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Fat Burners: GREEN TEA (Camellia sinensis)

Green, black, and oolong teas are all derived from the same plant—Camellia sinensis. Green tea was originally discovered by an emperor some 4,000 years ago. Since that time, this powerful tea has notably become the "supplement of choice" for many seeking greater health and control over their weight. For good reason: not only does it have an interesting, appealing flavor when prepared as tea, science defends some astounding benefits when it's used as a supplement for immune enhancement and fat mobilization. New research has shown green tea may help our bodies burn more calories, faster, which is why it's showing up in more and more fat-loss formulas.

How it works

Green tea or, more accurately, the polyphenols in green tea, appear to activate our bodies' "thermogenic activity," promoting the use of calories as energy and thus may assist our "fat-fighting" efforts. These all-important polyphenols in green tea also appear to help produce "natural viral killer" immune cells, which scavenge and fight off bacteria and flush out toxins, which basically means it may protect our bodies from the free radicals that damage cells and weaken our immune systems. Of course, this is important for active people as well because intense exercise has actually been shown to increase free radicals in our bodies, and if free radicals are running amuck, it's more difficult to recover.

What does the science say?

A recent study in Geneva showed that green tea is naturally packed with caffeine and compounds called "catechin polyphenols." This is of significant interest to those of us trying to reduce our weight because both of these substances have been documented to increase resting metabolic rate—or more simply stated, rev up our bodies' calorie-burning potential. You see, the caffeine found in green tea allows our bodies to use bodyfat for energy (that is, it's "lipolytic"). When stored calories are used for short-term energy, our bodies burn more fat. In fact, this study, performed on healthy men, showed green tea alone produced a four percent increase in energy burned over a placebo. The researchers concluded that green tea may be useful for speeding up fat burning and promoting our bodies' ability to burn more calories over an extended time.

How to take it

Most research suggests taking 300 to 600 mg per day of green tea with meals, which should contain up to 97% polyphenol concentrate. (This would be equal to drinking four cups of tea per day.)

Important Tip: When choosing a green tea, it is best to look for the measurement of polyphenols, which are believed to be responsible for green tea's benefits. Three cups of tea per day should provide around 240 to 300 mg of the polyphenols.

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