Apple Cider Vinegar Versus Green Tea: Which Is Better For Weight Loss?

You may have heard claims about the weight-loss benefits of green tea or apple cider vinegar, but how many of these are true? Can apple cider vinegar or green tea really help you lose weight?

According to Harvard Medical School, people have been using vinegar solutions as healing tonics for thousands of years. In the past, vinegar has been used as a strength tonic, a detox solution, an antibiotic, and to treat or prevent scurvy.

Likewise, ancient cultures used green tea for its health properties. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has used green tea to heal wounds, cure headaches, and more for ages (per Medical News Today).

Green tea's health benefits have been widely documented, and according to Healthline, research shows apple cider vinegar has many potential health properties. But more recently, proponents have touted apple cider vinegar and green tea as weight loss solutions. If their weight loss properties are real, is apple cider vinegar or green tea better for weight loss?

To make apple cider vinegar, yeast is mixed into crushed apples, turning it into alcohol. Bacteria are added to the alcohol to ferment it into acetic acid. Acetic acid is apple cider vinegar's primary active ingredient, comprising up to 6% of its content. 

A 2009 study in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry showed that subjects who drank 15 milligrams or 30 milligrams of vinegar showed significantly lower body weight, body mass index (BMI), visceral fat, waist circumference, and serum triglyceride levels than those who did not take any vinegar. Researchers concluded that ingesting vinegar daily might help reduce obesity and help prevent metabolic syndrome. However, Healthline notes that vinegar is not a magic bullet, with subjects dropping an average of just 2.6 to 3.7 pounds in the vinegar group over three months.

Healthline claims green tea is one of the world's healthiest beverages. It's loaded with antioxidants called catechins, and one, in particular, may be responsible for claims that green tea can help with weight loss. The catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), in particular, is known to boost metabolism. Add metabolism-boosting caffeine, and you have a potential fat-busting formula. A 2007 study in Physiology & Behavior found that subjects taking green tea extract lost an average of about 7.3 pounds more than subjects not taking green tea over three months.

When compared, the two studies suggest green tea is better for weight loss than apple cider vinegar. However, both might help.