Green Tea Extracts & Weight Loss

Green Tea Extracts & Weight Loss
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Green tea extracts pack a powerful punch against extra pounds. If you're trying to lose weight, you can help your body shed pounds in several ways by using just one type of supplement--green tea extracts. The chemicals inside green tea extracts perform a variety of important functions that can help you slim down.

Considerations

Green tea extracts offer a convenient way to get the full health benefits of green tea without having to drink the recommended 3 to 5 cups of tea each day. If you don't like green tea's bitter taste, you may prefer consuming it in extract form. However, keep in mind that since green tea extracts are usually made from decaffeinated tea, you won't get the added weight loss benefits of caffeine when using them.

Increasing Your Metabolism

Your body can burn more calories faster with the help of green tea extracts than without. A study published in 2008 in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" showed that the chemicals in green tea extracts helped intensify the rate at which people's bodies burn calories, as well as how much fat they oxidize. This speeds up the body's metabolism, making it easier to lose weight.

Fighting Fat

Green tea tablets can be a powerful weapon against fat in several ways, according to Amazing Green Tea.com: Green tea helps your body burn fat by stimulating the process by which your body breaks down fat to provide energy. Green tea also blocks the conversion of energy into fat. It reduces the amount of dietary fat that your body absorbs, by inhibiting glucose's movement into fat cells. Finally, green tea helps prevent fat cells from multiplying and enlarging. A 2003 research study from the National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Taiwan found that the longer people drink green tea, the more fat their bodies start to burn as a result.

Regulating Blood Sugar Levels

After you eat a meal, chemicals in green tea tablets help prevent your blood sugar from rising too high. They do this by slowing down the action of amylase, a digestive enzyme that normally breaks down carbs to cause blood sugar levels to soar after you eat. A 2004 research study from Kobe University in Japan found that green tea increases how much glucose skeletal muscles take in, while reducing how much glucose fat tissues absorb--causing your body to store less fat after you eat a meal.

Reducing Appetite

Green tea can curb your appetite for food. A 2000 University of Chicago study on rats found that those injected with green tea extracts for one week ate up to 60 percent less food than they did otherwise. By regulating your body's blood sugar levels, green tea decreases both your food cravings and your overall hunger pangs.

References

Article reviewed by Amy Raymond Last updated on: Mar 19, 2010

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