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Wu Yi Tea Diet

Jun 14, 2011 | By Milo Dakota
Wu Yi Tea Diet
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Although green tea brews up most of the press attention as the must-have weight-loss drink, the less-popular oolong tea shares similar fat-burning powers with a taste closer to black tea. The Wu Yi Tea Diet combines drinking several cups of oolong tea along with light exercise and a food plan that permits no snacks. This diet is an alternative treatment, so consult a health-care professional before starting it.

Weight Loss Potential

The Wu Yi Tea Diet specifies drinking oolong tea grown in the Wu Yi Mountains of China, but any variety of oolong tea should provide similar weight loss results, according to a September 2007 article in the Daily Mail. You would need to drink at least three cups a day to consume enough catechins -- the antioxidants in oolong tea -- to lose weight, according to a review of 15 scientific studies by Craig Coleman, associate professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut. You could lose 1 lb. to 3 lb. in three to 24 weeks if you consumed 300 mg of catechins daily, according to Coleman's research.

Five Rules

The Wu Yi Tea Diet includes five rules: Include calcium in your diet; drink eight glasses or more of water per day; exercise for at least 10 minutes daily; eat precisely three meals a day; and limit your intake of fat. You are advised to eat breakfast within an hour of your wake-up time and to eat dinner no later than three hours before you go to bed. Lunch should be a light meal -- low-fat yogurt is suggested. No details are provided for breakfast and dinner menus, except to recommend eating calcium-rich foods such as oranges, soybeans, broccoli and sunflower seeds, according to Officialwuyitea.com.

Calcium and Fat Loss

The amount of calcium recommended in the Wu Yi Tea Diet is 425 mg daily for women and 450 mg daily for men. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends adults include more than twice that amount of calcium in their diets -- 1,000 mg for adults younger than 50 years of age and 1,200 mg for those 50 and older. And diets high in calcium promote weight loss, according to a study by Michael Zemel, a researcher at the University of Tennessee. In his study, people who ate three servings of low-fat yogurt containing 1,200 mg of calcium lost 22 percent more weight and 61 percent more body fat than people who included 500 mg of calcium in their diets. Both groups also followed calorie-reduced diets, according to Zemel's findings, presented at an Experimental Biology Meeting in April 2003.

Expert Insight

Ellen Frazier, a nutritionist and Los Angeles-area caterer, says the Wu Yi Tea Diet is potentially sound, but is shy of details. "I like the fact that the diet includes no outrageous weight loss claims and seems to suggest moderation. But it would help if people were given some ideas about what to eat for breakfast and dinner -- egg white omelets and chicken breasts are more diet-friendly choices than chocolate chip pancakes and pepperoni pizza. And I would need more than yogurt for lunch to keep me going until dinner time."

Alternative

If you want to keep the oolong tea part of the Wu Yi Tea Diet but follow a more carefully researched diet, try one offered at MayoClinic.com. The diet follows the pyramid recommendations of the USDA and reduces calories by 500 per day. According to MayoClinic.com, you could lose 1 lb. to 2 lb. per week eating an unlimited amounted of fruits and vegetables and a generous amount of whole grains and cereals while modifying your intake of protein, fats and sweets.

References

Article reviewed by Kirk Ericson Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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