Read the Label on Your Chinese Weight Loss Tea
Just like when you are shopping for any sort of supplement, medication, or even packaged food, the first thing that you need to do is read the label.  The only difference is that instead of looking at the calories or amount of carbs or salt, you are looking specifically at the ingredient list and whether any warnings are included.

Tea may be a healthy, wholesome product, but it is still a processed item that could have potentially been altered somewhere down the line.  In the case of some Chinese weight loss tea, you will find that some nasty things have been added to boost its effect.

Herbal Fen-Phen
Herbal fen-phen is a manufactured herbal product that is made by combining St. John’s Wort and Ephedra.  St. John’s Wort has been widely regarded as being more or less safe, but the case is not the same when it comes to Ephedra, which has been reported as one of the primary components of the compound in pharmaceutical fen-phen that caused serious heart valve problems in those who look it.  If your weight loss tea contains herbal fen-phen, it should be skipped.

Check for Natural Laxatives
Many so-called Chinese weight loss tea producers will add natural laxatives to their tea.  This is done because when laxatives do what they do, the person in question tends to lose a little bit of extra weight due to the fact that they are spending so much of their time in the bathroom.  This is a false concept because rather than reducing the number of calories that are absorbed or boosting metabolism, all these compounds do is flush the already digested food out of the colon.

Natural laxatives that many weight loss teas contain include: senna, castor oil, aloe, rhubarb root, cascara, and buckthorn.

These effects are compounded frequently by people who are new to the world of weight loss tea or those who fail to read instructions before they drink.  If you steep the tea too long or if you drink too much of it, you can cause yourself serious, if usually temporary, digestive discomfort.

Still, that does not mean that Chinese weight loss tea is bad for you.  In fact, you don’t even need to purchase actual “weight loss teas” in many cases to receive the benefits that they have to offer.  The beneficial compounds and antioxidants are available in any high quality green or white tea.  Just remember to always read the labels and you’ll be able to enjoy that hot cup of tea and be secure in the knowledge that you are promoting good health.

Safety Concerns
Easy weight loss tea does not always mean safe weight loss tea. As previously stated, there are many teas out there that have other things added to them in order to boost the “weight loss” aspect of them, but these chemicals can be misleading or even dangerous.

Laxatives, even natural ones, can lead to not only digestive discomfort, but prolonged use can lead to more serious problems in the digestive system, particularly in the colon, the main part of your body that is directly affected by them.

If you see senna, natural fen-phen, aloe, rhubarb root, castor oil, cascara, or buckthorn on your chosen tea for weight loss, skip it and move on.

Effectiveness
Remember that you are buying this tea for a purpose, but you also need to be careful. While the proper tea should help supplement an overall weight control effort, it is by no means a miracle cure. It should help your efforts, but if you suddenly start dropping weight like crazy, there is something else going on that is probably not healthy for you.

That said, it should definitely still have an effect. Measure your results both before and after you start taking it. If you notice no difference, it will not work for what you are aiming for.

Additional Health Benefits
Some weight loss teas will provide you with further benefits aside from your objective of weight control. Tea has been used for centuries for medicinal purposes to treat a huge number of maladies, and a high quality tea will be beneficial for many of them as well.

Primarily associated with green tea and oolong tea, most high quality teas are full of cancer fighting compounds known as polyphenols. The same antioxidants are associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure, as well as aiding in the normalizing of blood sugar in people with blood sugar abnormalities.

Your Own Reactions
You will not be able to judge this very well until after you have been drinking the tea for a time. You need to observe your body before and after you drink, as well as any reactions that you have as a result of drinking the tea. Does it make you jittery? Does it send you running to the bathroom every ten minutes? Have you suddenly lost a huge amount of weight since you started drinking it? If so, you may want to abandon it and move on to something else.

Palatability of Your Tea For Weight Loss
Obviously, the best weight loss tea for you is going to be palatable, as in it tastes good. This particular consideration, you can fudge a little bit through the use of flavorings and additives. That is not to say that you should be dumping heaping spoonfuls of sugar into your tea, but a splash of vanilla extract or cocoa powder can go a long way toward improving the flavor of your beverage.

Of course, these are but a sample of the considerations that a person should go through when choosing a particular tea for weight loss. In the end, you will need to ask yourself three questions before you make that final purchase: is it safe, does it work, and does it taste good enough that you can handle drinking it? If the answers to those three questions are all yes, you are well on your way to finding yourself a quality weight loss tea.

Metabolism
Green tea works to naturally boost metabolism.  Green tea dramatically increases thermogenesis in the body.  Thermogenesis is the production of heat as a result of the digestive process.  That extra waste heat causes more calories to be used as a result of metabolism.  This is thought to be the result of the combination of antioxidants and stimulants in the tea.

Blood Sugar
It helps regulate blood sugar levels.  After you eat a meal, particularly one that contains simple carbohydrates, the simple sugars that form after those carbs are broken down are released into the bloodstream so they can be absorbed into the cells.  The problem occurs when there are sharp swings or a prolonged rise, which can result in serious health problems over time, including type 2 diabetes.  Those sharp spikes also cause insulin levels to rise, and that insulin is what stores extra glucose as fat.  Helping to control all these things is one of the main benefits to using green tea as a weight loss tea.

Appetite
There is an appetite suppression that goes with continued consumption of green tea.  A recent study during which rats were given green tea extract showed a marked decrease in appetite after only a few days of supplementation, possibly due to green tea’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels.

Calorie Reduction
Drinking it can even help you cut the calories that you would normally consume.  Consider your regular morning beverage.  You probably have coffee, but what do you put in that coffee?  Adding a bit of sweetener, some cream, and a few extras can easily add 100 calories or more to your morning cup of joe.  Replacing it with tea eliminates all of those calories, emphasizing the link between green tea and weight loss.

As you can see, green tea and weight loss is a natural combination.  Not only is it full of antioxidants and other beneficial compounds that are extremely healthy for you, but frequent consumption assists your body’s natural systems in helping you to lose weight.  You can even go as far as to supplement your easy weight loss tea with a number of different additives if you are unhappy with the taste.  That said, green tea is not only a great tea for weight loss, but for healthy living in general.  Drink up.

1.) Weight loss tea does not always have to be tea that is advertised specifically for weight loss. In actuality, most quality green or white teas are going to be as effective when it comes to helping you lose weight as any of the weight loss teas advertised on the market. What separates normal tea and those advertised for losing weight are sometimes purely marketing labels, but will frequently contain either extra caffeine or other compounds intended to help you lose weight. Some are innocent and even healthy, such as ginseng, but some of the more harmful possibilities will be covered in the next tip.

2.) Always read the labels. There are many different weight loss teas out there, and many of them are going to be filled with different things to enhance the weight loss effects of the tea. The problem occurs when some of those supplements come along with nasty side effects. Some of them, like aloe or senna, are natural laxatives that can cause problems over time. Others, like herbal fen-phen, are even more dangerous. The important thing is to make sure that the tea you are getting does not have any added chemicals.

3.) Brew it correctly. Any veteran tea drinker will tell you that there is a brief time between when the tea is too weak and when the tea has steeped too long and has become too bitter. Follow the directions on your package of weight loss tea to make sure that you brew your tea the correct amount of time. You will usually be looking at a brew time of about four minutes.

4.) Make it an important part of your day. Make it a ritual each day where you sit and relax with your cup of tea. There are many benefits to green tea; weight loss is only one of them. Taking the time to sit and drink your tea will not only be beneficial from a health level, but it can help you reduce your stress level and wind down from the day.

5.) Drink a cup before bed. When you go to bed, your body knows that it is not going to be needing much energy for a time, so its metabolic processes slow down. Assuming the caffeine will not keep you awake, drinking a cup of weight loss tea before you go to bed will give your metabolism a little boost that will keep you burning some extra calories all through the night.

6.) You don’t always have to drink it straight. When you drink green tea for weight loss, you are going to get bored with it pretty quickly as you drink it every day. There are countless ways to supplement your tea with flavorings that can help add some variety to your beverages. Make good use of them and you will never get bored drinking your weight loss tea.

7.) Don’t expect miracles. Just because some manufacturers promise you that Chinese weight loss tea will help you lose hundreds of pounds with no effort, that doesn’t mean that it is true. Though it will supplement a healthy lifestyle and aid you in your overall efforts, drinking tea for weight loss without exercising or changing your eating habits will not take you nearly as far as you might prefer.

Though losing weight may seem like it is never easy, weight loss tea can be an important tool in your overall efforts, along with a healthy eating plan and plenty of activity. The key is to make the effort and change your habits, then stick with it and do the work. Keep that up, enjoy a cup of hot tea, and soon you will be enjoying the fruits of your labor an a healthier body.