Cellulite

It rolls around every year: bathing suit season. And it can be a long, hot summer if you spend it trying to camouflage the rippled, bumpy fat on your thighs, rear end or upper arms. But when you come right down to it, this dimpled fat—cellulite—is as unwelcome in January as it is in June.

Unhappily, there's no magic cream or lotion that can banish cottage cheese thighs but don’t fret: Cellulite may be forever, but it is possible to minimize its appearance. Here's how.

The Ripple Effect

In 1975,a best-selling book christened dimpled, orange-peel skin cellulite, giving a name to one of women's most maddening beauty problems. But most doctors agree: Cellulite isn't a special type of fat; it's just fat, period.

Cellulite's bulges and puckers appear when the connective fibers that anchor your skin to underlying muscle pull your skin inward, which pushes fat cells outward against your skin. Think of the buttons on an overstuffed chair, which pull part of the chair's plushness tight while the rest plumps out. Since women are genetically programmed to store fat around their hips, thighs and behind, that's where most cellulite ends up.

Experts aren't sure why some of us dimple and others don't, or why some thin women get cellulite while other, heavier women remain ripple-free. It's like asking why some of us have blue eyes or red hair—it's genetic.

We do, however, know that men don't get cellulite because they tend to store fat around their middles rather than in the cellulite zone (thighs, hips and behind. Also, the skin's inner layer (the dermis), overlying the fat layer, is thicker in men, which helps hide dimples, and men's connective fibers are anchored differently. Lucky them!

Burn, Baby, Burn—Fat, That Is

While a cellulite-prone woman may never be completely cellulite-free, there is good news. If you shed fat, you'll most likely lose some of the lumps. So if you're battling cellulite, the first plan of attack is to exercise.

Obviously, the less body fat you have, the less fat you have to store as cellulite. Building up your muscle tone helps, too. While muscle weighs more than fat, it's also a lot more useful: The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even when you're at rest. Muscle is the tissue that burns calories. Fat just sits around.

By far, the most efficient way to burn fat and build muscle is by combining aerobic exercise with strength training. It's a one-two punch: Aerobics, walking, jogging or swimming works off the fat and, presumably, some of the cellulite. Strength-training (doing leg lifts using ankle weights, for example, or working out on various weight-training machines) tones and builds your muscles, And cellulite or no cellulite, muscular areas like the hips, buttocks and thighs always look firmer and more youthful toned than untoned.

Fitness experts suggest you do aerobic exercise 30 minutes or more per session, three to five times a week. If you're new to exercise, get your doctor's okay first, and enlist a qualified instructor or personal trainer at a local gym or YMCA to make sure you're doing things correctly, for safety and maximum benefit.

Cellulite "Remedies - What Works, What Won't

Many beauty experts claim cellulite results from "toxins" trapped in your tissues and can be eliminated by steering clear of caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes and stress. Some beauty experts recommend treating cellulite by drawing these alleged "poisons" from your body with a combination of massage and treatments formulated with flower, herb or plant extracts.

There are many ant cellulite gels, lotions and creams on the market, including the very expensive potions concocted with those plant and flower extracts or the new thigh-shrinking creams that contain aminophylline (a drug used to treat asthma). Some of the products temporarily tighten and smooth the skin with ingredients that cause it to swell for a few hours, sometimes a few days.

Also remember that some ant cellulite treatments are classified as cosmetics, not drugs, and as such don't have to undergo Food and Drug Administration testing or evaluation. So you can try any cellulite body treatments or thigh creams if you like, but make sure they have been properly tested.