Читать книгу The 5:2 Bikini Diet: Over 140 Delicious Recipes That Will Help You Lose Weight, Fast! Includes Weekly Exercise Plan and Calorie Counter - Jacqueline Whitehart, Jacqueline Whitehart - Страница 45

The 5:2 Bikini Diet is a fantastic way to reduce cellulite. Cellulite is just a type of body fat, but it is a horrible lumpy body fat that’s deposited in all the worst places: hips, thighs and bottom. What’s worse is that it has a dimpled ‘orange peel’ appearance that can make us feel self-conscious, especially in a swimsuit. The good news is that the 5:2 Bkini Diet is ideal for reducing cellulite, because when you lose weight through fasting, all the weight that you lose is body fat, and that includes cellulite.

The distinctive ugly appearance of cellulite comes from the fibrous tissue that only occurs in certain parts of the body like bottoms and thighs. In these areas, the fibres tether the skin to the muscle below. The cellulite is where the body fat bulges through the skin. The fibrous tissues cannot expand as the fat layer increases so we get the dimpled texture that we hate so much. You can’t do anything about the fibres connecting the skin to the muscle so the only way to reduce cellulite is to reduce fat in these areas and to increase the tone of the underlying muscles. By fasting two days a week to reduce the fat and exercising to increase the tone, you should see a marked reduction in cellulite.

‘Most surprisingly my cellulite seems to have melted. It used to be all over my bottom and on my thighs, but now there’s just a little bit on my bottom and I’m confident that will go too. I didn’t expect that kind of result at all, let alone so soon.’

Emma

There is a known medical process by which the body deposits fat on the hips and thighs. If we reverse that process then the fat will be removed from these areas first. An excess of insulin is one of the triggers for depositing fat in these areas. Intermittent fasting has been proven to reduce insulin levels, so that is one reason why the 5:2 Bikini Diet has an impact on cellulite in particular. Another trigger is an increase in oestrogen caused by pregnancy, the pill or HRT. If you are on the pill or HRT you may notice an increase in your cellulite. Other factors are smoking, too much alcohol and not enough exercise. If we keep these factors to a minimum, fast two days a week and exercise to increase muscle tone, we are doing everything possible to reduce cellulite.