Does tea affect your weight loss?
 

For those of you who drink tea (especially green tea), have you noticed if it affects your weight? Does it make your weight go up (bloating/water retention)? Help you lose? Just curious.

I do drink tea.

The only affect that it has on my weight loss is kinda indirectly, I suppose - it fills me up and helps me to avoid snacking on calorie laden food. Sometimes I'll be *looking for something* and I'll have a cup of tea - it fills me up, satisfies me and puts a halt to the *looking*.

But the drinking of the tea, in and of itself - no direct weight loss affect. For that I rely on adhering to a calorie budget.

I drink a good bit of iced tea, usually the Good Earth kind or Lipton's Orange Spice, or Caramel Truffle. I don't think it's made much difference one way or the other. I do think that plain old water would be better for me, but I don't like plain old water. I enjoy green tea but just haven't made it in a while. I also drink a lot of coffee. A little diet soda but not usually very much.

Barb

Not really noticed an effect on weight loss.

However I drink tea at bedtime, and its jasmine/green or chamomile. Both relax me.

A.

I drink tea too (Granted, it's the powdered kind!) but I haven't noticed a gain or a loss or anything at all.

OK. Thanks! One of my friends is telling me I shouldn't drink green tea because it will make me gain water weight. I don't see how since it makes me have to take bathroom breaks like crazy.

My trainer at the gym told me to drink 2 green teas a day and it will help you lose weight...

I also find if I'm drinking herbal tea I'm not eating and it has no calories so its a win win :P

I drink a lot of Crystal Light Tea (sugar-free kind). It helps me get in my 8 glasses of water a day. I think I eat less because I always have a glass of iced tea handy. It is a diuretic and I do visit the bathroom a lot. I don't think it has any negative effect on my weight loss. Also, I have always thought that drinking a lot of fluids may be one reason that my skin looks good for my age.

Look at diet pills..they have mega grean tea in alot of them. I dont take pills but i have seen the commercials.

I drink cystal light tea, and lipton green tea(in the singles) and I have n't noticed anything extra other than the feeling of being fuller and peeing all the time. :)

I drink tea on and off - decaf green, peppermint, spice, black pekoe, chamomoile - I don't think it really effects my weight loss. I've 'tried' the green tea helping with weight loss effect over the years, way back when. I didn't see any significance.

However, green tea has lots of anti oxidents - which have a positive benefit on health.

Tea is supposed to be a natural appetite suppressor, that's where it's benefits towards weightloss come from.

The only difference I feel is psychological.

When I drink green tea, I feel self-congratulatory & even a bit smug, because green tea has a little imaginary halo of goodness & approval floating over it. Everyone I know is trying to increase their intake of green tea.

When I drink coffee, I feel quite mundane, like your average Joe (or Josephine, I guess) & caught in a rut, and no more special than if I'd just fueled up my car at a gas station, because coffee is such everyday stuff. Everyone I meet is apologetic about their coffee habits & trying to stop drinking it or at least cut back on how much they're drinking, or else they feel bad about how much they spend on Starbucks.

Other than that, frankly, not much difference in my life.

This is not an answer to your original question, but just random factoids about tea...

I live in Charleston, SC - home of the only working tea plantation in the US. Last weekend, I went for a tour of the plantation and learned all sorts of tea trivia.

All tea comes from the same kind of leaf (Camellia sinensis), and the way it's processed after it's picked is what makes it green tea, oolong tea, or black tea. So green tea has no more antioxidants (or other nutrients) than any other kind of tea. Tea that comes from the leaves of the same plant (whether it ends up green, black, or oolong) has the same nutrients.

Also, I learned that herbal "teas" aren't really teas at all. The only drink that is actually tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. If a beverage is derived from other plants or herbs, it's not actually tea.

It's kind of like how soy "milk" and almond "milk" are not really milk. Milk comes from a mammal, not a soybean or an almond. Does that make any sense?

Thanks all! saef, you always crack me up. My Body in Motion, wow! That's something I'll keep in mind. I always choose green tea because I thought it had more antioxidants. Now I can switch it up!

rofl, saef!

I drink tea on at work while I'm doing many of the mind-numbing tasks I must accomplish, because it helps with my anxiety and boredom to have my mouth somewhat occupied. And yes, tea (green or black or whatever) is supposed to have health benefits, and some research has shown a very slight advantage in green tea with weight loss. But mostly I drink it to keep my mouth busy while my mind roams to everything else I'd rather be doing. (I chew a little sugarless gum for the same reason.)

I drink one cup of coffee on Saturday mornings because I love the caffeine and it's a special treat and it gives me a boost of energy and enthusiasm to get housework done (I loathe housework).

So I guess both types of beverage are coping mechanisms, to an extent. Tea has no noticeable affect on my weight, at all. Coffee increases my insulin resistance and sleep problems if I drink it every day (both issues which make weight loss more difficult), thus I just have the one caffeinated cup per week.