Cellulite is primarily fat accumulation...

...but also comprises fluid retention, skin looseness, connective tissue deformity/scar tissue and other factors, as described in our "What is cellulite exactly?" page. Therefore, if you lose fat from your body you will reduce cellulite, but may not be able to get rid of it completely, as the other factors may not be affected by your weight loss effort. For example, you can firm the muscles with exercise but you cannot firm the skin. In addition, you cannot break down the scar tissue or reduce the connective tissue deformity that accompanies cellulite. However, although complete cellulite removal may not be possible just by diet or exercise, you can definitely reduce it, so by all means follow a good diet and exercise regime to lose fat.

You need something to focus the effects of your weight loss on your cellulite - not your chest or your face

Another problem is that when women diet and exercise they lose most of their fat from areas other than the cellulite tissues (usually breast, face, stomach etc.). Theoretically, if you diet and exercise long enough you will be able to remove all cellulite fat, but this may mean that you have to eliminate all other subcutaneous (superficial) fat from your body too, looking gaunt/anorexic. Therefore, you need something to help focus your fat loss on your cellulite, and that is a good cellulite treatment and/or a good cellulite cream that may encourage local fat loss (also known as topical fat loss) and magnify the impact that your diet and exercise effort has on your cellulite. In addition, such a treatment or cream may be able to firm up your skin and boost your circulation.

Spot reduction with diet and exercise is impossible

Please remember that spot reduction, i.e. losing fat from a specific area by exercising the adjacent muscles is not possible and can only be achieved by a treatment or a cream - always in combination with diet and exercise of course. If you cannot afford treatments or creams, the least you can do is massage the cellulite areas vigorously, with vegetable oil or a simple cream, for 5 to 30 minutes every day day, or every other day. Dry body brushing or "dry massage" is not as effective and therefore not recommended. The best time to massage those areas is immediately after exercise, when your fat cells are in "fat release mode". The worst time to do this is immediately after a meal, when your fat cells are in "fat accumulation mode" and will have the opposite results to the ones you try to achieve (your cellulite will become worse).

Prevention is better than cure

Finally, I'd like to note that reducing cellulite is more difficult than preventing it. So, if you were not careful for several years and managed to develop some cellulite, doing loads of exercise and dieting now may not eliminate cellulite - but as we said earlier, it will at least reduce it, especially if combined with treatments and creams.