Study on Green Tea and Weight Loss

For many years now, several benefits are attributed to drinking green tea. Today, researchers have come up with newer proofs to solidify the belief that green tea can be used as a treatment for obesity and for weight loss.

It is held that more than half of the American population have weight problems or are obese. Conditions like these are almost always linked to certain complications like heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease, and hypertension. Weight loss can aid in assuaging the symptoms of some of these conditions.

Scientists have tirelessly investigated on the weight loss benefits of green tea. They have found that green tea can actually enhance the total amount of energy spent by the body. From their findings, they were able to deduce that green tea has great potential for a weight loss benefit.

Other researches were able to confirm the weight loss benefit of green tea. A recent study at the University of Geneva had the conclusion that, “Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se.” Where before it was generally believed that the caffeine content in green tea is the reason for its weight loss benefit, this recent study deviated from that theory. Green tea has other substances in them that are helpful in weight loss.

The same team who conducted the study on green tea’s caffeine content and weight loss banded together in Switzerland to perform another experiment. They were still able to come up with the same results – that green tea has several thermogenic attributes that make it perfect to use in any weight loss program.

Sample Studies: Green Tea and Weight Loss

Green tea reduces body fat accretion caused by high-fat diet in rats through beta-adrenoceptor activation of thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. Conducted by chief scientist J.J. Choo of the Department of Food and Nutrition, Kunsan National University, this study aimed to find out if green tea can suppress body fat and to find out whether this suppression is connected with thermogenesis spurred by the body’s beta-adrenoceptor being activated.

To investigate the weight loss benefit of green tea on rats, the scientists placed their subjects on a high-fat diet and provided them with green tea extract. It was discovered that even though the rats were on a high-fat diet, the green tea extract counterbalanced fat gain without affecting the amount of energy they took in. Green tea was said to have shown some weight loss benefits in the fact that it can prevent fat from being stored, can increase protein levels, and promote thermogenesis by triggering beta-adrenoceptor to action.

Recent findings of green tea extract AR25 (Exolise) and its activity for the treatment of obesity. This study is a collaborative work between Doctors P. Chantre and D. Lairon of the Laboratoires Arkopharma in Carros, France. Published in the 2002 issue of Phytomedicine, this study aimed to find out if green tea extract has weight loss benefits and can be a potential cure for obesity.

In their study, they used an 80% ethanolic concentrate in green tea extract with standardized 25% catechins. They tested the green tea extract and were able to find that it could directly inhibit gastric and pancreatic lipases. These enzymes are the primary cause of fat storage and by delaying their actions; green tea extract therefore exhibits a weight loss benefit that can help solve obesity problems.

It was also discovered in this study that green tea can stimulate thermogenesis. Given to moderately obese patients, the green tea extract was said to have caused a decrease in weight by 4.6% and a reduction of waist circumference by 4.48% after only three months. The findings of the study clearly implicate the weight loss benefits of green tea.

Green Tea Diet Review

Due to the popularity of recent findings, green tea has almost become synonymous with weight loss and diet. The addition of green tea diet into diet pills and weight loss supplements is perhaps spurred by reports of harmful side-effects of other drugs like ephedra.

Why choose green tea diet?
For four thousand years, green tea diet has been used all throughout Asia as a beneficial health and medicinal drink. Green tea diet is different from all other tea diets because its liquid is extracted by steaming the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant as opposed to full oxidation. In this way, green tea diet manages to preserve a lot more antioxidants and keep them intact for the body to use.

Green tea diet is an excellent source of polycatechin polyphenols, a group of antioxidants that act on free radicals. These free radicals have harmful effects on the body since they are the major causes of diseases and aging. With green tea diet’s polycatechin polyphenols, a person has a better chance of avoiding ailments and keeping himself healthy for a much longer period of time.

Another antioxidant in green tea diet is also being studied as a potential cure for cancer. Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG found in green tea diet has been discovered to destroy cancer cells while keeping surrounding healthy cells unharmed.

The EGCG in green tea diet also acts with another compound, caffeine (a small amount of this is found in green tea). The interaction of these two compounds causes green tea diet to promote thermogenesis in the body.

It has been noted by a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that with the consumption of green tea diet, the body’s total 24-hour energy expenditure is increased by up to four percent. This is roughly equivalent to losing more than 10 pounds of weight a month.

Green tea diet helps increase the body’s metabolic rates. With its thermogenic properties, it is only natural that green tea diet can also promote faster metabolism of fats and sugars. Excess glucose found in the body is turned into fats by the hormone insulin. Because green tea diet has an inhibiting effect on insulin, green tea diet therefore helps keep sugar from being stored as fats and instead, send them directly into the muscles for immediate use.

The downside to a green tea diet
Although green tea diet has a reputation for boosting health, scientific proofs of its health benefits are still somewhat mixed. However, in an article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, American researchers collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the beneficial effects of green tea diet on cholesterol levels.

Using 240 men and women (average age 55) who possess mild to moderately high LDL cholesterol levels, the researchers instructed them to retain their usual low-fat diet, green tea diet intake, and activity levels. After twelve weeks, it was found that those who consumed green tea diet extract with their regular meals lost more than fifteen percent of their total LDL cholesterol levels.

Although the researchers never explained how green tea diet may influence cholesterol levels, previous studies have shown that certain compounds in green tea diet play a role in reducing the amount of cholesterol absorbed by the body, increasing amount of cholesterol excreted, and thus keeping cholesterol from being stored in the liver.

Subsequent studies were made to test the findings of the first group of researchers. Their results were contradictory. They found that green tea diet has no significant effect on the cholesterol profiles of their subjects.

There is no such thing as a miracle diet. Green tea diet, like all other diets, needs a lot of work and input from those who enroll in it. Green tea diet required both discipline and heart for it to make any significant impact on your weight loss goals.

Green Tea Diet Supplement

Green tea diet supplements are all the latest rage in the weight loss industry today. With its countless health and weight loss benefits, green tea diet supplements are fast replacing ephedra as the leading weight loss product in the market.

So what makes green tea diet supplement different?

For one, green tea diet supplement provides its user with an organic alternative to losing weight. Taken from the Camellia sinensis plant, green tea diet supplement contains ingredients that are beneficial to the body.

Several studies have been made on the effects of green tea diet supplements. It has been shown that the green tea extract found in green tea diet supplements contains a high amount of polyphenols. These substances in green tea diet supplements are natural bioflavonoids that act on the harmful free radicals that are the major causes of aging and diseases. By destroying the free radicals, the polyphenols in green tea diet supplements thus helps protect you from aging and diseases.

Green tea diet supplements are also great appetite-suppressants. In fact, this attribute of green tea diet supplements is one of the main reasons why it was made into a diet supplement in the first place. Green tea diet supplements affect how the appetite hormone noradrenaline acts. By suppressing noradrenaline, green tea diet supplements help reduce the occurrence of hunger pangs and make sure that you do not take in more food than you actually need.

Green tea diet supplements are also known for their major fat-burning attributes. Green tea diet supplements contain a significant amount of caffeine that accounts for its reputation as a great metabolic rate enhancer. Studies have show time and time again that caffeine in green tea diet supplements can cause a four percent increase in the body’s total energy expenditure. But unlike other diet products, green tea diet supplements increase metabolic rates without necessarily affecting the person’s heart rate. This is due to the fact that green tea diet supplements contain less caffeine than the average caffeinated drink or caffeinated diet products like ephedra. This makes green tea diet supplement a safer, healthier choice.

Aside from burning calories and increasing metabolism, green tea diet supplements are also highly valued for their ability to lower down cholesterol levels in a person. The antioxidants found in green tea diet supplements targets the bad cholesterol found in the body and in the process help maintain the ration between LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol.

Green tea diet supplements contain substances that have great thermogenic effects on the body. Thermogenesis is the process by which the body converts fat and calories into heat energy. The process is usually occurs when polyphenols interact with other substances, causing heat to be released. With the high amount of polyphenols in green tea diet supplements, it is not avoidable that thermogenesis occurs.

A study on the thermogenic effects of green tea diet supplements was recently concluded at the University of Geneva. The scientists found that of the ten healthy young men that served as their experimental subjects, only those who were given green tea diet supplements showed an impressive four percent increase in their total 24-hour energy expenditure. From their findings, the researchers surmised that green tea diet supplements can promote weight loss