Continue to eat whatever you want, but add green tea to your day, and you will lose weight.
Swap out one of your meals for a Green Tea Smoothie, add green tea to your day, and eat whatever else you want, and you will lose more weight.
Follow the 14-Day Green Tea Diet protocol and our recipes, and you will lose even more.
And add the 14-Day Green Tea Diet Workout on top of it all, and your body will react in ways you never thought possible, sculpting itself into a solid tower of lean, healthy, sexy strength.
Such is the power of green tea to boost metabolism, block fat-cell formation, force lipids out of the body, and reduce inflammation that weight loss will become almost automatic, just by adding this miracle drink to your daily food intake. The closer you adhere to the principles of the 14-Day Green Tea Diet, the more rapid and dramatic your weight loss will become.
But there are tricks to turning the dial up just a tiny bit more. In this chapter, we take a look at some of the tweaks that fitness and nutrition experts use when they want to bring their physiques to the absolute peak of leanness.
Chewing gum—especially the sugarless kind—may seem like a harmless habit, but one too many sticks can give a whole new meaning to the phrase “bubble butt.” Sugarless gums typically contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol known for causing bloating and other gastrointestinal distress. Sugar alcohols take a relatively long time to digest, and whatever’s undigested sits in your small intestine, where it acts as a hothouse for the fermentation of bacteria, causing bloating and flatulence. You can typically spot a sugar alcohol by its -ol suffix (sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol), and it’s found in a wide range of reduced-sugar and sugar-free products, including gum, jelly, candies, and baking mixes.
We’re not suggesting a movie theater binge, but without the butter and excess salt, popcorn can be an apple-shaped snacker’s best friend. At only 30 calories, a cup of popped kernels provides more than 9 grams of whole grains—a dietary staple of people with the littlest middles. A Tufts University study found that participants who ate three or more servings of whole grains (oats, quinoa, brown rice) had 10 percent less belly fat than people who ate the same amount of calories from refined carbs (white stuff: bread, rice, pasta). And to keep calories down while you’re snacking, consider eating with your non-dominant hand. In a study in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, moviegoers ate less of a snack when they were prompted to eat only with their non-dominant hands.
Grabbing handfuls from the bag is never a good idea, but munching from a punch bowl won’t do much for weight loss, either. Research in The FASEB Journal suggests that overeating may be associated with the size of our serveware. Participants who were given larger bowls served and ate 16 percent more than those given smaller bowls. Not only that, the big-bowlers underestimated just how much they were eating by 7 percent!
Just because something is marketed as “low fat” doesn’t mean it’s good for you—or you should eat more of it. A Cornell University study in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests that people will eat more of a snack that’s marketed as “low fat.” Participants in the study ate a whopping 28 percent more of a snack (M&Ms!) labeled “low fat” than when they didn’t have the label.
A recent study suggests that you can avoid a mindless binge by adding visual traffic lights to your snack. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University gave one set of students bowls of uniform yellow chips, while another group had their regular snacks layered with differently colored chips. Students who had their snacks segmented ate 50 percent less than those with uniform bowls.
Adding a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon to a starchy meal—like sweet potatoes—may help stabilize blood sugar and ward off insulin spikes that can lead to hunger, cravings, and weight gain, according to a series of studies printed in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Almond milk and coconut milk drinks (not to be mistaken for canned coconut milk) are great alternatives to dairy milk, but you may be undermining your goals if you’re buying a brand with the thickening agent carrageenan. Derived from seaweed, carrageenan has been linked to ulcers, inflammation, and other gastrointestinal problems.
It’s every chocoholic’s dream: Research now shows that eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate can reduce overall body fat and shrink the waist. A study among women with normal weight obesity who ate a Mediterranean diet that included two servings of dark chocolate each day showed a significant reduction in waist size than when on a cocoa-free meal plan. Researchers say it has to do with the flavonoids, heart-healthy compounds in chocolate that have important antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Just be sure you’re reaching for a bar with at least 70 percent cacao, and stay away from the “alkalized” stuff, which has a significantly reduced flavonoid content.
A quick snack that will fill you up when the weather turns nippy: a bowl of instant oatmeal. Oats are rich in beta-glucan, a form of soluble fiber that acts like your body’s LDL bouncer, grabbing bad cholesterol trying to sneak into your system and kicking it to the curb. In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, men who ate oat cereal over the course of 12 weeks had lower concentrations of LDL cholesterol than those who were given wheat cereal. Another study printed in the journal Nutrition found that the cholesterol-stabilizing power of oatmeal doubled when it was combined with vitamin C—the result of organic compounds called phenols. Top your oats with fresh berries or a small freshly squeezed glass of citrus, and you’ve got yourself a powerful antidote to elevated cholesterol levels.
Increased levels of B vitamins have long been associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes. Researchers believe that fortified infant formula at a young age may trigger the fat genes to switch on. If you’re more comfortable taking a daily multivitamin, it’s probably fine, but megadosing may do more harm than good. Look to get your B vitamins, especially folate, from the Green Superfoods.
The concern here is a compound called BPA, or bisphenol A. Used to make plastic softer, it’s found in some plastic containers and also in the thin plastic linings of food cans. Research has indicated that it may have an epigenetic effect on humans. BPA leaks into foods that are acidic or fatty, like tomatoes, tuna, and baby formula. BPA is used by most manufacturers, but Eden Organic and Trader Joe’s both sell BPA-free canned goods.
Our gut bacteria play a big role in keeping our fat genes in check by chomping on fiber and creating short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as butyrate, which help tame our genetic propensity for weight gain and diabetes. When we take antibiotics for every sniffle that comes along, we create disorder in our gut bacteria and undermine their ability to create the SCFAs that keep our fat genes in check.
Say the word starch to most diet gurus and their heads will start to spin. But “resistant starch” has become one of the big buzz terms in nutrition right now, for good reason. Resistant starch has great metabolism-boosting properties—in fact, it hits both ends of the metabolism spectrum, slowing down your digestive process (thereby controlling blood sugar), while also forcing your body to burn more calories during the digestion process. But resistant starch has another awesome belly-flattening property: It feeds your gut’s “good” bacteria. According to a 2015 study in the Journal of Functional Foods, when you eat resistant starch, your gut biome gets stronger—healthy bacteria literally get a workout digesting the healthy starch, becoming more dominant and leading to a healthier gut. Beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, and whole grains like oats and quinoa are among the best sources.
Use of social networks and high Internet use exacerbate feelings of loneliness, and loneliness is the ultimate fat feeling. A new study in the journal Hormones and Behavior found that those who feel lonely experience greater circulating levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin after they eat, causing them to feel hungrier sooner. Over time, folks who are perennially lonely simply take in more calories than those with stronger social-support networks.
“Because I’m bored” is one of the top reasons people give when they’re asked about their emotions before they eat. When you’re bored you actually lose your ability to make smart food choices; you become an “emotional eater,” according to a new study in the Journal of Health Psychology. Boredom stems from feeling dissatisfied, restless, and unchallenged, according to a study in Frontiers in Psychology. The best way to beat boredom is to find something to do that is purposeful and challenging. Instead of trying to entertain yourself, look for opportunities to help others.
You’re not the only one who gets jet lag when you travel: It turns out our gut microbes have a circadian rhythm, too. A recent study in the journal Cell found that our gut microbes are just as affected by changes to our circadian clock as we are. When we shift our sleep/wake cycles our gut flora changes, and beneficial bacteria are replaced by the growth of bacteria that have been linked to obesity and metabolic disease.
In one University of Utah study, diet participants who were instructed to drink two cups of water before each meal lost 30 percent more weight than their thirsty peers. And you can magnify the slimming effects of H2O by adding ice. German researchers found that six cups of cold water a day could prompt a metabolic boost that incinerates 50 daily calories. That’s enough to shed 5 pounds a year!
A recent study found subpar sleep could undermine your weight-loss efforts by as much as 55 percent. The problem: your hormones. Inadequate or broken sleep can throw hunger-regulating hormones out of balance. Ghrelin, the “I’m hungry” hormone, shoots up; leptin, the “I’m full” hormone, decreases. If you have trouble sleeping through the night, stop drinking caffeine after midday, limit your alcohol consumption (which ruins sleep quality), and create a pre-bed ritual to get your body and mind ready for sleep (that doesn’t include backlit devices like your TV or tablet). In a recent study, researchers analyzed more than 500 participants’ weekday sleep diaries and found that losing a mere 30 minutes of shut-eye increased their risk of obesity by 17 percent.
If your gums bleed when you brush or floss, you could have gingivitis or periodontitis, an inflammation of the gums or around the teeth. And that inflammation isn’t just localized within your mouth. Bad bacteria can gain a foothold throughout your digestive system—a condition known as “leaky gut.” When your body is chronically inflamed, your internal hormonal communication system can get thrown out of whack, leading to imbalances in your metabolism. Chronic inflammation has been linked to weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes, and obesity.
Most soaps, lotions, and deodorants contain phthalates, listed in the ingredients as “fragrance.” These industrial chemicals are also used to make plastics like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) more flexible. They’re found in air fresheners, vinyl shower curtains, vinyl flooring, wall coverings, detergents, nail polish, hair spray, shampoo, and other consumer products. Phthalates have been linked to diabetes and obesity. To clean your bathroom of phthalates: 1) Buy fragrance-free personal care products (perfume, deodorant, lipstick, nail polish, or hand/face cream). 2) Use only two personal care products at a time, which one study showed reduced people’s phthalate concentrations four-fold. 3) Buy PVC-free shower curtains—no vinyl!
But make sure what you’re ordering is rich in beans. Beans are high in the chemical butyrate, which encourages the body to burn fat as fuel. According to a study at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, beans are rich in soluble fiber and can lessen the accumulation of body fat: For each 10 grams of soluble fiber that study subjects added to their diets, they lost 3.7 percent of belly fat in a year!
According to a study published in the journal Food Chemistry, quinoa has the highest level of betaine, a chemical that revs your metabolism and actually shuts down the genes that encourage belly fat to hang around. If you find yourself needing some variety, don’t turn back to brown rice—look to quinoa’s good-carb cousins such as bulgur and barley.
And make more brown fat! A recent study published in the journal Diabetes found that exposure to cold temperatures at night can actually stimulate the growth of calorie-burning brown fat (a good-for-you type of body fat). Researchers from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases had participants spend a few weeks sleeping in bedrooms with varying temperatures: a neutral 75 degrees, a cool 66 degrees, and a balmy 81 degrees. After four weeks of sleeping at 66 degrees, the subjects had almost doubled their volumes of brown fat. (And yes, that means they lost belly fat.)
Foam rolling is one of the best ways to keep your muscles loose and your body mobile. It not only stretches areas that are hard to hit otherwise (like long tendons) but also provides a “dynamic” stretch, meaning one in which you’re moving. A recent study found that high-intensity dynamic stretching improves strength and flexibility. Slow, relaxed stretching, not so much.
If you want optimal gut health (and a shrinking belly), you want to eat prebiotic foods—foods that survive their trip through the gastrointestinal tract and feed our microbiota (community of microbes). Since probiotics aren’t “digested,” they have a lower caloric impact on your body, which can help you lose weight. Prebiotics are a special kind of high-fiber food that isn’t digested and goes on to stimulate healthy communities of gut bugs by giving them something substantial to nibble on. And since 90 percent of our cells are actually non-human microbes, we should know how to feed them properly. Two of the most widely studied prebiotic compounds are inulin and oligofructose, and the following five foods are bursting with them:
Jerusalem artichokes
Asparagus
Dandelion greens
Onions
Bananas