Green tea could be of a great help if weight loss is one of your top health priorities. Research shows that drinking green tea helps in weight loss because of the substances that may boost weight loss by influencing your metabolism and keeping your appetite in check. Significantly, despite its richness in antioxidants, green tea itself does not lead to weight loss. Research shows that drinking green tea regularly is likely to speed up your weight loss. We’ll discuss how it helps you in reaching the goal.
1. The nutrients in green tea help lose fat
Green tea is a great source of caffeine and catechins, which are the causative agents that aid in weight loss.
- Caffeine
In green tea are bioactive substances obtained from the leaves. One of them is caffeine that helps in dissipation of calories. This happens by a lower a metabolism with a concomitant weight loss.
One cup of green tea provides you 24 to 40 mg less than that contained in a coffee of cup. However, the effect is significant. Being a stimulant, caffeine makes fat dissipation easy and boosts the effects of exercise according to research.
- Antioxidants
The more significant nutrient that helps boost weight loss is a class of antioxidants – catechins. One of these is Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an antioxidant that strengthens metabolism.
Research shows that the beneficial results can be reaped from green tea as a beverage as well as from its supplements.
2. Green tea activates fat in fat cells
To lose fat, the body has to break it down into smaller constituents and send it into the blood. The constituent substances in green tea help in boosting the effects of fat dissipating hormones.
How does it happen?
The antioxidant EGCG reduces the effect of the enzyme phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine) that splits hormone norepinephrine.
Thus, when the enzyme gets weakened, norepinephrine increases. Norepinephrine boosts the breakdown of fat in fat cells. Thus, when more of this hormone is secreted, it results in more fat loss.
EGCG and caffeine work in such a way they are mutually complement each other. Thus, they help fats cells to breakdown. Consequently, fat enters blood and gets converted into energy.
3. Green tea boosts fat burning when you’re exercising
Green tea is said to enhance fat burning during exercise.
How does it happen?
When you consume green tea and exercise, you dissipate more fat than when you don’t. Research done on a group of men shows that those who drank green tea and exercises burned 17% more fat than those who didn’t. A different study done over eight weeks shows that green tea boosts fat loss both when exercising, as well as when the individual is at rest.
There are multiple studies that show green tea consumption leading to loss of fat in the long run. And, the result is much better when you exercise.
4. Green tea boosts metabolism and helps lose fat 24 hours a day
You body keeps on working around the clock, and therefore burns some amount of fat even when you’re asleep, or are awake. The cells keep on working, which necessitates energy.
Multiple studies show that green tea boosts calorie loss even when you’re at rest. Thus, it is 3%-4% more than normal – when you don’t consume green tea. In some cases, it goes up to 8%.
Thus, an individual who expends 2,000 calories a day, they would burn an additional number of calories: 60-80.
Though the research studies were done over short periods – one to three days, the results are likely to continue in the long run as well.
5. Green tea can help reduce your calorie consumption
- Green tea can make you eat less. This, it can do by reducing your appetite. However, studies show contradictory results. Lower appetite makes you consume fewer calories.
- Studies on animals show that green tea leads to lower consumption of fat, which is, however, not true in humans.
- Green tea leads to a lower consumption of calories by expending calories. However, it is not clear how much food we consume throughout the day.
6. Green fat helps reduce tummy fat
There are many studies showing people having lost weight consuming green tea. There’re also studies that show little effect. However, when it comes to fat in the belly region, the fat accumulated there causes inflammation, insulin resistances associated with heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Studies show that a significant amount of the fat is lost because of green tea. This is good for life threatening diseases, which leads to better health.
Conclusion
Despite green tea boosts metabolism and fat loss, the effects are not that great leading to appreciable weight loss. However, the combined small effects of weight loss can lead to better results when you couple it with other strategies such as consuming more protein and reducing carbs intake. However, apart from helping you keep your weight in check, green tea is good for your health for different reasons.
