subject: Lose Weight With Green Tea Supplements [print this page] If you are interested in methods that help you lose weight then green tea weight loss is something you may have already heard about. Green tea is made from the leaves of the camellia sinensis bush and oolong and black tea are made with the same leaves too. The difference is that black tea is highly processed and green tea is the least processed with oolong sitting somewhere in the middle.
Scientists have discovered that this rich profile of antioxidants have both fat burning and weight loss properties. Not just great for shedding the pounds, these antioxidants are loaded with benefits for our health, boosting the immune system, cancer prevention and protection from heart disease are to name but a few. Not bad for a cup of tea!
When the first studies were performed to find out about green tea weight loss, it was discovered that there was more to the weight loss effects of this drink than just the caffeine it contained, this extra something is the antioxidants in green tea called catechins. Although green tea contains a lot less caffeine than coffee, caffeine does speed up the metabolism enough to burn a few extra calories. However, the weight loss effect of green tea have a lot more to do with catechins than with caffeine.
Catechins, which also go by the abbreviation of their longer chemical name - EGCG, create a kind of 'excitement' within our central nervous system and consequently influence our metabolism to speed up. The awesome thing about EGCG is that it doesn't create the side effects of drinking too much coffee or taking too much caffeine. EGCG has powerful effect upon our system without causing any problems.
When the metabolism is raised, the inner working of the body speeds up and we burn extra calories. Simply digesting food and pumping blood around the body each day requires more energy to do so. To keep up with the calorie needs the body may also need to release stored fat to supply the need and this helps us burn fat too!
The effects of green tea weight loss don't just end there either. On any given day that we should eat more calories than the body needs, those calories get converted into a from of fat called triglycerides. Once triglycerides are created they hang around in the blood stream for a period of time before the body stores them as fat. This is where EGCG comes to the rescue by actually dissolving some of the triglycerides in the blood stream before they get a chance to become stored as body fat!
To get the best benefits of green tea weight loss it is recommended to drink about 12 cups a day. Clearly that is a little too much for most of us. However there is a great alternative called green tea extract.
Green tea extract is a supplement that extracts the EGCG from green tea into a concentrated form. By taking green tea extract every day at a dosage of about 900mg we can burn about an extra 70-80 calories each and every day! And remember this is all solid science
