By: Brew Your Bucha Posted: February 27, 2018 in Health Nutrition
If you drink kombucha regularly you get to enjoy a wide variety of health benefits to brag about to your friends. Whether they believe you or not is another story. One benefit can be proved by example: weight loss. The proof is in the pudding. Or in this case, your magnificent, bubbly glass of kombucha.
So can kombucha really help with weight loss? It sure can. If you see it through. Like many weight loss aids, it comes down to consistency and good habits.
Kombucha for Weight Loss
We can hang our hat on the fact that kombucha brings a healthy dose (billions!) of probiotics to your gut. These beneficial bacteria help to boost your immune system, aid digestion, and efficiently release vitamins, enzymes and minerals from your food to your body. With a highly efficient digestive system, you are able to retain the energy you require from food and burn the calories that you don't need.
Here are a few additional reasons kombucha can assist in weight loss:
Reduced Cravings
Being able to absorb as much as you can from your meals can fortify your body and reduce the cravings you may have for sweets and high carb or fat foods. This does not mean you are starving your body, it means you are more efficient with the food you eat and reduce the need to intake unnecessary calories. Of course, this can be even more effective if you are sticking to a healthy and well balanced diet.
Fire up your Metabolism
There is plenty of research which shows that probiotics increase your metabolism by raising the level of gut bacteria necessary to burn fat at a higher rate and inhibit the storage of it. Drinking kombucha daily is a great example of this can be accomplished easily without the inconvenience of having food prepared (kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, cheese?).
- Improve thyroid conversion rate - The good gut bacteria helps to convert inactive thyroid hormones to its active form. This helps to boost metabolism.
- Reduce body fat - Recent studies show that probiotics assist in metabolizing bile acids which breakdown fats. This means that probiotics could change the balance of how much fat the body absorbs and stores.
- Balances hormones - Gut bacteria regulates hormones that control blood sugar, and satiety (the feeling of being full). With an unbalanced environment, cravings for sugar, carbs, and other unhealthy foods may increase.
- Enhances detoxification. When toxins build up in our system, it becomes increasingly difficult to lose weight. Promoting a healthy balance within your gut flora helps clear the toxins and fire up our metabolism.
Post Workout Drink
Kombucha contains enzymes an electrolytes that the body craves after exercise. Ever have the desire for a ice cold soda or sports drink to quench your thirst? This is the body calling for the sodium, sugar and electrolytes you have lost through sweat. Instead of gulping down large amounts of sweet drinks, have a cup of 5oz or so of kombucha and you will notice this craving go away quicker.
Sports drinks are advertised to replenish glucose, fluids, and electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium) lost during strenuous exercise as well as to enhance endurance. [1] Some brands also contain B vitamins associated with increased energy (not to be confused with energy drinks, which are a different product entirely). Sports drinks contain carbohydrate in the form of sugar (e.g., glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose) or contain no sugar and are flavored instead with low-calorie sweeteners. The specific amount of sugar and electrolytes in sports drinks is intended to allow for quick hydration and absorption at online baccarat.
This type of nutrient depletion generally occurs only with high-intensity exercise that lasts an hour or more. For the non-athlete, a sports beverage is just another sugary drink.
Sports Drinks and Health
Research has shown benefit of sports drinks in adult athletes (though not conclusive as some studies show no benefit), but research in children is lacking. Children sweat at highly variable rates, so it is more difficult to establish an amount of exercise time that the drinks may be useful. However, with monitoring by coaches or parents, providing these drinks to children and adolescents who are exercising vigorously for more than 60 minutes may help to prevent dehydration. For children who are engaged in routine or play-based physical activity, these drinks are usually unnecessary.
This will also decrease the desire to eat a huge meal after having completed an intense exercise.
Kombucha Weight Loss Plan
Kombucha is not a miracle drug that will enable you to lose lots of weight in a short time span. It is a great supplement to a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle. We recommend implementing a daily kombucha drinking plan to supplement your goal of weight loss and overall health improvement. Therefore, we would like to give you a daily kombucha drinking schedule to try for 1 month to see if you notice results.
Here it is!
- Required: Get your hands on about 180oz (~5.5L) of raw or flavored kombucha (ideally low sugar flavor) - this is about 3 full 64oz growlers full. No need to buy them all at once, refill the growler as you run out. You can typically buy growlers of kombucha straight from your local kombucha brewery. You can buy large size bottles of kombucha at your local health foods store, or grocery. Alternatively, you can brew your own!
- Intake #1: Morning - Right after you wake up and before you have breakfast, pour 3oz of kombucha and drink!
- Intake #2: Your Decision - Experiment with the timing of your second drink of 3oz of kombucha of the day. The ideal time is when (a) it is a low energy time of your day - post lunch? (b) a time when you often have cravings for junk food or snacks (c) after a workout.
Additional Notes
- It is hard to know if you are feeling or seeing results if you don't keep track during this program. Take note of how you are feeling throughout the month in relation to your energy level, food cravings, how much you are eating and any other things your are noticing about yourself.
- If this is your first time drinking kombucha start off slow. You do not need to take the full amount of 6oz per day right away. Some people experience discomfort in their stomach when drinking kombucha in the morning. Some times it takes a few days for the body to become accustomed to the injection of good bacteria in their gut first thing in the morning as re balancing of bacteria takes place!
- Take a look at our blog post: When to drink Kombucha for a detailed explanation of why drinking in the morning is best!
- You may notice during the month that your tolerance to drink kombucha goes up. You can certainly drink more than the recommended 6oz per day but do not exceed 32oz per day. It is better to be consistent than it is to drink more volume!
If you plan to try out our Kombucha Weight Loss Plan make sure you contact us with any questions!
Brew Your Bucha