Most of the weight-loss diets we are familiar with will run on the same principles: low-carb, low-sugar, high-protein foods that help us reach our desired weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Another common item on all of these diets is green tea – the answer to many of our weight-loss prayers.
Green tea has a little amount of caffeine in it – perfect if you are used to caffeine every day but don’t want to be dependent on coffee or tea. More importantly, regular doses of green tea can help boost our metabolism and burn our stored fats.
Here’s all you need to know about green tea, and all the ways it can help in losing weight.
How can Green Tea help?
Green tea is part caffeine and part a special antioxidant, called catechin. Both of these ingredients are responsible for improving our metabolism, which is the process our body digests food and drink and turns them into pure energy. With the caffeine and catechin in green tea leaves, our body’s metabolism is improved.
Among other healthy caffeine options, black tea and black coffee happen to be the most popular ones, filled with caffeine that can also help in losing weight. However, in green tea, you get more than just caffeine. The combined effect of caffeine and catechin makes green tea the number one choice for weight loss beverage all around the world.
Green Tea for Weight Loss Goals
Just by adding multiple cups of green tea in your daily meal plans, you can lose a few pounds every week. This works better when you are already eating healthy and exercising regularly. Green tea only accelerates your weight loss journey; alone, green tea cannot magically help in losing weight if you are still eating lots of carbohydrates and sugar.
Each cup of brewed green tea contains zero calories; you can drink as much of it as you want and never gain a single pound of weight. Moreover, green tea boosts our metabolic rate and burns the fat stored in our body. A cup of green tea, or two, immediately after a heavy meal, can help indigestion, as well.
If you are used to your daily doses of sweetened coffee, calorie-added caffeinated drinks, or milk tea with sugar, substituting them for a cup of green tea can really have a positive influence on your weight.
At the same time, green tea is known to be naturally diuretic, which means that drinking this tea can increase the amount and frequency of your urine passing. This is a great drink if you are suffering from fluid retention problem, or if you have any kind of tissue inflammation.
In women, green tea can help significantly in reducing fat around the stomach and the abdomen. Although not in a significant amount, the fats stored in these areas for women can be gradually lessened by regularly drinking green tea.
Green Tea and Exercise
According to a study at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, drinking a cup of green tea or taking green tea extract immediately before an exercise session can burn up to 17% more calories than someone who didn’t take green tea. According to another study, drinking green tea before exercise also improves our endurance level, speed and strength, which helps us to exercise more, even if we are not regulars at the gym.
Green Tea and Appetite
A cup of green tea can also drastically decrease your appetite and hunger for the moment, which means you won’t feel the need to eat something when it’s not the time for a meal. According to a study conducted at the Anhui Agricultural University in China, sipping a cup of green tea slowly significantly reduces the feeling of hunger in your body and mind, and at the same time, gives you additional energy.
Also, as a cup of green tea has absolutely zero calories, it doesn’t matter how many cups you drink every day. There’s no limit to the consumption of green tea when it comes to weight loss; anytime you are feeling hungry, a cup of green high, high in antioxidants and caffeine, can make sure you are not eating anything unhealthy that can add to your weight.
How much Green Tea do you need?
If you are just using green tea to substitute for the number of caffeinated drinks you used to have before, two to three cups a day would be enough. However, for rapid loss of weight, you can drink up to 6 cups of green tea every day. Since the amount of caffeine is very low in each cup of green tea, it is not enough to keep you up at nights. Brewed in water, green tea will also help in hydrating your body – a substitute for drinking water.
Other Benefits of Green Tea
Besides helping in weight loss, regularly drinking green tea can also lower your stress levels. Since some people tend to eat more when they are stressed, a less stressful state can mean eating less, indirectly aiding your weight loss journey.
Some other health benefits of green tea include reducing the chances of some specific types of cancer, improving our skin’s elasticity, improving brain functions, lowering your chances of Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, improving your dental health as well as lowering the chances of Type-II diabetes.
Healthy Alternatives of Green Tea
If you don’t like the bittersweet taste of green tea, there are some other beverages that you can try: Chicory coffee, Matcha tea, Rooibos tea, lemon water, chai tea, Yerba Mate tea and Apple Cider Vinegar. Although not as helpful as green tea, these beverages can also aid in losing weight to some extent.
Unless you are stacking your cup of green tea with full-cream milk, sugar or honey, this miraculous drink can help a lot in your Weight Loss journey. However, it is probably better not to overdo the consumption or solely depend on green tea for losing weight (while you carry on with an unhealthy diet). Drunk regularly and responsibly, green tea can do a lot for your weight and your overall health, since it happens to be one of the healthiest drinks ever, for anyone.
