If you’re like me and feeling extremely guilty about everything you ate at the Thanksgiving table, especially after touring all the restaurants you’ve been missing for three months, then you’re probably looking for a way to drop the extra calories faster than you put them on. Aside from trips to the gym and getting back to healthy eating, there are some ways that are known to burn some calories as an extra boost. I have heard many rumors about both coffee and tea (specifically green tea) that are related to weight loss and burning calories. So, which is the better one to choose?
It is often said that green tea does numerous wonders for your body, but is well-known for its ability to reduce belly fat and burn calories. Coffee is best known for the boost it gives you and keeping you awake through the rough days, and also has a reputation for burning calories, if it is served black. So the question is, which one is the best option when you are trying to lose some extra weight? This article explains that coffee does not directly burn fat and calories when you consume it, but it does curb your appetite in its tracks. By making you less hungry, it helps prevent weight gain by stopping the temptation to eat fattening foods. So, coffee does not exactly cause weight loss, but instead prevents it from happening. Tea, on the other hand, works a little differently. The antioxidants and compounds boost the fat burning hormones in the body, which start the process of breaking down fat. It also increases the amount of norepinephrine in the body, which is an enzyme that signals to fat cells to break down fat. The more there is of this enzyme, the more fat will be broken down. So unlike coffee, when green tea enters your body, it is actually working at the fat stored inside.
After reading these two articles, I think that tea is probably the best option when it comes to losing weight. Coffee can certainly help, but it appears to be more of a preventative method rather than a solution. An experiment could certainly be done to test this; if enough people are gathered throughout different age groups and body types, we could split them in half and give one group black coffee and the other green tea. The results could show which group recorded the most weight loss or fat burned, by looking either at pounds or BMI. However, this cannot rule out reverse causation; what if people with faster metabolisms or more active people are drawn to drinking more tea, and heavier people are drawn to coffee? While this could be an issue in the experiment, I think it is definitely something worth testing out, as the results could be useful to countless people trying to shed the extra Thanksgiving weight.
This was a good blog post, I really liked how you diagramed your own experiment. I try to drink as much green tea as possible, I usually have around three cups a day. Besides helping in weight loss, green tea also has many more health benefits. Christopher Ochner, PhD., research scientist in nutrition at the Ichan School of Medicine, says that, “it is the healthiest thing I can think of to drink.” WedMD states that green tea contains catechins which can help repair cell damage, help in improving blood flow and green tea can “help block the formation of plaques that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.” Plus many more things. Most people dont even know about all the health benefits green tea has and many just drink it because they heard aiding in weight loss. In my eyes, green tea is way better than coffee in multiple ways. Besides, i do not know many people, especially college kids, that drink their coffee black.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/health-benefits-of-green-tea
I found a study that was done in Nakajima, Japan this past May testing the effects of green tea, black tea, and coffee on elderly Japanese citizens in order to see which one caused the least cognitive decline. I know that your blog focused in particular on how this could help people lose weight, but I think in terms of health advances mental health can also be considered through this study. The study started fairly small with 723 participants in 2007-2008 and only 490 completed the follow up survey in 2011-2012. However, they did find that drinking green tea decreased signs of cognitive loss upon those who responded to the survey, which adds another pro to the tea column. The study was conducted in Japan, where it is more common to drink green tea, so this could have had an effect on the study as well as a third variable. If you’re interested in reading more, here’s the link: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0096013
I also think that most people can not stand to drink their coffee black. Therefore, they will be loading their cup of coffee up with tons of sugar and milk. Green tea can be drank the way it is so you’re saving calories just at that!!
I found this post very interesting. I have always wondered the difference between coffee and tea, in terms of health benefits. I recently wrote a blog post on the benefits of coffee on our health, according to a recent study done on mice. A compound found in coffee, chlorogenic acid or CGA, prevents weight gain, reduces insulin resistance and fat buildup within the liver, therefore, reducing the chances of contracting diabetes and poor liver functioning. You can read more about the study here.
With all the conflicting information put out on the media it’s really hard to know which one (coffee or tea) is really better for you. After reading your blog I found it very helpful so that now I can discern credible and non credible “facts” on the internet. I feel like there is a huge push for green tea over coffee just since it is advertised more as a fat burning substance. But now that I know that green tea is for sure the better choice I will change my drinking habits. Although I knew that caffeine is an appetite suppressant which does help limit calories with the information you put in your blog I now know that although decreased appetite leads to less caloric intake it is better to activate your fat burning hormones.