Finding the best tea for belly fat can be a surprisingly uplifting experience. Each sip feels like a little celebration for your taste buds and a thoughtful act for your overall well-being. These herbal blends are designed to aid in burning that stubborn stomach fat that just won’t seem to go. A warning however, that they are not likely to produce results unless paired with a healthy lifestyle and should not substitute a healthy diet or exercise. There are endless benefits to drinking tea. Opting for tea can help slash your risk for diabetes, lower blood pressure, lengthen your life, and much more. Herbal tea is packed with antioxidants, which can boost your body’s overall wellbeing. And those benefits just begin to scratch the surface!
If you feel like you can’t shake off stubborn belly fat, you are not alone. A recent study shows that belly fat is the most resistant to weight loss. This is even true when trying diets like intermittent fasting. While these teas cannot replace leading a healthy lifestyle, they could add some helpful nutrients to your daily routine as a sidekick in your weight loss journey. While checking out different teas for a trimmer tummy, you’re creating a new source of happiness. Each tea bag lights the path to a trimmer midsection, and we all want that.
The List: Best Tea for Belly Fat, According to Experts:
Green tea
Packed with catechins, green tea revs up your metabolism and helps burn belly fat more efficiently. It has been shown to reduce waist circumference and body fat percentage, making it the undisputed king of fat-fighting teas. What gives green tea these belly fat-burning qualities? Research shows that most of its weight loss properties are due to its rich polyphenols, and a subgroup of these polyphenols known as catechins. The most abundant catechin found in green tea is ECGC, which has been linked to speeding up metabolism. You can find EGCG in other types of tea, but green tea by far has the highest concentration of these metabolism-boosting plant compounds. This might be the weight loss tea that suits your taste. Green Tea is a known herbal remedy with numerous proven benefits.
Not only is it a known belly fat burner, but it also has L-theanine and caffeine. Both of these work together synergistically to improve brain function. Unlike coffee, green tea has just the right amount of caffeine to induce the required effect. This caffeine, combined with the presence of the catechins, especially the epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), boosts metabolism as well. According to some studies, there’s a 3-4% increase in the number of calories you burn, even at rest, making green tea an effective belly fat burner. That is why green tea is famous for being a tummy fat reducing tea. It can help you burn an additional 75-100 calories per day, making it one of the best foods to have for belly fat. Almost every regimen for a lean body will consist of green tea or extracts from the same plant. With healthy antioxidant content filling up every 240ml cup, it’s an effective detox tea for belly fat.
Try exploring the potential benefits of green tea as part of your routine for a happier belly. One clinical nutrition study found green tea extract can led to weight loss and even reduced waistline in women after 12 weeks. This might be because green tea extract significantly lowers ghrelin levels in the body, which is a gut hormone. (An added bonus: Green tea also lowered cholesterol in the participants!)
Black Tea
Second on our list is a classic: black tea. This slimming tea is rich in flavones. Studies have found that people who consume flavones have a lower BMI when compared to those who don’t. Your daily tea habit might be doing more than you think for your belly. So, how does it work? After they’re harvested, black tea leaves are allowed to oxidize — that is, soak up the surrounding air — longer than other teas, according to one article. This intensifies the flavor, making black tea one of the boldest varieties on the market. Prolonged oxidation, which is commonly referred to as ‘fermentation,’ also changes the makeup of polyphenols, or plant compounds, in black tea. While it does contain EGCG like less-processed tea varieties, it’s a better source of theaflavins. These polyphenols form when black tea leaves are oxidized, and they may offer weight loss benefits, according to a review of research. For example, one study found that women who drank 3 cups of powdered black tea per day gained less weight and slimmed their waistlines after three months compared with those who didn’t drink black tea. Are you curious about how a small change like drinking black tea could impact your body? According to Italian researchers drinking a cup of black tea daily improves cardiovascular health and keeps the heart healthy by improving blood flow and blood vessel dilation but adding milk to it would counteract these benefits.
Oolong Tea
This semi-oxidized tea boasts a unique blend of green and black tea properties. It enhances thermogenesis, the process of heat production that burns calories and melts away fat, particularly around the midsection. This caffeinated tea may help you burn off more energy because it stimulates fat burning and ups your metabolic rate. It may help lower body fat content. Exactly how does oolong tea help your body? Like green tea, oolong tea is thought to enhance weight loss by improving the way your body metabolizes fat. A 2009 study on the effects of oolong tea for weight loss found: 70% of severely obese participants who drank 8 grams of oolong tea a day for six weeks lost more than two pounds and 22% lost more than six pounds. 64% of the obese subjects and 66% of the overweight subjects lost more than two pounds over the course of the six weeks.
It seems like Oolong has a little something special to it. Oolong tea is made from the same leaves that are used to make green and black teas. When green tea is allowed to oxidize, it becomes oolong tea before it becomes black tea. This gets us the lighter and grassy version of the black tea. It’s rumored to be a great tummy fat reducing tea. Scientists are of the opinion that the polyphenols that are present in Oolong teas are effective in boosting metabolism. Moreover, they have also been noted to decrease the amount of fat we absorb from our daily diets. A study aimed at studying Oolong tea’s effects on weight loss discovered that full-strength and diluted consumption helped individuals burn 3-3.5% more calories in a single day. However, the effects have varied with everyone involved in the studies. Therefore, it’s impossible to conclude things with insufficient research data. We can, however, conclude that while the belly fat burning effect of oolong tea is still uncertain, it’s still a healthy drinking option just like these alternatives.
White Tea
Don’t underestimate this delicate tea! White tea shares the fat-burning catechins of green tea but with a gentler touch. It’s ideal for those sensitive to green tea’s caffeine. Plus, its antioxidant properties boost overall health, aiding metabolism and fat reduction. According to a review, white tea is the least processed of all the teas, which accounts for its light, delicate flavor. The minimal processing also means white tea holds onto a high amount of anti-inflammatory antioxidants and fat-burning EGCG, making it another potentially beneficial brew for trimming weight. White tea has been suggested to help speed up the breakdown of fat cells and block the formation of new ones, so it can potentially offer weight loss benefits. For example, one study conducted in test tubes found that white tea extract did precisely that: stimulate the breakdown of human fats and prevent new fat cells from forming. According to researchers, these effects were in large part thanks to EGCG. While test-tube studies can help direct future research, the results don’t necessarily translate to actual human beings. Those human studies are still needed.
You can enjoy the sweetness in both taste and potential calming effects. White tea leaves are harvested at a younger age than green tea leaves, making them rarer as they can only be hand-picked during a few days of early spring. The catechins in white tea and green tea are comparable, making them ideal for weight loss. Drinking white tea extract prevents the formation of new fat cells and promotes the breakdown of existing ones. Furthermore, since it is the least processed tea, white tea retains the most fat-burning properties. Experience potential health perks that complement the delightful flavor. We’ve already mentioned three of the four major types of tea groups: green, oolong, and black. The fourth group of tea is white tea, which is known as the most delicate and least processed type of tea. White tea—along with green and oolong—has been found to speed up metabolism and increase fat oxidation, which may help with overall weight loss or management. A recent 2023 report published concluded that white tea had a beneficial impact on weight loss as well as visceral fat in particular.
Pu-erh tea
Number five on the list is a known tea from China. Pu’er tea is a fermented tea that comes from China’s Yunnan Province. The leaves for it come from the tree, known as ‘Dayeh’, which means ‘wild old tree’. This tree has to be at least 500-1000 years old before it starts giving a larger leaf strain from which we make Puerh tea. Compared with the other fermented tea types, Puerh tea is different because the leaves of the plant are fermented themselves, instead of the actual brewed tea which is the case with Kombucha and other fermented teas. Traditionally believed to be beneficial for blood cleansing, digestion, and an opener of the meridians, Chinese herbalists recommend Puerh tea after heavy meals or hangovers. Modern people believe puerh tea is one of the best teas for belly fat. Studies reveal that Puerh tea lowers our cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels while increasing our metabolism. While there’s no conclusive evidence to claim that Puerh tea is an effective tea to lose belly fat, it is certainly worthy of being a part of a healthy diet. Research on the weight loss effects of pu-erh — a fermented Chinese tea — in humans is limited. One small 2014 study on humans found that men with metabolic syndrome who were given pu-erh tea extract lost about two pounds more over three months than participants who did not.
Similar results were found in a 2012 study on mice. Part of pu-erh tea’s weight-loss benefits could be how it helps control blood sugar levels, though results have only been found in vitro and mice, so far. Controlling blood sugar levels is important for weight loss because abnormally high blood sugar can trigger cells to store the excess, unused sugar as fat. The fermentation process that pur-erh tea goes through also helps promote a healthy microbiome, which may help digestion and aid weight loss. Research on the weight loss effects of pu-erh — a fermented Chinese tea — in humans is limited. One small 2014 study on humans found that men with metabolic syndrome who were given pu-erh tea extract lost about two pounds more over three months than participants who did not. Similar results were found in a 2012 study on mice. Part of pu-erh tea’s weight-loss benefits could be how it helps control blood sugar levels, though results have only been found in vitro and mice, so far. Controlling blood sugar levels is important for weight loss because abnormally high blood sugar can trigger cells to store the excess, unused sugar as fat. The fermentation process that pur-erh tea goes through also helps promote a healthy microbiome, which may help digestion and aid weight loss.
Hibiscus tea
Belly fat often comes with unwelcome bloating. Hibiscus tea acts as a natural diuretic, flushing out excess water and toxins that contribute to a puffy midsection. It also helps regulate blood sugar, further supporting weight management. Hibiscus tea is a type of herbal tea made from the flowering hibiscus plant. More research is needed to determine how effective it is for weight loss, but some studies indicate hibiscus tea may protect against obesity. One small study of 36 overweight individuals found that participants who took hibiscus extract lost more body fat over 12 weeks than participants who took a placebo. Hibiscus tea is an herbal tea that does not contain caffeine, so it can be enjoyed at any time of the day. When you figure out which one works for you, you’ll be so grateful. This tart, tangy tea — harvested from hibiscus leaves — offers catechins like EGCG and has been shown to help lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
One review of human studies, for instance, suggests that hibiscus extract shows promise in the treatment of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, though the authors more research is needed before recommendations can be made. It may also help you keep your weight at a healthier level. In one study, adults who were overweight or obese who took a hibiscus extract for 12 weeks had reduced body weight, body mass index, body fat, and hip-to-waist ratio, compared with a control group. The researchers attributed those perks to the plant compounds in the hibiscus extract. Another study reported similar results from feeding obese mice hibiscus extract for 60 days, though studies of similar duration haven’t been conducted in humans. Unfortunately, current research is limited to hibiscus extract. More research with liquid tea is needed before scientists can make any conclusions about its effectiveness for weight loss. There is no magic elixir for weight loss. This tea is known for its soothing effect. Another commonly found flower based tea that helps in promoting weight loss is Hibiscus. Since ages this plant and its flower has been used in several traditional medicines this is due to the presence of anthocyanins, phenolic and flavonoids compounds that can help in fat reduction, regulating the genes involved in lipid metabolism.
Bonus Tip: Combine these teas for a synergistic fat-fighting effect! Blend green tea with oolong for a metabolism-boosting punch, or add pu-erh to hibiscus for a bloat-busting duo.
Remember: Tea alone won’t work miracles. Pair your chosen brew with a healthy diet and regular exercise for optimal belly fat reduction.
Adapted from: Study Finds
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