Cellulite is a very natural part of the female body!
Female hormones cause layers of the skin to fold differently over fatty tissue than male hormones do. This causes the majority of women to have cellulite.
Period. End of story.
Even women who are incredibly thin have cellulite on their tiny little fat deposits.
Cellulite is fact of female life… but it’s naturalness has been beaten out of us.
We have been told it’s unnatural. We have been told it’s ugly. We have been told it’s disgusting.
Corporations who want us to feel badly about ourselves and buy their products have told us time and time again that we are not worthwhile if we have cellulite.
But imagine a world where cellulite is not shameful and punishable, but instead celebrated!
Imagine a world in which women weren’t ashamed of their natural bodies, but instead proud and happy! Wouldn’t that be amazing?
I do my best to live in and to create that world around me. Want to join in? Here are the top 5 reasons I love my cellulite – and I think you might be loving your cellulite at least a little bit (more) by the end, too.
1. It gave me my clear skin, fertility, and sex drive back
I began seriously restricting my food intake back in 2009. I probably ate aroun 1000 calories a day. I also woke up at 5am to hit the gym for an hour before class, then spent another 90 minutes at the gym before going to bed.
I shed a lot of weight, fast, and I kept it off by continuing to restrict calories and exercise a lot. I was very thin. I had eight pack abs. I looked like this:
But when I looked like this, my body rebelled. My hormone levels became incredibly imbalanced. I developed PCOS (which I later figured out how to overcome, and now spend my life helping other women do the same). I developed a severe case of acne. I stopped menstruating and lost my fertility. I completely lost my libido, and in fact my desire to be romantic at all.
When I summoned the courage to re-gain weight and let some cellulite sit on my behind and thighs, my body no longer felt like it was starving. I became much healthier. My skin cleared up remarkably (you can see before and after photos in this post). My fertility came back. My menstrual cycle returned. And my romantic and sexual capabilities again skyrocketed. I became sexually ravenous.
And I will never, ever, ever give that up again.
The female body is naturally a bit fatty. Your hormone health depends upon this. Without robust hormone health, your skin, your sex drive, your fertility, and your mood may all suffer like mine did.
Cellulite has real health consequences. When you have it, you permit your body to feel as nourished and fed as it needs.
2. Without cellulite, I wouldn’t have curves
I have cellulite on the inside and outside of my upper thighs. While it might not be photoshoppy-ideal to have the cellulite, if I didn’t have this weight, I also wouldn’t have a fairly robust hourglass shape.
When I added the cellulite, I also added some weight to my hips, and some D sized weight in my chest.
There is not a single thing wrong with being a twiggy, sculpted woman. That’s a perfectly beautiful thing.
It’s simply not my version of beauty.
3. I get to eat when I am hungry!
Back when I was magazine-worthy thin, I felt hungry 1000% of the time.
During that time, I thought feeling that way was normal. I was so used to it. I had been restricting my food intake my whole life.
Nowadays, I eat when I am hungry. Sometimes I even eat when I’m not hungry, but just because I feel like it. I don’t normally stop until I get pretty full. I feel good about what I eat, and I love not being hungry any more.
Eating heartily is far more fun than a size 00 jean could ever be.
Trust me, I’d know.
4. I get a brand new kind of compliment
The way that I exist in my body has changed, and that’s cool. Yet so has the way that other people notice.
Back when I was waify thin, I got a lot of compliments from women. They said “you look so great!” all the time. Sometimes women told me they were intimidated by me, because my abs or my thigh gap or whatever were so impressive.
I thrived off of that attention – I met the standard for the way women are “supposed” to look – and women gave me the complimentary awards I convinced myself I deserved. I was on Cloud Nine. It was the most amazing feeling to “win” the game.
When I gained weight, people stopped complimenting me on my size. No one called me “tiny” anymore. No one said I looked “great.” Women pretty much stopped commenting on my appearance at all.
But men on the other hand…
Men began to compliment me a lot more.
Albeit, they were often objectifying compliments. I’ll never forget the “hey you look better from behind!” remark.
But the bottom line is that the men see something that women are often too blinded to see:
I exist healthfully in my natural body now. I am comfortable in my skin. I am fertile. I am sexual.
Men aren’t yoked to the standard image the way women are. They are more free to embrace various bodies, and to not care at all about some cellulite here or there. Not at all.
Seriously. I have a lot of data to back this up. They care not at all.
(And if they do, f’ em!)
Women could probably love and appreciate a body like mine too, if it weren’t for the fact that the womanly gender is so tragically caught up in the skinny skinny skinny mantra that magazines and corporations ram down our throats.
And again, I need to emphasize that neither body type – my thin waify body type of old or my more jiggly curvy one of today, is better than the other. But they are different, and I have settled into the body type and type of existence that is right for me.
5. I get to be the change
Ghandi said “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
A lot of factors make me love and keep my cellulite. Yet the most powerful one of all has nothing to do with me, and instead has everything to do with the people I am helping other than me.
Society tells women and girls that we need to be fat-free in order to be beautiful. It tells us that we need to be stick figures. It tells us that we need to be air-brushed. It tells us that we need to deprive ourselves of enjoyable food and nourishing calories in order to be loved.
It tells us that in order to get attention and be worthwhile, we need to prioritize our looks, and even to punish ourselves because of them.
These ideas are wrong. They are oppressive. They are responsible for depression, anxiety, self-loathing, hormone imbalances and other health conditions, hospitalizations, and even deaths for millions of women and girls every single year.
As a woman, I consider it my duty to stand up for my jiggly parts.
The world will never change unless someone makes it happen. I and every other woman who say no to norms and embraces our natural bodies – whether it has curves or fat or cellulite or scars or pimples or anything else – we are literally making a stand for social justice. We are changing the world.
One impression at a time. One girl at a time. One friend at a time. When I proudly wear my jiggly parts and still consider myself worthwhile, I subtly influence the people around me.
If I hated myself, starved myself, and tried to get rid of my cellulite, then I would be participating in the oppressive social machine.
I can’t do that.
I won’t.
Of all of the reasons I love my cellulite, this is the most important one:
I love my cellulite, ladies, because I love you.
Why do you love your cellulite? Or do you hate it? What do you think of MY reasons? I would love to learn from your opinions and experiences!!!
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Hei Stefani!
Can you please tell me how to put on weight by eating healthy food? I got PCOS for the same reason as you, but just cant put on weight.
Beautiful post Stefani <3 As always 🙂 Love you girl! Thanks for being a beautiful strong voice in this world!
I looooooove this article! Thank you for taking a stand for women. We as women waste so much energy trying to look a certain way thinking it will make us happy/lovable/worthy/desirable. And all that stress ends up biting us in the you-know-what by harming our health, emotions, and spirit. How amazing to be a part of the new message and movement for women to honor our inner beauty, our strength, and our hearts. =)
This is amazing, thank you so much for sharing your honesty with the world. I love #3!!
thank you for being the voice of true change!! i am also transitioning from society’s idea of perfection to the realization that everyone is different and beautiful in their own way, and you have helped me see this, thank you I am so grateful! xxx love & support!
Hi Stefani,
I think this article is great and it is soooo true about what men think. I am friends with a lot of guys and I hate myself when I see a flaw and they have no clue what I am talking about. Thank you for helping put things in perspective
YES! All praise the jiggly parts! This is a wonderful post, Stefani! <3
You are my hero. LOVE this post and I’ll be sharing it EVERYWHERE. Kudos sister.
This was/is HARD for me to accept! I was more ok with the fat, as long as it didn’t look bumpy! This is also an important cultural obsession/bias – ageism. We all know how it’s not just skinny that we are all striving for, but young too. Time marches on, and so does the cellulite! I am so happy to see older women comfortable in their bodies too.
Thank you so much for this. I want my hormone levels to get back to normal after being too restrictive for some years, but getting over my fear of gaining weight is easier said than done. You are helping a lot, though. So again, thank you!
I loved this article. I love my curves but after a 125 lb weight loss I am having a tough time loving everything I see in the mirror. Still, I resist losing more than another 40. Why? Cause I love being plus size yummy! My guy cant get enough of my softness. Actually , its guys’ guilty secret. Most guys love a soft curvy woman. Fat is is the new sexy(not out of hand though). Especially in a woman past 50 like me. Being too skinny makes you look gaunt and like a plucked chicken when your older.
YES! YES! Love this post as much as I love my cellulite! =)
I used to KILL myself trying to maintain a 10 pound weight loss and zero cellulite. I’ve thankfully let that go and embraced what I call “my sweet spot. ”
No more killing myself in order to weigh 10 pounds less and have smooth baby butt skin. No more skipping outings with friends and family events in order to avoid eating anything that I used to deem as “bad”. No more hours and hours of exercise, itsy bitsy food portions, ordering the same salmon and broccoli, and HIDE THE DAMN DESSERT MENU!!!
Hell no.
No more insanity.
Ever since I’ve embraced my sweet spot and changed my priorities I have a much more joyful, satisfying, and fun life.
Plus at this weight I don’t require restrictions or crazy long workouts. It’s my individualized set weight that my body naturally likes to be at and I can easily maintain it regardless of a few splurges here and there.
I’ve been at my sweet spot for almost a year now. It’s easy. I’m 10 pounds heavier than what I used to desire for my frame and height, I have cellulite and I lost my 6 pack…butttttt, I’m so much happier and healthier! I’ve long since let go of that desired weight that came with no real benefits other than a stupid smaller number on my scale.
In my sweet spot, I do 30-45 minute workouts once a day, 5 days a week. I can have my weekly pizza nights, 2-3 glasses of wine a week, and enjoy treats that I’ve made on an as desired basis. I don’t have to calorie or macro count. My skin is clear, my hormones balanced. I have more energy. I don’t have to drink a gallon of water a day to make sure I’m flushing everything out cuz God forbid I should carry any extra water weight, ANDDDDD I don’t have to eat every 2-3 hours these tiny, bland, unsatisfying meals.
At my desired weight, the weight I used to WISH I was at, in order to maintain that weight I’d to work out 90 minutes a day 6 days a week. Bye bye pizza, bye bye wine, sniff sniff cheesecake. At my desired weight I have to take time to calculate how many calories and fucking macros the fatless chicken breast and salad I’m about to eat contains. At my desired weight I have to track my water intake to make sure I get in a gallon of water a day and then go live in the bathroom thanks to my tiny, child-bearing damaged bladder. At my desired weight I turn down friends and family invites to do fun things because you know, I’m tired from my long ass workouts and only eating 1,200 calories a day, and I can’t even eat any of the food you’ll be serving cuz then I’ll beat myself up for it and feel all guilty and shit!
Yeahhhh
I rather be 10 pounds heavier and love my life and be healthier. I rather be 10 pounds heavier and get to enjoy my weekly pizza and wine (tequila) nights and dessert if I desire. I rather accept invitations to events, and not feel weak and exhausted every day.
The funny thing is, when you stop scrutinizing everything that goes into your mouth, and you stop seeing food as calories and macros and instead see food as you know, FOOODDDD, your body image starts to shift.
Slowly and surely, you embrace your body more. Slowly and surely you stop talking down to yourself. You stop scrutinizing everything you don’t like. Slowly and surely you start loving what is, right now, not later.
Long post I know, but I just couldn’t agree with you more Stefanie. I support this so much and wish more and more women could embrace this! Thank you for sharing such awesome information.
I LOVE this!! I have been trying to figure out how to help my extremely skinny (hasn’t really hit puberty yet) 13 year old (she eats all of the things she should, butter, cream….real FOOD, she just happens to be built like her dad!) that a woman’s body is HEALTHY when curves are present. I can’t wait to share this with her!
This is brilliant, thanks for sharing.
I can’t thank you enough for this article… It is 100% how I feel about my body and how far I’ve come. I’ve bookmarked it so I can read it again whenever I have “wobbles” about my wobbles!!!!
While many women might feel manipulated by the media & entertainment industries to be skinny, its equally manipulative to suggest that the fatter ‘you’ received more attention from men than the skinnier ‘you’. Both conditions involved extremes of approach to dieting which were abusive to mind and body. This article undermines the increasing & positive awareness that eating healthily from a selection of naturally grown, low carb/high fat foods in meals you’ve made yourself is the way to go. These foods should be grown in a 10- mile radius of your home and should not include factory-made, (processed) packaged food which has been additive- and preservative- loaded. Cellulite is the manifeststion of a sedentary, under-active body reared on a diet of American-style sugar- & carb-loaded junk- and fast foods in far too large servings , as much as Americans may utterly dislike this fact. Nowhere do you mention the choice everyone must make to increase physical activity easily not via expensive gym contracts, but through free, ‘ accessible’ exercise like walking, cycling, using the stairs rather than elevators oetc. Its also very important to encourage women to drink at least 6 -8 glasses of clear water daily to hydrate the blood and flush out toxins from the two biggest poisons they are encouraged to consume in vast amounts by big food and big pharma today. The extent of cellulite in your body depends to some degree on genetics but to a very large degree by healthier, nutritionally cleaner food choices And not to see-saw between extremes of approach to how much and what they eat.#ChewTheFat
I didn’t say More, I said Different, and was pointing out that men simply aren’t bothered by the need to be thin like women are.
Thank you for your love and bravery!!!! I love my cellulite because it feels sooo good when it’s stroked gently with your own or your lovers finger tips. Please try this!!! Lay on your stomach and relax. Close your eyes. Gently rub (with fingers dangling freely) from behind the knee upward and over the butt and stop at the lower back! Repeat. I also love the way the lumps and dimples feel on my finger tips. Enjoy! Please comment if you try this or if you have been indulging in the sensitivity your cellulite.