Green tea supplements are often used by dieters. But is there any scientific basis for green tea to help burn fat?
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousIn recent years, several have been born green tea supplements designed for those who want lose weight. When products like these are launched on the market it is natural to wonder if they will work or if it is instead the usual gimmick to increase sales. However, some scientific researches have wanted to analyze the active ingredients of green tea to understand what correlation there may be with weight loss.
Well, several studies seem to confirm the benefits of green tea on weight loss (we talked about the many other properties and health benefits of this drink in another article). In particular, it has been seen how green tea is able to act in our body avoiding the degradation of norepinephrine, a key neurotransmitter that, among other things, promotes lipolysis or the splitting and disposal of fats.
They are in particular the catechins present in the popular drink to be able to inhibit COMT, a substance that the body produces to regulate the production of norepinephrine (and therefore also to stop it). Thanks to the action of the active ingredients contained in green tea leaves, the body has more noradrenaline available to be able to burn fat.
Not surprisingly, the green tea supplements on the market are keen to specify that there is a certain amount of inside Epigallocatechina gallato (o EGCG), responsible for the major benefits of green tea in relation to weight loss.
But let's get to the studies that have underlined all of this. The two we mention were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The first, conducted in 2007 on healthy men divided into two groups, showed that the group that took green tea supplements had a 17% greater capacity to burn fat than those who did not take it, moreover these people had better control of the glucose.
In another study, the researchers wanted to see if they were the tea catechins to promote weight loss or if this effect could be attributed to the caffeine in the drink instead. The sample of participants was divided into 3 groups: the first was given a green tea supplement rich in catechins, the second one with caffeine and the third a placebo. What was noted at the end of the study was that the group taking the green tea supplements had increased energy consumption and burned more fat than the others. The benefits could not therefore be attributed to caffeine.
Many other researches have been carried out on animals, and we do not even mention them since those on human samples are more than enough (there are many others besides those mentioned above, if you want to learn more read here)!
In conclusion we can say that actually green tea can contribute to weight loss but we emphasize contributing. Indeed it is very important to associate a healthy lifestyle with it, for example by doing regular physical activity, e taking care of nutrition which must be as balanced as possible. Remember that there are no miracle products!
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