In this post, I'm going to cover weight loss teas and how you can use them to help you on your weight loss journey. So let's get started.
What Are Weight Loss Teas?
Weight loss teas are teas used for weight loss. Pretty self explanatory right? The teas are made of dried plants that are steeped in hot water in order to bring out the flavors and compounds used for health benefits. These teas come in a large variety. There are some herbal combination teas which feature more than one herb for weight loss. There are caffeinated and non-caffeinated teas, for those who may be sensitive to caffeine. There are many weight loss teas available with various flavors and benefits.
Types of Weight Loss Teas
As I said, there are many types of weight loss teas. I want to go over each type of tea and give a brief overview of how it works.
Laxative Teas
The laxative style weight loss teas help you lose weight by increasing your trips to the bathroom. They make you poop. Most everyone has backed up waste inside of them, so these teas can be useful every so often. They are NOT something you would want to take every day for an extended period of time. Why? Because your body may start to rely on the tea to help it go to the bathroom and this may cause you to have constipation if you stop taking it.
Laxative teas typically have a main ingredient of senna. Senna is an herbal laxative that increases your trips to the bathroom. You don't want to be taking any products with senna for very many days in a row.
There are definitely side effects to taking these teas for too long. You should always read the box that comes with the tea and follow the instructions on the box. It will usually tell you to only take the tea for a certain number of days in a row. You need to give your body a rest after that. My recommendation is to give your body at least 2 weeks' rest after taking a weight loss tea for many days.
Detox Teas
Sometimes laxative teas are mislabeled as detox teas. A laxative tea really doesn't detox your body. It just gets rid of waste. A true detox tea will have herbs that purify the blood, help move the lymph, and cleanse your liver.
These teas typically have herbs such as dandelion, parsley, and sarsaparilla. Yogi has a detox tea that is amazing and has many good herbs for true detoxing.
Detox teas can be used for weight loss if you feel like your body is toxic. I've spoken about this in another post, but if your body has excess toxins, it is more likely to hold onto fat. So in that way, detox teas can encourage weight loss. But you will also need to add a few things to help your body detox. I suggest daily saunas, warm epsom salt baths, and exercise which will all detox the body further.
Detox teas may not lead to as much weight loss as some of the other weight loss teas. It just depends on your body. But it is very important to help your body detox, especially while losing weight so I encourage you to do a detox cleanse every so often just to help your body clean out.
Metabolism Boosters
Last but not least, we have the weight loss teas that boost metabolism. These teas boost your metabolism. You burn more calories throughout the day, and typically burn more fat as well. Some of these teas also reduce fat storage. These are usually the best teas to use for weight loss. The previous mentioned teas may give some weight loss, but there will be a point where the weight loss stops. Metabolism-boosting teas will help you achieve more weight loss.
Some metabolism boosting teas include green tea, oolong tea, and white tea.
Hyped Instagram Teas
A word about weight loss teas and sponsored posts: I just want to say that I noticed there are a lot of weight loss teas that get advertised on Instagram, Facebook, and elsewhere. It's usually a pretty and fit celebrity or other popular influencer that is telling you they love this tea and you should go try it.
What you need to know is they got paid a whole lot of money to say that. It's important to keep this in mind. Some of those teas are grossly overpriced and some of them don't even work very well. You need to remember that just because a celebrity tells you to buy something doesn't make it a good product.
The celebrity in question probably didn't lose weight from the tea. They were probably already fit to begin with, or used other means to lose weight. It's kind of deceptive because they are making it look like they use this tea to look amazing when it really probably has everything to do with their diet and lifestyle.
Always do your own research. Look into the real online reviews. Look at their Amazon reviews. Research the ingredients in the tea. I'm not telling you not to buy the tea. I'm telling you to educate yourself on these teas before buying them.
Herbal Teas
There are some herbal teas that are known to help with weight loss. These teas can be consumed by those who are caffeine sensitive. Herbal teas contains antioxidants which give many health benefits.
Rooibos tea has been studied for it's ability to help people with weight loss. It helps to curb your appetite and improve digestion.
Chamomile tea also curbs appetite and improves digestion. Chamomile tea will work for those who tend to eat when they are stressed. Chamomile tea lowers stress hormones in the body, therefore making you less stressed and less hungry.
Hibiscus tea is a sour tasting tea that can help you with weight loss. It works by preventing you from absorbing some of the carbs you eat. So it naturally reduces your carb intake for you. Hibiscus tea also prevents your body from forming new fat cells, and it uses ingested fat as energy for your body.
Drinking 4 to 6 cups of herbal tea per day can help you lose weight.
When To Use Each Type of Tea
Because there are so many types of weight loss teas, it can be confusing to know when to use each kind of tea. I will give you some suggestions to help you figure out the type of tea you should be using.
Laxative teas and detox teas are best used at the very beginning of your weight loss program. They help clean you out and prepare you for the lifestyle changes that are about to take place. It kickstarts your weight loss program and increases the initial weight loss. This keeps you motivated to stick with it as well.
Metabolism boosting teas can be used all throughout your weight loss program. They are made to help boost your metabolism so that you burn more fat throughout the day. They can really potentiate your weight loss benefits from any weight loss program.
How To Make Weight Loss Teas
Teas typically come in these small bags. You would take a coffee mug, fill it with water, and heat the water in the microwave until it's hot. Then add the tea bag and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. The taste and concentration of the tea increases as you let it sit for longer periods of time. You will notice you get a darker and stronger tea if you let it sit for 10 minutes instead of 5 minutes.
If you don't have a microwave or don't like microwaves, you can heat the water in a pot on the stove until it's warm. Place the tea bag in the cup and pour the hot water over the tea bag. Then let it sit.
I suggest that you don't add any sugar, honey, or other calories to your tea. This adds calories where you don't want any extra calories. Try to get used to the flavor without it, or just use no calorie stevia sweetener. But trust me when I say that none of these teas taste bad plain. You just have to get used to it.
Loose Leaf Teas
Rumor has it that loose leaf teas are actually higher quality and may provide better benefits. So what are loose leaf teas?
Loose leaf teas are not in individual bags like the other teas. They come as dried leaves which you will have to put in a tea ball. A tea ball is a little round ball that you would place the tea leaves in so that you can steep the tea (like a tea bag). Some people buy these loose leaf teas because there are reportedly better benefits to these teas.
I have never consumed loose leaf tea, so I cannot make remarks about the taste or quality, but I believe it would be better quality than tea bags. You can order loose leaf teas online. I have no affiliation with Mountain Rose Herbs, but they are a company that provides good quality herbs so I do recommend them.
Most Effective Weight Loss Teas
There are a few teas that are considered the most effective weight loss teas. Those would be green tea, white tea, oolong tea, and pu-erh tea. What is really interesting is that all of these teas come from the camellia sinensis plant. The pu-erh tea and oolong tea are both fermented teas.
All of these teas have amazing health benefits. They aren't just used for weight loss, but they are also anti-aging, anti-cancer, and protect against a variety of diseases. They are consumed across Asia for the many health benefits they provide.
An interesting note here. The top effective weight loss teas tend to contain caffeine. Some would argue that it's the caffeine itself that accounts for the increase in weight loss. That's just not true. While caffeine does help with weight loss, various studies have concluded that there are other factors at play that help you lose weight, such as antioxidants and plant compounds.
If you are sensitive to caffeine, you should find an herbal tea that fits your needs and taste buds. They are caffeine free and help with weight loss as well.
Weight Loss Teas and Studies
Green tea is probably one of the most studied weight loss tea around. From studies we have learned that consuming green tea will increase your 24 hour energy expenditure by 4-6%. So green tea is proven to boost metabolism and help you lose weight.
Oolong tea has also been proven to help you lose weight in studies. The study says that oolong tea boosts energy expenditure by 2.9%. This was only a small study though, and more studies are needed to show the benefits of oolong tea.
White tea is another popular weight loss tea. It hasn't been studied as well as green tea either, but a study showed white tea's ability to break down fat and help prevent you from storing fat.
Pu-erh tea is well known in some parts of the world as a great tea for weight loss. It has been shown in studies to help people lose weight and prevent weight gain.
Rooibos tea is an herbal tea that has proven weight loss benefits as well. Rooibos tea has been proven in studies to burn fat and help prevent fat cell from forming in the first place. This can be a great ally in your weight loss plan.
Green tea, oolong tea, white tea, pu-erh tea, and rooibos tea are all teas that I highly recommend for anyone that is trying to lose weight. They are tested and proven to help with weight loss. Plus, all of these teas have other amazing health benefits as well.
Personal Experience
I wanted to speak for a moment about my personal experiences with these teas. I have tried green tea, white tea, and oolong tea. I've never tried pu-erh or rooibos tea.
Green tea has a nice flavor. It's not strong like black tea. I do feel more energy from drinking green tea. I believe green tea helps with dental health as well.
White tea has a very light and mild flavor. I like the taste much more than green tea or oolong tea. I did experience weight loss while drinking white tea, but I was also going to the gym regularly at the time. You will lose inches from your stomach by using white tea and exercise together.
Oolong tea has a pretty strong flavor. I prefer to drink it hot, because if you drink it cold it's very bitter. It will actually make you sweat. You can feel the fat burning when you drink oolong tea. I feel like oolong tea is the strongest weight loss tea of the three that I've tried. I feel the effects much more with oolong tea than the others.
You can find many people talking about their experiences with weight loss teas online. I would trust a normal person and not a public figure that is being paid to talk about it. There are plenty of regular people giving testimonials on youtube and other places.
What To Expect When Using Weight Loss Teas
If you are going into this thinking you will drop 20 lbs in a week or two, you've got to get that out of your head. The weight loss that comes with drinking weight loss teas is still very natural and normal. You can expect to lose 1-2 lbs a week. You may lose more in the very beginning due to water weight.
I realize what the advertisements tell you. They are really trying to sell products to people and they do that by promising outrageous things. I'm telling you this so that you will know what to expect and have patience until the results come. You have to be willing to stick with it for at least a few weeks to see what kind of results it will give you.
A Weight Loss Tea Diet Plan
I suggest choosing one weight loss tea and using that tea to help you lose weight. Drink about 5 cups of tea per day while on this weight loss plan. Remember not to add sugar or calories to the tea when drinking it.
You will want to use just one tea because you want the benefits of that tea to compound. You will receive more benefits from sticking to one tea than you will from trying to drink several different teas. If you don't feel like that's the tea for you, switch to one of the other teas mentioned here.
Things To Do While Using Weight Loss Teas
I have seen where weight loss teas can help people lose weight all on their own, and I provided studies in this article to give you an idea of how much you could lose from weight loss teas. I wanted to talk about other things you can do to speed up weight loss while using weight loss teas.
Exercise
Exercise is a good way to increase your weight loss. It works with the weight loss teas to help burn even more fat. Green tea and exercise combined has shown to burn more belly fat than just green tea by itself. It's important to choose an exercise that you enjoy. Don't worry about how many calories the activity burns. If you enjoy it, you will end up burning more calories in the long run due to the fact that you aren't making yourself do something uncomfortable for you.
Counting Calories
Keeping your calories in check will help speed up your weight loss while using weight loss teas. You don't have to restrict yourself too much in order to see weight loss. Since you are already using the weight loss teas, just try to cut your portions. Control your snacking throughout the day and make sure you just have one serving instead of the whole thing.
There are small things you can do to easily cut calories. You can replace all your drinks with either water or weight loss tea. No sodas, no sugary drinks, not even diet soda. Just water and weight loss tea. If you are a big soda drinker, doing that by itself is enough to lose a ton of weight.
Takeaway
Weight loss teas can definitely be effective. Many teas have scientifically proven weight loss benefits. You likely won't get down to your goal weight just by adding weight loss tea alone (although it's possible). You may want to consider making at least one other lifestyle change to help you lose weight. That may include cutting portions or exercising.
Remember that losing 20 lbs per week is not possible and not something you would want to do. Aiming for 1-2 lbs a week is definitely a better goal. Slow and steady weight loss helps to prevent loose skin and relapse into old habits.
Trying one tea at a time can help you make sure that you get all the benefits possible from the weight loss tea.
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