Weight Loss Myths: Green Tea is a Great Fat Burner

Weight Loss Myths

You know that I am dedicated to helping you use the best training programs, follow the best nutrition plan, and get your best results ever. I'm also dedicated to correcting common fitness myths in Men's Fitness magazine.

Fitness myths hurt your progress, because they tend to give you false hope and waste your time with ineffective and inefficient exercise and nutrition techniques.

Myth: Green Tea is a Miracle Fat Burner

This is a tough myth to discuss, because I truly believe that Green Tea should be at the top of everyone's beverage list. However, despite some research suggesting that Green Tea might help in weight loss, I don't agree with experts claim Green Tea boosts your metabolism enough to help you lose fat.

So here is my argument, as well as a take-home point at the end regarding de-caff Green Tea.

There are two reasons why Green Tea doesn't cause your body to burn large amounts of fat. First, the actual increase in your metabolism from Green Tea is very small, even if you take multiple doses of Green Tea each day.

And second, your body probably gets use to this. If you look at the research, you will find studies showing huge increases in metabolism with caffeine supplementation. However, when you look at the big picture, you quickly realize that no one is losing weight with caffeine supplementation.

And that is why I do not believe that Green Tea helps people lose weight. However, Green Tea can aid in fat loss by replacing other beverages that contain loads of calories and sugar.

The issue of Green Tea and metabolism is a moot point though, isn't it? I would never suggest dropping Green Tea simply because it might not boost your metabolism. There are far too many benefits of Green Tea to not drink it (you have had yours today, right?).

Now after all that, there is a lesson to be learned.

I was recently asked whether decaf Green Tea is just as effective as regular Green Tea. And the answer appears to be, ''not always''.

From what I have read, the common process of decaffeination uses a chemical that removes very important compounds in the Green Tea. These compounds cause not only the metabolism boosting properties of green tea, but also many of the health benefits of Green Tea.

If you choose decaf Green Tea (as I do), choose naturally decaffeinated green tea, not green tea that has been decaffeinated by ethyl acetate.

Drink up!

For now, I stick to organic Green Tea that can be found in regular grocery stores. As a person who doesn't drink a lot of caffeine (no coffee), I find that some days I can notice the caffeine in the Green Tea, but not to the point of jitters or uneasiness.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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