7 Surprising Tea For Weight Loss

Exercise and a healthy diet should always be the number one formula for losing weight, but it can get tough from time to time. This is why it’s great having something easy as drinking tea supporting you along your weight loss journey.

People forget the capability that tea can possess. It can not only help with weight loss but can open doors to many health benefits. Teas are either made of herbs or plants that are high in essential vitamins and antioxidants. Such as green tea which contains the most antioxidants among all the teas.

Many times people get cravings throughout the day (me included). Even with the best effort to ignore it, we fall victim to those thoughts. Another benefit of tea is that there are so many varieties of flavours out there, one cup of them to drink and they can take your cravings with it. An example of this is that if you crave something sweet then there are teas that have a mildly sweet taste to them such as rooibos tea.

Here is the list of Teas that can help with weight loss:

• Puerh Tea
• Green Tea
• Ginger Tea
• Chamomile Tea
• Rooibos Tea
• Purple Tea
• Turmeric Tea

Puerh Tea

This is a special type of tea that is fermented by the leaves of a wild old tree in china. When you buy this tea you get them either squashed in a cake-like form or just loose leaves.

Puerh is known to help your body metabolize fat much better by helping with digestion. it allows your body to burn up more fat as fuel than it normally does. Micro-organisms that are present in the tea are what help with digestion and clearing the toxins/fatty oils from your food. This gives less chance for your body to absorb the fat.

To get the best effect from this, it is best to drink the tea after 1 hour of your meal. But if you drink this tea on an empty stomach it is known to increase your craving and appetite, as fat tissue is dissolved your brain sends a signal for your body to eat more.

How to brew the tea:

• Break open about 4 grams of Puerh leaf from the cake. You can add more or less depending on if it’s too light or too heavy.
• Put the leaves in a bowl and put some hot water on it. Swirl it around for a few seconds and discard the water. This is to wash away any impurities left behind
• Put the leaves inside a teapot and fill it with hot water
• Wait for 4 minutes and the tea is ready to be served.

Green Tea

You must have heard about green tea before as it’s among the most popular tea around the world. It is known as one of the healthiest drinks that you can have due to the high antioxidants and healthy nutrients you can get from just one cup.

The antioxidant that the Green tea contains is known as ECGC. This helps keep the hormones that are responsible for breaking down fats more active.

It helps you lose in other ways too. One is that green tea contains both ECGC and caffeine. so if you drink it before a workout not only do you get that extra fat-burning effect from the ECGC, but you get that additional energy from the caffeine to work a bit harder. The other being is, studies have shown that green tea also reduces your appetite throughout your day.

To get the best effect from green tea, it is better to drink it early morning or before a workout.

How to brew the tea:

• First, boil some water in your kettle
• Leave the boiling water to rest for about 3 minutes, this is because water straight after boiled would burn some of the goodness from the tea.
• Pour the water into your desired cup
• Place the tea bag into the cup and wait at least 3 minutes
• Remove the bag then it’s ready to be served

Ginger Tea

Gingers are food that you may have seen from time to time when you go shopping and usually walk past it without realizing the benefits it can provide you. It is used to help with many complications but it can be used as a source for weight loss as well.

In ginger, there are compounds called gingerols and shogaols. This helps your body to burn up more calories. It got a thermogenesis effect, which means that your body will heat up slightly causing your body to use up fat cells as energy. You will get a warm sensation as you drink the tea, which can feel quite satisfying in cool weather.

For brewing ginger tea you can either make it yourself or you can it in a tea bag.

Brewing tea yourself:

• How much ginger you want depends on you. But at the beginning, I would recommend about an inch of ginger is a good place to start
• Carefully cut out the outer skin and give it a good rinse
• Cut it thinly. The thinner you cut it, the easier for the flavours to come out
• Put it in a saucepan with a cup and a half of water
• Boil it for about 10-15 minutes
• You can either sieve out the ginger or have it with your tea
• For extra flavour, you can complement it with lemon and honey too if you want

Chamomile Tea

Chamomile is a type of flower which is used for many conditions such as insomnia, ache, anxiety and can help with weight loss as well.

Now Chamomile tea does not directly aid with weight loss as the other tea does. But what it does is, supports you in another aspect that correlates with having a successful weight loss. These are being helped you to fall asleep, reduce stress, help with digestion, and reduce your cravings.

Two main aspects that I think are the main roadblock to losing weight are stress and lack of sleep. Life can get pretty stressful at times and when we are stressed out, our body naturally sends a signal for us to eat more food. So with less stress during your day, there is less chance for your cravings to pop up. But without having a good night’s sleep, your body will ask for sugary food to stay awake. So it’s vital to have a goodnights sleep.

You can get the tea either in a tea bag or get with the actual flowers.

How to brew the tea:

• Boil water in the kettle
• Place either the flowers or tea in your cup
• Put the boiling water in it and wait for 3-5 minutes
• If you used flower then strain it out using a fine sieve before drinking it

Rooibos tea

Rooibos or also known as red bush is a caffeine-free tea from South Africa. It is a herbal tea that is known for its mildly sweet flavour. You don’t need to add anything to it, the aroma and its delicious taste would be enough to please your taste buds.

This tea helps you lose weight in two ways one is it reduces stress and the other is it takes away your cravings.

Rooibos tea contains an antioxidant which is known as aspalatin and works to lower your stress level. Having extra stress causes your body to release a fat-storing enzyme, which will lead to excess fat being stored on your belly.

How it can reduce your craving through its flavour. As I mentioned rooibos has a mildly sweet taste to it and it’s very low on calories. So having a cup of this whenever you crave some sweet food or drink, can be a great alternative to satisfy your urge.

How to brew the tea:

• Boil water in your kettle
• I would recommend using 1 and a half teaspoons of rooibos for 1 cup of tea
• Put the rooibos in your cup with boiling water
• Wait for at least 5 minutes before straining the rooibos out with a fine sieve

Purple tea

Purple tea is made from Kenya’s purple leaves. The leaves get their purple colour through anthocyanin and it provides many health benefits to which some of which are anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral.

But how it helps with weight loss is due to EPCG that the tea contains. This speeds up your metabolic reaction, making your body burn more calories. Another factor that contributes to weight loss is another component that the tea contains, which is called GHC. What the GHC does is it stimulates the breakdown of fat tissues in your body.

How to brew the tea:

• Boil water in your kettle
• Put 3 teaspoons of purple leave into your cup and add your hot water
• Let it rest for about 4-5 minutes
• Strain the purple leaf and enjoy your tea

Turmeric tea

Turmeric is a spice which is commonly used in Indian cuisines and is known as a superfood. It is a yellow powder which is made from tuberous. Like ginger tea, turmeric tea warms your body slightly and gives a soothing effect.

Drinking turmeric tea helps increase the digestive juice which is responsible for breaking down fats. This will assist your digestive system to take out excess grease from your foods and your body. Turmeric also helps with regulating your blood sugar level, by doing so this prevents unnecessary fat from staying in your body.

How to brew the tea:

• Add a teaspoon of turmeric powder and a cup of water to a pot
• bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 8-10 minutes
• You can either strain the leftover powder or you can drink it with the tea

Conclusion

Even with all their benefits, tea should not be your primary focus for losing weight. As I mentioned at the beginning your first target should be getting daily exercise in and changing your diet to healthier options. You can imagine teas as accessories and exercise/healthy diet as the product. Even with the best accessories without a product, it does not have the chance to shine.

If you don’t have time to go to the gym, there are tons of easy-to-use equipment out there, that you can use to break a sweat right from home. You can use them and make up a suitable routine for yourself.

In conclusion, teas are not a magic drink where you will see massive weight loss. But if used strategically you will be able to see improvements on your weight loss journey.