for athletic performance. Initially, researchers were interested in whether green tea catechins could (as anecdotal reports had suggested) help with fat loss in obese individuals, thereby improving health and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. A number of studies have since provided some evidence for this effect. In particular, some studies have indicated that the combination of green tea catechins and caffeine (found in all types of tea) produces a 'thermogenic effect', boosting the rate at which calories are burned at rest and also increasing the rate of fat oxidation(17,18). Although more research is currently underway, evidence for a significant fat-loss effect in humans produced by green tea consumption alone remains patchy at best. Some research has suggested that an inverse relationship exists between regular green tea consumption and body fat percentage among subjects who have maintained the habit of green tea consumption for more than ten years(19). In other words, higher green tea consumption is associated with lower levels of body fat! However, like many epidemiological studies on nutrition, it's not easy to pin down strict cause and effect due to the many confounding variables, such as lifestyle, exercise patterns and other nutritional habits. Green tea extract and exercise One of the problems of determining whether green tea consumption really can help improve fat burning is that the catechin content of green tea can vary dramatically according to where the tea plant is grown, how the raw tea is processed into green tea and then how that is actually