Effects of green tea on weight maintenance after body-weight loss

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate whether green tea may improve weight maintenance by preventing or limiting weight regain after weight loss of 5 to 10% in overweight and moderately obese subjects. The study had a randomised, parallel, placebo-controlled design. A total of 104 overweight and moderately obese male and female subjects (age 18–60 years; BMI 25–35kg/m 2 ) participated. The study consisted of a very-low-energy diet intervention (VLED; 2·1MJ/d) of 4 weeks followed by a weight-maintenance period of 13 weeks in which the subjects received green tea or placebo. The green tea contained caffeine (104mg/d) and catechins (573mg/d, of which 323mg was epigallocatechin gallate). Subjects lost 6·4 (sd 1·9) kg or 7·5 (sd 2·2) % of their original body weight during the VLED ( P <0·001). Body-weight regain was not significantly different between the green tea and the placebo group (30·5 (sd 61·8) % and 19·7 (sd 56·9)%, respectively). In the green tea treatment, habitual high caffeine consumption was associated with a higher weight regain compared with habitual low caffeine consumption (39 (sd 17) and 16 (sd 11)%, respectively; P <0·05). We conclude that weight maintenance after 7·5% body-weight loss was not affected by green tea treatment and that habitual caffeine consumption affected weight maintenance in the green tea treatment.