People in the study lost weight without making lifestyle changes.
A variety of different supplements have been linked by research to weight loss.
However, two cups of green tea per day can lead to weight loss without making other changes, research suggests.
People who drank four cups in one study lost 5.5 pounds.
Both the flavonoids and caffeine contained in green tea may help to speed the metabolism, which lead to processing fat more quickly.
Antioxidants called catechins are also abundant in green tea.
Among these catechins, the most important is called Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG.
EGCG enhances the body’s ability to use fat and reduces the storage of fat.
When drinking green tea, letting the water cool before adding it avoids damaging the EGCG.
EGCG is available as a food supplement which contains a more concentrated dose.
The conclusions come from a study that included 35 obese people who either took green tea extract, drank green tea or made no change.
The results showed that those drinking four cups of green tea lost 5.5 pounds in 8 weeks.
The supplements led to 4 pounds of weight loss.
A different study of mice found that green tea worked to reduce the effects of a high-fat diet.
Dr Joshua Lambert, who led the mouse study, said:
“Our results suggest that if you supplement with EGCG or green tea you gain weight more slowly.
There seems to be two prongs to this.
First, EGCG reduces the ability to absorb fat and, second, it enhances the ability to use fat.”
Dr Lambert explained that both groups of mice were eating the same:
“There’s no difference in the amount of food the mice are eating.
The mice are essentially eating a milkshake, except one group is eating a milkshake with green tea.”
The studies were published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition and Obesity (Basu et al., 2013; Grove et al., 2011).
