How can green tea help you lose weight?

Green tea can be considered as one of the healthiest beverages worldwide. Adding antioxidants and other plant compounds found in green tea to your body can benefit your health. Some people even claim that green tea can increase fat burning and help you lose weight. Let's look at the evidence surrounding green tea and weight loss.

Tea leaves contain many beneficial compounds.
One of the compounds of green tea is caffeine. Although a cup of green tea contains less caffeine (24 - 40 mg) than a cup of coffee (100 - 200 mg), it still has a mild effect.
Caffeine is well known as a stimulant that has been shown in numerous studies to aid fat burning and improve exercise performance.
However, green tea is famous for its high antioxidant content. Studies show that drinking a cup of green tea increases the amount of antioxidants in your blood.
This healthy drink is packed with powerful antioxidants called catechins.
The most important of these is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a substance that can help boost metabolism in the body.
A cup of green tea can increase the body's antioxidant levels, and most studies have examined the benefits of green tea extract, which is a concentrated source of catechins.

To burn fat, your body must first break it down in fat cells and move the fat into the bloodstream.
Animal studies suggest that compounds in green tea may aid this process by enhancing the action of certain fat-burning hormones, such as norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
The main antioxidant in tea, EGCG, can help inhibit an enzyme that breaks down the hormone norepinephrine.
When this enzyme is inhibited, the amount of norepinephrine increases, promoting fat breakdown.
In fact, caffeine and antioxidants - both found in green tea - can work together.
Finally, your fat cells break down more fat. These fats are released into the bloodstream to be used as energy by cells such as muscle cells.

If you look at the labels of most commercial weight loss products and fat-burning supplements, you'll likely see green tea listed as an ingredient in the product.
This is because green tea extract has been repeatedly proven to have an effect on fat burning, especially during exercise.
In one study, men who drank green tea extract before exercise burned 17% more fat than those who didn't take the supplement. Research shows that green tea can increase the effectiveness of fat burning during exercise, aiding weight loss.
An eight-week study determined that the catechins in green tea increased fat burning, both during exercise and at rest.
Several other studies have also confirmed these findings, indicating that EGCG enhances fat burning – which may lead to long-term loss of body fat.

Your body is constantly burning calories.
Even when you sleep or sit down, your cells are performing millions of functions that require energy.
Some studies show that taking green tea extract or EGCG supplements can help you burn more calories - even at rest.
In most studies, this increases to about 3% 4%, although some other studies show that calorie burn can go as high as 8%.
For someone who burns 2,000 calories per day, 3 - 4% equates to burning 60 - 80 more calories per day - similar to what you might expect from a high protein diet.
Although most of these studies were of very short duration, some evidence that the metabolism-boosting effects persist over the long term.
In a study in 60 obese people, those taking green tea extract lost 7.3 pounds (3.3 kg) and burned 183 more calories per day after three months than those who didn't take the extract.
However, not all studies show that green tea extract boosts metabolism. Whether drinking green tea for weight loss is effective or not depends on each body's condition.

The way that green tea can aid weight loss is by reducing cravings.
This should, in theory, make you consume fewer calories automatically - and without any effort.
However, different studies have given mixed results about the effects of green tea on appetite.
Some animal studies suggest that green tea extract or EGCG supplements can reduce the amount of fat you absorb from food, but this has not been confirmed in humans.
Overall, the main effect of green tea is to increase calorie intake, causing you to burn more fat - but there doesn't seem to be any noticeable effect on the total amount of food you consume throughout the day.

When it comes to actual weight loss, the effects of green tea are relatively modest.
Although many studies show that drinking green tea does indeed cause weight loss, there are also some studies that show no effect.
Two reviews of controlled trials of green tea supplementation found that on average people can lose about 3 pounds (1.3 kg).
Remember that not all fats are created equal.
Subcutaneous fat is under your skin, but you can also have significant amounts of visceral fat, also known as belly fat.
High amounts of visceral fat have been linked to inflammation and insulin resistance, both of which are strongly linked to a number of serious diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Several studies on antioxidants in green tea show that although the weight loss effects are modest, a significant proportion of fat lost is harmful visceral fat.
Therefore, drinking green tea can reduce your risk of certain diseases, which can help you lead a longer and healthier life.

Article referenced source: healthline.com