When Sue turned 65, she was 25 pounds overweight. By strict dieting, she managed to shed the extra pounds, but as she lost more weight, she also lost her energy and vitality. She felt exhausted, and her friends, seeing her gaunt, drawn face, worried about her health.
By the time she volunteered for a particular fitness program two years later, she had put those 25 extra pounds back on. However, after 6 months of exercise and some willpower at the dinner table, Sue slimmed down again. But this time around, she felt better than she ever had, packed with energy and glowing with good health.
So why was this time different for Sue?
The difference was that the first time Sue lost weight; the second time she lost fat. The distinction is important. According to research, a large proportion 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. It increased her lean body mass and decreased her excess fat.
Same thing goes with cellulite.
Most people are inclined to think that cellulites are only present in people who are overweight. That is why they usually associate cellulite with fats and obesity.
Even if cellulite refers to the chain of wrinkled “fat cells” and “subcutaneous connective tissues” underneath the layer of the skin, it should not just be associated with people who are fat or obese. In fact, many people have cellulite but are not overweight at all.
Why do people get cellulite?
In truth, nobody knows exactly why some people accumulate cellulite. However, health experts are considering some factors such as the structure of the fat cells or the toxins that enter the body. Some experts believe it may be caused by some hormonal changes in the body. But none of these things have been proven to cause cellulites.
However, the main reason why most of the cellulite cases are found in women is that the connective tissues of women are more rigid and firm than men. Therefore, whenever a woman gets fat, the fatty cells tend to swell up and get bigger. This gives a protruding appearance to the skin producing the well-known “orange peel” look.
For this reason, women are more prone to cellulite than men. That’s why it is so important for women to be more careful with their body as they have a higher chance of accumulating cellulite.
Is being fat the cause of cellulite?
With the numerous cases of obese people having cellulites in their body, most of them believe that their cellulites are a result of being too fat.
Although not all those who are obese develop cellulites, being overweight can really trigger the development of cellulites. This is because excess fat under the skin tends to push the connective tissue creating a strain on the skin. Thus, cellulites form.
However, this is still dependent on the structure of the cells. If a person’s cell structure does not inhibit the tendency to bulge or expand even if fat deposits accumulate, then there will be no cellulites.
Therefore, the most important thing to remember here is to keep those connective tissues firm and strong and avoid accumulating excess fats to prevent the development of cellulite.
How do you prevent cellulite?
How? By starting an exercise routine program.
Transforming food into fat seems all too easy for most of us. Losing fat is far more difficult, and to do this, we have only three alternatives:
- Decrease food intake and keep activity constant, or
- Increase activity and keep food intake constant, or,
- Combine both approaches: Diet and exercise.
Physical activity can help undo the results of inactivity. An hour of vigorous exercise burns up 300 to 600 calories. If you also cut 300 to 500 calories from your intake each day, you can also lose weight at the rate of one to two pounds a week.
Without exercise, you would have to eat 500 to 1,000 fewer calories a day to lose the same number of pounds in a week. Exercise is not for everyone who is over-fat, however. The severely obese person should exercise only under strict medical supervision to prevent strain on the cardiovascular system and connective tissue. In addition, no one should restrict food intake drastically without consulting a doctor.
Resorting to this kind of activity will only make matters worse. Remember what happened to Sue? She thought that when she started dieting, she would eventually lose all the excess fat she had accumulated. The problem is that she actually lost those connective tissues rather than excess fat.
For people who are prone to cellulites, this will be a greater problem. Losing connective tissues instead of the fat by strict dieting can only make the skin more prone to greater problems but the fat cells remain. This means that the problem has not been solved at all.
Hence, if you wish to lose those cellulites, it would be better to lose those fats first. The idea here is to burn off those fats by increasing your metabolism by 7.5% to 28% more than your normal rate.
It is for this reason that exercising plays an important part in losing cellulite. So, if you want a cellulite free body, always engage in an exercise routine and not just a diet.
