Green Tea for weight loss?

[Ss0p]

Hey everyone. I'm attempting to do this to see if it's true. I've been drinking Tazo's China Green Tips tea, three cups a day at different times, and so far I've seen minimal results. What I've been doing is microwaving water for 2 minutes and 42 seconds, pouring the water into a cup with the teabag, holding the bag down with a spoon for 3 - 4 minutes, then using the spoon to squeeze out the flavor, which gives the water a darker color.

My question is, do I have the right idea here? I doubt preparing green tea is like rocket science, but is there anything I can change? Also, I don't add anything to the tea; so far it's just been water and the teabag, and that's it. Thanks!

[Kevangogh]

FYI, the metabolic boost you can expect from drinking 4 or 5 cups a day is only around 70 calories.

[jaquettec]

weight loss is all about calories.

Find a BMR calculator, use the HB formula to multiply your activity level, then subtract 500 calories. If you still arent losing weight, subtract 100 calories until you are losing weight.

Source: 100's of hours spent on a nutrition forum and personal success.

[iannon]

Yeah..I would not bank on green tea as any real source of weight loss..OTHER than its a good or rather..better substitute for higher calorie sodas or whatever.
So drink Green Tea instead of Mountain Dew!
and drink it for the pleasure of it!

[Proinsias]

I'd echo the sentiments above regarding weight loss.

For prep if using a Tazo green tea bag I'd boil water, put it in the mug, let it sit for a two minutes or so, gently lower in the tea bag and leave it for a minute or two. It's quite a subtle beverage, squeezing a green tea bag with a spoon in the mug produces a bitter, unpleasant cuppa in my expereince. When trying to make something drinkable from a green teabag I feel it's best to brew it very gently.

From what I gather there's little scientific evidence to show that green tea is much different to other types of tea. If you want something more flavourful something like Yogi Tea teabags might be worth looking at. Black teas, you can brew strongly, mixed with other spices.

[britt]

I usually drink far more than 3 or 4 cups of green tea per day and have been doing so for more than 3 years. I've seen many benefits from green tea on both myself and others, but weight loss wasn't one of them. I think a proper diet would be far more effective for weight loss. Supplementing it with green tea would certainly be a good idea, I just doubt it will result in noticable weight loss.

[Chip]

An added benefit of drinking green tea is that it will likely replace a less healthy and more calorie rich beverage (and food, I eat less it seems when I am drinking tea). So, fewer calories consumed.

But magic fat burning, sounds like a myth for Penn and Teller to dispell.

[Kevangogh]

There is a measurable weight loss effect, it's just very small. Eat one cookie and you've just killed it. I do think cold green tea is excellent to drink when you are doing a workout though.

[entropyembrace]

http://www.thenewstoday.info/2010/07/14 ... .hoax.html

basically tea won´t make you lose weight...the slight metabolic boost from it you can counter-act with just a light, healthy snack like a small banana.

If you want to lose weight you need to watch your calories and exersize to burn your extra calories.

as to how you´re brewing the tea...best would to buy loose leaf, a tea pot to brew the tea in and a tea kettle to heat the water...

the process is to put the leaf into the pot, heat the water with the kettle then pour the hot water onto the leaf inside the pot and wait until you reach the desired strength then pour from the pot into your cup. If you´re worried about leaf bits in your cup you can pour through a fine mesh strainer or buy a pot with a strainer built in (even wal-mart has them)

If you´re going to brew with tea bags best thing is to place the tea bag in your cup, use a tea kettle to heat the water, pour the water onto your tea bag and then take the string of the tea bag and gently swirl it through the water until you reach the desired strength. Don´t squeeze the bag. That will get you the best flavour from the tea bag.

[Teacup1980]

In green tea, there are 2 components related to the weight control - catechine and caffeine. Catechine will prevent you from surplus blood suger. Because of this, some of suger cannot be stored as fat in your body. Caffeine accelerates metabolism, and it seems like helping you to loose weight.

The most important is how much tea you should drink to get the result. One study in Japan says 588 milligrams catechine per day for 2 weeks shows significant reduce of fat. And now, your question is how much is 588 milligrams? The answer is at least 4 cups a day. The following is the complicated calculation.
Green tea contains 11 - 17% of catechin. If you use a teabag, probably the teabag contains 2 grams of tea leaves. In the 2-gram tea leaves, 220 - 340 milligrams of catechine. However, even if you steep the teabag for 5 minutes in boiling water, only 50% of them are extracted into water. Therefore, there is only 110 - 170 milligrams of catechine in your cup.

I would say if you drink 5 cups of tea every day for 2 weeks, it might help you to loose weight.

[Katy1977]

The key to weight loss, and maintaining it,is proper diet and exercise, and you must be consistent (I actually work out 7 days a week because I'm nuerotic about staying in shape lol). That being said, I have read that drinking pu-erh tea can raise your metabolism (I guess that's why I start each day with it lol) and can actually help to remove lipids from the blood after fatty meals...Whether or not this is true or has been proven is another story, but, hey, I enjoy it and feel like I'm doing something else to stay slim. I personally eat less when I drink tea, since I don't eat while drinking tea, and it does also curb my appetite so I don't tend to snack as much between meals. I also enjoy fennel seed tea which is by some believed to curb appetite and help with weight loss, but again, there's no "magic bullet" or "magic cup" to weight loss. I drink tea because I enjoy it, and because it is full of anti-oxidants and healthy for me. Like someone mentioned, it you're drinking tea you're probably not drinking Mountain Dew or some other unhealthy sugar laden beverage. So stick with the green tea, try others as well, stay away from sweets and junk food and start working out, then you should be on your road to success!

Katy1977

[electrickettle]

It's hard to say wheather the green tea for weight loss. I really don't know. But i know it is good for your health, especially in the hot summer. Yestoday, my boyfirend's company sent them a box of green tea for present. Maybe I can have a try to see wheather it can help to loss weight. I'm bothered that I have became fat these days.

[Ambrose]

Ive lost a little weight mostly due to buying so much teas and gear and less food