Does Green Tea Weight Loss Work & How Much Should You Drink ?

 

Green tea is packed with nutrients and antioxidants that have beneficial effects on your health.

Drinking green tea can even help you lose weight. Therefore, green tea and green tea extract are becoming more and more popular as a weight loss supplement.

But how much green tea should you drink for that? And what else do you want to pay attention to? You will discover that in this article.

In addition, you will learn:

• The difference between green tea and other teas
• Why green tea can contribute to good health
• How Much Green Tea You Should Drink To Reap The Benefits
• The answer to the question: 'does green tea really help with weight loss ?

What is green tea?

There are many teas in the world, such as white tea, green tea, oolong tea and black tea. But did you know that these teas are made from the same tea plant? It is the Camellia sinensis, a shrub native to Southeast Asia. In this article we mainly focus on green tea. Green tea is one of the oldest teas and originated in China.

The way tea leaves are prepared and processed determines the type. To make green tea, the leaves are heated immediately after harvest to prevent oxidation. Black tea undergoes an additional step of complete oxidation. This results in black leaves and fewer bioactive substances than green tea.

While herbal and black tea is the most popular choice in the Western world, green tea is widely consumed in the East. The popularity of green tea has spread to Europe and is also increasingly drunk here.

When we talk about green tea, it is useful to know that there are several types of green tea. Most popular green teas are sencha, genmaicha and matcha.

In this article we will limit our article to answer the question of whether green tea helps with weight loss as a slimming tea. 

Can you lose weight with green tea?

In this article we are going to explain exactly what green tea does for your fat burning.

Do you have questions like:

• Does green tea help with weight loss?
• Which green tea is best for weight loss?
• How much green tea should I drink as a slimming tea?

What you need to know is that green tea is the most pure and unprocessed form of tea. It is also one of the most researched teas in the world, which is beneficial to answer the above questions in this article.

Benefit 1: green tea stimulates the metabolism

Green tea contains bioactive compounds that can help your body burn energy more efficiently. Bioactive compounds are chemical compounds such as caffeine and catechins that are present in small amounts in green tea but have significant biological and physiological effects.

Although black coffee contains 2 to 3 times more caffeine than green tea, the caffeine in green tea also has beneficial effects on fat burning . Green tea contains 24-48 mg of caffeine per 235 ml, depending on the type of tea and the strength with which it is brewed.

We know that caffeine has some influence on the metabolism. It is also a popular ingredient in caffeine pills and weight loss supplements. Scientists have shown that caffeine can accelerate the rate at which the body burns calories (even when at rest). Caffeine also help to release stored fat from cells for energy.

Green tea is packed with catechins . These are antioxidants that contribute to the positive effects of green tea . The main catechin in green tea is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is especially effective in temporarily increasing the metabolism . This is especially true when EGCG is combined with caffeine .

Advantage 2: green tea helps to burn more calories at rest

An advantage of green tea is that it makes free fatty acids from stored fat tissue more readily available. This allows your body to burn more body fat even while sleeping.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate at which your body burns calories at rest to maintain basic bodily functions (such as breathing, circulation, etc.).

In that respect we can compare our body to a machine. Your body cells are constantly performing complex tasks to keep you healthy . You do need fuel to carry out those complex tasks.

One study found a significant increase in energy expenditure in participants who took a supplement containing both caffeine and EGCG. Interesting in this study is that the amount of EGCG does not play a role in the increased fat burning at rest.

In other words, even a small amount of EGCG in green tea can increase your basal metabolic rate .

Several studies suggest that green tea extract can help increase calorie burn by 4% per day, especially when combined with a healthy diet .

This may not seem like much at first, but for an average man (with a BMR of 1500 calories per day) that adds up to 60 extra calories per day. That's 420 calories a week and nearly 1,700 calories in 4 weeks! On an annual basis, this can make the difference between gaining weight and maintaining a healthy weight.

Benefit 3: stimulates fat burning during exercise

As mentioned earlier that many weight loss supplements contain catechins and caffeine. we also told you that green tea can help to temporarily increase the metabolism in a state of rest.

We also know that your body burns fat more effectively when you exercise. The use of green tea extract gives an even better effect! In the small-scale study, the male participants burned 17% more fat than the participants who did not take the extract.

The researchers also saw a significant improvement in insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in healthy young men. Multiple studies show that green tea can help reduce body fat in the long term.

Benefit #4: green tea increases your stamina

Not only does green tea stimulate fat burning during exercise, it can also help you exercise longer.

And what happens if you can exercise longer? Right! You burn more calories .

How come then? Scientists suspect that you gain more stamina because of your muscles' ability to use free fatty acids for fuel. EGCG in green tea plays an important role in this.

We also know that caffeine plays a role in increasing endurance. This has been confirmed by several studies. If you consume caffeine half an hour before exercising, you may be able to exercise longer before you become fatigued. Also, your perception of pain decreases.

Benefit # 5: Green tea helps you get rid of your tummy

Do you want to lose more belly fat ? Even then, green tea extract is your ally!

Excess belly fat (aka visceral fat) is dangerous for your health. Visceral fat is fat that is in your abdominal cavity. It surrounds your organs and is not visible to the naked eye.

This belly fat can lead to dangerous health problems such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is therefore better to train away belly fat as soon as possible .

But besides exercising, consuming green tea extract can also be useful. Research has shown that much of the lost belly fat is mainly visceral fat.

In a 12-week study in overweight men, scientists saw beneficial effects on body composition. The group that drank catechins lost more weight than the control group. Although the reduction in waist circumference remained the same in both groups, the catechin group lost more total abdominal fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat after 12 weeks.

Another study looked at participants who already had a lot of visceral fat. In the group that drank catechins, the loss of visceral fat and body fat in general was greater.

In short, consuming green tea extract can significantly contribute to the reduction of visceral fat, which is considered the most dangerous form of belly fat.

How Much Green Tea Should I Drink?

It should be clear that drinking green tea or taking green tea extract has beneficial effects on your health and body weight!

Now your big question is:

“How much green tea should I drink?”

Based on current research, we can conclude that 3-5 cups of green tea per day (720-1200 ml) is the optimal amount to reap the health benefits of green tea . We are talking about green tea from ready-to-use tea bags.

Note: preferably drink green tea on an empty stomach! Drinking green tea or taking green tea extract supplements while eating can prevent beneficial catechins from being absorbed into the bloodstream.

If you want to get the most out of green tea , We recommend that you take green tea extract . Green tea extract is the concentrated form of  green tea . In this way you ultimately only have the active substances from the tea plant that are highly concentrated. These active ingredients in powder form are then the extract.

Now don't think that drinking green tea is 'worse' than green tea extract . Both forms are a good source of antioxidants, only green tea extract pills are more concentrated than a regular cup of green tea . So you need to consume less of it to benefit from it.

It also appears that green tea in powder form is better absorbed by the body than drinking green tea .

Conclusion: does green tea lose weight?

Green tea is a tasty thirst quencher and a great addition to a healthy diet to manage your weight.

While not a miracle weight loss drug , it can increase metabolism and boost fat burning , especially during exercise . Green tea extract as a supplement can also be very effective. If you have an unhealthy lifestyle, green tea will not make you miraculously slim.