Does Green Tea Speed Up Your Metabolism?

There are several ingredients in green tea that will help weight loss. 

Yes, green tea does speed up your metabolism which can, in turn, help you lose weight. The three components of green tea that are helpful if you are trying to lose weight are: caffeine, theanine, and catechins. 

• The great news is the caffeine in green tea does not have the same negative effects that are in other products that have caffeine, like coffee or soft drinks. 
• It will not cause jitters or a faster heart rate, but it will speed up your metabolism.  This is the most important of the three ingredients for weight loss.  Also, the caffeine in green tea creates thermogenesis, which will burn fat.
• The main amino acid in green tea is theanine and one important thing it does is reduce the effects of caffeine.  That is why green tea doesn’t affect people the same way as other caffeinated drinks.  It also releases dopamine, which induces calmness and is important to your overall stress.  This can be very helpful for people who tend to eat when they are stressed.   
• The antioxidants in green tea are catechins.  They are flavonoids called Flavan-3-ols and are found in many plants, including coffee and cocoa plants, but the best source for them is the Camellia sinensis plant.  This species is used for white, green, black, oolong, and pu-erh tea. 
• Green tea is a better source for them because the leaves are not fermented, which changes the catechins, so green tea offers them in their natural state. 
• Antioxidants in general prevent heart disease, stroke, and cancer and catechins help weight loss by suppressing the absorption of fat.  In addition, it reduces cholesterol and prevents the fat from accumulating in the body. 

Not only does green tea speed up your metabolism, but it is healthy for you in other ways.  For one, its antioxidants will help keep you free of disease by fighting off free radicals.  Free radicals can damage our cells and our DNA, which will lead to aging and disease. 

More Ways to Increase Your Metabolism

So, now that you know that green tea does speed up your metabolism, here are some more ways to speed up your metabolism to help you lose weight.

• Working out will burn more calories and keep your metabolism high for a long time even after you stop exercising. 
• Eating fiber and protein causes your metabolism to increase because your body burns more calories when digesting them.  Some raw vegetables actually take more calories to digest that they have in them.  So you’ll burn more calories than you ingest and have all the healthy nutrients to boot.
• Getting enough sleep is important because lack of it changes the way your body metabolize carbohydrates.  This can lead to glucose intolerance, a slower metabolism, and hunger. 
• Significantly limiting alcohol or not drinking it at all will help the body burn fat.  Alcohol slows down the rate at which the body metabolizes fat.
• Eating spicy foods helps speed up your metabolism.  Within 30 minutes of eating spicy foods, your metabolism can increase from 8 to 20 percent.  The best is the capsaicin in chili peppers but other spices help, like black pepper, cinnamon, and ginger.
• Better thyroid function can increase metabolism so eat a diet rich in nuts, seeds, and seafood.  These have vitamin E, iodine, selenium, zinc, and copper that will help your thyroid be healthy.
• Eating regular meals keeps your metabolism going whereas skipping meals will slow it down.  The body goes into “starvation mode” to compensate for the lack of nutrition and may actually start burning muscle.  So small meals several times a day is the best way to eat.