5 Things You Need to Know About Weight-Loss Tea

1. Stimulate Your Metabolism

Do you think a diet soda works to give you the caffeine you need without the calories? Even at zero calories, soda pop negatively affects your body. Tea contains as much or more caffeine as your favorite soda. With only 4 calories per cup, the caffeine stimulates your metabolism, which burns calories faster. According to studies, oolong tea, sometimes called wu long tea, burns twice as much fat as green tea. For the best results, drink one cup of tea with each meal. Adding sugar or sweetener to your tea adds calories and reduces the tea's ability to promote weight loss.

2. Regulate Blood Sugar Levels

Green tea slows the digestive enzyme amylase. Amylase breaks down starches, also known as carbohydrates, like cereals, breads, pasta and rice and coverts the food into sugar. This raises your blood sugar level and contributes to fat buildup. By slowing down amylase, green tea works as a fat blocker to prevent the fatty acid synthase from turning carbs into fat.

3. Savor the Flavor

Tea served both hot and cold promotes weight loss. Adding herbs and fruits to create new flavors won't affect the weight-loss benefits and often increases the levels of antioxidants. Some fruits work as natural sweeteners, so you won't need to add sugar. Teas from different regions produce subtle nuances in the tea's flavor. Experiment with different grades of tea like loose leaf or crushed to see if the texture creates a difference you enjoy.

4. Take a Green Tea Pill

Do you dislike the taste of green tea? A green tea supplement provides the benefit of green tea without the taste. Swallowing a pill offers a quick and convenient way to ingest green tea. Some weight-loss pills combine other effective fat burners like hoodia with green tea or green tea extract for better and faster results. To effectively use green tea for weight loss, you need to take 150 to 500 mg per day. The extract should contain at least 60 percent of polyphenols and EGCG.

5. Avoid Harmful Additives

Some companies add herbs like aloe, senna or buckthorn as natural laxatives. The laxatives induce diarrhea, vomiting, nausea or stomach cramps. In some people, the laxatives cause chronic constipation. The FDA urges tea companies to list possible side effects to herbs found in teas but doesn't require it. While some manufacturers believe laxatives reduce the absorption of calories, an FDA study indicates no benefit to taking laxatives.