Green Tea for Weight Loss

Review

Green tea appears to have the potential to promote weight loss. The March issue of the International Journal of Obesity concludes that green tea extract increases the burning of calories and fat needed to lose weight.

Previous animal studies showed that green tea extract increased thermogenesis, which is the generation of body heat that occurs as a result of normal digestion, absorption, and metabolization of food. In previous human studies, the authors showed that consumption of green tea increased thermogenesis as well as energy expenditure and fat loss in healthy men, suggesting that green tea in liquid or capsule form may be an effective way to aid weight loss.

In the new study, conducted by the Institute of Physiology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, researchers found a particular type of fatty tissue from rats to caffeine and to green tea extract containing small concentrations of caffeine.

Green tea containing caffeine significantly increased thermogenesis by 28% to 77%, depending on dose, whereas caffeine alone resulted in no significant increase. When the stimulant ephedrine was added to green tea with caffeine, the increase was even more significant compared with caffeine alone and ephedrine alone. Caffeine and ephedrine are used together in some herbal weight loss preparations, but there are many safety concerns regarding ephedrine because it raises heart rate and blood pressure.

The institute tested the plant compound EGCG found in green tea. They found that the stimulant ephedrine alone had no effect on thermogenesis, but that caffeine plus ephedrine resulted in an 84% increase. However, adding EGCG to the caffeine plus ephedrine mix increased thermogenesis even further.

The real problem with reading too much into these findings is the belief that one can lose weight in the long-term by only taking a pill or drinking green tea. Unless you eat healthy and add exercise to your daily life you simply are not going to sustain your weight loss. Therefore, what is the point of taking any supplement whether it works temporarily or not?