What's everyone's verdict on green tea and weight loss?
Helps?
Hurts?
Doesn't make a difference?
I am assuming that the basis for claiming it helps with weight loss is the fact that it has some caffeine in it, although not as much as coffee. a caffeine speeds up the body's processes, which in turn, would hypothetically speed up your metabolism.
But it also has lots of antioxidants, for an extra benefit too
Antioxidants are beneficial to your body. Many foods we eat contain antioxidants. Any tea and berries are big antioxidant boosters. They don't help you lose weight but they do help you in your overall health.
Some people report that drinking certain teas, herbal or otherwise help curb their appetite. Green tea, ginger tea and peppermint teas are the ones associated most with helping stave off the munchies.
Also there has been some limited studies that show if you drink green tea every day, you could lose up to 4 lbs/year without making any other changes. It may be associated with the fact that green tea contains caffeine or it may be that it helps curb your appetite. Who knows?
I figured this falls in the "can't hurt" category. I used to make yet another pot of coffee at 3:00 but now have a cup of green tea instead -- can't really tell if it's "working" since I am also dieting and exercising.
I think it's a healthy change though....my husband has a friend who married this pretty Korean lady who always offer tea at their house & she's skinny as all get out and never seems to get a day older! I'm kind of like, I'll have what she's having. She eats a lot of fish and tofu also.
I started eating every 3 hours on Jan 1st and one of the things I also changed was I started drinking hot tea. I drink 3 to 4 cups of hot tea each day. I gradually used less sweetener and now I drink it without any type of sweetener. I have lost 18 pounds since Jan 1st. I really do think that drinking the tea helps me in 2 ways. It makes me feel full and it helps with getting my daily water intake. Like K8- EEE said it can't hurt.
I like green tea but recently discovered coconut mango oolong tea.
I drink the green tea mainly for the anti-oxidants and not just the supposed weight loss. I havent ever seen any weight loss that I can attribute to the green tea so Im not sure. However, I would keep drinking it for the other health benefits that have been proven, alone. Sorry it's not more helpful!
Hi, I recently read the Tea Diet book and it states that true tea does help to curb your appetite and assist with weight loss. True tea must come from the tea plant and this includes; black tea, green tea, white tea, and oolong tea. (I think I spelled that right).
Anyway, if you think drinking tea is helping it probably is.
Oolong tea is a form of green tea (the difference is in how the tea leaves are processed once picked) and has been shown to be effective not only in suppressing appetite but also in increasing energy expenditure (EE) and inhibiting the absorption of nutrients, including fat and carbohydrates.
When I lived in Taiwan, all of the women I knew were obsessed with drinking oolong tea, claiming its benefits in keeping them slim. I am going to pick some up at my local Chinese grocery store tomorrow (couldn't find it at my regular market last night).
If you google oolong tea and weight loss, there's quite a bit of info that comes up, including best time to drink it (before a workout) to maximise the increased EE.
The first article that comes up by Beth Johnston is quite informative. I tried to post it, but the copyright requires author info, including the web link, to be posted and because I'm new here, I don't seem to be able to post web links...
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Last edited by twish; 02-24-2009 at 09:08 PM.
Reason: forgot to include author attribution
i read that green tea does help weight loss, but it would be impossible to drink a large enough amount to make a difference. Id say the main effect of tea on appitite that sipping a hot drink will take your mind off eating
I forced myself to start drinking green tea a couple of months ago, mostly because of the supposed health benefits and some new research suggesting it could help prevent autoimmune diseases (sure don't need any more of those). Some studies suggest that it can help with weight loss (increased fat burning) and reduce appetite and I can tell you that on the days I don't make my pot of green (or white) tea, I really do feel hungrier. I don't think it's all in my head. I think it makes a difference, albeit probably a small one.
I totally second that thing, though, about drinking a cup of tea taking your mind off of eating. That's certainly part of it. And I think the more you can make this cup of tea a special event, the better. I bought myself a fancy teapot with its own cozy and invested in some different types of loose green tea. Basically, I tried to become a tea nerd. I know all sorts of stuff now about water temperature and different grades and types of Japanese and Chinese tea, lol. I figured that if I put that much effort into it, it would become like a hobby. At first it was hard as **** to get off of coffee (I still have a cup once or twice a week), but now if I go a day or two without my green tea 'ritual' in my special teapot, I actually miss it!
Green Tea and weight loss
definitely stops me from eating other things for the same effect !
