Green tea and green tea extracts have become popular beverages and supplements for starting the day. The health halo surrounding these green tea products makes them enticing for many who are trying to lose weight and improve their health.
But can drinking green tea really help you lose weight?
In this article, we’ll review what green tea is, whether it helps with weight loss, its other potential health benefits, and how best to prepare and consume it.
What Is Green Tea?
Green tea is also known as “unoxidized tea.” Like black tea, it comes from the Camellia sinesis plant. Green tea was originally only used for medicinal purposes, but in the early Tang Dynasty (600 -900 AD) many of the wealthy started drinking it for enjoyment as well.1Green tea eventually made its way to Europe and the Americas, but has only recently become appreciated for its health benefits and flavor.
Green tea is still harvested by hand, the way it has always been done. The leaves are cooked immediately to preserve the green color and prevent oxidation. In contrast, black tea is harvested, rolled, and allowed to dry and oxidize which causes the leaves to turn black.
Green tea has a much higher concentration of chlorophyll, polyphenols, and antioxidants than black tea or oolong tea. It is especially rich in the antioxidant catechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG - more on this below).
There are many varieties of green tea, most of which come from China or Japan. The Chinese green teas, longjing and gunpowder, and Japanese green teas, sencha and tencha, are the most common varieties. Matcha green tea is a powdered form of the tencha tea leaf. Matcha is the primary tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies.
Can Green Tea Help You Lose Weight?
Green tea has become more popular in recent years due to its presumed health benefits, one of which is weight loss.
Both caffeine and EGCG are believed to help with weight loss, although the jury is still out on how significant an effect drinking green tea may have.2
In animal studies, green tea extracts have shown a lot of promise. Studies have found significant weight loss along with reductions in blood glucose, insulin resistance, visceral fat accumulation, and plasma cholesterol levels.3
Unfortunately the results in human studies have been variable, with only limited and mild weight loss benefits.4
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Some studies have been promising, showing that a short-term combination of both caffeine and the catechin EGCG might slightly increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation in some people. A recent meta-analysis found that both catechin and caffeine in tea boosted energy expenditure for over 24 hours. When combined, the catechin and caffeine mixture also increased fat oxidation rates.5
In a large study of middle-aged Korean adults, women who consumed higher amounts (>4 cups/week) of green tea had lower rates of abdominal obesity. The same effects were not seen in men, however.6Longer-term studies have been less positive. A recent systematic review found a very small (and not statistically significant) effect on weight loss from drinking green tea over 12 weeks.7While the effects of green tea on weight loss are conflicting, its ability to oxidize fat, especially visceral fat, is promising.
Decreasing visceral fat, or “belly fat,” may help reduce the risk of other chronic diseases and health issues, including metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, diabetes, and heart disease.
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