So, does green teal help with fat loss? After all, we get disappointed time and time again from so-called miracle fat loss supplements, products and training routines.

Have you had your green tea today?

Let's set aside all the wonderful health benefits for now and take a look at green tea strictly as an aid to fat loss. Does green tea help with fat loss and if so, how well?

A lot of studies (both human and animal) have shown green tea has great potential for ramping up your metabolism and burning fat off your body.

One study (see below) looked at the potential for green tea to stimulate thermogenesis and fat burning.

This study had 10 healthy men spend periods of 24 hours in a metabolic testing chamber.

During these test sessions they took either

1) green tea extract that contained 150 mg of caffeine and 270 mg of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG - the key active ingredient of green tea)

2) 150 mg of caffeine or

3) a placebo.

So what were the results? There was no difference in thermogenesis between the caffeine group and the placebo group.

The green tea extract increased 24 hour metabolism by 4% compared to the placebo group. In this case, that translates into about 80 calories a day.

What does this mean for fat loss? It means green tea can definitely be used as an aid in your weight loss efforts. A metabolism increase of 4% is significant. Now, that leads me to the other side of weight loss products and supplements.

While green tea can play a real role in your weight loss efforts, because of the way these products are advertised, people have unrealistically high expectations of what these products can do for them.

If you have a resting metabolic rate of 2,000 calories per day, taking green tea can help you burn an extra 80 calories a day. This isn't a lot but does equal 7 pounds over a years time. And this is 7 pounds for doing nothing.

If you take a real fat loss aid like green tea (and there are many weight loss products that don't work at all - that's another entry), have an understanding of what you can expect. And remember, you must have a complete fat loss plan in place. If you've been gaining weight and are eating 100 more calories a day than you burn and you add green tea, guess what? You won't lose weight, you'll just slow down your weight gain.

Put an effective fat loss training program, consisting of a weight training routine, high intensity cardio and proper nutrition. Then, adding a quality supplement like green tea may help accelerate your fat loss efforts.

And don't forget, unlike a lot of the weight loss programs that don't even work, taking green tea has numerous health benefits above and beyond the fat loss aspect.

Green Tea Study - (Dulloo AG, Duret C Rohrer D, Girardier L, Mensi N, Fathi M, Chantre P, Vandermander J, Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-hour energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1999 Dec;70(6):1040-5)

Gregg Gillies

Gregg Gillies is the author of "From Fat to Fit...Fast!" and "The Skinny Guy's Guide to Building Mass Fast!". He is the owner of BuildLeanMuscle.com. He publishes two fitness newsletters, "Fast Mass Tips" and "Fat Loss Secrets", each with over 5,000 subscribers from all over the world. Gregg has been a columnist for Body Talk magazine for 3 years, as well as being published in Ironman magazine and various web sites such as bodybuildingforyou.com and bodybuilding.com.