Researchers at Fudan University divided 182 moderately overweight Chinese men and women to receive beverages containing varying amounts of catechins for 90 days.  By the end of the study, total body fat and body fat percentage were lower in the group that received the highest amount of catechins compared to the control group.  In the highest catechin group, intra-abdominal fat area and weight were lower, and waist circumference averaged 1.9 centimeters less than those who received the control beverage.

“In this latest research, green tea providing significant catechin levels helped promote weight loss and positively affected body shape,”  lead researcher Dr. Niels Boon concluded.

You can get my recommendation for green tea capsules here.

From Men’s Health:

Your being in shape could be worth a cool $60,000. According to an Ohio State University analysis, obese people have a lower net worth than slimmer counterparts. OSU researcher Jay L. Zagorsky found that for whites at least, there was a very strong correlation between total net worth and body mass index, or BMI.

In one 2000 sampling, whites with a BMI of 24 – within “normal” range – were worth $100,000, while those with a BMI of 42 – obese – were worth only $40,000. (For unknown reasons, the health and net wealth link did not seem to apply to African-Americans). And these figures don’t take into account the whopping cost of assorted medical events associated with being sedentary: $50,000 and up for heart bypass surgery; an annual, average, per patient cost of $10,000 associated with Type 2 diabetes (as a result of heart disease, eye damage, stroke, kidney disease, and amputation).