Pre-cellulite: a natural skin structure that all women have - and which unfortunately changes into full-blown "cellulite-proper" in most women

Most women will develop cellulite at some point in their lives and will typically have to live with it for life. This is due to our artificial lifestyle based on sedentary work and leisure habits, hormonal contraception and calorie-rich, nutrient-poor food.

The pre-cellulite structure in women is absolutely normal and develops after puberty due to the action of female hormones on the skin of, usually, the thighs and hips. It contributes to the “soft yet firm” appearance women should naturally have, as opposed to the “muscled and ripped” appearance men should naturally have.

Excessive fattening food intake (refined starch, sugar, saturated fat, alcohol), lack of mechanical stimulation (due to lack of exercise and movement in general), toxins such as cigarette smoke and/or the presence in the body of excessive levels of the female hormone estrogen (typically due to hormonal contraception), stimulate the disproportionate growth of this tissue.

So our modern lifestyle managed to pervert a perfectly beautiful thing (the deep skin connective tissue/fat structure that endows a woman with soft-yet-firm thighs and buttocks) into something quite ugly and unhealthy: cellulite.

Natural cellulite prevention for life requires an almost perfect lifestyle which, for most women, is impossible to follow these days

I have been treating cellulite for almost 10 years now. During all these years I tried to encourage my clients to follow a super-healthy lifestyle, one that can prevent cellulite and thereby maximise and maintain the results of my treatments without the need for more treatments and creams. I tried to instil to my clients the notion that the healthier their lifestyle the less frequent top-up treatments they need from me. The more a woman smokes, eats sugary, fatty or starchy food, drinks alcohol and sits on her bum, the more frquent treatments she needs to prevent cellulite or maintain the results of her course of anti-cellulite treatments.

However, after 10 years, literally thousands of hours of treatments and probably millions of words kindly intended to “brainwash” my clients into living the perfect cellulite-preventative lifestyle, I am now giving up. I am throwing in the towel. I have just come to accept the inevitable, the realisation that in today’s artifical world it is almost impossible to follow such a natural and healthy regime that can permanently prevent or maintain cellulite - by itself.

No woman has the discipline to follow such a lifestyle 90% or 100% of the time - with possibly the exception of a few dedicated athletes, models or some celebrities that are constantly accompanied by trainers, specialist chefs and dietitians. Not even 80% is feasible these days. There are just too many temptations and aberrations from natural living: dinner parties, patisseries, bars, clubs, coffee shops and restaurants; healthy yet filling food on the go is almost impossible to find and when it is available it quite often is too expensive; travelling for work or even pleasure is usually a disaster - stodgy food in airplanes and airports and sitting down for hours on end is not conducive to keeping your butt firm; not to mention “social smoking”, “recreational” drugs, late night drinking (and the inevitable late night visit to the fast food shop) and the compulsory prescription by your doctor of artificial oestrogens for anything from contraception to alleviating acne.

Things are simple: to be cellulite-free these days you either have to be a dedicated “health freak” or have amazing genes (which by the way can only protect you for so long - after a few years they stop working...). For most women today it is just too difficult to religiously apply a Stone Age lifestyle - the only one that is guaranteed to keep cellulite at bay - forever, and without treatments.

Following the perfectly healthy lifestyle 60~80% of the time and having regular cellulite prevention massages is the best compromise for cellulite prevention in today's world

Of course, the other option for mere mortals, i.e. for every woman who is not endowed with model-like genes or who has not got steely determination, is to do the best she can, maybe be “good” 60% or 80% of the time, and then top-up with regular cellulite treatments and religiously applying a good cellulite cream. This is the realistic option. This option allows you to participate in the modern western culture (based around food and drink) and keep your legs and buttocks firm and smooth at the same time.

By all means, I do not condone the consumption of junk and/or excessive food and alcohol, neither I suggest that having treatments can undo all the damage that such habits cause to the rest of the body. Instead...

...I suggest that we should all try our best to eat healthily and exercise a lot, and knowing that most of us regularly slip up due to social and work pressures, we can make up for these lapses by topping up a relatively healthy regime with regular treatments that maintain the health and appearance of the body. In this way the body may will suffer the skin looseness, fluid retention and cellulite development we see in most women after the age of thirty - or even twenty in many cases.

Cellulite-specific prevention massages + high quality cellulite creams + a realistically natural lifestyle = the best way to keep cellulite at bay

Massage has been used for decades as a method of cellulite prevention in several countries, including France, Italy, Russia, Brazil and several Arab countries. In the past, cellulite prevention with massage was shrugged off as an old-wives’ tale, but the latest advances made in our understanding of adipose tissue and connective tissue (the two tissues implicated in cellulite) have elucidated the mechanisms by which massage does prevent and reduce cellulite, and added scientific proof to traditional wisdom.

Over the years, I have treated several clients at my clinics in London, who used to have regular cellulite prevention massages back in the countries where they came from. Many of them used to have as many as three sessions a week - a very healthy habit which did do wonders for the appearance of their legs. Indeed, I most of those dedicated clients had any cellulite and in the few ones that did, cellulite was very mild and limited. Furthermore, their skin did not display the levels of inflammation, poor circulation, spider veins and sensitivity that is found on most women’s skin of the thighs and hips today.

Given that these cellulite massages were just based on intuition, and not on the deep understanding of the physiology of that tissue we have today, these results can be further improved with a cellulite-specific massage, ideally applied with a good anti-cellulite cream, whose absorption it can significantly improve.

So, my recommendation after all these years is the same: eat healthily, exercise as often as you can, try to walk a lot, avoid chemical contraception, religiously apply a good anti-cellulite cream and have regular cellulite-prevention treatments - ideally cellulite-specific massages which are more fun than machine-based treatments. The only thing that changed are my expectations: I do not expect from most of my clients to be so perfect that they will never need to see me again. After 10 years I finally became a realist...

For models, dancers and other performers cellulite prevention massages are indispensable

Women whose professional success depends on having firm, smooth, healthy looking body are the ones who can benefit the most from regular cellulite prevention massage. Over the years I have seen several models, dancers and other performers, and quite a few of them did have some cellulite, loose skin and/or fluid retention. In quite a few cases the skin has that “pill” feel to it, the one that derives from years of taking the contraceptive pill, sometimes combined with high sugar intake and smoking.

This usually presents as a fat layer of uniform thickness - in contrast to the skin of women who do not take the pill and whose fat layer thickness is different in various parts of the thigh. In addition, there is skin looseness and usually poor circulation. The overall girth of the leg may be small so the leg looks slim and nice but it is not firm and it is not healthy, with some of the muscle and skin tissue being replaced by fat. These changes may not be apparent on film or even on catwalk, but they are tangible and signify the formation of cellulite in the future.

The solution to these problems is the same: more exercise, less smoking and sugary food, a good cellulite cream and more cellulite prevention treatments.

Liposuction and mesotherapy for cellulite prevention?

Unfortunately, surgery cannot cure cellulite, as cellulite is incorporated into the skin, which of course can not be removed with liposuction. In addition, having regular mesotherapy injections is not a solution either, as mesotherapy only offers temporary results, it is based on injecting even more chemicals into the body and is too painful and expensive to have throughout the year.

This inability of intrusive methods to prevent cellulite, however, can be good news, as it can motivate you to change your lifestyle for the better and receive natural treatments that also improve the health of your legs, instead of only artificially improving their appearance.