Green coffee bean extract could help people lose weight and burn fat without diet and exercise

DENVER - Some researchers are pointing to green coffee bean extract as a possible breakthrough for weight loss.

Green coffee beans contain chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant that researchers believe may affect the way your metabolism breaks down fat, resulting in weight loss. The chlorogenic acid is destroyed during the roasting process, meaning you cannot get the same benefit from drinking coffee.

A couple of small studies have shown green coffee bean extract, green coffee beans ground up and put into capsules, as an effective weight loss supplement.

Researchers at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania found a group of 16 obese people, ages 22 to 26, lost 17 pounds in 22 weeks while taking the supplement.

Dr. Oz also got results with his studio audience. In a two-week experiment, the group taking green coffee bean extract lost twice as much weight as the group taking a placebo.

However, registered dietician Bonnie Jortberg at the University of Colorado School of Medicine warned supplements are not regulated by the FDA and said the studies are not long-term enough to provide proven scientific evidence that green coffee bean extract works and is safe.

"We don't have a magic bullet and I don't see a magic bullet coming down the pike. I just don't see it," Jortberg said. “Are there little things that people can do that might be able to help them? There could be and this might be something. Although, I don't think it has been proven.