Cellulite is a constant battle. As you age, your fat changes, skin loosens and sags, and the dimpling begins, you start to look into treatments. Sadly, cellulite is hard to treat. New treatments are coming out though, and in trying to evaluate these, it was thought there should be a cellulite scale to measure the appearance of cellulite, so we can evaluate the new treatments and separate the hype from the real change.
Study:
- 2129 participants
- 11 point scale
- They tried to separate out the validity of the scores, as some people were really bothered by how the cellulite looked, but they didn’t have the most severe cellulite on the Photo Cellulite Severity Scale
- The psyche of cellulite was an issue: more self reported cellulite and more areas of the body with cellulite
- They conclude the BODY Q scale can be utilized to measure the appearance of cellulite and gives a solid basis for future studies of cellulite treatments.
They looked at cellulite scores in the following areas: inner thigh, hip/outer thigh, abdomen, upper arm, back of leg, groin, chest/breast. They looked at age, gender, race, BMI (18-25, 25-30, or over 30), marital status, employment, level of education, and how much you were bothered by overall cellulite.
They then looked at your behaviors. I thought this was the most important to me. Everyone gets some cellulite as they age, and the range of actual severity differs. But for me when I am doing any treatment, my goal is to help you let go of it. You don’t think about it. You don’t avoid going to a pool party because you won’t put on a bathing suit or shorts. So if we do treatments, actually improve the area, but don’t improve it enough so you change your behavior (ie go to the pool party), have we really helped you?
They looked at characteristics of the cellulite:
- deep
- lumpy
- noticeable
- amount
- skin looks
And they looked at your behavior
- certain clothes
- dress to hide
- people seeing
- up close
- naked
What they found is 65% of people interviewed were extremely or moderately bothered by how their cellulite looked overall. (Though interestingly, when looking at the photo scale, only 30% actually had moderate or severe cellulite.)
In their discussion, they talk about how most of the participants were pre or perimenopausal. They acknowledge that menopause is a huge hit to the skin, and cellulite increases after menopause. They also discuss other predisposing factors for cellulite:
- genetic fat deposition
- eating habits- preservatives, salt
- sedentary
- smoking
- alcohol
- and emotional distress (? I’m not sure about this one. Just reporting what they state in the article)
- 98% of cellulite is in post puberty women
My thoughts?
Cellulite sucks. This is all about the skin tone, which worsens with time, aging, pregnancy, weight fluctuations, and the dreaded menopause. Tightening the skin (tummy tucks, breast lifts) helps, but we need to keep trying to find ways to nonsurgically improve it. Sadly, you can’t tone it up at the gym.