Simple cellulite busters - say goodbye to lumpy legs

Alice Hart-Davis
17.06.09

Is it accumulated toxins? Is it distressed fat?

The general view on cellulite is that it's the end result when fat cells become enlarged and the connective tissue around them hardens.

Before you know it, your thighs are a lumpy, dimpled mass.

In January I started to work my way through every cellulite remedy I could find with the notion that in six months I'd have legs like Cheryl Cole.

Alas, summer has arrived and my legs are not perfect.

Genes, age and life in general are not on my side. Keeping the upper hand with cellulite requires eternal vigilance.

You need to do everything — drink gallons of water, exercise, body-brush, lymphatic drainage massage and experiment with potions and lasers.

And it helps to avoid caffeine, nicotine, sugar and possibly dairy products.

But could you make a difference to the way you look in the next month? Of course you could.

Decide on your course of action and stick to it, keeping front of mind the image of yourself, goddess-like and smooth of thigh, on a sun lounger.

Then you will feel you've tried, which is half the battle. Here's what I tried, and a few others for good measure.

The active approach

Getting active is vital. But part of the problem with trying to disperse a toughened-up layer of cellular debris on your thighs and backside is that there's not much blood circulation through it.

If you exercise, you won't target the right bits unless, claim the people behind Hypoxi, you cycle in their vacuum pod which draws blood up to the surface, to get at that resistant layer.

Sounds weird, feels weird, but I did a whole course and lost proportionately more centimetres from the thighs and backside than my upper body. Result.

Alternatively, exercise wearing MBT trainers or, cheaper, FitFlops, or you could try Powerplate vibration training, all of which claim cellulite-busting, bottom-firming benefits.

Hypoxi treatment, Urban Retreat, £500 for a course (020 7893 8333, www.hypoxi.com) FitFlops, from £36 (www.fitflop.com) PowerPlate, from £20(www.powerplate.co.uk)

The creams

There are so many anti-cellulite creams full of circulation-boosters such as caffeine and ivy extract that it's hard to know where to start.

Do they work? I'm not convinced that any of them “break down stubborn fat cells” but if they encourage you to watch what you eat, exercise a bit more, drink loads of water and massage your legs firmly, daily, they can certainly improve the look of the skin's surface.

Sisley's fabulously rich and aromatic Celluli-Pro (£99, www.sisley-cosmetics.co.uk) or Chanel's minty-smooth Body Excellence Slim (£79, 020 7493 3836), tend to give the best results.

Clarins' instant-tightening High Definition Body Lift (£32, www.clarins.co.uk) is brilliant and more affordable, as is Biotherm's Celluli Laser Intensive Night, £35 (www.biotherm.co.uk).

At the bargain end of the scale, try Superdrug's Beautician's Secret Body Sculpt, £14.64 or Champneys' Chill & Tone Ice Gel, £20, www.champneys.com. 

The right pants

I love the idea of Lipocontour Elite Shorts (£74.95, 0845 003 1500, www.lipocontour.co.uk).

By giving your thighs a continuous micromassage (you need to wear them for at least four hours a day, for eight weeks, and they're jolly hot), they enhance circulation and improve the look of dimply bits.

I wore them diligently, encouraged when they dispersed a whopping bruise on my thigh within three days.

And? There was some improvement, though not in long-established dimples at the top of my thighs.

Then Scala pants were launched (£25 at John Lewis), made from yarn full of anti-cellulite crystals.

Eek, had I spent months wearing the wrong cellulite pants? They're not so tight but they're much easier to wear. And as effective? I can't yet say.

The high-tech approach

High-tech treatments involving lasers, ultrasound and radio-frequency energy-waves are the latest ways to combat cellulite.

They're all expensive, they all claim great results and it's very hard to know which to recommend since for every person who tells me that Megatreatment X, say, is magic, there will be another (a doctor, a surgeon, a therapist whose opinion I respect) who tells me it's rubbish and, possibly, dangerous.

So if you are tempted by these, do your homework. Ask to see before and after pictures, ask to talk to people who have had the treatments done and loved the results, then decide. It's your money.

Having said that, I've had great reports of all the following.

Accent RF (www.renew medica.com). Radio-frequency waves heat underlying skin to melt fat. You need up to eight sessions at around £350 a session.

Kriotherapy (at Champneys, Tring, www.champneys.com, from £35 a session).

Short blasts in the below-freezing Kriotherapy chamber do wonders for circulation.

Velashape, (The Mayfair Practice, www.mayfairpractice.com, 020 7408 1164, from £100 per treatment, four to six sessions needed) mixes heavy-duty suction massage with RF waves.

LipoSmooth (www.drmichael prager.com, £150 per session, you'll need at least six) is particularly good for the stomach.

AgeDefi Cellulite, a mesotherapy-based programme from Dr Nyjon Eccles (£1,620 for 12 treatments, www.chironclinic.com, 020 7224 4622).

Or, DIY and zap your own thighs with TriPollar POSE (£349 at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols), a gadget that aims to heat the skin from the inside, causing fat to liquefy and disperse.

The natural approach

Dry body brushing costs nothing, takes a few minutes and is great for the skin and for keeping the lymphatic system moving.

The best anti-cellulite massages concentrate on lymphatics, too.

Try Omorovicza's soothing Dimple Banisher treatment (£110 at Glow Urban Spa, 020 7752 0652); the vigorous Body-Reshaping massage at Neville's (£150 for 90 minutes, 020 7235 3654, www.urban-skin.com) or Thalgo's Cellular Sculpting massage (£60 for an hour, 020 7512 0872).

What you eat matters, too. Dr Howard Murad, author of The Cellulite Solution (Piatkus, £7.99), says diet and micronutrients are vital for tackling cellulite. His Firm and Tone Dietary Supple-ment pack costs £99.50 at www.beautique.com.