The truth about green tea as a fat burning aid

About Green Tea and Weight Loss - The No-Nonsense Truth

Consider the following - One pound of fat (0.45 kilograms) is equivalent to approximately 3500 calories. Whether using green tea for weight loss or any other method, in order to lose one pound of fat over the period of a week, a person must maintain a calorie deficit of 3500 below their normal "set point", that "set point" being the amount of calories consumed in one's diet where a person neither loses nor gains fat. This calorie deficit can come through the modification of diet, through exercise, or a through a combination of both. In the case of a pound per week weight loss, that works out to a needed calorie deficit of 500 calories per day.

Research by Japanese and other researchers(1) suggest that if the average person were to drink five cups of green tea a day, they would burn an extra 70 to 80 extra calories through an effect known as thermogenesis - the process of heat production in organisms. While much of the thermogenesis effect in green tea is derived from caffeine, studies also suggest(2) that thermogenesis in green tea occurs to some degree beyond its caffeine content from epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG.)

Regardless, 70-80 calories per day does not quite come close to the 500 calorie deficit needed per day to lose a pound a week, and for sure it's nowhere close to the calorie deficit needed to lose "inches per week" from one's waistline as some green tea web sites would have consumers believe. According to the research, if a person were to change nothing outside of adding five cups of green tea to their diet per day, then over the course of 43 days one could expect to lose 1 pound. Over the period of one year, one could expect a loss of about 8 pounds. Yes, there is some correlation between green tea and weight loss, unfortunately it's not on the level many would have you believe.

Clearly, drinking green tea alone is not going to be satisfactory for significant weight loss. Still, green tea can still be quite useful as a weight loss aid. The extra 80 calories per day can be just what a person needs to tip the scale from a calorie surplus to a calorie deficit, especially when following a balanced nutrition and exercise regime.

Something That Really Works...

If you are serious about losing weight, even though you should not expect the pounds to melt off as some will claim, green tea as a complement to a sound nutrition and exercise regime is highly recommended, not only for the slight metabolism boost it will give you, but more importantly for the many other documented health benefits.

(1) Dulloo AG, Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans, Am J Clin Nutr 70: 1040-1050, 1999

(2) The Effects of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate on Thermogenesis and Fat Oxidation in Obese Men: A Pilot Study Michael Boschmann, MD and Frank Thielecke, PhD. Universitary Medicine Berlin, Charité Campus Buch, Franz Volhard Center for Clinical Research, and HELIOS Clinic Berlin. J Am Coll Nutr. 26 (4); 389-3995. 2007