Exfoliative Cheilitis or just severely chapped lips?

As far as I can tell, my lips used to chap and peel from time to time (I used to bite and pick at them too) but I am certain they heal properly, get 'elastic' and I had no problems taking photos or socializing. I can't remember when exactly it was, but I'm sure I just realized it last year. I was doing my usual routine of waking up early in the morning to eat before gym, took a shower and brushed my teeth, but after brushing (or drinking water or showering?), my lips didn't feel... right. When I looked in the mirror, the middle portion of the lips were white! It's like a goo-like texture that I'm guessing was the dead skin. I just wipe it off with a wet paper towel and I'm all set to go, but days went on and the skin grows back and I just wipe it as usual but it got to the point where it bothered me because I was never doing this, ever, in my life. I'm 17 btw if that makes a difference. January, I noticed that some of it spread to the upper lip because I was certain that last year, it was just the lower lip.

Now, the upper lip gets this same goo-like texture only a little bit so far but the most noticable is the 'triangle' in the middle.

But I am confused, right now I'm trying to research the pics of Exfoliative Cheilitis but most I see are the ones with bad flaking, hard and huge yellow crusts which I certainly don't have. My lips when dry look exactly like the chapped lips you see on Google Images, but they do get white when in contact with water. Possible causes are stress, vitamin deficiency (supplemented protein powders but I really cannot see any correlation as I still eat healthy), yeast/bacteria infection and drinking tap water. So far I'm still trying to find a cure and finding the root cause of mine.

But my main point of this message comes to this:

How exactly do you differentiate Exfoliative Cheilitis and Peeling/Chapped Lips? Are they correlated? Are they the same?

I get the same symptoms I see, white in water, feels weird when dry, a peeling cycle that I am now just starting to monitor, and the 'triangle' in the middle of the upper lip. Does this mean I may have EC? I have some pics if you guys want, but I can definitely say it doesn't look as bad as the others.