For millennia, tea has provided exceptional health benefits, and oolong is no different. One of the most widely recognized oolong tea health benefits is its ability to aid weight loss.

A claim that is scientifically proven and supported as a result of regularly drinking oolong tea. 1

The list of health benefits attributed to oolong is long and steadily growing. Oolong has been associated with the prevention of diabetes, low instances of obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

It can help with the reduction of oxidative stress and inflammation, an increase in cognitive performance. It promotes healthy bones and healthy skin, too.

All tea contains caffeine. One huge advantage of oolong is that it contains less caffeine than black tea.

Oolong tea caffeine level comparison

Oolong is packed full of beneficial fluoride, theanine flavonoids, and amino acids. All of them renowned for counteracting the anxious jitters, often associated with the consumption of caffeine.

But this doesn’t inhibit oolong’s ability to sharpen focus and fight fatigue.

Of course, the medicinal properties of tea were widely known and accepted in the East.

In recent years, however, teas’ health benefits have prompted scientific studies in the West, albeit focused mainly on black tea. But this is hardly surprising.

The consumption of black tea accounts for 78% of the tea worldwide, with green tea at 20% and oolong tea garnering a mere 2%.

Research carried out on the impact oolong tea consumption can have on our health and well-being is well documented. Today’s modern health professions widely acknowledge these health benefits.

Top Health Benefits of Oolong Tea

1. Helps Weight Loss and Fights Obesity

In recent years, oolong tea has been the center of discussion and research concerning its ability to aid weight loss and fight obesity. Drinking oolong tea has been proven to increase and maintain metabolic levels by causing the body to produce more heat.

This heat-creating process is called thermogenesis. It is crucial for people who aspire to lose weight. The process of shedding unwanted pounds decreases their metabolic rate. Oolong tea benefits the body by acting as a calming, metabolic stabilizer.

How Oolong Tea Helps You Lose Weight

Regular consumption of oolong tea also suppresses the body’s production of fat cells. It helps the body burn fat at a higher rate.

Oolong tea indeed helps against obesity in the long run. Drinking oolong tea on a daily basis is essential to see the effect. However, it still stimulates short term weight loss. The tea also promotes a reduction in inflammation, another contributor to stubborn weight.

Of course, drinking oolong tea alone will not make you lose weight. But with exercise, sufficient sleep, and a balanced diet, oolong tea can bolster your weight loss efforts and produce quicker results.

The polymerized polyphenols in oolong tea also increase the metabolic rate, leading to effective weight loss. It happens because the polyphenol molecule activates the enzyme lipase. It is known to cause a reduction in LDL cholesterol.

Polyphenols in Oolong tea

Another exciting result of drinking oolong tea is that it reduces overall hunger and food cravings by maintaining blood sugar levels steady.

Oolong tea improves digestion, another factor in maintaining healthy body weight. It is also calorie-free, which makes it a superb beverage to add to your weight-loss routine.

In fact, if you drink it before exercising or working out, oolong can give you an extra boost of energy. It helps you burn even more calories, too.

Oolong tea’s ability to block fats and carbohydrates’ absorption is thought to play a crucial role in its weight-reducing benefits.

More research indeed needs to be done in this area. However, the first studies indicate that oolong tea indeed does have a powerful absorption-blocking ability.

2. Contains Antioxidants

Oolong tea is rich in antioxidants, even more than green tea. Antioxidants help us stay youthful, both inside and outside.

As long as your oolong tea drinking habits remain consistent, then your body will continue to enjoy its beneficial effects.

Due to its high antioxidant content, oolong tea helps burn body fat more efficiently. At the same time, it strengthens the immune system.

The caffeine in oolong is also known to work effectively with the EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate) to help the burning of overall body fat.

3. Lowers Cholesterol and Blood Pressure

We’ve already mentioned that oolong tea contains polymerized polyphenols. Polyphenols lower cholesterol levels. They also cut back the overall absorption of fat in the body.

Regularly consuming oolong tea can help reduce cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health. 2

A study carried out on over 76,000 adults observed something quite interesting.

It turns out that the daily consumption of one or more cups of oolong tea could help reduce mortality rates from cardiovascular disease by almost 61%.

A further study suggested that, when consumed daily for 30-days, oolong tea helps lower blood sugar in people with Type II diabetes.

4. Removes Acne and Cares for the Skin

Studies show that oolong tea contains antioxidants that help relieve eczema.

Antioxidants in the tea might help treat blemishes, acne, aging signs, and wrinkles (age spots). It is why oolong tea can give skin a youthful, radiant appearance.

In a recent study, patients with atopic dermatitis received oolong tea and suppressed type 1 and type 4 allergic skin reactions.

The result came from the therapeutic efficacy of oolong tea and the oolong tea polyphenols’ antiallergic properties. 3

5. Helps with Anxiety and Stress

Daily oolong tea consumption helps fight stress and anxiety. It promotes mental focus and performance, which makes it an ideal tea for students sitting their exams.

6. Prevents Osteoporosis

Oolong tea prevents osteoporosis by building stronger bones. Unlike natural caffeine, the caffeine in oolong tea does not ‘eat-up’ calcium in the body.

Osteoporosis prevention is one of the surprising health benefits of oolong tea. On the contrary, oolong tea helps fix the calcium derived from food, thereby making bones healthier and stronger.

7. Reduces the inflammation levels in the body

Oolong tea lowers the levels of inflammation even more than green tea can.

This anti-inflammatory effect helps prevent cardiovascular diseases and promotes longevity. It also helps prevent degenerative diseases and arthritis.

8. Oolong tea has anti-cancer properties

Oolong tea has been found to contain anti-cancer properties that are scientifically proven and backed up.

Its anti-tumor properties thrive inside the human body, boosting the immune system with every single cup.

All the benefits of Oolong tea

Both green tea and oolong tea showed that they have a positive impact on our health and well-being. But in most cases, it is the oolong that shines brighter than its green cousin.

Science & Oolong Tea Health Benefits

The claim that oolong tea can help lose weight and keep it off is nothing new. The Chinese people have believed this for centuries.

One Chinese study involving 102 female test subjects was carried out in 1998. It showed that six weeks of continuous consumption of oolong tea resulted in a reduction of body weight.

The study prompted further research. It raised questions regarding the other compounds thought to have contributed to the oolong’s weight loss properties.

The belief that oolong tea help drinkers control body weight was again under the microscope.

The research was done by the American physiologist Dr. William Rumpler of the US Agriculture Research Services’ Diet and Human Laboratory in 2001. 4

Rumpler’s study examined how tea influenced energy expenditure (EE). It included 12 male volunteers who, over three consecutive days, were given four separate beverage formulas.

Oolong Tea Weight Loss scientific review

The beverage formulas were full strength oolong tea, half strength oolong tea, caffeinated water, and non-caffeinated water.

When the participants’ 24 hour EE was measured, results showed that levels were about 3% higher when they drank the full strength oolong tea. They also burned an average of 67 more calories per day.

Fat oxidation (fat burning) increased by an incredible 12% after consumption of the full strength oolong tea.

The research confirmed that a component other than caffeine is responsible for promoting the body’s preferred use of fat as an energy source.

Following Rumpler’s study, other scientists speculated that caffeine combined with EGCGs joined forces to increase fat oxidation.

Oolong Tea vs. Green Tea for Weight Loss

In 2003, a Japanese study went one step further. It compared the benefits of oolong tea vs. green tea in the reduction of body weight.

The participants, eleven young and healthy female students, received three different beverage formulas: oolong tea, powdered green tea leaves, and water. 5

Both the green and the oolong were made with boiling water. After dissolving the powdered-leaf green tea and steeping the oolong for five minutes, these were the results:

  • Oolong tea caused higher EE levels from beginning to end, at an interval of every 30 minutes. EE levels topped at 90 minutes for both oolong and green tea and held their respective levels for around two hours.
  • The results indicated that after consuming oolong tea, you would be able to expend more energy than if you were to drink green tea or water. This effect is sustained for up to two hours.
  • Caffeine, catechins, and other polyphenols were also measured, with exciting results.
    The caffeine and EGCG content, for example, was much higher in green tea. However, the concentration of polymerized polyphenols in oolong tea was significantly higher.

Science tells polymerized polyphenol (substantial in oolong tea) is the key to tea’s fat-burning properties. Not only the caffeine or the combination of EGCG’s and caffeine, as once thought.

Also, scientists found that the remaining compounds in the teas were equal. At least similar, with no marked differences. A notice that significantly strengthened the results.