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Muscle Diet

Mark Gilbert BSc (Nutrition)
Mark is an expert in sports nutrition and dietary supplements. He has over 20 years of experience working with the biggest names in the bodybuilding industry.
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Green Tea For Fat Loss

QUESTION: What is the best fat burning ingredient out there?

ANSWER: First of all, let me say that the "best fat-burning ingredient" is a high-protein, reduced-calorie diet, that restricts sugar and starchy carbs...but as far as things you can take to give yourself a fat-burning edge. In the world of fat burner supplements, there are tons of exotic-sounding names, like Salvia Officinalis, Bacopa Monniera, Naringin, Hordeum Vulgare...the list goes on. Most of these do have some level of scientific support for influencing some aspect of fatloss. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that good old Green Tea is probably THE most effective fat burning ingredient of themall! Sure explains why you never see an over-weight Buddhist Monk! Joking aside, you should be aware that the Green Tea found in quality fat burner products is not the same stuff that ends up in a typical tea bag. It is standardized to contain high levels of active catechins (such as EGCG, etc) - a type of polyphenol that has been shown to be primarily responsible for its effects. Barely a month goes by that I don't see another positive green tea study (whether it's for health or fat-burning effects). I can't make that statement about other fat burner ingredients. So it looks like, of all of the legal, safe ingredients available, Green Tea has the most vast and consistent support from solid scientific research!

Green Tea Also Reduces Appetite

Now, yet another new Green Tea study shows that people who drank it with breakfast felt much more full and satisfied than when they drank the same amount of water with the same meal on a separate day. However, drinking Green Tea didn't have an effect on insulin or blood sugars that has been shown in other studies where subjects took purified green tea catechins or high-catechin-containing green tea. So it looks like a regular cup of green tea has some effect on the fat loss equation but that higher levels of catechins are required to obtain some of the other benefits of green tea. Also, the best green tea weight loss studies used standardized green tea with high levels of catechins. So the bottom line? Feel free to drink green tea for its weight-loss and health-promoting effects but concentrated green tea extracts found in supplements are probably more powerful and have further-reaching effects.