Green Coffee Bean Extract: Is It The Best Supplement For Weight Loss?

There are many supplements on the market today aimed at helping people with all aspects of their health. Some of these products are much more effective than others and it’s important to take this into consideration when you’re buying any kind of supplement.

One of the more challenging areas of health and fitness is losing weight, it can be a tricky task at the best of times and in response to this, the number of supplements aimed at helping people lose weight seems to grow and grow.

Green Coffee Bean Extract is one of those supplements which has been said to aid people looking to lose weight and is one of the most popular. Green Coffee Bean extract contains a substance called Chlorogenic Acid which has been touted as being able to reduce blood sugar levels and potentially exert an anti-diabetic effect.

What Is Green Coffee Bean Extract?

Green Coffee Bean Extract as the name suggests is a supplement extracted from green unroasted coffee beans. It’s a little known fact that coffee beans are actually green, but they are sold to the consumer after they have been roasted, so not many people ever see coffee beans when they are green.

One of the main reasons as to why Green Coffee Bean Extract is seen as a useful weight loss supplement rather than roasted coffee beans is that a lot of the Chlorogenic Acid is lost when the beans are roasted, so in their pre-roasted state there is much more Chlorogenic Acid present.

 

How Does Green Coffee Bean Extract Work?

There are a couple of ways that Green Coffee Bean extract is thought to relate to weight loss. First of all the powerful stimulant; Caffeine which is found in coffee has been linked to weight loss and there has been a lot of research done into the effects of caffeine on weight loss.

The second point as mentioned above is that there are high levels of Chlorogenic Acid found in coffee beans that haven’t been roasted yet. There are numerous theories which speculate on why Green Coffee Bean Extract is effective at aiding weight loss.

Some studies have suggested that it can reduce the absorption of carbohydrates from the digestive tract, which lowers blood sugar and insulin spikes. If this is true then consuming Green Coffee Bean Extract would have similar effects to following a low carbohydrate diet.

Other studies conducted on mice and rats have shown that chlorogenic acid can reduce body weight, reduce fat absorbed from the diet and reduce fat stored in the liver, while also improving the function of the fat burning hormone adiponectin.

 

What Does Science Say?

On an episode of the Dr. Oz show, Green Coffee Bean extract was touted as a ‘fat burner that helps women lose weight.’ Oz tested the effects f the extract on 100 women. Half were given 400 mg of green coffee bean extract 30 minutes before breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for two weeks; the other half were given a placebo.

Participants were told to maintain their regular diets and to keep a food journal. The women who took the extract were found to have lost an extra two pounds on average than those women who took the placebo.

A 2011 review in the Journal of Gastroenterology Research and Practice found Green Coffee Bean Extract to lower body weight more significantly than a placebo in three studies. However, researchers have noted that the studies were of poor quality and have suggested that more research needs to be done before Green Coffee Bean Extract is recommended as a weight loss supplement.

 

Further Studies

In another study 16 overweight adults aged 22-26 years old took capsules containing Green Coffee Bean Extract or took capsules containing a placebo, the participants took either of these capsules for 22 weeks. The participants alternated between a low dose and a higher dose of the extract.

This study was called a “cross-over” study in which people cycled through the two doses and the placebo, each for six weeks. The participants were asked to keep their diets, calorie intake, and exercise levels at the same level as they were normally.

After the study was completed the results showed that participants lost an average of 17 pounds during the 22-week study. This included an average of a 10.5 percent decrease in overall body weight and a 16 percent decrease in body fat. The founder of the study Joe Vinson supposes these results were due to the high level of Chlorogenic acid that is present in Green Coffee Beans.

 

Other Health Benefits Of Green Coffee Bean Extract

Apart from being linked with just weight loss, Green Coffee Bean Extract has other properties that have supposed health benefits. The first benefit is that Green Coffee Bean is that it contains less caffeine than a regular cup of coffee. A usual serving of coffee contains around 100mg of caffeine, while the same serving of green coffee contains around 20 mg of caffeine.

Green Coffee Bean Extract has also been known to normalize blood sugar levels. Green Coffee Bean Extract helps to lower inflammation, which has positive effects on blood sugar levels. This also helps reduce fat accumulation and insulin resistance and may even reduce the absorption of glucose in obese people. Green Coffee Beans ability to help normalize or reduce high blood sugar levels can also help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Green Coffee Bean Extract has also been known to have anti-aging properties through the antioxidants found in it. The high concentration of chlorogenic acid present in Green Coffee Extract reduces redness associated with excessive sunlight exposure.

With the presence of caffeine as well, Green Coffee Bean Extract can also help with your ability to concentrate and keep your alertness levels high.

 

Can You Eat Coffee Beans?

Some people have asked can you eat coffee beans? The short answer is yes, you can, but you may want to consume them in moderation. Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee fruit, the fruit part is stripped away during processing, and the seed inside is dried to leave raw green coffee beans.

Many positive health benefits have been noted from eating coffee beans, and if you are eating them, you are getting all the benefits of coffee in it’s most concentrated form. There aren’t too many adverse side effects to eating coffee beans, of course, if you begin to feel unwell while eating them, then stop.

The only major worry you may have with eating coffee beans is the high caffeine content. Caffeine has been known to have many positive health benefits but consuming too much caffeine and you may find yourself at a higher risk of symptoms of anxiety. It’s important to remember that the recommended safe level of caffeine for adults is around 400 mg per day. 

Coffee beans on average contain around 6mg each, so it’s good to be aware of how many beans you are consuming if you choose to eat some. You don’t want to eat more than your recommended daily allowance, having too much caffeine can lead to insomnia, heart palpitations, and muscle tremors. You can also eat medium or dark roast beans.

 

The Final Word

It’s clear then that there may be some merit to the claims that Green Coffee Bean Extract (often called “weight loss coffee”) may be useful as a weight loss aid. One of the main problems with a lot of the research that has been done into Green Coffee Bean Extract is that there aren’t many studies that have taken place over a long period of time. While many of the studies have shown that Green Coffee Bean Extract has helped people lose weight, it is not clear if these effects carry on over a long period of time.

Of course, always consult a medical professional if you are going to start adding supplements you have never used before to your diet and monitor how they make you feel. If you follow a healthy diet and exercise, then adding Green Coffee Bean Extract alongside it shouldn’t cause you any concerns. The best way with any supplement is to give it a try and see how it makes you feel or if it has the desired effect.