Drinking green tea each day is a great way to diet with four or more glasses of green tea each day to jump-start your metabolism and eat less. The green tea diet may help you lose weight by blocking absorption of carbohydrates and helping burn fat stores in the body. As a powerful antioxidant, a green tea diet may also help protect you from disease. Along with a moderate exercise regimen, you will see the pounds begin to disappear.
How to Follow the Green Tea Diet Green tea is readily available in most grocery stores or any other store that sells tea! The green tea diet is an easy way to start a weight loss program. As with any diet, be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before you start this diet. Once you are ready to begin, simply follow these simple steps that involve drinking four glasses of green tea each day.
Hot or cold, green tea is a great way to wake up in the morning. Start the morning with a full 8 ounces of green tea and you will begin the day with a fat- burning kick start – and a glass full of antioxidants to boost your immune system. There is some evidence to support the thought that drinking the tea cold may help burn more calories since your body must use some energy to warm up the cool drink.
Before you eat breakfast, drink another 8 ounce glass of green tea. In addition to the benefits inherent in green tea, drinking two glasses of the tea before eating will help you feel full. The result is that you will eat less at breakfast and during the rest of the day. Be sure you do not skip breakfast since that is the meal that helps increase your metabolism.
Your third glass of green tea is before lunch. Again, you will get the fat-burning properties of green tea AND the extra liquid before you eat will make you feel fuller and allow you to eat less at lunch.
Finally, you should drink your last 8 ounce glass of tea before you eat dinner in the evening. You will note the same benefits as the other meals. Does this mean you should drink only four glasses of green tea each day? Absolutely not! One of the best ways to increase weight loss is to increase the amount of fluids you drink each day. If you find yourself getting hungry during the day, try drinking another glass of green tea instead of eating a snack.
There is controversy over how the green tea diet actually works to produce weight loss. Some experts think it is the caffeine in the tea that actually produces the results. A much larger school of thought is that it is the active ingredient, Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) that actually produces the weight loss. EGCg is an antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals, increases metabolism and lowers the body’s level of “bad” cholesterol. There may also be a part of the EGCg that helps to control the level of glucose in the body by helping to control the body’s absorption of carbohydrates. This action may serve to help control your appetite – resulting in weight loss!