Lose Weight by Drinking Green Tea
According to a study, drinking green tea, on the average, can make you lose 8 pounds a year. It may not seem much, but you have to remember that in order to lose just 1 pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories.
So the actual claim is drinking 1-2 cups of green tea daily can help you burn approximately 28,000 calories annually. And considering that an aerobic workout can burn from 350-750 calories/hour, depending on the activity, then, drinking this Asian beverage is going to be a great big help.
The claims are based on a 6 week study by Dr Abdul Dulloo from the University of Geneva. To isolate the effects of the green tea, part of the experiment involved having the group divided into three: one took both green tea and caffeine, another just the caffeine alone, while the last was given placebos.
The experiment showed an increase in the green tea subjects’ energy expenditure and fat oxidation, factors that will ultimately lead to fat loss if all other factors remain the same. Moreover, there was no heart raise increase, which makes drinking green tea even more appealing due to the lack of side effects and safety concerns.
My only gripe about the scientific study was it used males as their subjects, who, as scientific studies have shown, are more systematic in burning fat, unlike women, who are predisposed to holding on to their fat as a survival mechanism.
Nevertheless, it’s worth trying out, not just for the weight loss, but the other benefits as well, such as its alleged anti-cancer and antioxidant properties. Gentlemen, you might also be interested to know that there’s a theory that it may be helpful in managing prostatitis or inflammation of the prostate gland.
In the end, my decision is based on the fact that drinking green tea is a daily ritual among the Okinawans of Japan, whose community is famous for its numerous 100 year plus residents that it has become the norm.
This phenomenon has scientists studying their diets and daily habits to see how they’ve achieved this, giving birth to books such as The Okinawan Diet.
Anyway, my thought is, if they, the Okinawans, have been drinking green tea for hundreds of years, then it must be relatively safe, because, if it weren’t, its ill effects would have shown themselves by now.
They actually have a saying exhorting the practice, wherein it goes something like, “It is better to go hungry for 3 days, than to go without drinking tea everyday.”
Take note, though, that I am not talking about going beyond what is recommended. I’m not going to go overboard and drink gallons, mind you, just the recommended 1-2 cups/day, if I can manage to do it in the first place. But I’m going to be positive here. At the very least, I’m going to make sure that green tea is readily available, i.e., it’s in my cupboards.
So, the first stop is the grocery store to find out what kinds of green tea are available, and also the supplements store to see if they have any green tea capsules on hand, which might be the better choice for me, given my lazy to prepare anything nature.
Or I’ll combine both, heat tea on days I’m feeling energetic, and swallow capsules on the days I’m feeling lackadaisical.
Before embarking on this method of weight loss, I would strongly suggest that you consult your personal physician regarding what would be best for you, given your health history, body type, weight, lifestyle objectives and temperament; like, my doctor has recommended drinking tea to me for my throat. She didn’t specify what kind of tea, so may as well make it green tea.
Related Posts
Oprah Winfrey Diet Rules
Twinings Green Tea Selection
How The Lord of the Rings Director Lost Weight
7 Don’ts at the Gym Studio
How a Less Than 2% Fat Milk Label Translates to 30% Total Calories
