The Chinese have long believed that oolong tea aids in weight loss, and this belief is emerging rapidly in the West, too. Although oolong tea weight loss is not considered a miracle weight-loss product, science does show that oolong has weight-loss effects by helping us burn more calories in a short period of time.
Oolong tea, as does green tea and black tea, comes from the same plant ‘Camellia Sinensis’. The difference being that black tea is highly processes, green tea is minimally processed, and oolong sits somewhere in the middle. Only 2% of all teas made from the ‘Camellia Sinensis’ plant are oolong.
Energy Expenditure
The way oolong tea helps us lose weight is through energy expenditure (EE). There has been many studies that prove this effect and one such study was conducted in Maryland at the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, lead by physiologist William Rumpler. In the study participants were separated into two groups, one group given 4 cups of oolong each day, and the other group given just plain water for a period of three days. At the end of these 3 day it was discovered that the EE in those who consumed the oolong tea was 3% higher than those given water, and this resulted in an extra 67 calories burned each day on average. Those drinking the tea also experienced a 12% increase in fat oxidation, a process that decreases the amount of fat that gets stored on the body.
Of course, for those losing weight and counting calories, an extra 67 calories burned just by drinking oolong tea is a welcome aid! A similar studied, conducted in Japan, found that drinking 5 cups per day of green tea (a very close relative of oolong), burned an extra 80 calories per day. However the green tea was less effective than oolong at for its fat oxidative effects, at around 6%. It would appear that oolong and green tea weight loss go hand in hand. A couple of cups of both per day can be a great help to a diet program.