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Tea Extract & Weight Loss

Extracts from the tea plant Camellia sinensis are the object of intense scrutiny by doctors, scientists and the general public because of their apparent ability to help the body lose weight and keep it off. Green tea extract and white tea extract have been studied in clinical trials and been found to help maintain a healthy body weight by profoundly boosting the metabolic process of fat burning.

  1. History

    • Beverages from the tea plant have been popular in Asian countries for thousands of years and have earned a reputation as a healthy tonic that is very beneficial to the body in numerous ways. Tea extracts have been tested for health benefits for several decades now; the results show that among a host of other beneficial properties, tea extracts can indeed assist the body in losing weight.

    Thermogenesis

    • Thermogenesis is the metabolic rate at which your body converts calories into energy. An article in the February 2000 "International Journal of Obesity" examined a study in which green tea extract was shown to be able to stimulate thermogenesis to a degree that unexplainable simply by its caffeine content.

    Body weight

    • When your metabolism increases you are better able to burn fat off of your body and tea extract may be the perfect supplement to assist you in this. In a study published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in 1999, researchers determined that green tea's ability to influence thermogenesis was able to promote fat oxidization and has the potential to influence body weight and composition.

    Fat burning

    • When tea extract raises your metabolism and promotes your fat metabolism rate, fat is literally burned off of your body as energy. An 2007 article in the journal "Obesity" outlined a Japanese study showing that a green tea extract high in catechins was able to decrease body fat ratio, waistline, subcutaneous fat and overall body weight in a group of women after just two weeks, compared to a control group.

    Considerations

    • The amount of catechins present in the daily dose of tea extract used in the fat burning study is equal to many cups of high-quality tea. Using a tea extract supplement may be the most convenient way to effectively use the power of tea to lose weight. Tea extract supplements are readily available at most health food stores and online from dozens of retailers.

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