Weight Loss Tips - How does Green Tea work

Green Tea has been hailed as much more than just a beverage. Asians have used Green Tea as a herbal medicine and treatment for almost everything from depression to headaches. Now it is widely appreciated for its ability to help with weight loss.

For a weight loss program to be at its most effective they require two elements. The body must consume less fuel and burn more energy. Green Tea fulfils this.

By drinking a lot of tea, it reduces the chances of wanting to snack or drink something that may be of a higher calorific content. Green Tea helps to burn energy. A study has found that regular Green Tea drinkers burn as much as 4% more energy than those who do not.

Green tea works by intensifying the level of fat oxidation and Thermogenesis (the rate at which your body burns calories) It helps to block the absorption of fat and regulates glucose by preventing the blood sugar to rise too quickly after a meal. If this occurs, high levels of Insulin are then produced which leads to fat being stored.

Drinking Green Tea speeds up the metabolic rate considerably helping to accelerate the loss of stored fat and helps to reduce fat storage. This makes it ideal for people who want to shift the fat that they already have on their body, but it also helps to limit the amount of fat that you digest and store on various parts of your body where weight gain might be more prominent such as your waist, thighs, chest or hips.

Green tea is proven that it helps reduce appetite. This is due to the blood sugar regulating effects, appetite is then suppressed. An experiment conducted by the University of Chicago showed that rats that were injected with an extract of Green Tea consumed up to 60% less food.

It has mild cholesterol lowering levels by helping to decrease bad cholesterol (LDL) and increasing the good cholesterol (HDL). Research has recommended that up to 10 cups of Green Tea a day is required to achieve real noticeable benefits from daily consumption of Green Tea. It is most effective in a dose of 200-300 milligrams per day, split into 3 divided doses. While green tea extract is very effective when taken alone but when combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise program it will enable you to lose the pounds quicker than any other diet or exercise program.

Green Tea consists of Vitamins, Minerals and Caffeine however, the main active ingredients that attribute to Green Tea health benefits are Polyphenols such as Catechin, Epicatechin, Epicatechin gallate, Gallocatechin, Epigallocatechin and Apigallocatechin gallate (commonly known as EGCG). EGCG is a natural antioxidant that effectively assists in burning off calories. The catechin in Green Tea is what regulates the production of Glucose and helps to inhibit the rise of insulin after a meal that encourages the build up of fat. By regular drinking of Green Tea, metabolic rate and energy expenditure is multiplied by a rate of 4% .