Green tea has a bonus of helping to not absorb so many carbs. It is now a stimulant as far as I know it does not have any caffeine in it. It is a great alternative to regular tea and coffee.

Where did you hear that it helps you not absorb carbs? I cant imagine that is true. Yes it has caffeine in it that is the stimulant aspect of it.
I am trying the megat pills...

http://wilstar.com/caffeine.htm

green tea has 15mg caffeine per 8 oz cup.
regular iced tea has 45 mg caffeine per 8 oz cup.

depending on how you brew it.

Got a link for that - a peer-reviewed study would be nice?

Personally, I either doubt that this is true or if it IS a little true, it's probably WAY overblown, just like your typical 'carb blocker' phony diet pills.

I've been searching Pubmed. The only thing I've found is that it's an antioxidant, maybe helps prevent cancer and helps those people who have been exposed to asenic. "tea and its polyphenols may have a promising role in counteracting the devastating effects of arsenic."

So green tea as a beverage is good for you. But I wouldn't expect it to do anything for my weight loss.

edited to add:
Oh, wait I found one article that did a study with "Bioactive food stimulants of sympathetic activity: effect on 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation"
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 May 4 . The article hasn't been posted to pubmed, but the abstract is:

Bioactive food stimulants of sympathetic activity: effect on 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation.

Belza A, Jessen AB.

1Department of Human Nutrition, Centre for Advanced Food Studies, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, Denmark

OBJECTIVE:: Bioactive food ingredients influence energy balance by exerting weak thermogenic effects. We studied whether the thermogenic effect of a combination of capsaicin, green tea extract (catechins and caffeine), tyrosine, and calcium was maintained after 7-day treatment and whether local effects in the gastric mucosa were involved in the efficacy. DESIGN:: The present study was designed as a 3-way crossover, randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blinded intervention. SETTING:: Department of Human Nutrition, RVAU, Denmark. SUBJECTS:: A total of 19 overweight to obese men (BMI: 28.0+/-2.7 kg/m(2)) were recruited by advertising locally. INTERVENTION:: The subjects took the supplements for a period of 7 days. The supplements were administrated as a simple supplement with the bioactive ingredients, a similar enterocoated version, or placebo. In all, 24-h energy expenditure (EE), substrate oxidations, spontaneous physical activity (SPA), and heart rate were measured in respiration chambers on the seventh day of each test period. RESULTS:: After adjustment for changes in body weight and SPA, 24-h EE was increased by 160 kJ/day (95% CI: 15-305) by the simple preparation as compared to placebo, whereas the enterocoated preparation had no such effect (53 kJ/day, -92 to 198); simple vs enterocoated versions (P=0.09). The simple preparation produced a deficit in 24-h energy balance of 193 kJ/day (49-338, P=0.03). Fat and carbohydrate oxidation were equally increased by the supplements. CONCLUSION:: A supplement containing bioactive food ingredients increased daily EE by approximately 200 kJ or 2%, without raising the heart rate or any observed adverse effects. The lack of effect of the enterocoated preparation suggests that a local action of capsaicin in the gastric mucosa is a prerequisite for exerting the thermogenic effect. SPONSORSHIP:: Supported by Science, Toxicology & Technology, San Francisco, CA, USA.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 4 May 2005; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602121.


I'll keep an eye out on this one and read the article when it's posted. Looks interesting, not enough to take pills but maybe interesting enough to eat hot peppers with my tea and a square of cheese. Tyrosine? what has tyrosine natutally? Have to check that out.

Sarah

Gee what did that study say? I tried tyrosine in supplement form years ago..did nothing for me.
There is a hot pepper diet on the market now. I think its called the CHILI PEPPER DIET..dont know anyone that has tried it.
I am on day 3 of green tea and I have to admit, it reminds me of when I took a prescription weight loss pill years ago..(yea back when I was skinny and thought I was fat)
I feel a bit floaty etc. I am sensitive to caffeine. I just took one..tomorrow I will try 1/2 instead of one.
I will certainly let you all know if I see results.

Here's a link to a list of the "999 Foods Highest in Tyrosine".

The study abstract doesn't really say much that wasn't already known IMO - according to the SupplementWatch page on green tea anyway (and no, nothing about blocking carbs either.). At any rate, a 2% increase in energy expenditure isn't really going to amount to much, especially if the person taking the supplements (or drinking copious amounts of green tea) is still eating like crap and not exercising regularly. IMO of course.

So very true. It's mostly common sense and I agree with you 2% decrease when you're eating crap won't help you much. And that was the average,

"The simple preparation produced a deficit in 24-h energy balance of 193 kJ/day (49-338, P=0.03) " 49 to 338 is a huge range and without seeing the article we have no idea what's going on or how the study was put together. Even in peer reviewed articles there can still be problems. I just thought it was interesting.

Hopefully no one will think that I'm promoting this. Please, I'm not. Eat healthy, don't take strange pills, exercise and drink lots of water.

Sarah

IMO, rather than thermogenics, some of the supposed weight loss benefits of the green tea (supplements or drink) may be due to the caffeine ... there's not a lot of caffeine in green tea (vs coffee anyway), but if someone is adding the tea or pills to their regular diet, they're going to be upping the caf and it's going to likely have a diuretic effect and that could drop a few pounds on the scale.

Unless drinking decaf, of course!

I like plain green tea with lemon, no sweeteners of any kind. Tastes good to me, but as it's hot in Arizona, I'm aware I need to drink extra plain water for every cup of tea.

I drink REAL green tea, and other herbal teas. Not prebottled, not pills.

I don't drink it for weight loss purposes.

Green tea, and ANY tea-has nutritional benefits and antioxidants that are good for you in general. If you drink any kind of tea, and you want nutritional benefits from it-you gotta drink the real stuff. As in-the little bits of leaves that you steep in hot water yourself. There are herbal teas that have medicinal properties in them...such as the calming effects of chamomile tea...the easing of an upset tummy with teas that contain mint...in ancient times all medicines started out from herbs and plants-there definitely ARE medicinal properties in certain foods, herbs/plants.

But-weight loss isn't really one of them. If you have an upset tummy-brew some peppermint tea...if you have a cold eat lots of garlic...if you want to lose weight-watch your diet and exercise.

Just wanted you all to know the green tea made me edgy and I did not lose a pound from taking it.
Ok..so you told me so!

I recently bought this from online. It is supposed to be all natural green tea with 5x the potency of regular green tea. I sent it back after day one. It made me extremely jittery. My friend also drank it and she felt the same. It was almost like a high, but a really bad one. I would be very careful of this product. It also made me anxious and panicky feeling. Just incase you see it or hear about it.

sabrina

I forgot to mention the name of the product i bought. Its GreenTea300. And they were rude and not helpful when I wanted to return it.

I, like aphil, drink the green tea (sometimes naked if its a good quality, but often the Republic of Tea flavored ones, which are really good too -- I'm currently ga-ga over their Fair Trade Ginger Lemongrass Green Tea... which doesn't even require sweetening up.) And yes, the weightloss claim is disputable - but tea in general has lots of other health benefits so its definitely worth getting into a habit of drinking!

For those that are caffeine sensitive, you can easily decaf your teabags by steeping it for 30 seconds in hot water (where it loses 99% of its caffeine), dump that, and steep it for real (3-5 minutes) -- of course, don't do this with high quality teas, since you'll lose flavor too decafing with this method.

I personally like green tea, it tastes good. I have been a coffe drinker for about 9 years, for some reason I picked it up while I was pregnant with my oldest son. I started drinking green tea 3 months ago, I have lost 17 pounds since then. I don't watch what I eat but I watch how much I eat, which isn't much I have always been this way. I have never really heard of green tea for dieting, I have heard it is supposed to give you energy (hence the caffine). To be honest it does give me more energy than my coffee that I drink and cannot live with out every morning. Who knows maybe it's all in the mind.