In men and women, the degree of body fat, whether expressed as percent body fat or the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference, tends to decrease as green tea intake increases. Green tea contributes to the maintenance of healthy body weight in several ways.

One of the least appreciated properties of green tea is its ability to limit the absorption of the fat taken in from the diet. Green tea catechins (especially EGCG) interfere with the lipase (fat-digesting) enzymes in the stomach and small intestine. The resulting incomplete digestion of fats produces some lipid droplets that are not able to enter intestinal cells and that therefore remain unabsorbed. These effects have produced significant decreases in the absorption of dietary fats by rats consuming green tea. While it is not known how effective green tea is in blocking fat absorption in humans, any interference with the normally highly efficient digestion and absorption of dietary fats could figure prominently in any effort to manage weight effectively.

In addition to decreasing the efficiency of absorption of fatty acids from the diet, green tea catechins interfere with the production of fat for storage in adipose tissue depots. Green tea leaf extract rich in EGCG, as well as purified EGCG itself, reduces the activity of fatty acid synthase, the enzyme that controls how rapidly the body produces fat for storage. This effect is consistent with a body of literature reviewed recently in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research that shows how EGCG inhibits new fat formation (“lipogenesis”) and fat storage within adipocytes. Tea helps to absorb less fat from the diet and can directly interfere with the storage of fat in adipocytes, a dual mechanism for supporting healthy body weight.

The dominant green tea catechin, EGCG, also entices the body to shift some of its manner of producing energy from glucoseburning to fat-burning. There are two ways to accomplish this and EGCG seems to do both. First, if the amount of glucose available to tissues, especially the skeletal muscles, is reduced, then more fat must be metabolized to carbon dioxide and water in order to satisfy energy needs. During times when glucose is in short supply, the liver synthesizes glucose from a variety of precursors, including amino acids released by muscle cells. The first enzyme in this synthetic (“gluconeogenic”) pathway, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), is inhibited by EGCG. Blocking this enzyme reduces the rate of formation of new glucose, requiring cells to switch to burning fat for energy.

In one example of interesting biochemical coordination, EGCG stimulates the conversion of fatty acids to energy. According to cell culture studies, EGCG, rather than glucose, is able to raise the rate of utilization of fatty acid breakdown products in order to produce energy. Since mice are often studied because they obtain energy similarly to the way humans do, they were used in a series of experiments. In these experiments, they responded to the addition of catechin-rich green tea extract to a high-fat diet but not fed catechins, even though they ate just as much. In a recent study of dietary supplementation, mice exercised with tea catechins forced skeletal muscles to move from using their glycogen reserves as sources of enery to increase their dependency on burning fats from adipose depots. Being that this move is very reproducible, the researchers are able to predict when it will happen. Phytonutrients – catechins – in green tea and green tea extract are so powerful, that they are able to recruit muscles to help stored fat get used up faster!

A shift from glucose-burning to fat-burning would be seen as an increase in heat production, or thermogenesis, in humans. In one example of the fat-burning, thermogenic effects of green tea catechins, 24 hour heat production was calculated in slender healthy to overweight young men during times at which they were in a state of rest and consumed identical diets; they did not consume caffeine-containing foods or beverages, but they did intake either a placebo, 150 mg of caffeine alone or 150 mg of caffeine plus 270 mg of EGCG and 105 mg of other mixed catechins. Researchers observed that the intake of placebo or 150 mg of supplemental caffeine during a 12 hour period did not affect the utilization of glucose or fat in order to supply energy. However, the consumption of green tea catechins during a 12 hour period increased total energy expenditure and heat production in the same-day 24 hour period. It was found that increased fat-burning and decreased use of glucose for fuel caused this energy usage.

The catechin-induced increase in resting energy expenditure reflects enhanced thermogenesis in this experiment, being that under the experiment’s conditions all energy expenditure was essentially “resting” energy expenditure. This means that there is more heat production as a byproduct of energy production. Being that increased heat production needed to satisfy the same energy demand means that the efficiency of energy production has decreased, additional stored energy must be burned, which accelerates the rate at which energy stored in fat depots would become depleted. Both body weight and fat depot size decrease as fat becomes depleted. In this experiment, the increase in fat utilization that was minimized by keeping subjects in a resting state, might result in the loss of 1 lb of excess body weight over a one to two month period, and a loss of 6 to 12 lbs over a period of one year. Consistent with this hypothesis, overweight adults who consumed a total of 270 mg of EGCG daily over a three – month period experienced a loss of about 4.6% of total body weight, with an average decrease of 4.5% of waist circumference. When combined with exercise and a healthy diet, this thermogenic effect of green tea catechins could potentially be very beneficial for those who are looking to support weight management efforts.

Beneficial results were also shown in a gold standard, randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial, which was published recently in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. During this study, healthy men added either 22 mg or 690 mg of catechins daily to their diets for a total of 12 weeks. The results of this experiment showed that the men who were consuming 690 mg of catechins every day had lost more weight, inches off their waist, total body and abdominal fat.

What about Stress and Abdominal Fat?

A substantial amount of evidence signifies that stress and mood issues are associated with increased abdominal fat storage and a larger waistline in men and women. Stress and belly fat are connected by hormones; stress can increase the secretion of a hormone called cortisol. This hormone increases the rate at which fat is accumulated by abdominal fat cells. Repeated episodes of stress-related cortisol secretion can cause an increase in abdominal fat, even in healthy individuals.

Can Green Tea Do Anything About It?

Green tea contains an unusual amino acid – L-theanine. This amino acid comprises up to 2.5% of the total dry weight of unfermented green tea leaves, is absorbed efficiently and can enter the brain from the blood. Within the brain, L-theanine exerts relaxing physiologic effects. In so doing, L-theanine may act to reduce perceptions of stress with possible beneficial effects on abdominal fat formation. For example, mice fed L-theanine have gained less weight and accumulated less abdominal fat. By supporting the body’s stress response, green tea and green tea extracts containing L-theanine can make important contributions to healthy weight maintenance.

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