There are many people who treat eating as a calorie-counting task. Before every meal, they calculate the calories on their plate and proceed only after they reach a satisfyingly low number.
They might even pull out a few things off the plate if the calories increase the threshold they have in their mind.
And, if you are one of those, here is some good news! You can count on green tea as a calorie-free beverage. In other words, it is a tea that has zero calories in it.
Calories in Green Tea
One of the biggest benefits of drinking green tea is that you can have a hot cup of it without feeling guilty about the calories you are ingesting.
As per USDA, one cup of brewed green tea has 245g of water and 0.539g of protein with traces of minerals like magnesium, potassium, and sodium.
There are no calories from fat in green tea. Basically, a single cup has 2.45 calories which are negligible.
You can easily burn off those calories by walking for 9 seconds!
However, it is important to note that your cup will not be free of calories when you add additives to your brew.
Green tea is available in different packs and you can’t simply pick any of them assuming they have zero calories.
For example, if you buy bottled green tea, you must check the ingredients list first. It is most often sweetened with sugar or some other sweetener.
And, there are no rewards for guessing that this kind of tea is not free of calories.
There are many brands that sell bottled green tea. And, most people who wish to lose weight, pick them up without even checking what all additives it contains.
If you really want to make the most of the calorie-free version of green tea, you have to be careful and look at the other options available.
It is rather easy to get carried away by simply seeing the word ‘green tea’ on the label.
The word ‘healthy’ and ‘green tea’ have been used together so often that most people think that anything with green tea in it is good for you.
So, if you feel that you are not losing weight in spite of putting in a lot of effort, check whether your green tea has sugar or any other sweetener added to it.
Calories in bottled green tea
An 8-ounce bottle of Snapple green tea has 130 calories in it because of additives and sweeteners like sugar. It does not seem to be a good idea for someone who wishes to lose weight.
Calories in powdered green tea
The powdered green tea mix that various brands offer is “ice tea” or “frappe” style green tea. Basically, this kind of tea has sweeteners added to it and they usually are sugar cane leaves.
Such tea has 30 calories. If the powdered tea is sweetened using xylitol, it has 22 calories present in it.
Calories in tea bags and loose leaf tea
The packaged teabags don’t have any calories in them unless you add a sweetener or any other additives to them. On the same note, loose green tea has zero calories and is made by allowing the leaves to steep in hot water.
P.S. – Some websites claim that green tea does have a 2-5 calorie count. However, most of the studies show 0 calories if taken without adding anything.
How to keep the calorie count of green tea low?
Here are the ways of keeping the calorie count of green tea as low as you can,
- Avoid additives like sugar, honey, sweet syrups. You can choose sugar-free sweeteners instead.
- Say no to ready-to-drink bottled green teas as they contain a lot of sweeteners. If you have to drink them, don’t forget to read labels prior to consumption. Nevertheless, try consuming freshly brewed green tea.
Does green tea burn calories?
Interestingly, while green tea does not have any calories in it naturally, it helps you burn fat. The catechins present in green tea help in boosting the body’s metabolism and breaking down fat.
Additionally, caffeine in green tea works as a stimulant that aids fat burning.
Apart from this, there is also something called ‘homeostasis‘. According to it, when you drink a hot cup of green tea, the body burns calories to cool it down and bring it to the body’s temperature.
This way, energy gets used up and in the long run, you burn calories.
It seems to be a great reason to add a few cups of green tea to your diet chart but please don’t expect any immediate results.
If you are not doing anything else like exercise or any physical activity to lose those extra pounds the tea would do nothing.
Substituting other drinks for green tea is definitely a healthy idea. However, you have to understand that green tea will help you burn calories only when it is consumed as a part of a healthy lifestyle.
You must exercise to see some positive results. Simply doing nothing and relying on drinking tea will not lead to weight loss.
How many calories do you burn by drinking one cup of green tea?
3 cups of green tea a day can help you burn an extra 70 to 100 calories which sounds good enough. Let’s look at things this way…
If you are looking at losing 1 kg of weight a week, it would amount to reducing 7,700 calories a week or 1,100 calories a day.
This is possible by burning more calories a day than you usually do.
You can consume foods that naturally rev up your metabolism and help burn fat. If you adopt a healthy lifestyle and choose to bring a change, you can benefit by making green tea your go-to beverage.
What kind of green tea is good for you?
Now, one of the frequently asked questions is what kind of green tea should one take? Especially, when you want to lose weight and keep a tab on your calorie consumption?
Well, the answer to that would be – green tea bags without any additives and loose green tea leaves. They are the best options for those who are calorie-conscious as they undergo minimally processing.
You can steep the leaves to make a hot cup of tea for yourself and sip your way to good health without adding any other ingredient.
P.S. – Green tea alone will not burn your weight. You will have to follow regular exercise patterns.
Green tea and weight loss studies
In connection to green tea and weight loss, all the studies have been conducted using green tea extract and not the regular tea you drink. This does not mean that green tea won’t help in weight loss.
However, the usual cup of hot brewed tea might not be able to deliver the desired results, at least not in the way you expect it to. You simply can’t get drastic weight loss results by just sipping on a few cups of green tea.
My Final Thoughts
Green tea does not contain calories. You can reap its weight loss benefits by simply consuming it after steeping it in hot water. Avoid drinking green tea that has been sweetened with a sweetener because it has additional calories.
Apart from the weight-loss angle, green tea has a good amount of powerful antioxidants that contain flavonoids namely catechins and EGCG.
Antioxidants are important because they fight the damage that is caused to the body by free radicals and ward off many diseases.