People, particularly women, have been looking for anything that will smooth out and eliminate cellulite. So as you can imagine, much joy was brought about when it was first announced that a new, revolutionary cream was developed that would take care of this perplexing situation. All you needed to do, according to the ad's, was simply rub the cream onto your thighs and watch the cellulite disappear.

But are these creams really capable of delivering the results they claim? Is it really possible to get rid of cellulite by doing nothing but rubbing a cream on your thighs? Let's take a look at whether these creams really work to lighten up your thighs, or only to lighten up your pocketbooks.

During a meeting of the North American Association for the study of Obesity, a preliminary study was presented on a thigh cream with the active ingredient aminophylline, which is an asthma drug. In this study, 11 women had used the cream on one thigh for six weeks. The women had lost an average of one centimeter from the thigh being treated. The researchers conducting the study found similar results from creams made with other active ingredients that were similar to aminophylline. These chemicals cause nerve cells to break down body fat, in theory.

Now a one centimeter decrease, which is around 3/8ths of an inch, is very little of a change for even a small thigh and would likely not be noticeable. And since it has not been shown that just by continuing to apply these creams over many more weeks will continue to produce similar results, the results of these creams can be attributed to normal body variations.

Another reason why a very small result can be seen but not continued is because some of these creams, upon drying, can produce a temporary skin tightening effect. This may be one reason why the skin can feel smoother after use of these creams. This feeling of smoothness can promote a temporary illusion that the product is really working, but since it is not affecting the fat below the surface of the skin, the problem still exists.

Regardless of this, there are quite a number of these creams available on the market today making claims of decreasing your thighs or smoothing out your cellulite, all basing these claims on the scant results presented at the obesity meeting. And at an average cost of ten dollars an ounce, these creams are pretty expensive for something relatively unproven to give any real results to match their claims.

In the final analyses, these products simply don't work. With the exception of cosmetic surgery or liposuction, there has still been no method ever developed to get rid of cellulite other than exercise and proper diet.