suctioning of fat through a thin tube. This measure represents a real solution if your problem is lumpy bulges or
localized fat, such as saddle bags, jodhpur thighs. It permanently alters the distribution of fat in the body and removes the excess fat cell stabilized after puberty, so any weight changes alter fat-cell size, not fat-cell number. What liposuction does is to remove fat cells; even if you were to gain weight, you will not regenerate those bulges in the areas that have undergone liposuction.
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Liposuction may or may not affect the cellulite appearance of the skin. It depends on how the skin and the fat are connected. Liposuction can do nothing for the individual who exhibits no abnormal bulges but still has a dimpled skin surface. Furthermore, liposuction itself can also result in dimpling of the skin surface as an unavoidable byproduct of surgery. It is also a painful and expensive operation that may cause some scarring. Not everyone is suitable for
liposuction, the individual must have firm, taut skin for good results.
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Sunita Motwani-Makhija is an Internationally qualified Beautician and Hair Consultant and is the Director of the Schnell Hans chain of Beauty Schools & Salons in Mumbai, that conducts Basic and Advanced courses and also the City & Guilds International Hairdressing Qualification. Sunita is the first Indian to have been conferred the prestigious Licentiateship in Hairdressing by City & Guilds, U.K.
For any hair & beauty queries E-mail: schnellhans@rbcsgroup.com
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