Several studies showed how tea is incredibly good for anyone. It is known to prevent arthritis, cardiovascular disease, dental decay and cancer. When it comes to weight loss, tea offers incredible benefits for shedding pounds.
You can find weight loss tea that speeds up your digestion or reduces harmful cholesterol levels.
It’s no wonder tea it has been a favorite drink in the world after water. Filipinos tend to prefer coffee or soda. Lately, however, we have been picking up. If we choose tea over coffee, it might reduce obesity rates.
But, a weight loss tea is just tea. It’s not a magical herb that grows in a remote part of the world and helps you slim down. To lose weight healthily, you still have to do the following:
- Eat more vegetables
- Reduce sugar intake
- Exercise regularly
If you do all of these, teas can assist you with your healthy dieting goals. And here’s a list of weight loss teas that Vim Chi can recommend (in no particular order):
1. Green tea
This tea is beneficial for your weight loss goal if you pair it with a sweat session. In a recent study, it showed that participants who drank up to 5 cups of green tea a day and engaged in a 25-minute exercise have lost an average of two pounds compared to participants who did not drink tea.
[pullquote]You can thank the catechins in green tea that blasts your adipose tissue as it triggers the release of fat cells from the belly and speed up liver’s capacity to cover fat into energy.[/pullquote]
One of the questions that people have is that will the benefits of green tea be affected if they choose flavored tea. Fortunately, the weight loss benefits of green tea won’t be affected by the addition of flavors. These flavors could be pomegranate, cranberry, and other natural flavorings. If it includes sugar, green tea’s weight loss benefits might be affected because sugar contains more calories. That said, avoid green teas with artificial sweeteners.
When it comes to the brand of green tea, you will find that every brand has differences in its quality of tea leaves and the addition of unnecessary ingredients. Thus, to maximize the weight loss benefits of green tea, you must look for a brand with all-natural ingredients and no artificial preservatives.
It’s also necessary that you drink it hot to maximize its benefits. To brew a better cup, avoid the water from coming to a full boil. Instead, put the teabag in a cup first before you pour the water. Allow it to steep up to four minutes.
Although green tea doesn’t spoil, you must drink it fresh. The fresher the tea is, the better. If you are using tea bags, drink it within six months. Otherwise, some of its antioxidant powers will be gone.
2. Oolong tea
In Chinese, oolong tea is known as the black dragon. Just like green tea, it is also packed with catechins that promote weight loss. It is a floral tea that boosts your body in metabolizing lipids or fats. A study showed that participants who sipped oolong tea regularly lost six pounds within six weeks.
Ignoring the weight loss benefits of oolong tea is hard. [pullquote]Oprah and Rachel Ray are just two of the celebrities who endorse it for shedding pounds.[/pullquote]
This tea is full of potent antioxidants. It boosts your metabolism, too. The antioxidants in it can protect you from chronic disease and improve your metabolism by 10 percent or more. Furthermore, it assists your body in burning fat more effectively. It’s particularly helpful in burning fats in your tummy and upper arm fat.
When the fat is gone, you can keep it off as long as you drink this tea regularly.
The metabolism effects of this tea are the result of its caffeine content. All teas that are extracted from Camellia sinensis plant contain caffeine. And it includes oolong tea. It’s true that caffeine has unwanted effects, but it also raises your metabolism. It can potentially assist you in reaching your healthy weight loss goals more quickly
Apart from that, it also regulates your blood sugar levels. When your blood sugar is stabilized, you’ll feel more satisfied and balanced. It also means that you won’t be craving for fewer sweets.
Just like green tea, oolong is also aromatic and delicious. Plus, it is calorie-free that makes it an excellent replacement to your coffee drink. Thus, try drinking it as your early morning and mid-morning drink, instead of your high-sugar latte.
But remember, when you add extras, like sugar or milk, your oolong tea would have calories. So, keep it in mind.
3. Mint tea
Peppermint tea is also an ideal weight-loss tea that you must try. It’s true that certain scents could trigger hunger. But mint tea is different. In a study, it showed that people who sniffed this tea every two hours have managed to lose an average of five pounds a month.
[pullquote]This tea is low in caffeine, compared with a cup of coffee. [/pullquote]However, you can opt for a decaffeinated variety that is ideal for a soothing bedtime beverage. You may also choose to add a few drops of peppermint oil to your pillow to help you fill your room with slimming scents.
Of course, peppermint tea won’t cause you to lose extra weight magically. The weight loss results with mint tea can only be achieved when you exercise regularly and replace your high-calorie foods with options that have lower calories.
It aids in digestion as it relaxes your GI organs. While it relaxes the muscles of your GI tract, it increases bile flow so fats will be digested more easily and quickly. As a result, you can prevent gas and indigestion.
Apart from weight loss, mint tea is also useful in alleviating IBS symptoms. It doesn’t directly affect your ability to lose weight. But having poor digestion causes you to feel tired. By improving your digestive health, you can keep burning calories throughout the day.
4. White tea
Yes, there’s such a thing as white tea. Compared with the other teas mentioned on this list, white tea has the richest source of antioxidants because it’s the least processed and it is dried naturally. Thus, you’ll get three times the polyphenols in green tea.
It comes from the same plant as green tea. This tea is made from the new buds and young leaves of the plant. The production process is the reason Pace University has reported that white tea contains greater antiviral and antibacterial properties as green teas.
On the other hand, this tea has been shown to have the ability to burn away fat cells. In the study conducted by German scientists, they found that this tea halted the generation of fat cells while it stimulated burning of fats.
When these scientists grew human fat cells in a lab, they found that those cells had less fat in them after treated with an extract of white tea. In other words, this tea induces lipolytic activity while it inhibits adipogenesis.
What makes it different from other teas is its high level of EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate), theobromine, and caffeine. Brewing this tea won’t give you the color white. Rather, it makes a golden hue. But the name comes from the downy white fur of the unopened bud.
[pullquote]If you try to look for the best white tea, you should go to the province of Fujian.[/pullquote] It’s located on the southeast coast of China.
To maximize the health and weight loss benefits of white tea, make sure that you get the best white tea available. Most drinkers of this tea choose it over green tea because of white tea’s anti-cancer properties. As mentioned earlier, these properties are greater in white than in green tea.
When it comes to brewing, white tea requires more attention to detail. You need to ensure that the water is at 180 degrees, else it’ll have a bitter taste. According to Mendosa, the best way to brew white tea is to
“Bring the water to a full boil, wait about 4 minutes at the mile-high elevation where I live, and then check the temperature with a thermometer.”
5. Rooibos tea
This tea is found in two variations, red and green. Just like other teas on this list, rooibos tea provides weight loss benefits. The connection between this tea and weight loss is real.
One of the reasons it can promote weight loss is that it is low in calories. As long as you don’t add sugar to it, this tea has only two calories. It means that when you drink it, you’re reducing your daily caloric intake compared to the more than 100 calories in soda.
You don’t need to add sugar to it as this tea is naturally sweet. Thus, it’s surely a good choice for losing your extra pounds. The catechins in this tea are also linked to the fat burning process. So, when you switch out your cup of coffee with this tea a day, you’ll be losing 7.5 pounds of weight in a year.
Even Dr. Oz is a fan of this weight loss tea. According to him, one of the best tricks of some people in South Africa to remain slim is that they drink this tea. He mentioned that by simply replacing your cup of coffee with this drink will cause you to drop 7.5 pounds in one year.
Another great benefit of rooibos tea is that it helps you with your insomnia problem. Most caffeine drinkers had to face the problem of waking up at night and not able to go back to sleep for an extended period.
Although most teas have caffeine content, rooibos offers calming and relaxing effects. After having a cup of this tea, your cortisol levels are said to reduce allowing you to be calm and relax.
6. Bilberry tea
Bilberry is not as popular as green tea or oolong tea. But this tea is as effective as those teas when it comes to weight loss. It has a tart flavor, and it is seen in making pies and soups.
One of the reasons it’s effective in weight loss is that it reduces blood sugar levels. It is also said that it can suppress your appetite. To maximize its weight loss benefits, you must drink a cup every day before your meals. Because it can suppress your appetite, you’ll eat smaller portions. And when you drink it at night, it makes it easier for your body to digest the food you’ve eaten while you are sleeping.
But weight loss is not the only reason people continue to drink this tea. It has been shown in several studies that bilberry tea could be useful in treating retinopathy. It’s a disorder in the eyes that damages the retina because of high blood sugar or hypertension.
It could also be effective in healing stomach ulcers. The bilberry fruit has tannins that reduce intestinal inflammation. It also comes with astringent properties that tighten tissues.
7. Anise tea
This tea has fat-fighting properties that can improve fat metabolism and aids the body in proper digestion. In India, however, it is used as a breath freshener. Hence, it is often found in cough medicine. But it has a diuretic effect that eliminates toxins from the body.
Anise tea comes from the Chinese star anise, which is an evergreen tree. It has demonstrated to have antimicrobial properties. This tea is also effective in promoting digestive health while decreasing water weight.
Final Thoughts
All of these teas can promote healthy weight loss. Each of them has its own way to help you shed pounds. They can speed up digestion, reduce bad cholesterol, or assist your body in shrinking fat cells.
However, these teas don’t have magical powers that will make you slimmer after drinking cups of tea every day. To lose weight, you have to reduce your calorie consumption, eat more vegetables, and exercise more.
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