How Green Tea Blasts Belly Fat

It's dangerous

Also called abdominal fat, stomach fat, visceral fat, and intraperitoneal fat, it is one of the worst kinds of fat accumulation. Not only does it ruin your waistline, but it is dangerous for your health.

It increases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes II (NIH, 2007).

Fat builds up fast on your abdomen

One 5-year study showed that men and women who went only eight months without daily exercise had a significant increase of abdominal fat (Duke University, 2003). High levels of exercise (jogging 17 miles a week) led to a decrease of 8.1% of visceral fat, and those who did not exercise saw an 8.6% increase in visceral fat, a significant 16.7% difference.

Of course, the research from the 1970's with NASA astronauts found that within 24 hours of restricted movement, nitrogen elimination was increased.

Increased nitrogen loss meant that muscle cells were dying more rapidly without daily exercise.

The astronauts had to exercise every day, and so do we.

It’s simple. Strong bodies need a healthy diet and daily exercise.

To lose belly fat, you have to reduce calories and increase exercise

There are some things in life that you just can’t avoid. The only proven way to shrink the size of your waistline is to reduce your calorie intake and increase your daily exercise.

But now there is research showing daily green tea might help.

Research shows up to 76% less belly fat with green tea*

A preliminary (*Zheng, 2004) animal study showed that the chemicals from daily green tea could prevent up to 76% of intraperitoneal (belly) fat.

Researchers in Japan tested mice for 16 weeks with the following diets to compare a control diet alone with green tea and isolated green tea chemicals:

• control diet alone
• control diet plus daily whole green tea
• control diet plus caffeine
• control diet plus theanine which is a rare tea amino acid protein
• control diet plus caffeine and theanine
• control diet plus caffeine and catechins which are green tea antioxidant polyphenols like EGCG
• control diet plus theanine and catechins
• control diet plus caffeine and theanine and catechins.

At the end of the test period, all green tea test groups had significantly less body weight and less abdominal fat than the control group.

Triglycerides were also significantly decreased in the whole green tea group and the catechins and theanine group.

But the most dramatic change was in the caffeine and green tea catechins group.

These mice had 76% less belly fat than the controls.

Daily green tea is an easy addition to a healthy lifestyle

Daily green tea has been used safely for thousands of years and is on the FDA Generally Recognized As Safe list.

However, if you have a health condition, you should always consult your health care provider before making healthy changes in your lifestyle.

The Importance of Making a Schedule

Cited from : Columbia University Website:::::: Making a Schedule

The objection that some people raise to scheduling is that it cuts into their `freedom.' While it is true that following a schedule might take away from one's spontaneity, the claim that it makes one a slave is utterly false. The basis of this error is a misunderstanding-- all too prevalent these days-- of the nature of freedom.

There are really several kinds of freedom. The misunderstanding results from the confusion of two kinds of freedom.

First, the freedom to choose, is primarily what people have in mind then they talk of freedom or free will. This form of freedom is observable in the fact that, after we perform a free act, we know that we could have done other than we did. It means that a human person cannot be forced to perform any free act against his will. This is a negative form of freedom, because it is a freedom from external necessity (such as physical coersion).

Second and more important is the freedom to determine oneself, to form oneself and one's acts. The is a positive freedom because it is a freedom for one's goal or end. Implicitly present in this freedom is the existence of free will, so it is a higher form of freedom.

Nevertheless, a superficial understanding of this form of freedom might lead one to believe that it is the opposite of the first kind of freedom, and thus not freedom at all. This misunderstanding results from the fact that one must often set aside what one desires at any particular instant in order to be available for a greater good. For example, on a sunny spring day before exams, one might be tempted to set aside one's books and to enjoy a day in the park. One is certainly free, in the first sense, to do so. However, failure to study for a class often results in failure to pass that class or to learn as well as one should. So, if one studies, he becomes free to pass the exam, and his new knowledge enables him to better fulfill his goal in life.

All we have done here is to widen our perspective. Instead of restricting ourselves to a definition of freedom as `the ability to do whatever I want at any given instant,' we have taken as freedom's definition `the ability to do what I want with my life as a whole.' Do you see now? You cannot hope to achieve your goals in life unless you discipline yourself to order your acts in conformity with your goals. Otherwise, your acts will not get you anywhere; like a child who forever vacillates between two delightful treats held in opposite directions.

That's why scheduling is so important: it enables you to order your use of time so that you can achieve your goal in life.