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Winning the Battle Against Cellulite

How Can You Get Rid of Cellulite for Good?

By Amy Carey

Many fitness experts, including Ricciardi, believe that the best way to battle cellulite is by building muscle. By replacing the fat behind those dimply thighs with muscle, skin becomes firmer and smoother with less jiggles. "Women must exercise ... to put muscle under the skin. This muscle will smooth out the cellulite area," says Joyce Vedral, Ph.D., a certified physical trainer, fitness author and creator of the video series Weight Training Made Easier. "You can get rid of it all by working out the right way with weights."

However, targeting a particular problem area with strength training will not solve your problem overnight. For instance, doing lunges won't eliminate the cellulite in your thighs until you start burning the excess fat stored there. But how? Since we know cellulite is nothing more than fat, it makes sense that the usual advice applies: get moving (walk, run, climb stairs, ride a bike) and reduce the fat and calories in your diet.

Reducing fat and calories is often easier to add to your list of New Year's resolutions than it is to enact. What type of diet should you try this time? "When I am actively participating in a 'diet plan,' I will make the proper choices, but when I drop out of the plan, I go back to my regular choices," reports Dana Hansen of Hot Springs, Ark. For Hansen, eating well "has never become a habit."

Vedral advises women to stay away from fad diet plans. "That big initial weight loss with fad diets is just temporary water loss and muscle loss," she says. Long-term success is based on a healthy balance. "Balance is the key!" she says.

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