Green Tea and Weight Loss

Can You Lose Weight With Green Tea?

In several of my articles I warned about not drinking calories, if you're trying to lose weight. The rationale for this is quite simple. Beverages can add up to a significant amount of calories throughout the day. Even an 8 oz. of serving of orange juice will add an additional 122 calories to your diet.

However, there appears to be a drink that will help you lose weight - green tea. Not only does green tea have zero calories, assuming you don't add milk, honey, or sugar, but it also provides a calorie burning boost.

There have been several studies recently that have been very encouraging about using green tea to aid in losing weight.

Green Tea And Weight Loss Studies

One recent study conducted in Switzerland showed that green tea, containing caffeine, increased the energy burn of the test subjects by 4%. From the study, they determined that green tea has a powerful thermogenic effect on the body. This thermogenic effect essentially increases the bodies calorie and fat burning potential.

Also encouraging was another study which demonstrated that three doses a day of a 90 mg EGCG extract, a component of green tea, resulted in a significant calorie burn. In fact, these subjects burned 266 more calories per day than those that did not take the extract.

According to those results, you might expect to lose up to 2 lbs a month simply by enjoying some tea.

There are also some scientists who believe that green tea polyphenols have also reduce fat digestion in humans. This is due to green teas ability to inhibit digestive lipases in vitro.

How much green tea should you drink to lose weight?

In one of the studies mentioned earlier, the men who lost weight took a 90 mg EGCG supplement 3X per day. Comparing that to brewed green tea: You could expect to get about 180 mg per cup of green tea. However, this will vary dependending on the quality of the tea. This means that 2 tea drinks should provide a bit more EGCG than the amount used in the test.

The other thing that should be noted is that green tea with caffeine has substantially more EGCG that the decaf variety. In the study, the green tea extract had 50 mg of caffeine. Green tea in the brewed form has about 20 mg of caffeine. So, there will be a difference in the caffeine amount...But I suspect that two - three cups of day will be fine for replicating the results of the study.

If you're not into green tea, no problem. Try a supplement. There are many green tea supplements available. Just aim for 300 mg of EGCG a day.

Given all this research into green tea, I am making some switches. I'm a coffee drinker, and I have been for a long time. However, the research is pretty convincing - green tea helps weight loss. And, you get a load of cancer preventing anti-oxidants, too. Sounds like it's well worth the switch.