Looking to Lose Weight? Add Green Tea to Your Diet
Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Weight Loss Supplements and other Vitamin topics.
Looking to Lose Weight? Add Green Tea to Your Diet
Green tea extract is touted for its antioxidant properties, but it may aid weight loss efforts, too. Evidence suggests that the antioxidants in green tea may promote weight loss by boosting metabolism. The key to green tea's role in weight loss is in the catechins.
Research suggests that the polyphenols in green tea (known as catechins) generate heat in the body that burns additional calories and promotes weight loss. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2005 showed that men who drank green tea with 690 milligrams of catechins daily lost more weight than men who drank oolong tea with only 22 milligrams of catechins. That's an average of 5.3 pounds of weight loss for the green tea group vs. 2.9 pounds for the oolong tea group.
Previous studies suggest that to get the maximum weight loss benefit from green tea you would need to drink about 4 cups daily. That's a lot of tea, even if you like tea. Fortunately, you can enjoy the potential weight loss benefits of green tea with a supplement. When choosing a green tea extract, look for products that list the catechin content on the label to make sure that you are getting enough. The catechin to look for is EGCG (epigallocatechn gallate). And remember that green tea has caffeine, which may play a role in its weight loss properties, so look for capsules that contain caffeine.
Data from another study suggest that green tea might promote weight loss by preventing the body from digesting fat. Green tea's catechins also have been shown to reduce the absorption of carbohydrates in laboratory studies.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Barbara Gibson |
