How Green Tea Can Help You Lose Weight Naturally

Of all the tea varieties, green tea has the highest concentration of powerful antioxidants (substances that fight free radicals, which damage DNA and harm body cells).

No wonder the wide varieties of green tea have a centuries-long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. The tea is even gaining high regard with modern research scientists in nutrition.

Numerous scientific studies have revealed how green tea can help you lose weight naturally by:

• breaking down harmful body fat
• complementing other fat-burning supplements, such as forskolin
• helping you burn fat during exercise
• enhancing fat break down
• helping your burn calories while resting

1. Green Tea Can Help You Lose Harmful Abdominal Fat

If you want to lose fat, the best fat to lose is the harmful visceral fat (abdominal/ belly fat building up around your internal organs). Fortunately, green tea can help you with that.

Serious ailments caused by abdominal fat

There’s a host of serious ailments associated with visceral fat, including:

• metabolic disturbances
• increased risk of cardiovascular disease
• increased risk of type 2 diabetes
• breast cancer in women
• need for gallbladder surgery in women

The other type of fat – subcutaneous fat – lodges under your skin and is of less concern than visceral fat.

You can easily tell which type of fat you have based on your body shape: a pear shape (fat accumulating in the lower body) signifies subcutaneous fat, whereas an apple shape (fat in the abdominal area) signifies visceral fat.

How green tea fights harmful belly fat

Green tea’s weight-reduction potential can help you deal with harmful belly fat. Although weight loss caused by the tea is often modest (an average of 3 pounds), a significant portion of it is harmful belly fat.

With reduction of belly fat, you’ll be less likely to suffer the associated ailments.

Bottom Line: Green tea’s ability to reduce harmful belly fat can help you avoid serious ailments associated with belly fat.

2. Green Tea Complements the Fat-Burning Effects of Forskolin

Not only is green tea valuable in itself, it can also enhance the fat-burning effects of forskolin, a fat-burning supplement.

The fat-burning effects of forskolin

Forskolin, an extract from the plant called Coleus forskohlii, has the potential of promoting weight loss by reducing appetite and enhancing lipolysis (breakdown of fats and other lipids).

Forskolin’s capacity to break down fats was revealed in one notable study involving 30 overweight men, who experienced a decrease of 4.14 percent in mean body fat, following a 12-week period of forskolin intake. This was certainly a distinct difference from the placebo group that only experienced a 0.96 percent decrease in mean body fat.

AD: Click here to order 1,000 words and get free promotion

How green tea complements forskolin

Green tea complements forskolin by triggering hormones to enhance forskolin’s capacity to breakdown fats. Chlorogenic acid, a substance in green tea, increases efficiency of the hormone called adiponectin, which helps the body burn fat.

Your body also benefits from the combined action of forskolin and tea in: enhancing metabolism, increasing your energy and regulating your blood sugar levels.

Bottom Line: Through its action on your body’s hormones, green tea can enhance forskolin’s fat-burning effects.

3. Green Tea Helps You Burn More Fat While Exercising

Who wouldn’t want a little something to give them that extra edge when exercising?

With green tea, you can achieve more from your exercise program. It has the capacity to boost fat burning, particularly during exercise.

Scientific research on enhanced fat-burning during exercise

Several studies have highlighted the capacity of green tea to enhance fat burning:

• Taking green tea extract was found to increase fat burning by 17 percent in one study. This fat burning/ oxidation contributed to higher metabolism rates.
• Apart from boosting fat oxidation during exercise, another study revealed enhanced fat oxidation even during rest.
• The benefits of fat oxidation from green tea intake would also benefit obese individuals, based on a 2010 study.

Bottom Line: The fat burning effect of green tea can help you achieve your weight loss goals through exercise much faster.

4. Green Tea Enhances Breakdown of Fats

The key to losing weight and achieving that well-toned physique is breakdown of fats. Green tea has the capacity to enhance this natural bodily function.

The process of enhanced fat breakdown

Enhanced fat breakdown caused by green tea involves the following three-step process:

1. First, EGCG (the main antioxidant in tea) helps inhibit an enzyme that breaks down norepinephrine (a hormone that signals fat cells to break down fat).
2. Once the enzyme is inhibited, norepinephrine levels increase within your body.
3. Since norepinephrine is used by your nervous system in signalling fat cells to break down fat, an increase in the hormone levels leads to more fat break-down.

Ultimately, the broken down fat moves into your bloodstream and becomes available for your cells to use as energy, particularly your muscle cells.

Bottom Line: Green tea contains substances which enhance the levels of hormones that initiate breakdown of fat by fat cells. The broken down fats move into your bloodstream and provide energy to your cells.

5. Green Tea Helps You Burn More Calories While Resting

You’re sure to achieve your weight reduction goals much faster, if your body burns calories even while you rest. Apparently, green tea can help you with that too.

Short-term benefits of burning more calories at rest

Results of several studies highlight the potential of green tea to help you burn more calories while resting. The increase may be 3-4 percent or as much as 8 percent.

3-4 percent might seem little, but that would be an additional 60-80 calories for someone who burns 2,000 calories per day. What’s more, you’re gaining such a benefit without exercise or any physical movement.

Long-term benefits of burning more calories at rest

This enhanced metabolism doesn’t just apply for short periods, but can also produce long-term effects.

A 3-month-long study highlighted the long-term metabolism-boosting benefits of green tea. In the study, 60 obese individuals taking green tea extract lost 3.3 kg, compared to the control group. The green-tea-taking group also had a much higher resting metabolism rate (by week 8, their resting energy expenditure per day was approximately 44 calories higher than the control group).

Bottom Line: Green tea enhances your metabolism rate, which helps you burn calories and lose weight even while resting.

What All This Means

Clearly, green tea possess a wide range of benefits, such as enhancing metabolism, breaking down harmful body fat, enhancing fat breakdown and complementing other fat-burning supplements.

However, it can’t work on its own to produce significant benefits to your health. To achieve maximum benefits from your green tea intake, complement it with other nutrient-rich foods, apart from a proper exercise program and balanced diet.