“I’ve been working with cellulite reduction for more than a quarter of a century now and this is a very common theme between many of my clients: they binge eat or binge drink and then perhaps fast the next day or a few days later. However, binge eating leads to entrapment of fat in stubborn fat depots in the body and no amount of fasting / crash diet later can fully reverse the effects of bingeing. Read more...”
Do not overeat or drink too much in a single evening - a high intake of calories at a single sitting is a major cause of cellulite, regardless of dieting later
Binge-eating, binge-drinking and cellulite
Bingeing vs balance
What is the cause of “stubborn fat”?
Don’t give cellulite and stubborn fat a chance
So what am I to do?
What if I have +100 calories a day during the week, instead of +700 calories in one sitting on a Saturday?
What if I enjoy food and drink for a while and then go to a health/yoga resort and lose it all by fasting?
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Binge-eating, binge-drinking and cellulite
One of the major causes of cellulite, if repeated over months and years, is binge-eating and binge-drinking, regardless of dieting/fasting after the binge.
Why would that be? One would think that if the total balance of calories during the day or during the week is neutral, then weight should stay the same, right?
Right. Absolutely correct. The overall weight should roughly remain the same. However, the distribution of said weight (i.e. fat) would be affected in an unfavourable way, leading to:
Localised subcutaneous buttock and thigh fat and hypodermal / cellulite fat in most women
Visceral / deep stomach fat in most men
Let’s see how this occurs.
Bingeing vs balance
There is a big difference between consuming an extra 700 calories in one day and an extra 100 calories per day in 7 days.
In the latter case some of the extra calories will be oxidised due to an increase in basal metabolism / extra movement.
The +700 calories on a single meal, which was already supposed to be 700-1000 calories make the meal reach 1400-1700 calories in total at a single sitting. This sudden influx of calories will lead to a significant increase in glucose in the bloodstream.
That will mean higher insulin secretion which will ensure that excess glucose and fat are quickly removed from circulation to prevent high blood sugar and high blood triglyceride levels. As a result, these excess calories are literally dumped in your fat cells, usually in the:
Buttock/thigh subcutaneous fat cells (i.e. “fat”) and buttock/thigh hypodermal fat cells (i.e. “cellulite”) in women
Visceral fat cells (i.e. “pot belly”) in men
By the time you burn the excess calories the next day with exercise or fasting, it’s too late: the fat is already trapped in your buttocks/thighs (in women) or deep in the stomach (men).
What is the cause of “stubborn fat”?
But why is fat “trapped” in the gluteofemoral region (butt and thigh area) in women, either under the skin (i.e. “fat”) or inside the skin (i.e. “cellulite”)? And why is it trapped under the stomach muscles in men?
Some adipose tissue depots in the human body are predetermined by genetics and by female/male hormones to literally act like a fat trap, readily accumulating fat but releasing fat with difficulty. Those fat cells accumulate more fat and release more.
This is basically what people call “stubborn fat”: ready absorption of triglycerides (fat molecules) from the bloodstream, combined with reduced release of triglycerides into the bloodstream.
Don’t give cellulite and stubborn fat a chance
Every time you overeat, say 900 extra calories, your body will deposit (900:9=) 100 grams of fat in the body, to avoid triglycerides and/or glucose from overloading your bloodstream.
Out of these 100 grams of fat, some will be deposited in tissues where fat turnover is continuous (non-fat traps). This fat will be released when you fast / exercise the next day. That’s great.
However, some of those 100 grams will be deposited in fat trap tissues, where fat turnover is skewed towards fat accumulation.
Let’s assume just 20g of fat end up in such stubborn fat areas on your thighs/butt, either deep (normal fat) or more superficial fat (cellulite). And let’s assume now that once a week you do drink/eat a bit too much and you deposit 20g of fat on those areas. In one year that will be (20*52=) 1.04kg of fat/cellulite, more or less permanently stuck on your thighs/butt.
Now 1kg doesn’t sound like much but it looks much if it accumulates in one small area.
Luckily, in most cases it takes much longer than one year for this to occur, as not all people binge by 900 extra calories every single Saturday - and some of the trapped fat even escapes the trap too (there is constant fat absorption / release going on in our fat cells).
But the whole thing works just like depositing in a bank savings account: every little adds to it and it keeps accumulating over the years.
So what am I to do?
Obviously, the best thing is to avoid excessive calorie intake, i.e. bingeing, as discussed on this article.
If that is not possible (e.g. you attend a wedding or other celebration) at least try to minimise the excess calorie consumption (e.g. +500 calories instead of +1500 calories). And, of course, try to exercise before/after the meal (e.g. walk or have an actual exercise session) and why not right after the meal (e.g. dancing, walking).
This will minimise fat being trapped in stubborn fat depots occurring due to food/drink binges.
In addition, a healthy lifestyle (exercise, general physical activity, healthy nutrition, not smoking, not taking hormonal contraception) will protect overall from localised fat accumulation and/or cellulite.
What if I have +100 calories a day during the week, instead of +700 calories in one sitting on a Saturday?
In that case your body most probably will increase its metabolism a bit to compensate for some of the extra calories, but some of those calories will still sneakily accumulate. Perhaps not as much as they will accumulate with one big fat meal once a week, but they will still do accumulate.
So best is to keep an overall daily calorie balance with a combination of exercise and healthy diet.
What if I enjoy food and drink for a while and then go to a health/yoga retreat and lose it all by fasting?
This is kinda like “posh yo-yo dieting”, where you accumulate some fat for 3-6 months and then do a crash diet for 1-2 weeks at the expensive spa/retreat to lose it.
The difference here is that you pay quite a lot of money to the retreat staff to force you to fast (basically to crash diet, by another name).
However, yo-yo dieting (posh or not, “spiritual” or not) leads to body recomposition, in a negative way: you gradually accumulate fat in all the wrong places.
Simply put, with yoyo dieting you replace firmness with fat. Not a good idea - and expensive too.
But hey, those yoga retreats/spas in Thailand, Spain, Austria, Maldives etc are beautiful and yoga is relaxing…
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