Green Tea & Weight Loss: Myth or Fact?

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the benefits of green tea. Is it really possible for certain nutrients and compounds in green tea to attribute to weight loss? What are these mysterious compounds, and how can they help your body with weight loss? Myth or fact - can you really lose weight by adding green tea to your daily diet?

How Green Tea Aids In Weight Loss

Green tea helps in weight loss. Green tea has the ability to increase your body’s rate of burning calories, raise your metabolism, and enhance fat oxidation boosting your body’s natural ability to burn fat. The super substance in green tea that really helps reduce body fat is polyphenols, commonly called catechins. Catechins stimulates the body to effectively burn calories while decreasing body fat.

Most teas contain antioxidants, anticancer polyphenols, and antiviral compounds; but green tea is the only tea abundant in such fat burning catechins polyphenols. More than 30% of green tea leaf consists of catechins. You actually gain extra weight and pack on those unwanted pounds when extra sugars along with saturated fats are stored in the body as fat cells.

Green tea’s secret weapon catechins prevents extra weight gain by blocking the usual movement of sugar also known as glucose in fat cells. High levels of catechin polyphenols work with other beneficial compounds to intensify the body’s level of fat oxidation which is when heat is formed in the body by burning excess fat in the body as fuel.

Green tea catechins is found in green tea leaves are (EGCG) epigallocatechin gallate, (ECG) epicatechin gallate, (EGC) epigallocatechin, and (EC) epicatechin. Black tea used to be the more popular tea in the western world until research found that green tea has more catechins making it more potent. One of the most potent antioxidants of all the green tea catechins is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Various research reports indicate that green tea’s epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is the key to green tea weight loss. Leptin, a protein made of fats, is responsible in the way the body manages all of its fat storage through certain brain signals. Green tea’s powerful epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has the ability to change the body’s hormone levels which in turn regulates your appetite, so you eat less.

Not only does green tea change leptin levels in your body, but also increases noradrenaline levels in your body. You must be thinking as to “What are my noradrenaline levels and how does that effect weight loss?” Well, noradrenaline is a chemical neurotransmitter in the nervous system, and is responsible in the activation of brown fat tissue (BAT). Brown fat tissue is the only active fat in the human body.

It is possible to activate the brown fat much like a light switch with a simple click or boost in noradrenaline levels. There was a new study recently published in the Journal Cell Metabolism that delineated that more research will be done to figure out how to tap brown fat’s calorie burning ability.

A person usually has white fat cells that collect and store calories instead of burning them. Green tea with powerful catechins can increase your energy expenditure. It causes carbohydrates to be slowly released which in turn stops quick increases in blood-insulin levels, boosting the body to burn fat. Green tea’s epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is a powerful antioxidant, but green tea alone will not make you lose weight. You must eat a balanced diet and add exercise to your daily routine to truly benefit from green tea.

Take Green Tea the right way

What is the right amount of green tea to be taken in a day? Is there a way to make a perfect cup of green tea? Yes! There have been many different recommendations on what’s the right amount of tea. However, 4-5 cups a day are just fine. For people who hate drinking green tea can opt for extract supplements.

Remember, potent catechin varies by the amount of green tea used and various steeping times. Try not to overbrew your tea. To make the perfect cup of green tea for your green tea weight loss, you should use one tea bag per cup.