10 Weight Loss Teas That Will Shrink Your Waistline but Not Your Wallet

Good weight loss teas are few and far between. They’re pretty popular these days, which means that TONS of new brands have flooded the market. But are they actually going to help you lose weight?

You see weight loss tea blends being sold for $60 a bag online, but when you look at the ingredients, there’s nothing fancy in there. They’re usually made of herbs that you can get in the tea section of any supermarket.

The key is to get high quality, preferably organic loose-leaf tea, so you can make your own weight loss tea by mixing and matching different types for best results. You can buy your own tea bags or get a strainer.

Adding a cup or two of tea to a healthy diet and smart lifestyle choices that support weight loss is a tasty way to achieve your goals.

We’ve found 10 weight loss teas that won’t break the bank!

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1. Green Tea

Green tea is made from relatively un-oxidized tea leaves. Since the leaves don’t go through the same oxidation process as black tea leaves do, it’s got some amazing antioxidants that have a ton of health benefits.

Studies show that some of the antioxidants-catechins to be specific-can give your metabolism a hefty boost and help you burn fat. Participants of one study who drank tea lost seven pounds more than participants who didn’t. (1)

They noticed that the green tea drinkers lost more weight around the middle, so it’s also a belly blaster.

If you don’t like the taste of green tea (it can be a little bitter), you can also try green tea extract supplements to get the same effect!

2. Oolong Tea

If you want a delicious way to burn about 281 extra calories a day, try a cup of oolong tea in the morning. You’ll also burn 12% more fat! (2)

Oolong is rich in vitamins, antioxidants, and it’s an inflammation buster. Inflammation is a big reason why people have a problem digesting their food, which makes it difficult to lose weight.

The polyphenols in oolong tea make fat work for you by enhancing how fat cells function in the body, so even if you’ve had a bit of a cheat fest, it can help keep the weight off.

A study on mice showed that when they were given a high-sugar, high-fat diet, along with polyphenols, they lost more weight than on a regular diet.

3. White Tea

The Camellia sinensis tea plant comes in so many different flavors! All teas, like green, black, oolong, pu-erh, yerba mate, and white tea, come from this amazing plant.

Herbal teas like chamomile and barberry aren’t technically teas at all, which is a shocking thing to hear, we know. Only leaves from Camellia sinensis can claim the right to be called “tea.”

White tea is the least processed of the bunch. The leaves are picked when the young tea bud hasn’t unfurled yet. It also has the least amount of caffeine.

It helps the body break down stored fat, and like other teas, it’s a rich source of catechins that trigger the release of fats from cells. It also has the bonus of speeding up the liver’s ability to turn fat into fuel. (3)

4. Ginger Tea

Ginger tea is one of those “not actually tea” teas we were just talking about. It falls under the label of “herbal,” for all you people out there who enjoy learning things.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s anti-inflammatory, increases glucose sensitivity, curbs appetite, and makes you feel fuller. (4) All of these properties are going to help you with weight loss, whether you eat it or drink it.

If you have a hard time digesting fiber, having a cup of ginger tea with your nutrient dense vegetables is going to help you digest them a little easier.

5. Barberry Tea

It might not be the magical elixir that’s going to make the pounds melt off, but barberry tea is a solid choice for weight loss support.

It has berberine in it, a substance that you also find in golden seal that helps burn fat. A study showed that participants who took it shed a total of five pounds in 12 weeks. Their blood fat levels also decreased by over 20%. (5)

A big issue with many weight loss supplements is that they can cause organ damage if overused, but not berberine! It supports kidney, liver, and heart function.

6. Rooibos Tea

Rooibos means “red” and is made from the needles of a shrub that grows in South Africa. It’s been used as an herbal remedy there for thousands of years, and now you can drink it to lose weight!

Perhaps the best thing about rooibos tea is that it’s naturally sweet, so no sugar is required. It also has less than two calories per cup, so you get a sweet tea that isn’t going to cut into your daily caloric intake.

It’s a great source of polyphenols, which as you probably know by now are antioxidants and decrease inflammation and oxidative stress. (6) It also helps regulate blood sugar by increasing insulin sensitivity and lowering blood glucose levels.

7. Matcha Tea

Matcha is green tea on steroids. This powdered and concentrated form of green tea is a fat-burning, cancer-busting super beverage.

The average amount of catechins in a cup of matcha is 200 times more than other teas. Drinks high in catechins are known to lower BMI, body weight, and belly circumference. (7)

A nifty little fact about matcha is that the high levels of EGCGs per cup can help with chronic fatigue and recovery from intense activity or stress. (8) This can help with weight loss because the more energy you have to do stuff, the more calories you burn.

If you love your caffeine and tend to favor coffee because of it, try some matcha. It’s got more caffeine in it than other teas, which also helps you lose weight.

8. Goji Tea

The goji berry is a superfood because of all the nutrients and antioxidants it has. It shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s also a great weight loss tea.

It fights free radicals that cause inflammation, which can contribute to weight gain, and is a liver detoxifier. It also can make you feel pretty energetic and wonderful, so having a cup of goji berry tea before a workout can help you keep your stamina up.

Participants in a study said that they had more energy after drinking goji berry juice, they felt better in general, and they were more “regular” with their gastrointestinal functions.

Even though goji made the participants feel sassy and alive, they felt easy and less stressed out after drinking. (9) It didn’t give them the jitters.

9. Ashwagandha Tea

If you’re trying to lose weight, stress is not your friend. Not only does it cause stress-eating, but your body’s reaction to anxiety results in it holding on to weight. (10)

Ashwagandha can help with that. Stress causes inflammation, which is tied to obesity. Ashwagandha lowers the amount of cortisol in the bloodstream, which is a natural steroid that affects your metabolism. (11)

Cortisol has a couple of nicknames; one is “the stress hormone” and the other is “the belly fat hormone.” As you can see, no matter what you call it, it’s a problem when you’re dieting.

If you’ve got a sluggish thyroid that might be making it hard to lose weight, ashwagandha is known to boost T4 and balance out thyroid hormones.

10. Pu-erh Tea

Pu-erh is the most oxidized, and usually most expensive of all the “real” types of tea. Made from fermented tea leaves, it’s like a fine wine and improves with age instead of going stale.

It’s got fewer antioxidants than other teas, but it’s been used in China for centuries to help with lowering blood sugar and cholesterol.

There haven’t been a lot of studies on it, but one recently found that men with metabolic syndrome were able to lose an average of 2.2 pounds in 12 weeks without any other changes. (12)

If you enjoyed this article on weight loss teas or have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below!