Obesity rates are on the rise all over the world, prompting more people to take on weight loss to improve their well-being. It affects around 42% of US adults, a figure that has significantly increased over the past three decades and has become a pressing concern. Aside from excess fat, obesity also raises people’s risk of developing conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, certain types of cancers, diabetes, and more. Losing weight can help prevent or slow the progression of these health issues, but it’s not always a straightforward process.
For 65% of Americans, willpower alone usually isn’t enough for weight loss and keeping the pounds off, especially with factors outside of one’s control affecting weight. As such, medical weight loss has surged in popularity, offering a guided, tailored approach to losing weight with the help of medication. In 2021, two million Americans were taking semaglutide medication. Brewing loose-leaf tea is quite simple and should be done with less leaf and more water. Put the leaves in a teapot and add boiling water. Leave it to steep, and pour your tea into a cup.
Of course, you should strain out the leaves. A tea maker with an in-built filter or a tea bag will do a great job of filtering out the leaves. Different types of loose-leaf green tea have different recommended steeping times and water temperatures. But the procedure used in brewing them is generally the same.
What Is Green Tea?
Green tea is a medicinal drink that contains different compounds that make it more beneficial for both internal and external use than black tea.
Both the green and black teas have their origins in the same plant species, called Camellia sinensis; the difference is in the processing methods.
Though it originated in China, green tea found its way to Japan and has become widespread in America and Europe. It is considered the healthiest beverage in the world today.
Note: In this article, I’m focusing on Japanese green tea, which is mainly steamed, as opposed to Chinese green tea, which is typically pan-fried.
What is medical weight loss?
Medical weight loss is a treatment option for obesity that involves weight loss with the guidance of a healthcare professional. The professional works with the patient to understand their needs, lifestyle, and behaviors and create a tailored and realistic plan that works for their unique circumstances. This weight loss plan can incorporate diet, exercise, and even sleep and stress management for a holistic approach to weight loss. If a patient is qualified, they may be prescribed weight loss drugs to aid in the weight loss process and level the playing field. Weight loss medications have seen massive growth due to their ability to aid in weight loss and provide visible results. These drugs act in various ways, such as suppressing the appetite, curbing food cravings and thoughts of food, or blocking fat absorption.
One popular weight loss drug is semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, the latter of which is approved for weight loss. Semaglutide is classified as a glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) agonist, which mimics the naturally occurring GLP-1 hormone, which boosts the amount of insulin the body makes to lower blood sugar to a normal level. Using GLP-1 for weight loss can help suppress the appetite, reduce food cravings, and increase feelings of satiety. It also helps control blood sugar and may raise your resting metabolism. This can help patients lose an average of 15% body weight.
Weight loss medications aren’t a silver bullet
While weight loss medications are an important part of medical weight loss, they aren’t a one-and-done solution for losing weight. Lifestyle and behavior changes are still essential for shedding pounds. Eating a balanced diet with nutrient-rich foods, exercising regularly, regulating stress, and getting sufficient sleep all work together to enhance health and help people maintain a healthy weight. As such, drinking healthy beverages like green tea can be a great way to support your medical weight loss journey in various ways.
It’s also important to remember that sustainable weight loss takes time and patience. Many people expect fast results from medication alone, but the real success comes from building daily habits that create a supportive environment for those medications to work effectively. Small, consistent actions — like swapping sugary drinks for green tea, planning meals, staying active throughout the day, and practicing mindful eating — all add up to make medical weight loss safer, more effective, and longer lasting.
Health Benefits of Green Tea
Due to the medicinal properties of green tea, there has been a focus on its health benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Weight Loss
Green tea speeds up your metabolism, which results in weight loss. One cup contains less than 2 calories and a metabolism-boosting antioxidant that helps you lose weight quickly. It is purely natural, without colors or preservatives.
Green tea’s unique combination of caffeine and catechins can boost your metabolism and help increase fat burning, especially during exercise. By enhancing your body’s ability to burn calories more efficiently, green tea makes it easier to maintain a calorie deficit, essential for weight loss. Including a few cups of high-quality green tea in your daily routine can be a simple yet powerful habit to support your weight management goals alongside a balanced diet and active lifestyle.
Oral Benefit
It strengthens your tooth enamel and prevents damage due to acidic drinks. The polyphenols, which have anti-inflammatory properties, keep your gums in good shape, prevent periodontal disease, and eliminate bad breath.
In fact, regularly drinking green tea can help reduce harmful bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities and gum infections. Its natural compounds can also inhibit the growth of plaque-forming bacteria, keeping your teeth cleaner for longer. For those looking for a natural way to support oral hygiene, enjoying a warm cup of green tea daily — alongside regular brushing and flossing — can be a simple yet effective step toward a healthier, fresher smile.
Skin Health
One of the main health benefits of green tea is that it helps with detoxification. It removes toxins from the body and improves your overall health. This naturally improves your complexion.
Green tea is also rich in antioxidants like EGCG, which help protect your skin from free radical damage caused by pollution, UV rays, and aging. Drinking green tea regularly can help reduce inflammation, soothe irritated skin, and even help prevent acne breakouts by regulating oil production. Many people also use cooled green tea as a gentle toner or face mist to refresh and calm their skin, giving it a healthy, natural glow from the inside out.
Hair Growth
The polyphenols present in green tea improve the appearance of your hair and stimulate additional growth. Research has shown that green tea contains epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), which binds with the keratin in your hair to make it healthier, thicker, and stronger.
Drinking green tea regularly may also help reduce hair loss by blocking the production of DHT, a hormone linked to hair thinning and pattern baldness. Many people even use green tea as a natural hair rinse to nourish the scalp, strengthen hair follicles, and add shine. Incorporating green tea into your hair care routine, both inside and out, can be a gentle, natural way to support healthier, fuller-looking hair over time.
Cancer Treatment
Research from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center involving patients with prostate cancer shows that green tea fights the disease at an early stage before it spreads. It significantly reduces the growth rate of the tumor and has also been found to be effective in the early stages of both lung and breast cancer.
I have written an in-depth discussion of these benefits and several ways to use DIY techniques to get the most out of the health benefits of Japanese green tea. You can find all the details in my book, I Will Teach You How to Be Healthy by Using Japanese Green Tea.
Fat-Burning
Green tea is low in calories and high in nutrients and antioxidants that can help contribute to weight loss. Drinking green tea for your diet can help you consume fewer calories, as each cup contains less than two calories without additives like honey or sugar. It also contains an antioxidant that boosts metabolism, enabling the hormone involved in breaking down fat to work better. The winning combination of caffeine and catechins also has slimming properties. The caffeine quickens the heart rate and increases your body temperature by causing the body to release the hormone norepinephrine, allowing you to burn more calories. The catechins then prevent an enzyme that breaks down norepinephrine so you can burn more fat. Adding a premium-quality green tea farmed using the Chagusaba method to your diet can help you maximize green tea’s fat-burning benefits. It’s also a great way to add more flavor and variety to your diet when taking weight loss medications and can help relieve side effects like nausea.
Many people choose to drink green tea about 30 minutes before exercising to further boost its fat-burning potential. This timing can help enhance calorie burn during your workout by increasing fat oxidation when your body is most primed to use stored fat for energy. Combined with a healthy diet and consistent physical activity, this simple habit can make green tea a powerful ally in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
Green Tea can Improve your Workout Performance
The caffeine in green tea is a great stimulant, helping prime your body and brain for action. This makes it a great drink to help you prepare for a workout, allowing you to feel pumped up and alert so you can perform at your best. Green tea also contains a crucial flavonol called Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which plays a role in fat oxidation. This process breaks down fats into free fatty acids and glycerol, enabling them to be used for energy so you can burn more fat. Drinking it before your workout can help increase your fat oxidation rate and boost your mood to prepare you for exercise. You can also drink green tea after your workout, which will help reduce muscle pain. When you feel less sore and fatigued, you can improve your performance for a better workout session. Less pain can also motivate you to stay consistent with your physical activity, allowing your weight loss medication to be more effective at helping you lose weight.
Stress and Sleep Management
Relaxing with a cup of green tea can help you forget about life’s worries by reducing your stress and improving your sleep. Not only does it boost your mood and mental state, but it also lowers stress levels, which can help with weight loss. Tea is a natural source of L-theanine, a compound that may support better sleep quality and relaxation. It can help prevent chronic stress, which activates the stress hormone cortisol that makes you crave sugary or fatty foods for comfort and satisfaction. It can also help you manage your sleep so you can get the sufficient hours of rest needed every night. Sleeping well allows your body to regulate your appetite hormones and prevents your metabolism from lowering, supporting your weight loss efforts. Stress and sleep management are often included in medical weight loss plans to enhance the effectiveness of your diet, exercise, and weight loss medication. When your body and brain function at their best, you can shed pounds easily and naturally in your medical weight loss program.
Best Loose Leaf Green Tea
As I earlier mentioned, loose-leaf green tea is believed to be the most beneficial form of green tea. Here are our top 5 picks based on their quality and effectiveness.
1. Authentic Japanese Green Tea – Loose Leaf 3.5 oz – Premium Tea – Issaku Limited
This is a high-grade, authentic Japanese green tea that is rare and quite difficult to find. The quality of the tea requires a long and complex process to produce.
The leaves undergo a traditional cultivation technique known as Chagusaba, which involves mulching the soil for premium quality. This mulching adds more nutrients to the soil and gives the tea a much sweeter taste.
Due to the high quantity of nutrients in this tea, its health benefits outweigh those of most other variants. The complex technique required to produce this tea makes it only available in a limited quantity—even in Japan.
2. Matcha – 1.8 oz – Premium Ceremonial Matcha
Ceremonial matcha is made solely for the purpose of drinking. It has been processed in such a way that its natural sweetness is preserved.
It comes with a high level of purity and requires no sweetener. Adding ingredients to this drink is counterproductive.
The plant is cultivated and dried in the shade to preserve its premium taste and rich green color. This also helps to increase the level of amino acids in it for better health benefits.
The process of making ceremonial matcha is carried out using advanced technology while observing the fundamentals of old traditions to obtain maximum benefits. The tea is covered a few days before harvest, after which it is steamed and dried with special equipment.
Veins and stems are manually removed by trained farmers before the leaves are ground with stone mills to about 4 micrometers to produce the fine, tasty green tea powder.
3. Matcha – 1.8 oz – Premium Culinary Matcha
Culinary matcha is specially grown for cooking. It is meant to be added to other substances, unlike ceremonial matcha.
Though it can be used for other purposes, it is best enjoyed when used for its original purpose. You can add natural or artificial sweeteners and still get a pleasant aroma.
It is slightly bitter compared to the ceremonial matcha. This is not a problem because it gives a nutritious taste when combined with other ingredients or used in drinks containing milk. It is used with a wide variety of foods and beverages across the globe.
4. Gyokuro Japanese Premium Shaded Green Tea – Loose Leaf
Gyokuro-shaded green tea is one of the best types of green tea. It is considered a luxury, even in Japan.
It is sweeter and has a higher level of caffeine than most types of green tea due to the way it is cultivated. It is shaded with mats for at least 20 days before harvest.
This shading also causes it to be darker and have a high quantity of amino acids, which also translate to a unique taste and more sweetness.
It is important to brew this tea carefully to fully enjoy the flavor and aroma. Choose a proper teapot and stick to the right temperature range (ideally 50–60 °C). Clay teapots work well for most Japanese green tea, but for deep-steam green tea (Fukamushi-cha), it is recommended to use teapots with mesh or Fukamushi teapots, which have finer mesh inside the teapot, because deep-steamed green tea tends to have finer pieces of green tea due to how it is processed. This specific gyokuro is Fukamushi-type; therefore, we recommend a mesh-type teapot.
You won’t enjoy the sweetness and rich flavor if you brew it at a low.
5. Japanese Diet Pu-Erh Tea – Saryu Soso
Most people prefer Japanese diet Pu-Erh tea to Chinese diet Pu-Erh tea because of its superior taste and quality. It has two major benefits that make it a favorite drink for tea lovers: weight loss and skin repair.
The Japanese Pu-Erh tea is best for weight loss. The diet element in it is 1.7 times more than the diet element in Chinese tea. Polyphenols and gallic acids in this tea reduce absorption activities in your stomach, which leads to quick weight loss.
Research shows that it also contains tiadenol, which alters the pathogen suppression process in your body. This makes your skin smoother and more beautiful.
Preparing your Japanese Pu-Erh tea is easy. Just put your tea bag in a teapot containing boiling water and leave it to steep for 3–4 minutes. Remove the tea bag, and your tea is ready to be enjoyed. You can let it cool if you prefer.
What Is Not So Good About Green Tea?
According to research, 6–8 cups a day are sufficient to bring out its health benefits. Drinking an excess quantity per day may lead to caffeine-induced illnesses like insomnia, nausea, or headaches. This is because green tea contains caffeine, although at a low level compared to black tea and other beverages.
Green tea can also stain your teeth; this staining property is why green tea is also used as a dye.
An effective way to avoid this downside is to rinse your mouth with clean water after every cup. This will help you prevent stains from building up.
There is no doubt that the benefits of green tea far outweigh its downsides. Whether you want your green tea for weight loss, cancer treatment, or prevention, there are still many more benefits you get from it than from black tea and other beverages.
Do you like my post? If so, please join my Green Tea Lover's Newsletter today. By signing up, you get my e-book, Green Tea Science: Brewing Technique Book," for free. This e-book is a 15-page PDF containing 12 scientifically proven techniques to make your green tea taste better and healthier.
Conclusion
In summary, green tea is more than just a soothing drink — it’s a powerhouse of antioxidants and natural compounds that can support medical weight loss by boosting metabolism, burning fat, and improving overall well-being. While it’s not a magic cure, adding premium loose-leaf green tea to a balanced lifestyle that includes healthy eating, regular exercise, and stress management can enhance results and make your weight loss journey healthier and more enjoyable. Moderation is key to maximizing the benefits while avoiding any mild side effects, so brew a cup, relax, and let green tea work hand in hand with your weight loss goals.
Remember, the true power of green tea lies in its ability to complement your daily habits rather than replace them. Small, mindful choices like choosing a fresh cup of green tea over sugary sodas, pairing it with nourishing meals, and enjoying it as a moment of calm can add up to lasting, meaningful progress. By making green tea part of your routine, you’re not just sipping a drink — you’re taking one more step toward a healthier, more balanced life.
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About the author
Kei Nishida
Author, CEO Dream of Japan
Certification: PMP, BS in Computer Science
Education: Western Washington University
Kei Nishida is a passionate Japanese green tea connoisseur, writer, and the founder and CEO of Japanese Green Tea Co., a Dream of Japan Company.
Driven by a deep desire to share the rich flavors of his homeland, he established the only company that sources premium tea grown in nutrient-rich sugarcane soil—earning multiple Global Tea Champion awards.
Expanding his mission of introducing Japan’s finest to the world, Kei pioneered the launch of the first-ever Sumiyaki charcoal-roasted coffee through Japanese Coffee Co. He also brought the artistry of traditional Japanese craftsmanship to the global market by making katana-style handmade knives—crafted by a renowned katana maker—available outside Japan for the first time through Japanese Knife Co.
Kei’s journey continues as he uncovers and shares Japan’s hidden treasures with the world.
Learn more about Kei
