Green Tea Is Good for Weight Loss. Here’s How to Use It

Green tea is gaining in popularity as more and more people are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle. It’s one of the healthiest beverages in the world. Turns out that green tea can effectively aid you in your weight loss effort. The tea leaves are rich in antioxidants, like catechins, that help you lose belly fat and provide various health benefits. 

While green tea leaves have only recently gained popularity in the West, they’ve been used in Asia for centuries. The leaves are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various conditions such as to speed up wound healing and to help with migraines.

In this article, we’ll explain how to use this tea to lose weight effectively, based on scientific research, to ensure the best results for you.

How Does Green Tea Help You Lose Weight?

Your body transforms your food and drinks into usable energy through metabolism. Drinking a cupful of green tea daily can help your metabolism work more efficiently, which has a positive effect on weight loss.

1) Contains Caffeine and Antioxidants That Help You Lose Fat

Green tea leaves contain a lot of useful components. One of them is caffeine. This healthy drink contains enough caffeine to have a fat-reducing effect without any risk. Caffeine is a known stimulant that can improve athletic performance and help burn belly fat. 

Besides caffeine, green tea is also rich in antioxidants. Several studies have found that consuming a cup of green tea daily can increase the number of antioxidants in your blood. These powerful antioxidants are called catechins and are known to boost your metabolism, making green tea perfect for weight loss.

2) Improves Your Metabolic Rate

Your body constantly burns calories when you sit or sleep. Many researchers suggest that when you drink green tea it stimulates calorie burning even when you’re resting. Some studies have shown that daily consumption of green tea increases calorie consumption by 8%, which can help you lose weight. 

This metabolism-boosting effect of green tea also lasts in the long run. In a study from 2008, 60 obese individuals were studied. Out of them, the individuals consuming green tea every day lost around 7.3 pounds more than others. They also burned around 183 more calories every day for three months than those not consuming this tea. This evidence proves the benefits of green tea for weight loss.

3) Mobilizes Fat from Fat Cells

The first step your body takes to lose belly fat is to break down the fat cells and move them into the bloodstream. The active compounds in a cup of green tea can speed up this breakdown by increasing the effects of fat-burning hormones known as norepinephrine, which can help you lose weight.

Green tea leaves contain the antioxidant EGCG, which inhibits the enzyme that breaks down the fat-burning hormone. By inhibiting this enzyme, the amount of norepinephrine in your blood increases. This, in turn, promotes fat loss. When these fat cells break down, they mix with your bloodstream to be used as energy by your muscle cells. This evidence proves the benefits of green tea for weight loss.

4) Increases Fat Burning While Exercising

All commercially available weight loss and fat-burning supplements contain green tea extract. This is because green tea leaves boost fat burning, especially if you exercise. 

In 2008, a study was conducted where some men were examined during exercising—those who consumed green tea before exercising burned 17% more fat than others.

Several other studies also verify this fact. Green tea contains catechins that boost your fat burning. This effect is even more significant when you work out. This evidence proves the benefits of green tea for weight loss.

How Much Weight Can I Lose by Drinking Green Tea?

Making tea from good quality loose green tea leaves can help boost your metabolism. This, in turn, boosts your fat burning and helps you lose weight faster. Numerous studies confirm this fact. 

However, how much you lose by drinking green tea may depend on your body type and habits. If you have an active lifestyle, you can lose 3 pounds with 2 to 3 cups of green tea per day every 12 weeks. You may not notice this effect for the first few weeks. But as time passes and your metabolism improves, you may notice the difference.

By incorporating a simple exercise regime into your day, you can lose about 4% more calories daily. Green tea has been repeatedly linked to improved belly fat burning. These effects are more noticeable when you work out every day. 

As with other weight loss methods, you must be consistent when consuming green tea. This extract needs at least 12 weeks to show its result and improve your metabolic process. However, if you suffer from other persisting conditions like PCOD or have an endomorph body type, it can take at least 24 weeks before you see visible results.

When Should I Drink Green Tea for Weight Loss?

Green tea extract is rich in antioxidants and bioactive compounds, which makes it one of the healthiest beverages. To get the most benefit from this beverage, you should drink it in the right way and at the right time. 

Drinking Green Tea in the Morning

For losing weight, starting your day with a cup of green tea can be helpful. Most people prefer to drink black coffee or sugar-rich black tea in the morning. This can be disastrous for your metabolic process and leave you craving more carbohydrates. Green tea, on the other hand, has the right amount of caffeine that can boost your metabolism without having adverse effects.

Drinking Green Tea Before Working Out

You should also drink a cup of green tea an hour before your workout. Some studies have shown that when combined with caffeine, epigallocatechin gallate, an antioxidant in green tea, increases the fat oxidation rate during exercise. This change in rate help with weight loss by letting you burn more calories in a short time.

It would be best to choose a brand that offers green tea that is rich in antioxidants. Our best-selling Viston Gu Zhang Mao Jian green tea leaves provide a slightly smoky, herbal flavor to your tea. It’s also rich in antioxidants and can be re-steeped easily. If you want to extract more antioxidants and caffeine from the tea, you can slightly increase the water temperature and brewing time. This way, you can maximize the benefits of green tea for weight loss. 

When not to drink green tea?

You should avoid consuming this healthy beverage right after a meal or before bed. Because consuming this drink at night can inhibit the absorption of certain minerals such as copper, iron, and chromium. The caffeine in green teas can also affect your sleep and cause restlessness or nervousness, so avoid drinking them before bed.

How to Make Green Tea Tastier?

It can take you some time to get comfortable with green tea, especially if your body is addicted to sugar and caffeine. Since it’s rich in antioxidants, the tea can taste slightly bitter. Here are some ways green tea can taste better.

1) Buy Loose Leaf Tea

High-quality loose leaf tea can make all the difference in taste and benefits. Tea bags usually contain powdered leaves, which can warp the taste and may not give you the benefits of green tea. On the other hand, you can steep loose green tea leaves in water for as long as you like. Some teas can even be re-infused at a higher temperature.

At Viston Tea, we offer high-quality green tea leaves that are hand-picked by farmers and packaged in resealable plastic bags. This way, your tea leaves will stay fresh for a long time.

2) Use a Little Sweetener

Switching to green tea might be a little challenging, especially if your body is addicted to sugar. To make the switch, you can add either artificial or natural sweetener to your tea. However, it would be helpful if you were careful not to overdo it. Adding too much sweetener can compromise green tea’s health and weight-loss properties.

You can add stevia tablets to your green tea or use half a teaspoon of honey. Honey adds a touch of sweetness and warmth to your green tea without diminishing the health or weight loss benefits.

3) Use Fresh Lemon Juice

You can make your green tea taste even better by adding a few drops of lemon juice to it. Lemon juice softens the bitterness of green tea and gives it a refreshing taste. If you let your tea leaves steep too long, you can thinly slice the lemon and leave it in your cup for a minute or two. Besides lemon, you can also add a few drops of honey to your green tea.

4) Add Fresh Spices and Herbs

To improve the flavor of your green tea, you can add some fresh spices and herbs to your cup. You can add fresh mint or a cinnamon stick while you steep your green tea leaves. If you’re making iced green tea, you can crush the mint leaves and stir them in your cup. This will give your tea a fresh kick. However, you shouldn’t add powdered spices to your tea.

5) Add Ginger 

Ginger provides a refreshing taste and goes incredibly well with your green tea. Aside from the taste, it also adds anti-inflammatory compounds to your tea, making it a good herbal blended drink.

6) Cold Brew Your Tea Leaves

If you just switched to green tea and have trouble adopting its taste, you can just brew it cold. You can put a teaspoon of tea leaves in a glass teapot and pour cold or lukewarm water. Let it steep in a refrigerator for at least 3 hours before consuming it.

Green Tea Weight Loss Recipe

Green tea is among the healthiest beverages that not only help you lose body weight but also provide other benefits for your health. To take full advantage of green tea, you should prepare it properly and consume it at the right time. 

Many studies have proven the benefits of daily consumption of green tea. These studies also recommend you drink at least 2-3 cups of green tea daily. You should drink a cup of green tea as soon as you wake up before you eat anything else. This will help boost your metabolism. 

Downing a cup or two of green tea before a workout will also help you burn more calories. You should remember never to drink tea after a meal or before going to bed. You should keep at least 2 hours between your meal and green tea. Here’s a great recipe for green tea for weight loss that you can adopt.

Brewing Green Tea for Weight Loss

When you learn to brew a cup of green tea correctly, you start experiencing a whole new taste. It offers all the health and weight loss benefits of the tea without compromising on the taste. This tea recipe boosts fat burn in your body and improves your digestion.

Ingredients 

• 1 cup of water
• 2 teaspoons of loose green tea leaves
• 1 teaspoon of honey

Green Tea Recipe for weight loss

• Add a cup of water to the kettle and bring it to a boil.
• Now add the green tea leaves to the teapot and pour hot water on the leaves.
• Wait for 3 minutes for the tea to steep.
• Add honey to your tea, if you want, and mix it well. 
• Drink the tea hot.

Conclusion

Drinking a cupful of green tea for weight loss every day can boost your metabolism and help you burn calories faster. However, these effects are modest when it comes to the actual number of pounds. But every calorie and pound you lose counts when you’re on your weight loss journey. 

Besides drinking a cup of green tea, you should also ensure to change your diet and lifestyle. You can lose weight more effectively if you exercise every day and drink green tea an hour before your workout. 

Also, you should remember that green tea contains a certain amount of caffeine. The amount is much less than a cup of coffee, but it can be harmful if consumed in excess. If you suffer from anxiety, you should drink green tea in moderation. You should never drink more than 3 cups of green tea per day. 

The key to losing weight with green tea is consuming tea made from high-quality loose leaves. At Viston tea, we offer you a selection of loose green tea leaves from China and Japan. The tea leaves are hand-picked and kept fresh in resealable tea bags. They’re an ideal first step on your weight loss journey.