Can Oolong Tea Help Men Lose Weight?

It seems that were all fighting the battle of the bulge.Especially as we get older, it seems to get harder to keep thepounds at bay. We often think of women as being the dieters,but in fact, men are just as subject to weight problems aswomen.As youre looking for ways to make weight loss easier, considerthe research that has been performed on the health benefits oftea. Tea has long been used in Asian cultures to preventillness and protect health, and it seems that science isproving what Asians have believed all along: tea is good foryou.Lifelong tea drinkers have lower incidences of heart disease,high cholesterol and some forms of cancer. They are also lesslikely to suffer from diabetes or be overweight. Tea protectsyour teeth and may even have potential to prevent diseases likeParkinsons and Alzheimers.We are beginning to learn a lot about the benefits of tea, butclearly there is much more to learn, so that we can pinpointexactly how we can best use tea to help with medical needs.One of the most promising areas of tea research centers on teaas a weight loss aid. Much research has shown that tea seems tospeed up the metabolism and promote fat oxidation. Other studieshave shown that lifelong tea drinkers are less likely to beoverweight, have a lower percentage of body fat and have alower waist to hip ratio.In addition, studies have shown that when tea was part of asensible diet and exercise plan, subjects lose more weight thanthose subjects who used a diet and exercise plan without tea asa supplement.One study that is particularly interesting was conducted by theBeltsville Human Nutrition Center in Maryland in conjunctionwith the University of Tokushima in Japan. In this study,twelve men between the ages of 25 and 60 were evaluated. Allparticipants were in good health, and the study was conductedover a period of one month. The target participants were thosewho consumed the caffeine equivalent of 2-4 cups of coffee eachday.Prior to the beginning of the study, each participant wasevaluated with regard to their calorie expenditure per daywithout caffeine or tea. During the study, each participant wasplaced into one of four study groups. One group received asupplement of water, one group received water with caffeine,one group received half strength oolong tea and one groupreceived full strength oolong tea.For three days, the participants were fed the exact same diet.The diet was low calorie and free of caffeine, other than thecaffeine in the beverage supplements. The beverage supplementswere given to the participants five times per day.This study found that the participants who drank full strengthoolong tea and caffeinated water burned more calories in a daythan the subjects who drank water or half strength tea.Drinking caffeinated water increased energy expenditure by 3.4%over those participants who drank water alone.Drinking full strength tea increased energy expenditure by 2.9%over drinking water alone. Drinking half strength tea did notsignificantly increase energy expenditure over drinking wateralone.So, why not just drink water with caffeine?You might ask why we wouldnt just drink water with caffeine tohelp increase our metabolic rate. Well, according to this study,you could do just that. However, when you consider the manyother studies that have touted the many other benefits of teaconsumption, its clear that getting your metabolic boost fromtea is far healthier than adding caffeine to your water.Tea is full of anti-oxidants, which is believed to be why itprevents illnesses and protects health. Anti-oxidants arepowerful fighters of free radicals in the body. Free radicalsare oxygen containing molecules that are created as aby-product of our digestion process.These free radicals damage our cells and DNA if left unchecked.However, consuming anti-oxidants combats these free radicalsbefore they can harm our bodies. Scientists have shown thatconsuming a diet high in anti-oxidants helps us to avoidserious illnesses and slows down the aging process.In addition, there have been other studies that have suggestedthat tea promotes more weight loss through fat oxidation thanother caffeinated beverages. It is believed that this too isthe result of anti-oxidants. It appears that the combination ofcaffeine with the anti-oxidants in tea is a more powerful weightloss supplement than caffeine in other beverages.Finally, research has shown that the caffeine in tea seems tobe better tolerated than other forms of caffeine. Many peoplewho are caffeine sensitive find that they can drink tea withoutthe usual side effects of caffeine. The caffeine in tea oftendoes not produce the irregular heart rate and nervous jittersthat caffeine sensitive people experience from othercaffeinated beverages.So, adding tea to your diet plan may be a great way to speed upyour weight loss. Tea is healthy, refreshing, inexpensive andreadily available. So, why not add tea to your diet routine?About The Author: Marcus Stout is President of the Golden MoonTea Company. For more information about tea, green tea andblack tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com