Does Green Tea Fat Burner Work?

Green Tea Fat Burner is a weight-loss supplement made by California-based company Applied Nutrition. Its two primary ingredients — green tea and caffeine — are fat burners, but their impact is hard to predict.

Fat burners are only moderately successful, and they won't yield results if your diet and exercise aren't in balance. Green Tea Fat Burner contains other herbal ingredients that can have side effects and interact with medications, so talk to your doctor to be sure it's safe for you.

Read more: How Much Green Tea Should You Drink to Lose Weight

Green tea leaves contain antioxidants called catechins, some of which can burn fat. One dose of Green Tea Fat Burner contains 400 milligrams of green tea extract. Half of the total extract consists of the most potent catechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG. EGCG's role as a fat burner comes from its ability to trigger enzymes that get adipose cells to release their stored fat and increase the amount of fat used for energy.

Even though green tea has the potential to burn fat, don't set your weight-loss expectations too high. While research on animals has shown promising results, human studies are limited, according to an article published in the January 2015 issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

One drawback is that green tea is not easily absorbed into the bloodstream. You may improve absorption by taking supplements on an empty stomach, reported a study in Antioxidants in June 2015. Fish oil and an antioxidant found in dark-colored berries called quercetin may also boost green tea absorption, as long as they're in supplement form.

Caffeine complements EGCG because it also stimulates the breakdown of fat. After consuming caffeine, you'll burn more calories as it temporarily kicks up your metabolism. Combining green tea catechins with caffeine may counteract a metabolism slowdown after weight loss, which means they could help maintain weight after you drop pounds.

One serving of Green Tea Fat Burner contains 160 milligrams of caffeine, but the directions recommend taking the supplement twice daily, so you'll get 320 milligrams. This doesn't leave much room for a cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverages — consuming more than 400 milligrams daily increases the risk of side effects, reports MedlinePlus.

Because of caffeine's stimulant effect, people with high blood pressure, a lot of stress or irregular heart rhythm may need to consume less than 400 milligrams daily.

Green Tea Fat Burner contains a mix of antioxidant ingredients from natural sources, such as blueberry, grape skin and pomegranate. It also has a proprietary blend of natural herbs, which includes yerbe mate, Schisandra fruit extract, Asian ginseng, holy basil extract and eleuthero, or Siberian ginseng.

All of these herbs may have beneficial effects; for example, ursolic acid from holy basil extract may help prevent fat accumulation, and Asian ginseng contains ginsenosides that protect blood vessel health. But they also have potential side effects, and several interact with medications.

The caffeine in yerbe mate may aid weight loss, but regular use of this herb could increase the risk of some types of cancer, reports Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It's also associated with caffeine side effects such as restlessness and difficulty sleeping.

Siberian ginseng shouldn't be mixed with digoxin, and Asian ginseng should not be used if you take insulin or warfarin, or if you have hormone-sensitive cancer. The bottom line is that if you have any health condition or are on medications, talk with your doctor before taking supplements.

Read more: The Best Green Tea to Lose Weight

Green Tea Fat Burner's effectiveness depends on each person's metabolism, health status, diet, the dose taken and daily calories consumed compared to activity level. Individual differences explain why some reviews report it helped with weight loss, while others say it's not effective.

A company called LabDoor purchases supplements and sends them to an independent laboratory to have the ingredients tested. The results tell if the product has the amounts of ingredients listed on the label and whether it contains toxic contaminants.

When compared with the average results from 24 other green tea supplements, Green Tea Fat Burner received good scores for nutritional value and product purity. It scored slightly below average for label accuracy because it contained significantly more EGCG and less caffeine than stated on the label.

The score also suffered because the label didn't report the amount of beneficial polyphenols revealed in lab tests. This is likely because green tea catechins other than EGCG and polyphenols in the herbal blend aren't itemized on the label. Ingredient safety was rated as average.