10 Important Facts To Avoid Being Ripped Off
Scientifically Proven?
"Drinking tea for a long time makes one thin," says ancient Chinese medicinal classic Bencao Shiyi. Fast forward 1,300 years, and that is exactly what scientists have found today.
For those of you who are skeptical, I highly recommend you read Swen Wolframs excellent review paper Anti-obesity effects of green tea.
In his peer review of 74 studies, he concluded that weight loss due to green tea consumption has been demonstrated in laboratory studies involving cell culture and animals. According to Dr. Wolfram, 9 human studies have been conducted, with "most of these studies reporting decreased body weight and fat mass."
There is still a need for well-designed human studies to better understand the underlying mechanisms, but there is no question that it works.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #2
Why Do Most Diets Fail?
What is wrong with conventional dieting?
When you go on a diet and starve, your bodys survival instinct is triggered and you automatically go on "energy saving" mode. This reduces your metabolism and makes you burn fewer calories.
In addition, your body begins to feed on itself. Although some fat may be used as energy, the most readily available source is protein (i.e.) muscle.
According to studies conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the real problem starts after the dieting period, because this slowed metabolism can continue for up to weeks afterwards.
This causes the familiar yo-yo phenomenon, where you not only regain the lost weight, but rebound to even higher weight than what you started with.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #3
Why Does A Green Tea Diet Work?
Green tea weight loss works because it does not require you to eat a very low calorie diet.
Scientific studies have discovered that the main ingredients responsible for green tea slimming effects are caffeine and EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate). There are at least 5 proven ways they can help you lose weight:
Increase metabolism
Burn fat
Block conversion of energy into fat.
Help your body absorb less dietary fat.
Regulate your blood sugar levels and reduce food cravings.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #4
Suppresses Appetite?
Some green tea fat burner products claim that they can help to suppress your appetite. This is highly misleading.
A 2000 study conducted by University of Chicago found that rats consumed less food only when they were injected with green tea extract, but not when they drank green tea.
Therefore, for green tea to act as an appetite suppressant, you would have to either drink green tea constantly or consume tea extract at much higher levels than what is found in the market today.
Beware of companies making misleading claims on green teas appetite suppressing effect. Products such as Mega-T and Applied Nutrition can make you feel less hungry because they contain very high levels of Chromium, not because of the green tea extract.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #5
Exercise Longer
Doing exercise can help you lose weight in three different ways:
Burns calories. Your burn extra calories when you engage in physical activities.
Boosts metabolism. Your energy level stays high for a period of time after you finish exercising.
Increases muscle mass. When you exercise, you develop lean muscle mass. Your metabolism rate is determined largely by how much muscle you carry. So having more muscle makes it easier for you to keep slim.
Getting into an exercise routine is hard work. The good news is that drinking green tea can increase your endurance level by up to 24%.
When is 1+1=3?
Researchers found that mice that exercised regularly lost 24% of additional weight gain introduced by a high fat diet. Mice that drank green tea lost 47%. Mice that exercised AND drank green tea lost 89%!
It was found that mice that exercised and drank green tea burned the most energy and fat even when they were resting. Mice that drank green tea also burned more fat during exercise.
"Green tea Diet and Exercise - Visceral Fat Burning and Stamina".
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #6
Water, Muscle or Fat Loss?
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the largest and most respected health, medical and exercise organization in the world, has established guidelines for healthy weight loss. They recommend a weight loss goal of one to two pounds per week.
According to Tom Venuto, author of the excellent book Burn the Fat, it is possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but if you do, most of the additional weight will usually be water and muscle.
When you lose water weight, you will gain it back immediately as soon as you rehydrate yourself. When you lose muscle, your metabolic rate slows down, making you more likely to regain the lost weight later.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #7
Acts Fast?
Dont let anyone fool you into thinking that green tea acts fast!
Studies by Dulloo and Rumpler used a state-of-the-art metabolic chamber to measure the energy expenditure of their study subjects over 24 hours. They found that green tea increases metabolism by 2.9% and 4% and fat burning by 12% and 35% respectively.
Green Tea Thermogenesis
If you burn 2,000 calories a day, this translates to a savings of up to 80 calories, or 8 pounds a year, not bad for just a few cups of soothing tea! After a few years, each little cup adds up to a gigantic slimming effect.
How quickly you lose weight depends on your diet and lifestyle. No one can guarantee how many pounds you can shed in a week!
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #8
Dosage Versus Duration
More green tea will help you lose more weight, but only up to a certain amount. So far scientists have not found evidence that consuming a lot more green tea will help you lose a lot more weight (i.e. dose-dependent relationship is not well established).
However, there is emerging evidence that the amount of time during which you drink green tea is important. The longer you drink it, the more fat it burns.
A Taiwanese population study found that 140 people who were regular tea drinkers for more than 10 years had 20% body fat. This is significantly lower than the non tea drinkers with 25% body fat.
Green Tea Burn Fat - A Population Study
In other words, develop the good habit of drinking high quality green tea, and you will stand a much better chance of staying healthy and slim in the years to come.
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #9
Ideal For Weight Control
The beauty of green tea is that, unlike other herbs and supplements, you can drink 3 to 6 cups daily for the rest of your life without having any side effects. Together with its other powerful health benefits, this means green tea is an ideal weight maintenance beverage.
A study conducted by Maastricht University in United States found that green tea extract consisting mainly of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and caffeine can limit initial weight loss to 5% to 10%.
"Green Tea and Weight Control - Weight Maintenance Aid"
Green Tea Weight Loss Fact #10
High Caffeine Consumers Beware,
If you are a heavy coffee drinker and are hooked on caffeine, you may want consider switching over to green tea for two reasons:
Green tea contains less caffeine. A widely accepted rule of thumb is that it contains half the amount of caffeine found in coffee.
Green tea also contains a natural relaxant called theanine, which is known to promote a feeling of well-being. If you are at work, it will improve your concentration and productivity.
But there is a catch. Although you will reap the many health benefits of green tea, you will lose less weight than a low caffeine consumer.
In the same study quoted above, participants maintained their weight by drinking a caffeinated green tea (consisting of 270 milligrams of EGCG and 150 milligrams of caffeine).
High caffeine consumers did not benefit from the green tea. But low caffeine consumers continued to lose weight in the weight maintenance phase through higher metabolism and fat burning.
So by all means drink more green tea for its health and fat burning effect, but have a more realistic expectation of what it will do for you in term of weight loss.
Ten Great Health Benefits From Drinking Tea
People have been drinking tea for enjoyment for centuries. For just as long, tea drinkers have believed that tea is beneficial to one’s health. In ancient China, tea was thought to prevent liver disease and cleanse the body. Scientific studies in recent years have shown that there are true health benefits to gain from drinking tea. what can you do for yourself by drinking tea? Here are ten benefits:
Prevent ovarian cancer - A 15-year study of over 60,000 women in Sweden showed that drinking two cups of tea per day lowered the risk of ovarian cancer by 46%; drinking one cup of tea per day produced a 24% reduction.
Prevent weight gain - Every time you opt for a cup of tea instead of a sugary soft drink for your caffeine boost, you avoid up to 200 calories. Plain tea has zero calories (however, you will take in some calories if you add milk and sugar). And with a new study showing that just one to two soft drinks per day can raise your diabetes risk by 26%, choosing tea will significantly lower your risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Increase metabolic rate - The caffeine and polyphenols in tea speed up your metabolism and increase efficiency of insulin uptake. There is also some evidence that drinking green tea can actually promote weight loss by increasing the rate of fat oxidation in the body. One study found that moderately obese patients who consumed a green tea extract experience a 4.6% weight loss over 3 months.
Strengthen bones - A study comparing tea drinkers to non-tea drinkers found that those who drank tea over 10 years or more had significantly stronger bones than the non-drinkers, even after adjusting for other risk factors.
Increase hydration - The rule of thumb on fluid intake used to be that caffeinated beverages didn’t count because caffeine acts as a diuretic. But recent research has found that in moderate amounts, caffeinated beverages increase your hydration too. And tea makes a tasty change from drinking nothing but water all day long.
Prevent stroke - A research paper presented at the 2009 Stroke Conference stated that drinking 3 or more cups of tea per day lowered the risk of stroke by 21%. This is thought to caused by the flavonoids in tea, which promote efficient dilation of blood vessels, and effective oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol.
Boost your immune system - Regular tea drinkers have been found to have up to five times the production of anti-bacterial proteins (T-cells) in their systems than non-tea drinkers. For this reason, tea is also thought to help boost the immune system of HIV-positive patients and other people with compromised immune systems.
Protect your teeth - The fluoride and tannins in tea help fight plaque in your mouth, and depresses bacteria growth, leading to sweeter breath. But beware -- adding sugar to your tea cancels this effect out.
Keep your mind sharp - A 2006 Japanese study showed that elderly people who drank 2 or more cups of green tea daily had a 50% lower rate of cognitive impairment than those who drank less tea, or other beverages.
Decrease your stress levels - The claim that a cup of tea is relaxing is not just advertising hype. Researchers at University College in London found that after doing stressful tasks, regular tea drinkers experienced a 20% faster rate of decrease in cortisol levels than those in the control group. Cortisol is a hormone produced by stress in the body, and high levels over time contribute to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain. In addition, the caffeine “buzz” from tea comes on over a period of about 15 minutes, leading to a gradual increase rather than the fast jolt one gets from coffee.
Many of the studies show that adding milk, sugar, sweeteners or lemon to the tea can inhibit some of these positive effects, so opting for unsweetened tea is the best choice. And whether you consume your tea hot or iced, make sure to brew it nice and hot.
Tea is an evergreen plant that is indigenous to China and some regions of India. The word tea refers to both the plant itself and also to the infusion resulting from steeping in hot water.
It is important to note that these results all apply to either black or green tea made from the plant Camellia sinensis. Herbal teas may have other health benefits but do not contain true tea leaves. Both green and black teas have been shown to have various good effects on health, and a good option may be to mix up your intake between the two. Since green tea has a lower caffeine level than black tea, switching to green in the afternoon might be an option to prevent any interference with your sleep.
Afterall green tea is so Beneficial for losing weight and Keeping fit.