About Green Tea and Weight Loss

Recently there have been a lot of talks about certain teas that can help you lose weight. Among those teas it seems that the green tea is by far the front runner. But like all weight loss remedies there is a little bit of skepticism. After all there are millions of products that promise miracle weight loss with minimal diet or exercise. I don't know about you, but I have tried a ton of those fad diets and haven't gotten much result. So how much of the weight loss tea fad is true, and what is hype? Here are the cold hard facts of green tea and weight loss:

There are four main components in green tea and weight loss.

1. Green tea will boost your metabolism. Recently there was a study that proved that green tea can significantly boost your metabolism. A faster metabolism will not only make weight loss more likely but will also give you more energy, which in turn will also help you lose weight faster. In the study mentioned above they found that your metabolic rate can raised as much as 4%. Scientifically speaking, this is because there are exceptionally high levels of catechin polyphenols which increases the intensity of the thermogenesis and fat oxidation. In lamens terms it helps boost your bodys ability to burn calories.

2. Green tea helps to stop the absorbtion of fat as well as regulates your glucose. This in turn will help slow blood sugar rises after each meal. If your blood sugar does not rise as quickly it will prevent a sudden increase in insulin. Sudden increases in insulin are the cause of fat being stored. Therefore green tea helps to prevent fat from being absorbed as well curbs the amount of fat that is being stored.

3. Green tea is an appetite suppressant. There was another recent study where scientists would inject rats with green tea extracts to determine the affects of green tea as a weight loss tea. The results concluded that the rats that were injected with the green tea lost up to 21 percent of their body weight. It was observed that while of the study the rats ate up to 60% less food after they had been injected with the green tea extract for seven days. This may also be a result of the insulin regulation from the green tea.

4. The fourth reason is not so much science but just common sense. We have become addicted to mochas, cappuccinos, and lattes and because it is liquid we often don't realize how many calories we are actually consuming. Most of those double mocha cappuccino lattes have 300 calories plus! If you are trying to lose weight you should only be consuming 300-500 calories per meal (based on a 3 meal per day diet). Many people will skip breakfast and opt for this high sugar, high fat coffee. If you are looking to lose weight the absolute worst thing that you can do is skip breakfast. As our moms always told us, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and that is because it gives us the energy to burn the optimum amount of calories throughout the day. It also helps us stay away from binging at lunch and keeps the cravings away.

So bottom line, skip the high calorie coffee and grab a no calorie green tea. Green tea offers the same amount of caffeine (for those of you who have a hard time staying awake in the morning meetings) but offers a no calorie hot drink that a perfect complement to your healthy breakfast! Use green tea and weight loss will be no problem.