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Olive oil and cellulite

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Olive oil and cellulite: facts and hype

Olive oil is a “good fat”, so it must be good for cellulite, right?

A lot of people think that since olive oil is healthy (indeed), they can consume large amounts without getting any weight gain or cellulite (very wrong).

(The same applies to the other unjustifiably overhyped oil of recent years, coconut oil, which is a matter for a whole separate article.)

But is all this hype justified? Let’s see how good or olive oil is for your figure, and especially for cellulite, which is the subject of this blog.

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Olive oil and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA): healthy but fattening

Olives are fruits rich in fat and in fibre and they contain about 15% fat, with 10% being oleic acid, a monounsaturated, omega-9 fatty acid.

Olive oil, being a fatty extract of the olives, obviously contains 100% fat, of which about 70% is monounsaturated oleic acid.

Monounsaturated fat is a neutral fat that, from a health point of view, can be consumed in high quantities without:

  • the negative aspects that too much omega-6 fat can have on your health (disruption of omega-3/omega-6 balance, pro-inflammatory action)

  • or the negative effects of artery clogging and insulin resistance-inducing saturated fats

Excessive fat, even “healthy fat”, is not healthy

On the other hand, any fat consumed in high quantities is bound to lead to the accumulation of fat in the body, unless it is oxidised (‘burned’) for energy via exercise or via lots of everyday movement.

Now there is no such thing as healthy obesity or healthy overweight. Excess fat accumulation is detrimental for both health and appearance, regardless if the fat consumed was originally healthy. Obesity is obesity.

By the time the body becomes overweight or obese, we are moving into poor health territory, if the fat gets accumulated in the stomach area: deep visceral fat (‘belly fat’) is well-known to be pro-inflammatory and a risk factor of heart disease.

If the fat gets accumulated into the thigh/buttock area, then we have an appearance problem as well as a localised inflammation problem, manifesting as big thighs and/or cellulite.

The same applies to cellulite: there is no such thing as healthy cellulite. Chronic, low grade inflammation is an integral aspect of cellulite.

If excess healthy fat consumption leads to the accumulation of fat inside the skin (what we call cellulite), it doesn’t matter if the original fat consumed was healthy or not. The accumulated hypodermal fat (i.e. fat in the deep layer of the skin) will make skin on the thighs and buttocks look bumpy (what we call cellulite).

Unfortunately, many people (at least in Mediterranean countries) consume way too much olive oil. Directly it is healthy but indirectly it is not - at least when consumed in high quantities - simply because it is fattening (as all oils are - good or bad).

Does olive oil cause cellulite?

Excessive olive oil, or any oil/fat for that matter, will make the skin of the thighs and buttocks quite unhealthy. This is because the accumulation of excess fat inside the skin leads to inflammation, water retention and fibrosis. Cellulite is not just an aesthetic condition, it is an indication of localised low-grade, chronic inflammation and an unhealthy state of the skin.

So we can say that healthy fatty acid consumption (including olive oil fatty acid) is healthy, as long as it does not lead to excessive fat accumulation in the body. And that usually happens with the combination of carbs with fat (and alcohol).

Excessive fat consumption, especially when mixed with carbs and/or alcohol, will always lead to fat accumulation and cellulite, especially when combined with inactivity.

What about olives and cellulite?

As mentioned above, olives have about 15% oil in them. However, they also have a lot of fibre (therefore they are filling), polyphenols (especially the brown ones, therefore they are even more healthy) and a very strong taste (therefore they are not consumable in high quantities).

So I wouldn’t worry about getting cellulite from olives. Olives are a healthy, neutral food: neither fattening nor slimming.

Moderation is the key

So the key here is moderation. Some extra virgin olive oil is great, especially when it replaces butter - or ghastly margarine. But consuming too much is not great.

For example, excessive olive oil consumption is one of the reasons for obesity in countries like my native Greece, where people almost drink olive oil. Yes, it’s good for the heart to begin with, but 50 pounds of extra weight later, some of it as stomach fat and some of it in the thigh/buttock area, is neither healthy nor good for your appearance anymore.

Does olive oil reduce cellulite?

Now can olive oil reduce cellulite somehow? Is olive oil an anti-cellulite food, as some people suggest, perhaps if consumed in small quantities? Nope. Olive oil is a nice neutral food if consumed in normal quantities.

But it is not an anti-cellulite food. For that you have to look at much less calories, much more fibre and much higher polyphenol / phytochemical content (think berries, broccoli etc). Or some protein with highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs), as in wild salmon or sardines.

What is better for health and cellulite, avocado or olive oil?

Like olives, avocados are also rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA).

Avocado may contain 6.6 times less fat than olive oil, but then we also tend to consume 6.6 times more avocado than olive oil in a single sitting (one avocado contains 30g of fat, which is the equivalent of two tablespoons of olive oil).

  • One avocado has 13g of fibre, but then no one consumes olive oil straight from the bottle, you normally pour it on salad (one head of romaine lettuce also contains 13g of fibre)

  • One avocado has 330 calories while two tablespoons of olive oil have 270 calories

  • One slice of toast (75 calories) with half an avocado on top (165 calories) has about 240 calories

  • One slice of toast (75 calories) with one tablespoon of olive oil (135 calories) and some cherry tomatoes on top has about 220 calories

Finally, high quality, extra virgin olive oil (the only olive oil worth consuming) has a very high content of polyphenols, which avocado doesn’t.

I am not discussing avocado oil much here, as refined avocado oil is pointless (pure fat and nothing else) and whole unrefined avocado oil has a very heavy taste.

So, in summary, I would say that both are good as long as they replace unhealthy foods (muffin, biscuits, butter, trans fats, fatty cheese, horrible fried bacon on toast etc).

And they can be “bad” if consumed in high quantities and without exercise, walking or other daily movement to burn off the excess calories.

On the other hand, olive oil is quite identical to avocado oil, in most respects, including calories. So replacing one for the other would not make any difference with cellulite prevention.

Having olive oil on the day that you receive a cellulite treatment

One thing is certain, if you do undergo any cellulite procedure, do not have anything containing carbs, sugars, alcohol or fat on the day of the treatment (including healthy fat, such as olive oil. You can have veg, lean protein and berry fruits.

This is to trick the body that it undergoes starvation and in this way maximise the release of fat from fat cells, that a good cellulite treatment should stimulate (not many cellulite treatments do that, but that’s another story…).

Rubbing olive oil on skin for cellulite removal? Seriously?

There is one more thing on this subject: some people on the internet suggest that you apply olive oil on your skin, sometimes olive oil with ground coffee beans, to reduce cellulite.

This is so ridiculous I am not even going to waste time to analyse it. Those oils will make your epidermis (the surface of your skin) soft, like any other oil. And the ground coffee beans will exfoliate your skin, like anything abrasive.

But that’s all: nothing will happen to your hypodermis (the deep layer of your skin, where cellulite is found) or to cellulite itself.

Enough said.

Extra virgin olive oil for bigger buttocks?

This is something people sometimes ask: “Can I get a bigger bum by consuming lots of olive oil?”

My answer to this question is very simple. Have you seen (older) Greek or Italian women’s legs? One reason they are so round is olive oil, which especially in Greece is consumed in copious quantities - more than anywhere else in the world. Another reason, of course, are bread and pasta, which in combination with olive oil are pure dynamite - if you want to put on weight, that is.

As most women put on their weight on bum and thighs, by consuming lots of olive oil (or cakes or bread…) this is most probably where most of the olive oil will end up.

The only problem is that you do not choose if fat from consuming olive oil (or any other food for that matter) will end up in the buttocks and that it will not become cellulite or that it will not end up in your thighs.

As fattening methods go, getting fatter with extra virgin olive oil is probably the healthiest way to get fat. At least the triglycerides (fat) in your adipocytes (fat cells) will be healthy omega-9 triglycerides :)

However, as mentioned above, as fat accumulates in the body, even fat derived from something healthy, such as extra virgin olive oil, in the end it inevitably leads to inflammation, fibrosis and cellulite. There is no such thing as healthy obesity.

To reiterate a point I made countless of times on this website: there is no way to direct fat to deposit itself into a specific area, i.e. to create a beautiful round bottom without cellulite or saddlebags.

Plus another point: there is no big butt without cellulite - that’s impossible and only exists in retouched pictures of celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Black Chyna.

In reality, these ladies are loaded with severe cellulite (plenty of paparazzi photographic evidence of that on the web), while they fool you that they have those huge, perfect, round, cellulite-free buttocks.

It’s all celebrity smoke and mirrors for the naive and the gullible.

So if you want to use olive oil (or bread and pasta) to grow a big bum, do it, if you don’t mind the cellulite and big thighs that come with it.

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