Green Tea Weight Loss: Fact Or Fiction?
Green tea weight loss plans, from teas to pills to everything in between, are plentiful and widespread. Some companies claim that green tea will help you shed dozens of pounds. But plenty of studies show that there’s not much proven correlation between green tea and weight loss. So which is true? Is this age-old plant the miracle weight loss formula you’ve been waiting for? Or is it just another leaf?
The argument for weight loss
Some people say that green tea weight loss programs work because green tea stimulates the body to metabolize things faster. This could be in part because green tea has caffeine (which speeds up many of the body’s processes), or in part because green tea is a proven source of anti-oxidants.
Major studies in medical journals don’t find that green tea has any different behavior in the body than any other kind of tea, at least in terms of weight loss. There are small studies (often by companies selling green tea weight loss pills themselves) that find otherwise, but there is no accepted consensus that there is any direct correlation.
So scientifically, there’s no proof that simply by you ingesting green tea, weight loss will magically be yours. However, that doesn’t mean that green tea can’t be part of some smart weight loss tactics that will work, regardless of its properties.
Proven Green Tea Weight Loss Tactics
So, you can’t be sure that green tea will melt the pounds away. That’s fine. One way you can be sure to lose weight with green tea, though, is using it to replace unhealthy beverages or habits in your life.
If you start the day off with coffee full of sugar, or if you have a soda on your afternoon break, then replacing one or both of these with green tea will have excellent health benefits and will help you lose weight. The sugar in soda is horrible for you, and coffee can be strong on your system. Integrating green tea not only reaps plenty of anti-oxidant benefits, but replaces harmful calories as well. This is the best way to achieve green tea weight loss, regardless of any other proven benefits.