Why do teenagers have cellulite?

Cellulite in teenagers and young women

• What causes cellulite in teenagers?

• Diet, exercise and smoking and cellulite in the teenage years

• Genetics, estrogen and teenage cellulite

• Endocrine disrupting chemicals, microplastics and cellulite in teenagers

• Everyone has imperfections

• Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts

Teenage cellulite: how is it possible?

You may have noticed in the swimming pool, at the beach, at the gym etc, that some young women, even from the age of 13-14 have cellulite? How can this be possible, you might wonder?

There are multiple factors that cause cellulite in general, and most of them also play a role in teenage cellulite.

Let’s have a look.

What causes cellulite in teenagers?

Cellulite is the result of:

• Genetics

• Lifestyle (poor nutritional choices, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption etc)

• Ageing

• The presence of female hormones, mainly estrogen. Plus endocrine disrupting chemicals that act as estrogen and hormonal contraceptives, which contain estrogens and/or progestogens.

Obviously, ageing is not a factor in teenage cellulite but all the other three are indeed a factor. Alcohol is not permitted until age 18 (In Europe, at least), so it should not be a factor in cellulite at the ages of 13-18.

Diet, exercise and smoking and cellulite in the teenage years

I remember seeing my very fit athletics colleagues (sprinters) when I was a teenager complaining about cellulite. These girls, same as me, were intensively training 5-6 days a week, 2-3 hours a day. How is it possible they could complain about cellulite?

Of course some of them had a strong genetic female ‘gluteofemoral phenotype’. In simple terms, this means large hips and thighs, courtesy of their mother’s genes.

Plus, I remember, they were eating a lot of sugary food without a care in the world, given they were expending a lot of calories during training. However, caloric excesses (too much food in one sitting) and excesses in sugar consumption have a cumulative effect over the months and years.

A little bit accumulates in the very “stubborn” gluteofemoral hypodermal adipose tissue (i.e. deep skin fat of the butt and thigh area) every single time a girl/woman overeats, especially sugary food, with the end result being the appearance of cellulite.

However, none of that would be happening if it wasn’t for estrogen.

Genetics, estrogen and teenage cellulite

Pre-pubertal boys and girls do not normally have cellulite. After puberty, boys or young men still do not normally develop cellulite.

• However girls and young women do develop cellulite after puberty

• Furthermore, male to female transexuals, also do develop cellulite

• And girls/women who are on hormonal contraception (pill, injections patches, medicated coil etc) also develop cellulite more often and/or more severely than other women

What this all tells us is that estrogen is what determines if someone will deposit excess calories mainly on their stomach (men) or mainly on the hips, buttocks and thighs, including the deep skin layers on those areas (women).

Of course, not all teenagers get cellulite and that’s where genetics and lifestyle come into play.

• Poor genetics mean more cellulite, despite someone’s best efforts

• Excess estrogen also means more cellulite, despite one’s best efforts

Endocrine disrupting chemicals, microplastics and cellulite in teenagers

We discussed artificial estrogenic chemicals above in the form of hormonal contraception.

However, there is another form of estrogenic chemicals, called xenoestrogens or, more broadly, endocrine disrupting chemicals, which act like estrogen on the body, but in all the wrong ways. These chemicals are the cause of different cancers, endocrine problems and, yes, cellulite.

Perhaps xenoestrogens are the reason that more and more young girls have cellulite while their grandmothers don’t. Excessive sugar consumption, lack of exercise and unhealthy, ultra-processed foods are other reasons for this phenomenon.

Everyone has imperfections

Of course, cellulite doesn’t kill and you can live a happy and fulfilling life with or without cellulite, so there is no reason to get anxious about it.

This is especially important in teenagers and young people who are more impressionable about body image. What matters is to have a fulfilling life, not to have the perfect body.

Everyone has imperfections.

The solution is not to lose sleep about them and worry what men (or other women) may think.

The solution is to accept them, love your body as it is and after those two positive affirmations you can always try to improve those imperfections with healthy nutrition and exercise (which will also improve your overall health and skin appearance).

And, for faster results, you can also have a course of high intensity cellulite treatments.

(At the clinic we only provide treatments after the age of 18 and if we see that people suffer from actual anxiety or depression about their body image we actually recommend counselling, body coaching, CBT or other therapy, as opposed to treatment.)

Have a cellulite treatment in London with the cellulite experts

At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.

This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.

As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.

Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.

Our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, microneedling-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.

And our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.

We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.

Learn more or check prices and book an expert treatment at our London clinic (49 Marylebone High Street, W1)