Green Tea
Unbeknown to many overweight people who are trying to reverse that situation, a delicious hot beverage called green tea may turn out to be the secret sauce they have been searching for.
So what is this surprisingly simple yet effective aid in the battle of the bulging belly?
One of the great secrets of losing weight was kept from western society for centuries but was a widespread way of life in China and the Far East.
It was not until the last twenty or so years that green tea has found its way into the health and weight loss system as a potent ally in a person's journey towards their physical health and maintaining their correct physical size along with it.
A Cup of Good Health
There are several very powerful health giving properties that come in a cup of green tea and it is something that anyone who really wants to lose weight should take notice of.
One of its main health giving properties is its ability to limit the amount of insulin that is secreted when we eat fatty foods, food that contain high levels of sugars or high GI carbohydrates.
Here is what green tea can help you to avoid.
Sugar and Insulin
What normally happens in these cases where we eat the above kinds of foods or drink soda (that is high in sugars) is that we get a rapid build up or surge of blood sugar level. This is rapidly responded to by an equally rapid surge of insulin in an attempt by the body to bring the blood sugar levels back down to a balanced level.
To put it in its simplest terms, the excess sugars are converted into fat which is stored by the body for future use.
When we eat high levels of these bad foods all the time, the body just keeps storing more and more fats without any ever getting used up, which is what happens when we don't get much or any exercise. The result is weight gain leading to obesity if nothing is done to curb this way of eating.
When you drink two or more cups of green tea per day, especially soon after eating any high sugar or high GI carbs or fatty foods, the insulin response is suppressed to a point where not so much fat is stored.
This is combined with other properties of the beverage which boost metabolism so the body has a chance to use up the excess sugars in the bloodstream as energy. This is what they should be used for.
Watching Your Diet
Of course, it goes without saying that even when drinking green tea, you still need to keep a close watch on your diet.
That's because no matter what else you do, what you eat will ultimately determine whether you will lose, maintain or gain weight.
While the most sensible approach is to eat whole foods, preferably organic in origin and prepared and cooked by you or a family member in your own kitchen. That way, you know exactly what goes into the food and you choose which healthy foods will go into your meals.
When that isn't a viable option, especially if you have a disability that prevents you from cooking anything other than something simple in the kitchen, there are other alternatives that can help keep your weight stable.
I have mentioned them in other articles, but one or other of the major diet food delivery programs can act as an alternative way of eating relatively healthily while keeping the calories down as well as avoiding the heavily sugar-laden junk foods and snacks that abound the grocery store shelves.
Brands such as low cost Nutrisystem, higher quality (and higher priced) Bistro MD and Diet-to-Go or the doctor-recommended Medifast all provide a meal replacement home delivery service that provide you with ready-to-heat-then-eat meals that are better than the high calorie, high carb supermarket offerings.
These meals that you can read all about in numerous diet reviews will never replace the great taste and wholesomeness of home cooked meals, but by making dieting easier, they at least provide a better alternative than unhealthy take out meals.
Exercise is Still Important
Of course, this does not make green tea any kind of substitute for exercise, as to attain true physical fitness you must exercise as well, but drinking it does help you cut down on the levels of fat that are stored in the body.
In a similar vein, the drinking of this beverage has been known to improve the body's ability to burn fats faster and more effectively, making it something of a green tea fat burner for weight loss.
If that wasn't good enough, a related health property of green tea improves a person's mood. It's worth knowing that much of the process of weight loss is in the mind, so elevating mood can only be a good thing.
This is an important additional factor in getting a person motivated to do some exercise, because when you are in a heightened state of emotional positivity, you are far more likely to want to get out of the house and do some form of exercise.
Even if that exercise is just going for a long walk, this is better than nothing and causes the body to work and burn more of that excess energy that is coursing around the blood stream.
It is a whole lot better to use it up by walking than to leave it to eventually find its way into your fat cells by sitting on the sofa in front of the TV!
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