Green tea is the primary ingredient in any effective and proven weight loss tea.   When pursuing weight loss green tea will increase thermogenesis, or the body’s creation of energy and heat.  Although green tea, black tea, and oolong tea are harvested from the same plant, Camellia sinensis, they are not processed in the same manner.  Green tea is not fermented, as black and oolong teas, but rather withered and, after picking, immediately dried to stop oxidation.  Drinking five cups of green tea can burn approximately 80 calories a day.  Any weight loss herbal tea will be effective according to its similar thermogenic properties, or its capacity to remove any weight-contributing toxic materials from the body.  Colon cleansing teas will contribute to this effect.

Weight loss teas must be considered part of a larger fitness program.  As part of liquid-only diets, teas can regulate, balance, and clean the system.  However, the widely advertised rapid and dramatic results may be more quickly recognized in extremely obese people, when accompanied by a reduction in calories and increase of water-based beverages such as a Chinese weight loss tea.   Green tea has the greatest amount of polyphenols, or catechins, that burn calories.  If caffeine is present, there is a metabolism increase from this alkaloid as well.  Decaffeinated green tea has a higher concentration of polyphenols.

Caffeine can have side effects such as inability to sleep, a diuretic effect of increased urination, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, upset stomach, headaches, irritability, and anxiousness.  Blood sugars may rise with black and oolong teas, but green tea has been shown to lower blood sugar levels.

Many of the benefits are received from a change in eating habits, such as a feeling of fullness from increased liquid intake.  Replacing high calorie drinks and foods with tea naturally alters the balance between calories consumed and energy burned.  The antioxidants present in tea will add to general wellness and reduce unidentified discomfort, physical or mental, which may trigger emotional eating.  There is also an intrinsic equanimity to the ritual of making a cup of tea.  The Japanese tea ceremony has perfected this art, again overriding emotional eating with a higher interpretation of partaking and sharing a meal or drink.  The British also are known for the ritual of relishing a good cup of tea.  To quote a great English scholar, C. S. Lewis, “You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

The relation between tea and weight loss is tied to the simple act of slowing down one’s pace of life.  Is the water the right temperature?  Has the tea steeped for a sufficient length of time?  And rather than being gulped down in a moment, it is to be savored while one reflects upon the origin of the tea and the distance it has traveled.  In a society where fast food reigns supreme, and speed is considered a virtue, a cup of tea cultivates the qualities of observation and patience.