I earn a living by helping women reach their fitness goals. Lately, I have been hearing the same question over and over. I know you can help me tone my body, but can you really help me get rid of cellulite?

It's as if cellulite is something mysterious that requires medical intervention or months of treatment with the super magical cream that is an extract from a rare Asian plant. It's only 17 easy payments of $10.99.

I am about to reveal to you one of biggest myths in the weight loss and cosmetics industry. The reason for its existence, I believe, is that the weight loss and cosmetic industries (both billion dollar industries) stand to profit from this myth.

What is cellulite anyway?

Quite simply cellulite is body fat found on the back of women's thighs. It's the same type of body fat that you can have on the belly, on the arms or anywhere else. It's fat cells. Nothing more, nothing less.

But if cellulite is simply body fat, why does it look like orange peel on women but not on men?

Both men and women have connective tissue layered over their muscles, bones, and organs. It just so happens that men's connective tissue is smoother than women's due to hormonal and other physiological differences. This is especially true of connective tissue found on the back of the thighs.

As a woman accumulates body fat, some of it is deposited on the back of her thighs. And the irregularly shaped connective tissue that most women have causes the dimply appearance.

Countless remedies are offered to reduce or eliminate cellulite, but for the most part they are worthless.

So how do you eliminate cellulite? The true key to reduce body fat deposits on your thighs. That's it.

And how do you burn the fat off your thighs? Unfortunately, you cannot choose to only lose fat from your thighs, so you will have to lose fat from your belly, hips, and everywhere else too. I know - the horror.

But how do you burn fat anyway? Well, that's a whole other article, but the short answer is you exercise hard and you follow a sound nutrition plan. There is just one problem with this approach. It's hard work and people don't want to hear that or pay for that.

If you have an issue with cellulite, don't kid yourself - no cream is going to solve the problem. Forget all promises of the quick fix, get started on an exercise program and start changing your eating habits.