Drink Green Tea for Weight Loss
There are a variety of ways to lose weight, most of them having their benefits and uses and all depend upon the person using them for success.
One of these is green tea, which is rapidly catching on as a health boosting beverage with a multitude of benefits, one of them being its ability to help with weight maintenance and even weight loss.
Here is how this humble cup of goodness can help you to lose weight.
Caffeine
One stimulant drug that is found in both tea and coffee in varying amounts is caffeine and this has been shown to help raise the body's metabolism to enable more efficient digestion, leading to less fat being stored in the body.
However, despite the fact that green tea contains far less caffeine than both coffee and black tea, its effects on the body are far more pronounced. This is believed to be due to other substances in the tea that interact with caffeine to boost its effectiveness.
Stress
Probably one of the biggest causes of weight gain and obesity may not necessarily be bad diet or lack of exercise, but stress.
This is more likely the case when it is coupled with a bad diet and lack of exercise, although those two causes can often be linked to stress itself being the underlying cause.
Stress has many undesirable effects on the body with regards to health and function, not least of those being that it suppresses digestion which leads to more fat being stored in the body. Also, stress can lead to a depressed mental state, which leads to lethargy, lack of motivation to exercise and the desire to eat more high calorie, high carb snacks which together lead to weight gain.
Drinking green tea relaxes the body and mind, thereby reducing stress. When we are more relaxed and not suffering from the effects of stress, our digestion is more efficient meaning less fat is stored in the body. It also lifts our mood, giving us a more positive outlook on life which leads to feeling more energetic and predisposed to exercise more and eat a healthier diet.
Insulin
Green tea has recently been found in trials to suppress the release of insulin in response to digesting foods made up of high GI carbohydrates or containing high levels of refined sugars.
Either type of food cause a rush of blood sugar which normally results in an insulin response to normalize the blood again.
This reduces the amount of those sugars that are carried from the bloodstream to be processed into storable fat.
So you see there are three amazing ways in which drinking green tea and weight loss go hand in hand. It is more than just a tasty, relaxing hot beverage that you can drink at any time of the day.
For best results, you should drink a cup of the tea within 15 minutes of eating a meal to allow it to have maximum effect and the tea should be brewed for about five minutes to give it full strength. It is recommended to drink two to three cups per day but of course that is up to you and how it fits in with your day.
Losing weight may seem hard when you only see it as working out in the gym or starving yourself on a diet of lettuce leaves and celery. But by adding green tea for weight loss to your existing methods, it can be much more rewarding and enjoyable than many people think.
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Posted on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 in Weight Loss | 0 Comments