Does green tea help you lose weight? Nutrition myths busted, part 5

I thought I’d continue my busting nutrition myths series. There's so much nutrition misinformation out there and I hope to clear some of it up. The myths I’m going to be bunking are:

• Drinking green tea helps you lose weight
• A low carb/keto diet is the best for weight loss
• Coconut oil is the best oil ever

Drinking green tea helps you lose weight:

I see this all the time. The idea that swapping all your drinks for green tea will help with weight loss. Unfortunately, it won’t lead to significant change.

Green tea has an antioxidant called EGCG and this is what people are talking about when they say green tea leads to weight loss. EGCG does have a thermogenic effect. This means it can increase your metabolism or ‘burn fat’ as you may have heard.

However, the amount of extra energy burned is so small, it won't have an effect on weight. Some research looked at the effect of green tea extract on calories burnt. They found that people burned around 60 - 200 extra calories on a high dose of green tea extract.  

Bear in mind that this study used a high dose of green tea extract, so the amount of EGCG would be higher than it would be in your cup of green tea. Also, for the average person, a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day is needed to lose weight. The amount lost from the green tea extract isn’t enough to lead to significant change.

So, drinking a few extra cups of green tea isn’t likely to help with your weight loss. I have an older blog post which gives a few ideas of healthy habits you can adopt that can help you lose weight.

A low carb/keto diet is the best for weight loss: 

When people want to diet and lose weight, one of the first things that get cut is carbs. No more bread, pasta, or rice in the hopes that this will lead to weight loss.

People forget that carbs are the bodies preferred source of energy. Your brain runs on glucose. Carbs also provide other key nutrients like fibre, B vitamins and iron. Lowering your carb intake can lead to lots of symptoms like muscle cramps, bad breath, and confusion.

Drastically cutting carbs isn’t shown to lead to sustainable weight loss. This means that any weight loss is then regained. So, while you may lose weight initially, it isn’t likely to be maintained.

I’ll be touching more on this next month when I debunk the keto diet. But please don’t think you have to cut all carbs to lose weight.

Coconut oil is the best oil ever: 

I feel like coconut oil came out of nowhere and was suddenly hailed as the best thing since sliced bread. Coconut oil was sold as a superfood but also as a cure for dry skin, dry hair, and every other problem in your life.

While coconut oil does have some redeeming features, it really isn’t the superfood it’s claimed to be.

Coconut oil is high in saturated fat. Saturated fat increases LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood. A higher LDL cholesterol level is linked with cardiovascular disease and stroke. This is because the cholesterol can build up in the blood vessels and cause blockages. Meaning blood can't get to where it needs to be.

Coconut oil has been shown to raise LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol. But, in coconut oils defence, the saturated fats in it seem to have a lesser effect on the rise of LDL cholesterol. When compared to other sources of saturated fats, like butter. This means that butter would raise your LDL levels more than coconut oil would.

However, the general advice is to lower saturated fat intake to reduce the risk of heart disease. So, this includes reducing coconut oil.

Key points: 

• Green tea contains the antioxidant EGCG which can increase the amount of energy you burn. However, drinking more green tea won’t lead to significant weight loss.
• A low carb/keto diet won’t lead to sustainable weight loss, any weight loss is likely to be regained.
• Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, which can increase LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol. The general advice is to try and reduce saturated fat in your diet.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Bye for now! 👋

 

References:

Green tea: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17201629/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21951331/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23235664/

Low carb/keto: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30565508/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3507301/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6371871/

Coconut oil: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892314/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29511019/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5855206/

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/different-fats-nutrition/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20089734/