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Has someone in your life tried to sell you Herbalife tea? If so, you might be wondering, “does Herbalife tea burn belly fat?” or are they just trying to get the sell?
What the reps won’t tell you is that they’re incentivized to sell the tea whether or not it burns significant belly fat or not. So is peddling just another tea, or does it actually work?
Can You Use Herbalife Teas to Reduce Belly Fat?
The truth is, Herbalife tea does help burn some fat and many of the ingredients in their tea are great for overall health. However, Herbalife tea does not play a large role in any effective weight loss regimen.
Sure, many of the ingredients help to boost your metabolism and burn a little fat, but even regular ole tea with no added ingredients will do the same thing.
Before you get angry though, consider that Herbalife does their best to add a few extra “fat burning” ingredients that you won’t find in tea bags found at the store.
How Does Herbalife Tea Burn Fat?
The best way to find out whether or not those extra ingredients in Herbalife tea burns belly fat is to break them down and figure out why they work, and to what extent…
Orange Pekoe Extract (Leaf): Orange pekoe is an ingredient in many black teas and has quite a few benefits! It contains multiple antioxidants called polyphenols, which have an anti-inflammatory effect and may make you look slimmer. It can also lower cholesterol, decrease blood pressure, promote brain health, and help your body fight off infection [1][2]. Also, it may reduce the absorption of fat molecules in the intestine and regulate insulin levels, both of which encourage weight loss.
Green Tea Extract (Leaf): Green tea has numerous benefits, like anti-inflammatory antioxidants and relaxing amino acids. It is a classic home remedy for weight loss.
Black Tea Extract (Leaf): Black tea has similar benefits to orange pekoe extract. It can also boost the growth of healthy gut bacteria and control liver energy metabolism, reducing bloating and helping you lose weight [3].
Natural Flavor: Herbalife tea comes in many natural flavors, making it an enjoyable drink.
Natural Caffeine Powder: Caffeine is a stimulant that can suppress your appetite. It can also improve exercise performance and speed up the fat-burning process, making it pretty useful for weight loss [4].
Citric acid: As an antioxidant, citric acid can increase metabolism, so your body burns fat faster [5].
Cardamom seed extract: Cardamom can reduce your risk of metabolic syndrome, including high blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol, so it’s great for your overall health. Even rats fed a diet high in carbs and fat and given cardamom power ended up at a lower weight than those who didn’t get any cardamom, so it’s also good for weight loss [6].
Hibiscus Flower Powder: The hibiscus flower contains three kinds of compounds that can help you lose weight – phenolic compounds (found in vegetables), flavonoids (plant chemicals), and anthocyanins (natural pigments). This powder shrinks fat cells and regulates lipid metabolism, making you lose weight faster [7].
Malva sylvestris extract (flower): This flower extract has anti-inflammatory properties, making you look slimmer.
Safflower oil: This oil doesn’t have much, or any, effect on weight loss.
Maltodextrin: In simple words, maltodextrin is a sweetener with zero nutritional value. It doesn’t accelerate weight loss if you’re already in a calorie deficit – instead, it can increase blood sugar and cause insulin spikes, making you crave sweet things, and the sugar in it may lead to weight gain [8].
Fructose: Essentially the sugar found in most fruits, fructose is also a sweetener and may lead to weight gain instead of loss. Fructose may also make your belly bloat if you have a sensitive stomach.
As you can see, Herbalife tea contains many ingredients that can help you lose weight, along with some flavor or filler ingredients. It’s essentially a type of green tea, so it increases fat burn in the same way that green tea does.
How Green Tea Boosts Metabolic Rate
Green tea contains caffeine and antioxidants like catechin, both of which can boost your metabolic rate [9]. More than that, though, caffeine increases your alertness and energy levels, so you perform better when you work out. Better workouts are a guaranteed way to burn more fat — consuming green tea extract before a workout can increase calories burnt by an average of 17% – that makes a lot of difference [10]!
Even at rest, green tea may help you burn 3-4% more calories, though it depends on the individual to some extent. However, men who took green tea extract for three months burnt 183 more calories per day than those who didn’t, losing 7.3 pounds more than them [11].
It’s not all fast and furious, though – green tea also contains an amino acid known as theanine which relaxes your mind [12]. When you’re chronically stressed, the stress hormone cortisol remains in your bloodstream for indefinite amounts of time, increasing your appetite [13]. Anything that can help you relax can therefore help you burn stomach fat!
So whether you’re figuring out how to lose 70 pounds or 70, green tea can help you burn fat all over [14]. And the best part is you don’t have to buy fancy, expensive green tea from Herbalife – you can make your own at home!
Fat Burning Herbalife Tea Alternatives
If you’re not losing weight with Herbalife, want to save some money, or aren’t a fan of some of their ingredients then a homemade green tea is right up your alley.
You don’t need much to make homemade green tea – just some green tea bags and some lemon and ginger for (and additional benefits!). Boil some water, dip the green tea bags in it, and add the ginger and lemon.
Lemon contains citric acid (an ingredient in Herbalife tea, too!) that acts as an antioxidant. Ginger is an antioxidant, too, but it can also stabilize your blood sugar levels and speed up fat burn. Plus, it’s a diuretic, making you lose water weight fast [15].
You can add other flavoring ingredients like honey, too. Go wild and have fun! If you still want to try Herbalife tea, though, let us clear up your frequently asked questions.
FAQ
Now that you have a lot of info to determine the answer to “does Herbalife tea burn belly fat?” – let’s dive into some other questions you might have.
- How Much Does Herbalife Tea Cost?
The suggested retail price for a 1.69 oz container of Herbalife tea concentrate is $38.50, which may be too much for many people. Some reps may sell it at a higher price, too.
- Does Herbalife Tea Taste Good?
Herbalife tea comes in a variety of flavors such as original, lemon, raspberry, peach, cinnamon, and chai. Taste is highly opinionated but overall Herbalife tea is tasty and cinnamon is our favorite flavor. If one flavor doesn’t taste good to you, another one likely will.
- How Often are You Supposed to Drink Herbalife Tea?
You can drink a maximum of 3 cups of Herbalife tea a day. Avoid going over this limit to steer clear of nausea, tachycardia, and high blood pressure.
- What Other Herbalife Products Burn Belly Fat?
Herbalife specializes in nutrition and weight loss, having several fat-burning products. These include their shakes and their Cell-U-Loss weight loss and nutritional supplements.
No matter the supplements you take, if you want to learn how to lose weight without trying it’s important to follow the most important rules of weight loss – burn more than you consume. If you follow that, you will lose weight with or without any extra products. So, whether or not you need Herbalife tea to burn belly fat is purely optional.
References
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[2] Krikorian, R., Nash, T. A., Shidler, M. D., Shukitt-Hale, B., & Joseph, J. A. (2010). Concord grape juice supplementation improves memory function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. The British journal of nutrition, 103(5), 730–734. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20028599/
[3] Henning, S. M., Yang, J., Hsu, M., Lee, R. P., Grojean, E. M., Ly, A., Tseng, C. H., Heber, D., & Li, Z. (2018). Decaffeinated green and black tea polyphenols decrease weight gain and alter microbiome populations and function in diet-induced obese mice. European journal of nutrition, 57(8), 2759–2769. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28965248/
[4] Zeratsky, K. (2020, March 20). Caffeine: Can it help me lose weight? Mayo Clinic. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/caffeine/faq-20058459
[5] Akram M. (2014). Citric acid cycle and role of its intermediates in metabolism. Cell biochemistry and biophysics, 68(3), 475–478. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24068518/
[6] Bhaswant, M., Poudyal, H., Mathai, M. L., Ward, L. C., Mouatt, P., & Brown, L. (2015). Green and Black Cardamom in a Diet-Induced Rat Model of Metabolic Syndrome. Nutrients, 7(9), 7691–7707. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26378573/
[7] Ojulari, O. V., Lee, S. G., & Nam, J. O. (2019). Beneficial Effects of Natural Bioactive Compounds from Hibiscus sabdariffa L. on Obesity. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 24(1), 210. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6337177/
[8] Rodin J. (1985). Insulin levels, hunger, and food intake: an example of feedback loops in body weight regulation. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 4(1), 1–24. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3894001/
[9] Hursel, R., Viechtbauer, W., & Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S. (2009). The effects of green tea on weight loss and weight maintenance: a meta-analysis. International journal of obesity (2005), 33(9), 956–961. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19597519/
[10] Venables, M. C., Hulston, C. J., Cox, H. R., & Jeukendrup, A. E. (2008). Green tea extract ingestion, fat oxidation, and glucose tolerance in healthy humans. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 87(3), 778–784. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18326618/
[11] Auvichayapat, P., Prapochanung, M., Tunkamnerdthai, O., Sripanidkulchai, B. O., Auvichayapat, N., Thinkhamrop, B., Kunhasura, S., Wongpratoom, S., Sinawat, S., & Hongprapas, P. (2008). Effectiveness of green tea on weight reduction in obese Thais: A randomized, controlled trial. Physiology & behavior, 93(3), 486–491. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18006026/
[12] Kimura, K., Ozeki, M., Juneja, L. R., & Ohira, H. (2007). L-Theanine reduces psychological and physiological stress responses. Biological psychology, 74(1), 39–45. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16930802/
[13] Baudrand, R., & Vaidya, A. (2015). Cortisol dysregulation in obesity-related metabolic disorders. Current opinion in endocrinology, diabetes, and obesity, 22(3), 143–149. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4517681/
[14] Vispute, S. S., Smith, J. D., LeCheminant, J. D., & Hurley, K. S. (2011). The effect of abdominal exercise on abdominal fat. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 25(9), 2559–2564. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21804427/
[15] eratsky, K. (2020, September 19). Water retention: Are there natural diuretics? – Weight loss. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/water-retention/faq-20058063