How to get rid of cellulite: every solution that exists

Although cellulite is not, strictly speaking, a disease, a multitude of treatments have been developed to improve its appearance.

Indeed, cellulite changes the look and texture of the skin, which is why it is sometimes called “orange-peel skin”. According to scientific studies, this issue affects 85 to 98% of women ⁽¹⁾. For women, it is one of the most intolerable cosmetic concerns.

What practical solutions are there to fight cellulite? Backed by scientific studies, we review the main known solutions.

In this guide, we focus only on solutions to tackle cellulite.
If you would like to know what causes cellulite, then visit our dedicated guide.
If you are looking instead for a clear definition of cellulite, then visit this guide. Here, only the solutions are explained to you; the definition and the causes are covered in a separate guide.

Summary table of the main anti-cellulite solutions

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^(*) As for the effectiveness of each of these solutions, this information is subjective and provided for guidance only, based on the information gathered on this page.

Mechanical methods

One of the oldest methods for getting rid of cellulite (but also one of the simplest and least expensive) is to stimulate your skin tissue. Indeed, if you have read our guide to what cellulite is or the one about its causes, you know that cellulite is caused by a disorganization of the tissues under the skin (in fat storage areas). To better “reorganize” and drain these tissues, pressure can be applied to the skin.

This can be done either manually (with the hands) or with an assisted device (the famous anti-cellulite cups).

The main goal of this mechanical stimulation of the tissues is to create damage to the subcutaneous fat cells. Indeed, the “palpate-roll” technique makes it possible to apply significant pressure to the skin: as these fat cells become damaged, they also try to rebuild themselves. And as they rebuild, the distribution of these cells (which was the original issue) is then improved. This reconstruction helps even out the skin surface where cellulite was previously visible⁽²⁾.

This stimulation also has other benefits: it is also believed to stimulate microcirculation (blood flow) as well as lymphatic drainage, which could further improve the appearance of cellulite ^(3,4).

In a scientific study published in 2005 ⁽⁵⁾, it is reported that six other studies evaluated the effect of palpate-roll massage on the appearance of cellulite. Among these 6 studies, the results were:

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Treatment effectiveness was mainly assessed through a clinical evaluation and a circumference measurement. These studies tend to show that palpate-roll massage using cups can lead to significant improvements in cellulite; manual palpate-roll massage appears, at first glance, to be less effective.

Doing a manual palpate-roll massage (with the hands)

Palpate-roll is a massage method. It is a technique that can be slightly painful during the first few sessions. To perform it on the thighs, for example, simply create folds of skin with both hands (simultaneously), then roll this fold upward from bottom to top.

To learn more, feel free to read our article on manual palpate-roll massage.

Doing a palpate-roll massage with a cup

Easier to perform than manual palpate-roll massage, doing this massage with a cup has several advantages:

• As shown by a scientific study published in 2005 ⁽⁵⁾, in the renowned “American Journal of Clinical Dermatology ”, people who opt for palpate-roll massage with a cup achieve significant improvements in the appearance of their skin (unlike manual palpate-roll massage, which seems less effective overall).
• In addition, the cupping technique is less restrictive: the accessory makes the process easier.

To learn more about how to use your anti-cellulite cup, read our article dedicated to this topic.

To get rid of cellulite, consider using Cellublue cups. They will be your allies for reducing cellulite on the saddlebags area, but also on the buttocks, the thighs, the stomach, the arms, the knees… You can find them in our 100% Anti-Cellulite pack which contains the complete 3-step method to smooth away dimples!

Using an electric anti-cellulite device

There are electric devices of all sizes, and for every budget. From lightweight devices starting at around €20, to high-end models that can easily exceed €1000. In fact, as you will see in the section below devoted to professional treatments, it is obvious that most practitioners (surgeons, doctors, etc.) rely on one or more machines to perform their anti-cellulite treatments. But here we are first interested in personal electric devices: the ones you can own at home, which are electric cups, often called cellulite vacuum devices. Their main function is to massage and suction. Scientific studies say little about these devices because they vary greatly from one model to another. These electric devices are relatively comparable to electric toothbrushes: more expensive, these electric massagers/vacuum devices offer benefits in terms of comfort. Some electric cups feature electrostimulation and emit small electrical impulses. This makes it possible to reach deeper muscles and thus reduce fat cells. Electrostimulation helps improve toxin elimination, stimulate blood, lymphatic and venous circulation, and stimulate collagen production. The electric cup helps target cellulite and activate lipolysis by mechanically stimulating adipocytes.

Nutrition

Changing your diet

Nutrition obviously has an impact on the appearance of the skin, and changing your diet can help reduce cellulite. Each food does indeed affect the body differently.

The problem with changing your diet is that this solution is not very well documented scientifically. Overall, it simply means eating healthier, more varied, and less fatty foods. Strongly favor foods rich in good nutrients (fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, probiotics…). To do this, eat fruits and vegetables, and generally anything as minimally processed as possible (no ready meals, etc.). Eating healthy also means listening to your body and regulating your energy balance. Your basal metabolic rate is what your body burns at rest: there is no point in consuming more calories than your body needs. On the contrary, these surplus calories often end up accumulating in your thighs, buttocks, etc.

Conversely, while some things (fruit, vegetables, healthy food) should be prioritized, others clearly need to be avoided (saturated fats, sugar…). We also wrote an article on this subject: first and foremost, sweets are your worst enemy, along with fried foods, sauces, sodas, alcohol and junk food in general. You should reduce the amount of saturated fatty acids, triglycerides and sucrose (sugars) in your diet.

Among the unbeatable foods for fighting cellulite are green tea, berries, tomatoes, bananas, cucumber, lemon, beetroot, endive, citrus fruits, etc. Ideally, you should encourage the intake of antioxidant nutrients such as vitamins E and C as well as beta-carotene. Indeed, the negative effect of free radicals on vascular walls is regularly mentioned.

Using dietary supplements

The dietary supplement solution consists of using anti-cellulite products alongside your meals: capsules, drinks to dilute, etc.

Effectiveness will depend heavily on the supplement itself, as there are hundreds of them sold everywhere and under different forms/names. This very wide variety can be an issue because while some studies have shown very significant results, as in a 2006 study ⁽¹³⁾, others have conversely shown that results were sometimes worse than at the start ⁽¹⁴⁾ .

In fact, many factors interact:

• On the one hand, dietary supplements will not change your initial lifestyle habits. These supplements are intended to help reduce cellulite. They cannot compensate for certain physiological factors (see our guide on the causes of cellulite).
• On the other hand, dietary supplements are varied: effectiveness may depend on the supplement chosen.

Some dietary supplements seem to produce no significant effects, while others may have more impact: in a 2014 study ⁽¹⁵⁾ it was aronia berry juice (a food very similar to blueberries) that was highlighted: the study involved 29 women aged 25 to 48. According to the study conclusions, the results were fairly positive.

The downside is that scientific studies are not available for all dietary supplements. And these studies generally involve small samples; a larger study in 2006 involved 190 women and a dietary supplement based on plant extracts: here the results were very positive.

Using dietary supplements therefore requires looking into the subject beforehand. Favor natural dietary supplements. Rely on customer reviews to get an idea of their effectiveness.

Using cosmetic products

Ready-to-use treatments

Cosmetic products include all products applied to the skin. They are generally slimming creams. Cosmetics and cosmetic products are among the most commonly used methods to reduce the unwanted appearance of cellulite ⁽⁵⁾.

Most anti-cellulite products contain caffeine (we will come back to this in the “natural remedies” section of this guide), and/or retinol, and/or botanical derivatives as active ingredients. The presumed therapeutic effect of these ingredients is lipolysis of adipose tissue, stimulation of peripheral microcirculation to facilitate lymphatic drainage, and reduction of edema ⁽¹²⁾.

Treatments for reducing cellulite can come in several forms, such as a scrub. Cellublue body scrub is made with a unique blend of caffeine and micro-grains that transform into a cream to exfoliate, buff and smooth orange-peel skin and dimpling. The result: skin feels firmer and smoother.

Natural remedies

Coffee. Alkaloids such as caffeine are used because of their suggested effect on adipocyte lipolysis. Caffeine is thought to further activate the triglyceride lipase enzyme, which converts triglycerides into free fatty acids and glycerol ⁽¹²⁾. As a result, some people suggest making your own anti-cellulite cream with coffee grounds. It is an eco-friendly and budget-friendly remedy: by collecting what is left in your coffee filter (or at the bottom of your capsules) and mixing these “coffee grounds” with a little vegetable oil (olive oil or avocado oil, for example), you can create an oil that you can then use during your massages (with or without cups).

Apple cider vinegar. By mixing one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with an oil or body cream, and applying the mixture to the areas you want to treat.

Olive oil and lemon juice. Once again, this homemade oil is intended to be applied to problem areas before performing a palpate-roll massage.

However, the effectiveness of these few “grandmother’s remedies” does not seem to have been studied in any serious scientific research. As such, it is difficult to judge how effective such methods really are.

Effectiveness of cosmetic products

Regarding ready-to-use cosmetic products, many scientific studies have sought to demonstrate their effectiveness. Of the 14 scientific studies that led to evaluations, 10 showed positive results (including 8 with truly significant results); only 4 studies indicated that no positive result had been observed.

In total, more than 500 people took part in these studies. It should be noted that among the 4 studies reporting no positive result, one involved only 9 patients and another only 11 patients.

According to these studies, retinol appears to be a particularly effective agent. Treatment effectiveness was mainly determined by clinical assessment, comparison of circumference measurements or additional biophysical measurements, and/or subject self-assessment.

In summary, these studies tend to confirm that cosmetic products are far from useless. However, the challenge lies in the phenomenal cosmetic choice offered by the slimming industry: there are hundreds of cosmetics for cellulite, so which one should you choose? In the scientific studies we are discussing, several products were sometimes combined; moreover, these studies often take place in the United States, where the composition of certain cosmetic products may differ from that in France.

Lifestyle

Quit smoking

As we saw in our guide on the causes of cellulite, blood circulation is one of the fundamentals of cellulite. Cigarettes are notably harmful because they directly affect blood microcirculation: it has been proven many times that cigarette smoke reduces blood flow, weakens and disrupts collagen formation (which ultimately damages skin tissue).

Quitting smoking can only have a beneficial impact on your health in general, and especially on your cellulite.

Professional treatments

The main issue with professional cellulite treatments is their cost. Generally not covered by health insurance (and only rarely by supplementary insurance), these are medical treatments carried out in specialized clinics.

The “acoustic wave” process (or shock waves, acoustic waves, or ultrasound)

The aim is to reduce the volume of fat cells in certain areas of the body (the areas affected by cellulite) by sending shock waves.

Acoustic waves have long been used in medicine, notably for treating kidney stones or certain cases of tendonitis. Ultrasound scans are also based on this principle.

For cellulite, several sessions are needed to achieve convincing results: up to 10 sessions, generally lasting around 30 minutes each, and costing around €70 per session.

The acoustic wave process has been studied in at least 7 studies since 2007. Of these 7 studies, 2 did not attempt to measure results, and the other 5 showed extremely effective results against cellulite.

Mesotherapy

This involves injecting products into the skin that may have a beneficial effect on cellulite. As is often the case, the aim is to better stimulate blood microcirculation and help eliminate stored fat.

As with shock wave treatment, several sessions are required: at least 6 sessions are generally needed, and sometimes more than 10. As with shock waves, one session will cost you between €30 and €80 depending on the specialist.

Mesotherapy is not only used against cellulite. In fact, mesotherapy is a medical technique that is not new (1952) and simply consists of injecting medication in a highly targeted way directly into the deep layer of the skin (the dermis). It is an alternative to surgery, and the injections are performed using a very fine needle, either manually by the doctor or with an electronic injector gun.

Learn more about mesotherapy for cellulite

Laser treatments (or light therapy)

More restrictive, laser requires local anesthesia. Two methods exist:

• Laser endolipolysis: a very fine optical fiber penetrates under the skin and burns the fat cells that form cellulite.
• Laser exolipolysis : the laser does not enter the skin, it stays on the skin; the principle is identical (the laser seeks to heat the adipose tissue).

Several sessions are generally needed depending on the amount of cellulite, each person’s physiology, etc. From 3 to 10 sessions may be necessary, at a cost that varies depending on the specialist (from €50 to €150 per session). The table below presents the effects of laser treatment (and light-based procedures) according to different scientific studies that analyzed different treatments ^{(5, section 3.4 “Laser and Light-Based devices”)}

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As the table above shows, several wavelengths can be considered during laser treatment. Low-level laser therapy (known in English as LLLT, for “low-level laser therapy”) is not the same as infrared treatment, for example.

In any case, these therapies seem to produce positive results according to the 16 studies considered between 2006 and 2013. However, it is important to emphasize that despite the technical sophistication of this professional solution, the results are not miraculous: only 3 out of 16 studies highlight significant results.

Radiofrequency

As with laser procedures, there is also a medical technique that seeks to heat the skin, but this time using radiofrequency energy.

This technique is non-invasive and helps firm skin tissue, thereby reducing the orange-peel appearance. Several sessions are needed (sometimes up to 10), at prices generally ranging from €80 to €140 depending on the area you want to target (around 30 minutes per session).

Several types of radiofrequency exist, although studies have not really made it possible to highlight the effectiveness of one type over another. The table below presents the effects of radiofrequency treatment according to a study published in the renowned “American Journal of Clinical Dermatology” ^{(5, section 3.5 “Radiofrequency”)}.

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Cryolipolysis

There is a close link between cold and fat loss. Cryolipolysis consists of cooling fat deposits to temperatures between -5°C and -7°C for around 1 hour: to do this, the doctor pinches a good portion of skin and traps this portion of your skin in a cryode. Cryodes have several applicator heads to adapt to different parts of the body and their sizes (abdomen, love handles, outer thighs, inner thighs, etc.). Once caught in this device, it both suctions and cools.

Before being cooled, the skin is protected with a specific gel so that it is not damaged.

The “Subcision” procedure

This procedure can sound intimidating because it involves cutting the fibrous septae with a blade, with the aim of releasing fat cells and thus improving the appearance of the skin. This procedure must of course be carried out by a doctor.

Once again, a study ⁽²⁴⁾ that followed 232 patients helps us better understand the effectiveness of this method. Of the 232 patients aged 18 to 52, it is worth noting that:

• All experienced pain, bruising and blood-related disorders (hemosiderosis) after the procedure
• Patients were generally very satisfied with the treatment

The study concludes that this procedure is effective in the treatment of cellulite. Nevertheless, it appears to be a rather costly procedure, potentially costing up to €5000.

Cellfina® is a treatment based on this principle: the doctor is assisted by the Cellfina® device. The price of one Cellfina® session is €1140 in some establishments (price observed on the website of Centre Saint-Honoré Ponthieu in Paris in April 2019).

Hyaluronidase injections

Hyaluronidase is an enzyme that is effective in the treatment of fibrosis (linked to cellulite). It is used in aesthetic medicine to combat cellulite.

Hyaluronidase injections are performed by doctors and often complement another technique (for example, as an addition to ultrasound).

Relatively poorly documented, a scientific study published in 2013 in the “Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy ” ⁽²⁵⁾ nevertheless sought to highlight the effects of these injections against cellulite. The scientific study involved 42 women divided into 2 groups:

• One group was treated with ultrasound (see our section above) without hyaluronidase
• And the other group was treated with ultrasound plus hyaluronidase

After 10 days of treatment, both treatments were effective (we had already discussed the effectiveness of ultrasound), but ultrasound combined with hyaluronidase led to an even greater reduction in skin thickness. In this study, hyaluronidase injections therefore made it possible to achieve more significant results.

Carboxytherapy (the “Carbon Dioxide Therapy” procedure)

Carbon dioxide therapy, better known as carboxytherapy, consists of injecting carbon dioxide under the skin (using a very fine needle) for therapeutic purposes. The goal is to treat localized fat deposits.

Several sessions are required: from 8 to 12 sessions, at a price varying depending on the practitioner and the area(s) to be treated, from around €50 to €120.

In 2016, a study ⁽²³⁾ specifically examined the effectiveness of this treatment in 10 women aged 23 to 35. Digital photographs were used to assess the severity of cellulite before and after treatment. In the end, and after the treatment, the study found a significant reduction in cellulite from grade 3 to grade 2.

Physical activity

Mobility in general

A sedentary lifestyle is very unfavorable when it comes to cellulite. Indeed, being active helps ease the workload of the blood circulation system: and blood circulation (as you can learn in our guide explaining what cellulite is) is a key factor.

So there is no secret: working your muscles and moving more in general will help improve the appearance of your cellulite and reduce fat. Even if you are not particularly sporty, this can involve simple habits such as making a point of getting up regularly if you have a sedentary job (sitting behind a screen all day, for example): make yourself take regular breaks, and make yourself walk during those breaks.

With a bit more motivation, committing to regular exercise is of course highly beneficial.

Squat exercises

Any physical effort will generally be beneficial for reducing cellulite, but squat exercises, which help tone the buttocks, are generally especially recommended for many women because that is where most cellulite tends to accumulate.

The basic squat movement is fairly simple to perform and can be done at home: standing up, place your feet hip-width apart, toes slightly turned outward. Then stretch your arms out in front of you or fold them over your chest and lower yourself as if you were going to sit down: your thighs are then parallel to the floor, your body weight rests on your heels, your knees do not go beyond your feet, and your back stays straight. Remember to slow down as you lower yourself and to contract your glutes well as you come back up. Repeat this exercise progressively.

On squats, we created a dedicated page.

Other exercises

Many other exercises are beneficial for cellulite reduction.

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy consists of treating yourself with water: here, the aim is to target blood circulation in the areas affected by cellulite. By alternating hot and cold water, this circulation is inevitably stimulated. Also known as a Scottish shower, this therapy can be performed in a more formal way in spa resorts or in specialized hydrotherapy centers.

Spas, thermal baths and thalassotherapy

Many centers offer “cellulite cures” within their thermal facilities. These cures are of course based on water, but not only that: you are very often supported by a dietitian, and your diet is adapted. Specific exercises may also be added (in the water or outside it, such as aquabiking). In general, these programs, sometimes found under names such as “silhouette retreat”, etc., can be found at all price levels. Expect around €1000 as a rough indication.

You now know all the main solutions that exist for getting rid of cellulite.

Sources and references

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⁽²⁾ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9502849
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⁽²⁵⁾ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23383969