Green tea, either in supplement or liquid form, can be a great tool for weight loss when taken in conjunction with a balanced diet and regular exercise plan. One of the main components in green tea that aids in weight loss is caffeine, which energizes the body and stimulates the metabolism for weight loss. Decaffeinated green tea doesn't offer all of the weight loss benefits of fully caffeinated green tea, but numerous other beneficial components of green tea can still aid slightly in shedding pounds.
Benefits
Green tea can help a weight loss plan in many ways. Traditionally, caffeine is a major factor in weight loss through green tea. However, green tea has many other weight loss benefits aside from caffeine, including cachetin, which boosts metabolism, revs up fat burning and regulates glucose levels. Green tea also works as an appetite suppressant. However, the benefits of fully caffeinated green tea make it a much better option for weight loss than decaf.
Misconception
Some people assume that a diet supplemented with green tea, which remains otherwise unchanged, will promote weight loss. However, this isn't the case. For green tea to work in aiding weight loss, it must be supplemented with a healthy diet and regular exercise.
Expert Insight
Joy Bauer, a nutritionist based out of New York City, conducted a study in 2008 to determine whether green tea helps promote weight loss. She concluded that the catechins in green tea increase norepinephrine levels in the brain, a chemical that speeds up metabolism and helps the body burn fat. Decaf green tea contains lower amounts of these cachetins than caffeinated tea, leading to the conclusion that decaf green tea can help promote weight loss by stimulating norepinephrine, though at a lesser level than caffeinated tea. In fact, researchers at UCLA have found that decaffeinated green tea has about half the cachetin level of fully-caffeinated tea.
Considerations
If you're looking for a tea supplement to promote weight loss, decaf green tea can be useful, but not nearly as much as green tea with full caffeine. For weight loss, consider a caffeinated green tea supplement, if you're able to take caffeine; small amounts of caffeine can be healthy. Speak to your doctor before beginning any natural supplement, of course.
Decaffeination Methods
The decaffeination process takes away between 30 and 50 percent of the tea's cachetins and antioxidants, which is why nutritionists often recommend fully-caffeinated green tea supplements for weight loss. There are several techniques commonly used to decaffeinate tea. Two of the most common are "ethyl acetate" and "CO2". Ethyl acetate is a chemical solvent that decaffeinates the tea when it's applied. Green tea that's decaffeinated using this method, however, loses many of its benefits, only retaining about 30 percent of cachetins.
The CO2 method of decaffeinating tea helps to retain cachetins. In fact, about 95 percent of cachetins remain intact using this method. However, researchers are still unsure as to whether green teas decaffeinated in this manner have the same weight loss benefits as fully caffeinated green tea.
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