The Green Tea Diet (Fantastic Results)

[MikeInJc aka M.I.A.]

As some of you may have known I have been wanting to lose some weight for a while now, especially since taking medical steroids has made me gain a TON of weight. My peak was around 220 pounds.

I've always drank green tea and made the switch to the diet green tea found at grocery stores. Still nothing changed, my weight stayed the same. That was until about four months ago when I started brewing Bigelow green tea and sweetening it with Splenda. I completely cut calories out of my beverage intake by doing this and if I wanted a soda (which is rare) I would have a Coke Zero or Diet Coke.

I brew it in a simple ice tea maker and put in 6 green tea bags for a two quart pitcher. I then sweeten it with 8 individual packets of Splenda, of course you can use more or less depending on how sweet you like it (trial and error).

As I said, I started out around 220 and I'm now down to 185. I also feel a lot more energized and I haven't got sick in a long time. I know there are some people on here that have wanted to shed some pounds and I think I've found a pretty good cheap solution.

Since I'm now almost down to the Army weight standards for my height, I've actually thought about going back in the Army only this time as a Reservist. The one thing I knew I had to do was drop the weight which I thought was impossible, but I've finally done it. 35 pounds in four months!!!

I still want to lose at least another 15 pounds.

If anyone wants to try this I would HIGHLY recommend it. Feel free to post your results/progress here if you want.

[MEANDWARF]

Congrads on you wt loss.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Nice job and thanks for the tips. I think the key (not to hijack or detract from your green tea) is to find a way to cut calories in your diet. I did that recently by decreasing my portions and changing the beverages I would drink.

Drinks like iced tea (the bottled kind), soda, and juice have more calories and chemicals than people realize. If you start to keep track of how many calories you are drinking in a day, you'll likely find that you're taking on an additional meal's worth of calories just in beverages.

Now, I generally just drink water and the occasional iced tea instead of the other things that add up quickly.

Good thread and congratulations again on dropping the weight.

[Rdskn4Lyf21]

Congrats on the weight loss

[Chump Bailey]

That's great. I love green tea, but did not see the weight loss results. One thing I'm going to try is avoid all sugar two hours after working out to maximize GH release and fat burning. I tend to go overboard with caffeine too, which might be getting in the way also. Which blows.

[Bang]

Nice job!

~Bang

[KingGibbs]

Congrats MIA. My experience with green tea is more trips to the bathroom. Did you have that experience? I am getting ready to start taking the green tea capsules.

[MikeInJc aka M.I.A.]

Congrats MIA. My experience with green tea is more trips to the bathroom. Did you have that experience? I am getting ready to start taking the green tea capsules.

At first the amount of bathroom breaks was kind of noticeable, but I guess the body gets used to it and you go less frequently. The capsules is a great way to get the benefits of Green Tea without having to drink it.

Green Tea speeds up your metabolism so it's just not a diet of cutting back calories. I believe I would have lost SOME of the weight by watching the my caloric intake, but nothing like this.

[MattFancy]

So did you work alot during this or just drink green tea?

[Madison Redskin]

I don't understand why people drink soda. It doesn't taste refreshing and it's got a ton of calories.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Green Tea speeds up your metabolism so it's just not a diet of cutting back calories. I believe I would have lost SOME of the weight by watching the my caloric intake, but nothing like this.

See I think there's a difference. The Lipton Iced Green Tea, for example, that you generally get in the bottles (Green Tea with Citrus, etc.) have 200 calories per bottle and are made with High Fructose Corn Syrup. If you were drinking something similar to that and have switched to a zero-calorie alternative that you are brewing yourself, that will be doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to weight loss.

The increased metabolism was probably happening with both drinks but is also probably a minor component.

That's what I was saying...if you drink 3 of those Lipton Green Teas per day, you're taking on 600 calories of a "healthy" beverage that really isn't much better than soda...at least when it comes to weight loss.

Basically, my point is that those sweetened, processed cold drinks that you can grab out of the fridge at the grocery or convenience stores are generally horrible for you. I know people who drink 3-5 of them every day instead of water or other teas (like Honest Tea). That's a lot of sugar and calories that people don't really count when figuring out how to stay on a low-calorie diet.

[Elessar78]

Not to be a wet blanket, but it's not really the Green Tea but the fact that you were taking in less calories than you were using. As you pointed out, change started to happen when you went to splenda and coke zero.

But here the "why" isn't as important as that you did it! Great job!!

We consume a lot of hidden calories in this country in supposedly healthy food. Calories in juice, sports drinks, and salad dressing are very common. Calories that are in liquid form tend to sneak by because a lot of us get focused on the food part. If I "have" to drink a soda I don't like diet so I just fill my cup(s) half way.

But to say that soda has a "ton of calories" isn't really accurate. A 12 ounce can only has 180 calories, which would be for me 8.5% of my daily caloric intake. Even a can of soda a day in the proper amount won't make you fat. It's when you're consuming "super-sized" quantities of it that it is a big contributor to weight issues.

[PokerPacker]

I don't understand why people drink soda. It doesn't taste refreshing and it's got a ton of calories.

This. Well... every now and then a Sierra Mist is refreshing, but for the most part, give me water.

[pjfootballer]

I'm down to 1 soda every two weeks (not that I drank one everyday anyway). Switched to lots of water, unsweetened Iced Tea (Brewed not bottled) and have taken up Deep Water Aqua Aerobics at the Y. Lost 15 pounds the last 2 months.

[pjfootballer]

And I've never understood when say for intance, you've been out in 100 degree weather cutting the grass and someone grabs a soda. How does that sticky drink quench your thirst? I always get water or unsweetened iced tea.