Is Green Tea Good For Weight Loss?

In these days of fad diets and intense searches for the next weight loss miracle, you’ll hear “green tea” come up in health-centered conversations more and more often. Many people take on drinking green tea not knowing if or why it really helps with weight loss. Even though it’s occupying shelves in health and vitamin sections nationwide, I have to wonder “Does it really work?”. Let’s clear up a few misconceptions…

Super Drink

Rest assured, all the rumors are indeed true about this tea being good for you…but it is NOT a miracle weight loss drink.  That being said… Green tea is one of the healthiest beverages you can drink. Overflowing with antioxidants, there are numerous benefits to consuming green tea including how it can help you have a healthy heart and that it has anti-cancer properties.

While the natural supply of vitamins and nutrients in Green Tea can help your body to burn calories and fat, the results don’t come about as quickly as some would expect. This doesn’t take away from its effectiveness as a nutritional supplement. If you read the ingredients of popular weight loss and diet pills, you’re likely to see some form of green tea listed. It works in terms of supporting health, but it isn’t “the answer” in itself to losing pounds. Anything worth having requires some effort, a healthy life included.

How It Works

Green tea works to reduce fat and stimulate your metabolism. The fats and sugars that enter the body are synthesized into a substance known as triglycerides. When digested in healthy amounts, triglycerides provide the body with energy. If they are consumed in excess, they’re stored as fat. The polyphenols in green tea activate enzymes that can help dissolve extra triglycerides. The problem: You have to drink a significant amount of tea or consume it in a concentrated form to even begin to have any real effect on the body.  Also, depending on what else is going on with your body, green tea may not have an effect at all.

It seems that green tea is good for so many things and that includes addressing high triglycerides. The catechin flavonoids in green tea can reduce triglycerides by up to 20%. The catch is you need to be a BIG tea drinker to benefit as about 600 to 700 mg of green tea catechins are required to achieve the triglyceride lowering effect (the equivalent of 6 to12 cups per day since the catechin content of tea varies greatly).  Alternately, nutritional supplements are available that provide green tea catechins in a more concentrated form. – DiabeticConnect.com

Additionally, green tea contains caffeine, another substance known to aid fat burning in some people. Some avoid the consumption of caffeine because of its strongly stimulating properties. However, many choose to indulge in a hot cup of green tea because it contains a significantly less amount of caffeine than coffee. You’ll still reap the energy increasing benefits without the hyper-sensitive side effects.

Increased Metabolism

Burning fat also means an increase in your body’s metabolism. Recent studies show consuming green tree extract stimulates a process known as thermogenesis. This is the natural increase in your body’s temperature during digestion. Thermogenesis determines how quickly your food will be burned off and recycled into energy. It’s possible to experience this fat burning, metabolism increasing benefit by drinking green tea as a beverage or, for added convenience, you can consume it as a dietary supplement.  It’s important to note that the increase will not be significant enough to burn off a lot of pounds all at once and green tea alone is not a long term weight loss solution.

Add It To Your Routine

As previously stated, green tea has been proven to have numerous health benefits but to reap them to their maximum potential, it’s best to incorporate it into your daily health regimen. You’ll see most commercial weight loss supplements include green tea, and all of them suggest a regular exercise routine and healthy eating habits for the best results. Green tea works, just not on its own. Those who take a daily extract supplement burn 17% more fat while exercising than those who don’t (the dosage varies depending on age, weight, etc). Continuous consumption also strengthens the metabolism, creating a constant fat burning routine even after your workout is completed.  Do your research on what dosage is best for you.

Whether you’re working toward weight loss or just trying to improve your health, green tea is a great addition to your grocery list. High in catechins (phytochemicals), green tea along with an active lifestyle has been proven to combat obesity and heart defects. A diet high in calories with mild activity won’t yield the best results regardless of any natural supplements. A moderately monitored diet with equally moderate level of exercise usually shows significant progress around 12 weeks. Those who are increasingly active and consume a weight-friendly diet can expect to see results much sooner.

The results may seem to straddle the fence a bit in terms of weight loss, but the overall health benefits outweigh its ineffectiveness when it comes to dropping pounds. Green tea isn’t the final answer for someone looking to lose 25lbs as quickly as possible but for long-term benefits for your waistline and internal organs, green tea is worth adding to your shopping list.

PS: Matcha Green Tea is one of the hottest trends around right now.  Learn more about this powerful form of green tea.