Exercise as it relates to Disease/Oxidation of fats due to green tea and sprinting intervals

This is a critique of an article on The combined effect of green tea and acute interval sprinting exercise on fat oxidation of trained and untrained males, published by Journal of exercise nutrition and biochemistry, 2016.

What is the background to this research?
The article covers the effects of green tea ingestion before short burst high intensity exercise on fat oxidation for energy use. There are many claims to the benefits of green tea including fat oxidation but this article puts these claims to the test. This is important for testing the validity of these statements and proper testing has put a broader understanding on these claims. These claims have real world importance because they may help athletes loose weight, they can help understand more about Biochemistry, it could help physical trainers to assist people with exercise related chronic diseases such as obesity and much more.

Where is the research from?
Research was conducted by a team from an Australian institutions writing in the journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry. The purpose of this was to gain a better understanding of what could be done to increase exercise performance and nutrition. All the authors are familiar to the field of exercise science and have written several articles relating to green tea and interval training between them. The focus of the journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry has bias to the idea of using nutritional evidence to help increase performance in exercise. This is good for the purpose of discovering the effects of green tea on interval training.

What kind of research was this?
The study conducted by this team on the effects of tea in interval sprint testing was a cross sectional study. This is because each male participant was given pills contains green tea while another group was given a placebo at the same time. This was further more divided into groups of trained and untrained males who where put through testing at the same time making this cross sectional study easier to handle. This is a good way to conduct this type of experiment although more participants could have been used. Cross section study was the best way to perform this type of test because only a general understanding of substance verses placebo is needed in different groups over a short period of time and does not require any long term testing and will not work if in a single group.

What did the research involve?
In the study 28 males where chosen at random half being trained individuals and the other half untrained. All of these participants where given a pill that contained green tea at different stages of the day. At a certain point they perform interval sprint tests on a bike and are compared against a placebo. This methodology was a very good approach but could have been better in some areas. Instead of just comparing fat oxidation against a placebo group they could have had other groups with different substances believed to be good for fat burning. A list of these substances include: - N-3 PUFA - Caffeine - hydroxycitrate Although the goal was to see the effects of green tea it would have been better to compare this to the above. The participants also could have been much more various and included groups such as long term smokers, males with obesity and female based groups to test a wider population.

What were the basic results?
It is stated that the fat oxidation in the group that ingested green tea pills was much higher both during and after exercise. These results are made by testing the following - power output was the same for both groups - Revolutions per minute was higher for the green tea group - pedal resistance was the same for both groups - Rate of perceived exertion was the same - lactate at seven minutes were the results that where similar - lactate at 20 minutes where the results were the same for untrained but the trained males who ingested tea had less. - heart rate which had no difference except for trained and untrained (trained having a much lower heart rate) - Vo2 was the same between green tea and placebo all the way up to 60 minutes. Although testing showed a higher fat oxidation in the green tea group the exercise was done over the course of a 20 minute period according to the results. It is very difficult to maintain a sprint for this long, meaning that data may not be accurate to the title. According to another article on Maximal Fat Oxidation During Exercise in Trained Men, an increase in intensity will see a decrease in fat oxidation. In the test conducted by using green tea versus placebo the sprint was spread over a 20 minute period making it more of an aerobic exercise meaning that sprinting after having consumed green tea may not be as effective as the title suggests. Although despite this, there is still plenty of proof that green tea enhances the effect of fat oxidation during exercise. It just may not be as efficient when done in high intensity training such as sprinting. There is no apparent over emphasis in this article and the results look to be correct.

What conclusions can we take from this research?
It is safe to say the green tea will increase fat oxidation during exercise although if people are willing to start this process they should still consider cardio and not sprint. Short burst high intensity exercises will never be as good for burning fat as moderate intensity long term exercise. Although green tea is good, there is no way to tell if it is better than other substances such as caffeine. According to the results in this article fat oxidation was increased by five times proving the point that green tea is still a reliable way to burn fat.

Practical advice
It is not clear if drinking green tea without exercise will still increase fat oxidation but anyone seeking to lose fat may want to start exercising as it is the most efficient and healthy way to lose weight with or without added substances. Long distance jogging after drinking green tea may be one of the best ways to lose weight. Weight lifting is a high intensity workout but will still be better for burning extra kilojoules than not performing exercise. There are more people who can benefit from this than just overweight populations. Green tea and exercise have many positive effects that extend beyond fat oxidation.

Further information/resources
Green tea can improve brain function, lower risk of cancer, lower risk of developing alzheimers, lower risk of type 2 diabetes and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.