Does Green Tea After Meals Help Lose Weight?

Jun 12, 2011 | By Jake Wayne

Green tea, though it has been drunk as a simple beverage for millennia in mainland Asia, has received additional attention during the 21st century. Some of the compounds found in green tea have effects on how your body digests food and burns energy. A cup of green tea after a meal may help you reach your weight loss goals -- though perhaps not as much as some dietary supplement distributors suggest.

Green Tea Basics

Green tea, along with black and oolong teas, is one of the three kinds of tea made from the Camellia sinensis plant. Green tea is prepared by roasting the leaves but not fermenting them prior to drying. Some examples of green tea include jasmine, ocha and sencha.

Caffeine

Green tea contains caffeine, which is a stimulant. Stimulants push your body to be more active, which means you burn more calories -- one of the two routes to weight loss. It also has a mild appetite-suppressing effect. This can make you eat fewer calories -- the other route to weight loss. Caffeine is also a diuretic. This means it will simulate your body to urinate more frequently and in greater volume. This lost water can make a difference almost immediately on the bathroom scales. However, this is temporary weight loss. It will go away as soon as you restore a healthy level of hydration in your body.

Absorption

According to Dr. Stephen Pratt, author of "The Superfoods Rx," the catechins in green tea may block your body's absorption of fat. This factor is more important to your cholesterol levels, but it may also make green tea a more effective weight loss agent. However, as of 2011, no clinical studies have confirmed this hypothesis.

Portion Control

Dr. Melina Jampolis, CNN Health correspondent, reports that drinking a calorie-free beverage like green tea or ice water before a meal can significantly reduce how much you eat during that meal. This is the prime weight-loss benefit of drinking green tea. However, this means that drinking green tea before a meal is much better than drinking it afterward.

Bottom Line

Some of the ingredients in green tea may have effects on your body that help you lose weight if you drink it after a meal. However, you may get better results from drinking green tea before your meals. It's also worth noting that all of the weight-loss effects of green tea are also found in other forms of tea.