If your intention is to lose weight green tea is one of the best weight loss ingredients in the natural world. You can either drink a few cups per day or take a supplement, either way the weight loss benefits are immense.
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Is Green Tea Good for Weight Loss?
Green tea is loaded with antioxidants and provides so many other health-enhancing nutrients it’s regarded as one of the healthiest drinks in the world.
But is it good for weight loss?
The simple answer is yes.
Green tea has an outstanding reputation for being good for weight loss.
It’s one of the most popular weight loss ingredients in the world.
However, although drinking a few extra cups of green tea each day can help with weight loss, drinking the beverage can only take you so far.
There is a limit to how much tea people can realistically drink each day, especially if they do not work within dashing distance of the restroom.
Fortunately, green tea extracts can provide all the benefits of green tea without the need to drink like a fish.
When you are trying to lose weight, you need realistic levels of weight loss.
Most people also want to see that weight loss happen in the shortest possible time.
Supplements that contain green tea extract can make this happen.
So, although drinking green tea is a good way to speed up weight loss, green tea extracts offer several advantages:
- No need to waste energy and time by boiling the kettle throughout the day.
- Diet supplements that provide green tea extract are quick and easy to take.
- Weight loss supplements provide a concentrate of the active ingredients in green tea. You’d have to drink buckets of the tea to come close to some of the best supplements.
- Numerous studies support the claims made for green tea as a weight-loss provider.
Green Tea Isn’t Only Good for Weight Loss
Green tea isn’t just an ingredient that’s good for weight loss. It’s also good for your health in general.
As stated earlier on in this article, green tea is rich in antioxidants and, as most people are aware, antioxidants purge the body of dangerous free radicals that can be damaging to the health.
In fact, green tea is currently being explored as a possible wellness treatment and can also be invaluable for lowering cholesterol levels.
Green tea is also one of the best things you can take to boost your immune system.
If you were to combine green tea, zinc and vitamin C you would have a pretty strong supplement for the immune system.
It is beyond the scope of this article to go into all the health benefits green tea and green tea extracts are likely to provide.
Suffice it to say that the benefits supplied by green tea catechins (antioxidants) are not limited to weight loss.
The most important catechin is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and its initial power seems to stem from its ability to boost metabolism.
By boosting the metabolic process EGCG causes a slight increase in body temperature that encourages the body to burn calories faster than normal.
This can be particularly beneficial for people who are following low-calorie diets because the increased calorie burn makes it more likely that the body will run short of calories (obtained from food) and have to start burning body fat for extra energy.
However, before the body can fully utilize fat it needs to break it down and mobilize it, but that’s not a problem because EGCG suppresses the activity of an enzyme that breaks down a natural fat-burning hormone called norepinephrine.
When the nervous system senses a rise in norepinephrine it relays a signal to the fat cells and they begin breaking down fat to make it easier to transport around the body and use as an energy provider.
Can Green Tea Cause Side Effects
Apart from providing fat-burning antioxidants, green tea is also a source of caffeine. As you are probably aware, opinions about caffeine vary widely.
Some people see it as the bad-boy in coffee that will make you feel jittery and ill.
Others praise it for its ability to perk you up by boosting energy levels and increasing mental focus.
The truth is, unless you are unusually sensitive to caffeine, there should not be any problems.
It’s not caffeine that’s bad, it’s overly high doses that are the problem. As with so many other things in life, caffeine is a compound you need to treat with respect.
Would you swallow 20 aspirin tablets and then say aspirin is bad because using such a ridiculously high dose made you need medical care? Of course not.
Caffeine is a good thing that has a bad reputation through no fault of its own.
When you are dieting caffeine’s ability to boost energy can help you avoid diet-related fatigue.
It’s also a proven fat burner that can help you to lose weight.
Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest the practice of combining green tea extracts with other caffeine providers may further enhance the fat burning process.
However, although it’s important to understand caffeine’s potential as a weight loss aid, it’s equally important not to lose sight of the fact the caffeine content of green tea is actually quite low.
Green tea catechins are the most important fat-burners in green tea.
Boosting the Weight Loss Benefits of Green Tea
It’s a sad fact that many dieters are hoping to find a magic pill that will allow them to continue with their present lifestyles, no matter how unhealthy those lifestyles may be.
Such an attitude rarely works because weight loss is a simple matter of mathematics. If the body gets more calories than it needs weight gain is the natural result.
So even though an effective dieting aid like green tea extract may cause the body to burn more calories, if the calorie levels are constantly getting a top-up little or no progress will be made.
As with any effective weight loss provider, green tea extract works at its best when combined with a calorie-controlled diet and regular exercise.
Green Tea and Weight Loss: A Look at the Research
The relationship between green tea and weight loss has been well researched. There’s a mountain of evidence that shows it’s a natural weight loss aid that works.
It would not be practical to reference all the studies that show how well the ingredient works. There are too many. However, let’s take a look at a few.
#1. In a study, conducted at the University of Birmingham (UK), 12 healthy men were given supplements that provided green tea extract. They were then monitored during a 30-minute cycling exercise.
When the researchers examined the data they discovered the men who had received the supplement had burned 17% more fat than the members of the placebo group.
This study is interesting because it doesn’t only support the use of green tea for fat oxidation (fat burning), it also supports the use of green tea extracts for improving insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
Ingredients that improve insulin sensitivity may prevent carb cravings by stopping the blood glucose crashes that cause them.
Link to Study: Green Tea Extract Ingestion, Fat Oxidation, and Glucose Tolerance in Healthy Humans.
#2. Researchers working for the Kao Corporation in Tokyo set out to document the effect of catechins on human body fat. They enlisted the help of a group of Japanese males.
All the men had a similar BMI and waist circumference.
The study was conducted over a 12-week period and the men were split into two groups.
Both groups got bottles of green tea to consume, but the catechin content of the teas was not the same. One tea provided 690 mg of catechins. The other tea only contained 22 mg catechins.
The study data shows the men who got 690 mg of catechins lost the most weight.
Link to Study: Ingestion of a Tea Rich in Catechins Leads to a Reduction in Body Fat and Malondialdehyde-Modified LDL in Men
#3. Another study conducted by researchers at the Kao Corporation in Tokyo is particularly interesting.
The data supports the use of green tea for fat burning and for supporting heart health as well.
This time the research involved women as well as men.
The researchers wanted to investigate the fat-burning potential of high-catechin green tea extracts for reducing body fat and decreasing the risks of cardiovascular disease as well.
The researchers chose the study participants for their “typical” lifestyles and obesity.
Again, the study ran for 12 weeks and the participants continued to live their lives normally. There were no changes to diet or levels of physical activity.
This time the catechin group got green tea containing 583 mg of catechins.
The control group’s green tea only had 96 mg of catechins.
At the completion of the study, the catechin group showed greater decreases in weight loss, BMI; and waist circumference.
There were also reductions in systolic blood pressure and bad cholesterol.
The researchers concluded the ingestion of catechins may contribute to a “decrease in obesity and cardiovascular disease risks”.
Link to Study: A Green Tea Extract High in Catechins Reduces Body Fat and Cardiovascular Risks in Humans
#4 Research from the University of Geneva, also shows how good green tea can be for weight loss. This study is particularly noteworthy because it shows the fat-burning effects of green tea may last for up to 24 hours.
The study was conducted with the help of 10 healthy men. On three separate occasions the men were randomly assigned among three treatments:
- Green tea extract (50 mg caffeine + 90 mg epigallocatechin gallate)
- Caffeine (50 mg)
- Placebo
The men took the allotted treatment three times each day. The first at breakfast, the second with lunch, and the third with their evening meal.
At the completion of the study, the data showed green tea had caused a significant increase in 24-hour energy expenditure.
The fact that the extract was 50 mg caffeine and produced better results than 50 mg of caffeine did alone proves green tea’s thermogenic fat burning capability is not solely due to caffeine.
When Green Tea Supplements Fail
If you have already read this far you will be aware green tea is a good weight loss provider.
Yet you may have already tried supplements that contain green tea only to discover they do not work. How can this be?
When it comes to weight loss supplements, quality counts. The same is true for most things in life.
Some manufacturers cut corners by using low-quality green tea extracts. Although such extracts are cheaper and keep production costs down, they are sometimes lacking in power.
If you are a regular tea drinker, you will no doubt have noticed quality brands of tea have a deep, rich flavor while cheaper beverages can be very weak and taste like dishwater.
When slimming supplements contain cheap extracts you won’t be able to taste the difference but you will see the difference in results.
That’s why it’s best to only buy weight loss supplements produced by respected manufacturers.
However, when good weight loss ingredients like green tea may fail, more often than not, low inclusion rates are the problem.
You don’t just need to use the right ingredients in diet pills, you need to use the right amounts as well.
Weight loss product manufacturers know their market and realize a lot of people are aware green tea is a good ingredient.
So they toss a little green tea in their products to make them appear more attractive.
Hindering green tea’s fat-burning capabilities by not providing enough is a little like paying for a star football player to join your team and then leaving him on the bench.
The crowds may come to see him but will go home disappointed because they don’t get to see what he can do.
Is Green Tea Good for Weight Loss Summary
Green tea extract is one of the most popular ingredients for losing weight in the world.
This is not surprising because, as a natural weight loss provider, green tea is hard to beat.
However, even high-quality products that contain the best ingredients in effective amounts cannot do all of the work.
Good weight loss ingredients like green tea can only deliver their best results when you combine them with the best intentions.
You need to take a responsible attitude and work with your chosen fat burner instead of working against it.
If you eat too much and exercise too little, it will always scupper your chances of weight-loss success.
Likewise, even if you control your portion sizes, you can still cause your diet to fail if the food you do eat is too high in fat and sugar.
If you are serious about getting slim, weight loss pills are not the answer.
They are only part of the answer. If your diet is right and you are already losing weight, the right pills can help you to lose weight even faster.
If you have reached a plateau and progress has stopped, the right pills can help you get things moving again.
Many of the top-selling weight loss pills contain green tea. Its presence (in adequate amounts) is likely to be a big part of their success.
A mixture of green tea extract, healthy diet, and regular exercise can power-up the fat burning process and deliver the kind of results you require.
Just don’t expect the ingredient to do all the hard work and go it alone.
You can’t game the system. There are no get-out-of-jail-free cards. If you want to win at weight loss you need to play by the rules.
I hope the question of is green tea good for weight loss has been answered.
