Exercise has long been used as a way of managing body weight. Any type of physical activity causes the body to expend energy and thereby burn additional calories. The more calories you burn, the more likely you are to reach the caloric deficit needed to burn fat. Since cellulite is fat, your body doesn't necessarily differentiate between this location of fat and any other area you're carrying excess weight, so exercise can help reduce cellulite at the same time as it's reducing fat cells.
Cellulite
Cellulite is essentially fat deposits near the surface of the skin. What's happening is the connective fibers that typically separate skin and fat begin to break down, which allows the fat to move closer to the skin. Since the connective fibers don't weaken in a uniformed fashion, small pockets of fat develop, giving rise to the dimpled appearance associated with cellulite.
Caloric Deficit
When you exercise, you increase the number of calories you're burning at that time. This can help create a caloric deficit, and it takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat. As you continue to exercise and lose weight, you may see an improvement in the appearance of cellulite as you burn fat cells. Results are limited, warns MayoClinic.com. Once you develop cellulite, it's very difficult to eliminate it completely.
Weight Loss
This isn't to say exercise and weight loss are useless against cellulite. In fact, weight loss often makes it less noticeable. Losing weight reduces your overall body fat percentage. As this percentage lessens, the fatty deposits aren't pressing against the skin as much as they were before the weight loss. This means the dimpling becomes less severe. However, the weakened connective fibers are still present, allowing some fat to press against the skin, so there may still be some slight dimpling even after weight loss.
Exercise
Your choice of exercise can also influence the appearance of cellulite. While there's no way to "spot-reduce" fat, exercises that focus on the lower body can improve the tone of your leg muscles as well as those up into the buttocks. This can help provide a shapelier appearance to those areas of the body and minimize the visibility of cellulite. Biking, jogging and swimming, as well as strength-training activities like squats, lunges and leg curls, can all improve muscle strength and tone, which can go a long way to reducing the appearance of cellulite.
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