WebMD Ask the Dermatologist

Bye-Bye Cellulite

At 39, Julie wears a svelte size 4 and works out regularly to stay lean. Still, she struggles with one frustrating figure flaw that most women can relate to: cellulite.

"I started getting it in my early to mid-30s,'' says Julie, who lives in Chicago and asked that her last name not be used. It mostly cropped up on her buttocks and the backs of the upper legs.

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When extra workouts didn't seem to make a difference, she resorted to a new deep-heating technique that relies on radiofrequency technology to tighten collagen and firm up the dimply, cottage cheese-like skin that affects thin and heavy women alike.

After the treatment, she was pleased. "I am so happy I had it done," she says. "My cellulite is drastically reduced."

Julie's heat treatment isn't the only new option for banishing or reducing cellulite. In the past few years, a host of new options has become available. Which of these new cellulite treatments are the most promising and which ones should you skip? Read on for details.

Cellulite: Understanding It

Before seeking treatment for cellulite, it helps to understand what it is and why it occurs, experts say. "It's largely genetic," says Carolyn Jacob, MD, a dermatologist and associate clinical instructor of dermatology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. "Ninety percent of women have it."

Cellulite is fat, but with a different appearance than other fat. It looks like dimpled skin, sort of cottage-cheesy, and most often shows up on the thighs, hips, and buttocks. If it's mild, it can only been seen when the skin is pinched. But in more severe cases, the bumpiness and peaks and valleys show when the skin isn't pinched.

Cellulite is much more common in women than in men, experts say. Why? Fat in women often accumulates in the thighs, hips, and buttocks. Underneath the skin, the fat contains fibrous bands.

In men, these bands are typically in even rows, says Robert Weiss, MD, president of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery and a dermatologist in Hunt Valley, Md. But in women, even in women at a healthy weight, the bands aren't in regular, even rows but are in more of a zigzag pattern, he says, probably due partly to hormonal influences. That allows the fat to push through the connective tissue that typically keeps it distributed evenly, resulting in the bumps, peaks, and valleys that appear as cellulite.

Genetics play a role in whether you will get noticeable cellulite, and so does the amount of fat in your body. Excess weight can make the cellulite more noticeable.

Cellulite Treatment: Exercise and Diet It Away?

Has anyone ever exercised away cellulite? "I think you can improve it somewhat with repetitive, low-weight exercises on the leg," says Weiss. He presented new data on cellulite treatments at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.