Let's start at the root of this green tea phenomenon. Green tea, along with black and oolong tea, comes from the tea plant Camellia sinensis. This plant is an evergreen shrub that is native to mainland South and Southeast Asia, but can now be found across the world in tropical and subtropical regions.

WHY IS IT POPULAR?

So now we know that green tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, but what is actually causing all the buzz in the supplement world? The polyphenols found in green tea are the answer. These incredible polyphenols are more commonly known in the scientific community as flavanols or catechins.

The main catechins in green tea are epicatechin, epicatechin-3-gallate, epigallocatechin and, the one with the highest concentration, epigallocatechin-3-gallate or EGCG.

A lot of the studies done on green tea have focused on the highly concentrated EGCG catechin, but there are also plenty of studies on catechins in general. The results of these studies are vital for every bodybuilder trying to get ripped.

For example, according to a study published in an issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, green tea has been shown to activate the body's thermogenic fat-burning activity.¹ In this study, an optimal amount of catechins (690 mg) ingested for 12 weeks significantly reduced the subjects' total fat area, waist circumference, skinfold thickness and subcutaneous fat area!

You see, catechins inhibit an enzyme called catechol-O-methyltranferase, or COMT, which actually degrades the body's primary fat-burning hormone, norepinephrine. That's obviously not what you want when you're trying to get shredded. With catechins being so abundant in green tea, they really help elevate norepinephrine levels, keep them elevated and prolong thermogenesis. Translation - catechins help turn you into a fat-burning machine!

It has also been shown that there is a synergistic interaction between the caffeine in green tea and the catechins (more specifically EGCG) in green tea, which revs up the body's use of calories as energy. Moreover, the combination of caffeine and EGCG found in green tea was further shown in the British Journal of Nutrition to significantly increase the resting metabolic rate.

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