Most people get the idea that green tea is “good for you.” But most people don’t seem to realize just how effective green tea is for promoting fat loss.
While recently working on a fat loss project, I was reminded of just how potent green tea is in terms of boosting energy expenditure (metabolic rate) and promoting fat oxidation (fat burning).
Green Tea... it does a body good!
As I’m sipping on a cup of green tea now, it occurred to me that if green tea were a prescription drug, we would be begging our medical doctors to write us a ‘script for this wonder drug! It’s sad, really, what a quick-fix society we have become. But I digress…
Green tea isn’t a drug, but boy does it work like a charm!
Green Tea & Fat Burning
Here are some of the high points of a study (1) on green tea.
- increase in (or prolonged effect of) norepinephrine*
- increase in 24-hour energy expenditure of 4% (~ 40% boost in thermogenesis!)
- increase in fat oxidation (aka fat burning)
- no elevation of heart rate
This is incredible stuff! I mean, just the fact that it boosts the number of calories you burn in a day by 4% is reason enough to drink green tea. It’s like green tea has negative calories… about − 100 calories! If that doesn’t get you motivated to drink some green tea, then you may need to go to the doc to get your head checked.
For the record, the dose of EGCG (the most active component in green tea) used in the study was 90mg, consumed with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Personally, I always make a double-strength cup of green tea – using two tea bags – in order to get more EGCG and other beneficial compounds found in green tea.
Summary: unless your doc says you shouldn’t…drink green tea. :)
Your friend in fitness,
Dr Clay
Misc Stuff
* norepinephrine – a potent fat-burning neurotransmitter/hormone; also called noradrenaline
1) Dulloo, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;70:1040–5
You should ALWAYS check with your doctor before taking any supplements, including drinking green tea. Sadly, he or she probably doesn’t know any more than you do about such matters, but you should still ask…seriously.
Love the article. I had a fitness expert give me this advice a couple years ago and it really helped my physique. If you don’t like the taste, taking capsules at breakfast and lunch will really crank up your metabolism!
Is the same true for decaf green tea?
Sure is. In fact they made sure that the thermogenic-type effects were not simply coming from the caffeine, and they weren’t. Green tea actually promoted a shift toward lipolysis (fat-burning as opposed to ‘carb burning’) more than 1,000 mg caffeine.
Green tea is one of the few things (in terms of supplement-type stuff) that really surprises and impresses me.
Does green tea by any chance slow down muscle gains ? I ask because it’s anti inflammatory ( inflammation is important for muscle gains right ?) and taking it after training would remove the free radicals produced due to training and could could thus reduce the benefits of excercise ?
Good question, Osama, but you’re thinking too much.
That’s still an area where we need much more information to make clear recommendations. However, green tea isn’t the most potent anti-oxidant, by far.
Plus, green tea has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, which would help muscle gains (and help prevent fat gain). So, at least in theory, that may very well offset what you’re talking about.
I suspect that what we’re going to find regarding anti-oxidants and muscle growth is that we shouldn’t take potent, high-dose anti-oxidants immediately prior to or after weight-training. I really think having more ‘natural’ levels of anti-oxidants floating around when and after we train will be fine, probably even good.
As the saying goes, too much of a good thing, isn’t necessarily good (or something to that effect).
I dig your thinking, Osama. Keep those good questions coming (they help me get better by stimulating my own thinking).
Best,
Dr C
Sure =)
By the way Dr. Clay ( that rhymed =P ), I have another question. This time, it’s regarding alpha lipoic acid. Now, ALA is a very potent antioxidant so why do people ( like Charles poliquin ) take it before their workout ? And what form of carnitine do you think is best ( LCLT or ALCAT) and is it worth it or is there something better that should be taken pre workout ? Please and thank you
A question that i’ve been thinking about since hearing about the benefits of green tea but just havent really researched or asked the question: Iced Green Tea = Hot/Non-Iced Green Tea? Personally i know i can drink more of it if its cold vs. hot (experience from drink black teas).
Osama, those are good questions…let me come back and answer them in the Q & A and keep this comment thread on topic. Thanks, buddy.
Ben, I’m with ya, man. I can drink more green tea cold…coffee, too.
And yes, cold vs hot/warm green tea has the same benefits. But that assuming we’re talking about the same green tea. If you buy bottled green tea in a convenience store and compare that to, let’s say…Celestial Seasonings green tea bags, then those aren’t necessarily the same, because they are different brands and have different potencies of green tea (in terms of EGCG and other flavonoid/catechin content).
And as a general rule, tea bags are going to be of higher quality than convenience store bottled green tea (which often has a bunch of added sugar, too, which obviously defeats the fat-burning purpose…so read the labels!!)
Dr C
Thank you for the quick response! I plan on brewing my own tea, but just wasn’t sure if temperature played a role at all.