Wu Long Tea (oolong tea): Does it really
help you lose weight?
by Tom Venuto,
NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
You’ve probably seen the advertisements:
“Drink wu long tea and lose a jeans
size every 7 days!”…
“Burn 20 lbs of fat in 30 days
with wu long tea!” …
Maybe you even watched Oprah a few years
ago when Dr. Perricone said that switching
your coffee for green tea would help you
take off the pounds.
You may have also read or watched countless
news stories which say how healthy it
is to drink green tea.
The odds are good that if you’re
interested in improving your health and
losing fat, you probably either drink
tea, take a green tea supplement or you’ve
at least thought about it.
But what if I told you that most of the
fat reducing claims for green tea were
absolute, total BS, based on misinterpretation
or deliberate misreporting of the research?
Unfortunately, it’s true. If you’ve
bought green tea based on the claim that
it causes large reductions in body fat,
then you have been scammed.
Here are the facts:
Green tea DOES stimulate your metabolism.
However, the research is very unclear
about what kind of impact this small,
short term increase in metabolism will
have on your bodyweight in the long term.
In the most often quoted study (Dulloo,
1999), A swiss research team found that
270 mg of green tea extract 3X a day increased
metabolic rate by the equivalent of about
79 calories on average and increased the
oxidation of fat as the fuel source.
If you do the math, it appears that 79
kcal a day would add up to an extra pound
of fat lost every 44 days. Not much, but
you’ll take it, right? Hypothetically,
that would add up to an extra 8 pounds
lost per year.
What advertisements quoting this study
don’t tell you is that this and
other similar studies did not even measure
long term change in body fat percentage
or bodyweight. They only measured a 24-
hour increase in energy expenditure.
One study which is used as marketing
ammunition to claim that wu long tea burns
2.5 times more fat than green tea was
based only on a 120-minute increase in
energy expenditure! (reminds me of that
Mark Twain quote: “There are lies,
damned lies, and then there are statistics.”)
Numerous follow up studies have confirmed
the short term increase in metabolism,
but the studies are mixed on whether green
tea improves weight reduction or maintenance
in the long term.
The research IS compelling, but not conclusive.
As for ad claims that say you’ll
lose a lot of weight just from drinking
green tea… absolute BS! Hopefully
the Federal Trade Commission will catch
up with these scammers sooner rather than
later, as the marketing messages on the
Internet are getting louder and bolder
every day.
As for health benefits - green tea is
certainly a champ. It’s high in
antioxidants and there are more than 2,000
research citations about potential health
benefits of green tea (not to mention
a 5,000 year history of use in China and
the far east).
Even if you’re a skeptic, green
tea is hard not to like and it’s
hard to dispute that it’s a good
idea to add green tea to your nutrition
program as one part of a well-balanced
fitness lifestyle.
But when it comes to claims for large
and rapid losses in bodyweight and bodyfat,
(especially the wu long tea ads that are
currently all over the internet), buyer
beware.
The science we do have says that the
thermogenic effect of green tea - while
very real - is also very small.
Train hard and expect success always,
Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
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About the Author:
Tom Venuto
is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal
trainer and freelance fitness writer.
Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat,
Feed The Muscle,” which teaches
you how to get lean without drugs or supplements
using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders
and fitness models. Learn how to get rid
of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism
by visiting: www.burnthefat.com
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