When it comes to the explosion of belly fat, HIIT workouts and alternating fasting may first come to mind – but what about tea?
New research published in the journal Nutrients reveals that drinking oolong tea can help you burn fat while you sleep. More specifically, researchers from Tsukuba University in Japan found that drinking just two cups of traditional Chinese tea produces fat burning processes in the body every day. (Related: 15 underrated weight loss tips that actually work.)
“Like all teas, oolong contains caffeine, which affects energy metabolism by increasing our heart rate. However, studies suggest that consuming tea can also increase fat breakdown, regardless of the effects of caffeine,” said the study’s senior author. Professor Kumpei. Tokuyama, said in a statement.
“We therefore wanted to investigate the effects of oolong consumption versus caffeine on energy and fat metabolism among a group of healthy volunteers.”
What did the researchers find after studying participants for two weeks? Both oolong tea – which is partially oxidized and not fully considered a green or black tea as it exhibits characteristics of both – and pure caffeine increased fat breakdown by 20% compared to those who took placebo.
Another more impressive finding is that the positive effect that oolong tea had on the body was sustained throughout the night. Oddly enough, the group that drank oolong tea or pure caffeine did not have an increase in energy expenditure during the two-week period. This observation suggests that participants were able to develop a tolerance to the stimulating effects of both treatments.
In addition, there were no noticeable changes in any of the groups’ sleep patterns, or even the time it took to fall asleep, despite the fact that caffeine was involved in both treatments – a known sleep disorder. Lack of sleep can therefore disrupt the metabolism of energy – a group of processes that the body uses to break down food and use it as energy – which can cause weight gain over time. However, it appears that oolong had no adverse effect on the participants’ sleep.
So, should you consider drinking oolong every day? Professor Tokuyama says that although the effect that oolong has had on the breakdown of fat during sleep suggests that tea may help control body weight, it is unclear whether these effects will actually lead to fat loss over a long period of time.
“In addition, we want to test a caffeine-free oolong tea to better distinguish the effects of caffeine from other components of tea, which will help us understand exactly how oolong helps with fat breakdown,” he said in the statement.
Now make sure you read the side effects of drinking caffeine, according to science.