The effects of Green Tea
- Thread starter becky23
- Start date
I've lost weight drinking about 2-3 cups of green tea per day (without sugar). Now I don't know if it revs up your metabolism but do know that it's a very strong antioxidant. From my understanding this is the reason it helps you lose weight as it's getting rid of all the toxins and free radicals in your body. The other effect that I felt is when I'm ill I drink a whole lot more of the stuff and I find it helps me recover quicker. Regarding the powders, I really don't know.
Another thing I find helps me lose weight is eating hot food, particularly chillies and peppers, the huge amounts of antioxidants in these foods helps burn those few pounds away.
Jericho
New member
from wiki (sorry, just got home but saw this and wanted to point something out)
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves. As a result, antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols, ascorbic acid or polyphenols.
Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, cause oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.
As oxidative stress might be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is unknown whether oxidative stress is the cause or the consequence of disease.
Antioxidants are widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although initial studies suggested that antioxidant supplements might promote health, later large clinical trials did not detect any benefit and suggested instead that excess supplementation may be harmful.[2] In addition to these uses of natural antioxidants in medicine, these compounds have many industrial uses, such as preservatives in food and cosmetics and preventing the degradation of rubber and gasoline.
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Antioxidants do not cause weight loss. If you are taking something with antioxidants for the idea of weight loss, you are tossing your money away.
That being said, real green tea is very good for you. Green Tea powder? Not so much cause it is never real green tea, it's extracts and other chemicals.
Take the time to drink some real green tea.
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves. As a result, antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols, ascorbic acid or polyphenols.
Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; hence, plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants, such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E as well as enzymes such as catalase, superoxide dismutase and various peroxidases. Low levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, cause oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells.
As oxidative stress might be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is unknown whether oxidative stress is the cause or the consequence of disease.
Antioxidants are widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although initial studies suggested that antioxidant supplements might promote health, later large clinical trials did not detect any benefit and suggested instead that excess supplementation may be harmful.[2] In addition to these uses of natural antioxidants in medicine, these compounds have many industrial uses, such as preservatives in food and cosmetics and preventing the degradation of rubber and gasoline.
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Antioxidants do not cause weight loss. If you are taking something with antioxidants for the idea of weight loss, you are tossing your money away.
That being said, real green tea is very good for you. Green Tea powder? Not so much cause it is never real green tea, it's extracts and other chemicals.
Take the time to drink some real green tea.
KaraCooks
New member
Jericho took the words out of my mouth.
Becky, I know you're frustrated with your current stall, but you keep posting about various items asking if they're going to be some magic bullet to get you back on track. Honey, there isn't any magic bullet. There is no one thing that you can eat or drink or take that will get you losing again. It just doesn't work that way.
Any thermogenic effect you get from any food - drinking ice water, drinking green tea, eating spicy food - is going to be a mere fraction of a percent. Even if it boosts your calorie burn by 1% (which is optimistic), you're talking about maybe burning 10-20 more calories per day, tops.
Your body may have hit a set point. It happens. Sometimes you just have to work through them. I might suggest a week or so of eating at your maintenance calories to allow your body to sort of "reset" itself. Lyle McDonald and many other experts in the field are of the perspective that a "refeed" is often necessary after the body has been in a calorie deficit for a long period of time. It helps bump things around a bit.
I know a lot of people (myself included) seemed to hit a stall in the 160-170 range - especially after losing a chunk of weight prior to that. I don't know why it happens or why that weight range seems to be the one, but my anecdotal experience (based on myself and many other women) is that it just seems to happen at that point.
IN the long run, 3 weeks is a blip on the screen. It could be a temporary stall. It could be hormonal. It could be weather related. It could be sodium or chemicals in foods. It could be some medication you're taking (cold meds? allergy meds? heck even tylenol pm can cause some people to retain fluid).
The thing is, you can't freak out and start flailing around just because of a 3-4 week stall. The two best options are this: Analyze your calories and exercise and make sure you're not accidentally creeping up or down where you shouldn't be and then keep doing what you're doing (if it's been successful in the past). Or take 2 weeks to eat at maintenance (still being healthy, mind you, and still exercising) and then go back to reducing calories as you were.
Keep in mind that your body is not a machine. There are lots of outside things that influence it - hormones, weather, etc. It would be nice if it were all nice and linear and mathematic and the numbers lined up, but they just don't all the time. It sucks, but it's true.
Hang in there, honey, and just keep donig what you know is right.
Becky, I know you're frustrated with your current stall, but you keep posting about various items asking if they're going to be some magic bullet to get you back on track. Honey, there isn't any magic bullet. There is no one thing that you can eat or drink or take that will get you losing again. It just doesn't work that way.
Any thermogenic effect you get from any food - drinking ice water, drinking green tea, eating spicy food - is going to be a mere fraction of a percent. Even if it boosts your calorie burn by 1% (which is optimistic), you're talking about maybe burning 10-20 more calories per day, tops.
Your body may have hit a set point. It happens. Sometimes you just have to work through them. I might suggest a week or so of eating at your maintenance calories to allow your body to sort of "reset" itself. Lyle McDonald and many other experts in the field are of the perspective that a "refeed" is often necessary after the body has been in a calorie deficit for a long period of time. It helps bump things around a bit.
I know a lot of people (myself included) seemed to hit a stall in the 160-170 range - especially after losing a chunk of weight prior to that. I don't know why it happens or why that weight range seems to be the one, but my anecdotal experience (based on myself and many other women) is that it just seems to happen at that point.
IN the long run, 3 weeks is a blip on the screen. It could be a temporary stall. It could be hormonal. It could be weather related. It could be sodium or chemicals in foods. It could be some medication you're taking (cold meds? allergy meds? heck even tylenol pm can cause some people to retain fluid).
The thing is, you can't freak out and start flailing around just because of a 3-4 week stall. The two best options are this: Analyze your calories and exercise and make sure you're not accidentally creeping up or down where you shouldn't be and then keep doing what you're doing (if it's been successful in the past). Or take 2 weeks to eat at maintenance (still being healthy, mind you, and still exercising) and then go back to reducing calories as you were.
Keep in mind that your body is not a machine. There are lots of outside things that influence it - hormones, weather, etc. It would be nice if it were all nice and linear and mathematic and the numbers lined up, but they just don't all the time. It sucks, but it's true.
Hang in there, honey, and just keep donig what you know is right.
Jericho
New member
Ingredients from the Citrus Green tea to go powders:
Green tea powder, citric acid (provides tartness), aspartame, sugar*, maltodextrin, silicon dioxide (prevents caking), natural flavor, soy lecithin.
*Adds a dietarily insignificant amount of sugar.
Lipton Green Tea bags ingredients:
100% Natural Green Tea
If you are aiming for time, then you could make it ahead of time and take it with you..
Green tea powder, citric acid (provides tartness), aspartame, sugar*, maltodextrin, silicon dioxide (prevents caking), natural flavor, soy lecithin.
*Adds a dietarily insignificant amount of sugar.
Lipton Green Tea bags ingredients:
100% Natural Green Tea
If you are aiming for time, then you could make it ahead of time and take it with you..