5 Teas That Help You Melt Fat
What if we told you there was a tasty, calorie- and additive-free elixir on the market with the ability to cleanse away dietary sins, speed up weight loss, burn fat, and even prevent disease?
Yes! It's true: Tea may be the healthiest drink on the planet.
In fact, people have been enjoying soothing tea and its impressive benefits for thousands of years. One legend dates the discovery of tea to 2737 B.C. by the emperor of China. Fast-forward some 4,700 years and researchers circa 2014 now have clinical studies that prove tea can help with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; encourage weight loss; lower cholesterol; and bring about mental alertness.
Rich in antioxidants and relatively low in caffeine (a cup of coffee has about 100 mg where a cup of green tea has a mere 25 mg), there are dozens of teas available that you can sip safely throughout the day. But not all of them will provide the same weight loss benefits.
Each of these fat-burning teas has its own individual, magic properties—from dimming your hunger hormones to upping your calorie burn to accelerating the release of the fat that's stored in your fat cells. Read on to find out what to sip to melt fat, and for more on how to lose weight, you won't want to miss The Best Ways to Lose Belly Fat for Good, Say Doctors.
Green tea
Forget shelling out cash on trendy pre-workout supplements! Before you break a sweat, turbocharge the fat-blasting benefits of exercise by sipping a cup of green tea. In a recent 12-week study, participants who combined a daily habit of 4-5 cups of green tea each day with a 25-minute sweat session lost an average of two more pounds than the non-tea-drinking exercisers. Thank the compounds in green tea called catechins, flat belly crusaders that blast adipose tissue by triggering the release of fat from fat cells (particularly in the belly), and then speeding up the liver's capacity for turning that fat into energy.
Oolong tea
Oolong, a Chinese name for "black dragon," is a light, floral tea that, like green tea, is also packed with catechins, which help to promote weight loss by boosting your body's ability to metabolize lipids (fat). A study in the Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine found that participants who regularly sipped oolong tea lost six pounds over the course of the six-week time period. That's a pound a week!
Lemon Tea
Whether salty soup or beer is to blame for your bulging belly, lemon tea can help fight the bloat thanks to its D-limonene content. The antioxidant compound, which is found in citrus rind oil, has been used for its diuretic effects since ancient times. But until recently, there were no scientific findings to back the claims. An animal study published in the European Journal of Pharmacology confirmed D-Limonene has a therapeutic effect on metabolic disorders in mice with high-fat-diet-induced obesity.
Related: What Happens To Your Body When You Drink Lemon Water Every Day
White tea
White tea is dried naturally, often in sunlight, making it the least processed and richest source of antioxidants among teas (as much as three times as many polyphenols as green tea!). A study published in the journal Nutrition and Metabolism showed that white tea can simultaneously boost lipolysis (the breakdown of fat) and block adipogenesis (the formation of fat cells) due to high levels of ingredients thought to be active on human fat cells.
Rooibos Tea
Rooibos tea is made from the leaves of the "red bush" plant, grown exclusively in the small Cederberg region of South Africa, near Cape Town. What makes rooibos tea particularly good for your belly is a unique and powerful flavonoid called Aspalathin. Research shows this compound can reduce stress hormones that trigger hunger and fat storage and are linked to hypertension, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Yup, sometimes the kettle can be as effective as the kettlebell! So are these 50 Ways to Lose Weight Without Exercise.
To learn more about the wonders of tea, and get started on a 7-day plan that will melt up to 10 pounds, buy the 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Cleanse now.