If you spend any time on Instagram, you can’t help but run into pretty girls promoting the miracles of “detox” teas.

You know…

In fact, many of these fitnessistas swear that they’ve never looked or felt better since starting their detox tea regimens.

They’re not alone, either.

Celebrity endorsements abound, and they’re flanked by countless before-and-after shots of everyday folk losing 20, 30, even 40+ pounds in just a matter of months.

Thus, it’s no surprise that detox teas are more popular than ever.

The promise of losing fat, looking sexier, and feeling better by just gulping down some mildly appetizing liquids is just too alluring for many to resist.

It also smacks of “too good to be true,” and as you’re going to learn in this article, there’s more to the detox tea story. A lot more.

The reality is detox tea “cleanses” can help you lose weight, but not because of the tea, and not safely and healthily. In fact, you’d be better off just starving yourself and drinking plenty of water.

Ironically, the name “detox tea” is itself misleading because not a single one of these beverages “detox” your body.

So, if you want to learn what detox tea really is, why “teatoxing” is an unhealthy way to lose weight and what you should do instead, then you want to read this article.

Let’s get started.

Want to listen to more stuff like this? Check out my podcast!

What Is Detox Tea?

Most detox teas are a blend of various herbal teas like green tea, yerba mate, and oolong, and some also contain “superfoods” like goji berries, milk thistle, and ginseng.

In other words, basic bitch teas that cost very little to produce, leaving piles of cash to spend on marketing, which is why you see so many people–including high-profile celebrities–promoting these products.

The bigger companies are spending millions of dollars per year on boosterism, and when you’re willing to pay up to a quarter million dollars for a single Instagram post, you’ll never want for shills.

Keep that in mind the next time you see gals with large followings gushing about how much “teatoxing” helps them look and feel great.

And the often-startling success stories?

Well, many are fake–with a little Google-fu and Photoshop, you can have all the testimonials you could want–but many aren’t, as well.

As I mentioned earlier, you can lose weight with detox teas, but that doesn’t mean that you should.

Let’s find out why…

Find the Perfect Supplements for You in Just 60 Seconds

You don't need supplements to build muscle, lose fat, and get healthy. But the right ones can help. Take this quiz to learn which ones are best for you.

Take the Quiz

Detox Tea Can Help You Lose Weight, But…

It’s true.

You can lose a bunch of weight by heavily restricting your calories and drinking a bunch of tea.

What’s driving the weight loss here, though? Magical molecules in the tea that “program” your body to burn fat or eating less food than usual?

Well, if you’re a regular here, you know the answer:

If you want to lose fat, you must eat less energy than you burn, and no amount of pills, powders, or teas can change this.

If you’re not regularly eating fewer calories (energy) than you’re burning, no meaningful weight loss can occur.

If this is news to you or if you’re not sure where you stand on the “calories in vs. calories out” debate, consider this:

Why has every single controlled weight loss study conducted in the last 100 years…including countless meta-analyses and systematic reviews…concluded that meaningful weight loss requires energy expenditure to exceed energy intake?

Why have bodybuilders dating back just as far…from Sandow to Reeves and all the way up the line…been using, and continue to use, this knowledge to systematically and routinely reduce and increase body fat levels?

And why do new brands of “calorie denying” come and go every year, failing to gain acceptance in the weight loss literature?

Well, here’s the simple answer:

A century of metabolic research has proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that energy balance, operating according to the first law of thermodynamics, is the basic mechanism that regulates body weight.

This is why “teatoxing” for weight loss always involves drastically reducing your daily caloric intake, usually through food restriction. When you do that, you can lose weight very quickly regardless of whether you drink tea or not (and especially when you go low-carb, as well).

In other words, the detox tea phenomenon is just another “healthwashed” starvation diet, with all the downsides that you’d expect, including muscle loss (which leads to the dreaded “skinny fat” look), intense hunger and cravings, mood swings, and more.

Moreover, as it goes with very low-calorie dieting, a lot of the weight that you initially lose is water, which returns rapidly once you start eating more food again.

Many of these teas contain laxatives, too, which accelerates weight loss, but can also impair your body’s ability to absorb key nutrients and cause dehydration, electrolyte depletion, and gut dysbiosis.

So, the bottom line is this:

Detox teas are weight loss gimmicks designed to give people short-term gratification, with zero regard for their long-term health, physique, or lifestyle habits.

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, there’s a better way…

The Best Way to Lose Weight Fast

Losing weight fast is really easy.

Eat as little food and do as much cardio as you can for the next month or two, and voila, the pounds fall off.

You may be disappointed in the end, though, even if you can suffer through it.

Why?

Because while the scale will proclaim a victory, the mirror will disagree. You may not look as fat as before, but you’re going to look more skinny fat, and that’s not the goal.

You see, the standard “starve yourself skinny” approach to dieting burns fat, but it also burns muscle, and with it goes your muscle tone and definition.

That’s why your goal shouldn’t be to “lose weight,” but to “lose fat and not muscle,” and that’s easier than you might think. There are just five steps:

  1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) calorie deficit.
  2. Eat a high-protein diet.
  3. Do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting.
  4. Use high-intensity interval training to burn fat faster.
  5. Take fat loss supplements that actually work.

Let’s go over each.

1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) caloric deficit.

Studies show that the only way to lose a significant amount of fat is to eat fewer calories (less energy) than you burn.

You see, the reason you’re carrying excess body fat is, over time, you consistently ate more calories than you burned. And the only way to get rid of that excess fat is to do the opposite: eat less than you burn.

When you do this, you’re in a “caloric deficit” because, well, your energy intake is falling short of your body’s needs. It must get that additional energy from somewhere, though, and its go-to is fat stores.

Now, the larger the caloric deficit, the faster the weight loss, but if you make it too large (by eating too little), you’re going to run into various problems related to “starvation dieting.”

We want to avoid that, but we also want to push the envelope as much as we can. That is, we want to be aggressive in our fat loss efforts, but not reckless.

And that’s why I recommend that you set your calorie deficit at 20 to 25% (eat 20 to 25% less calories than you burn every day).

Research shows that this will allow you to lose fat rapidly without losing muscle.

If you follow the rest of the steps in this article, you also shouldn’t run into much in the way of hunger or cravings, either.

Sure, you might feel twinges now and then, but nothing like what most people associate with “dieting.”

Want to learn more about how to calculate how many calories you should eat? Check out this article.

2. Eat a high-protein diet.

When we’re talking body composition, protein is the most important macronutrient by a long shot.

Studies show that eating adequate protein helps you…

The bottom line is high-protein dieting beats low-protein in every way, really, and especially when you’re cutting.

So, what’s the right amount of protein then?

Well, when you’re looking to lose fat, then you should eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

And if you’re very overweight (25%+ body fat in men and 30%+ in women), then this can be reduced to around 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day.

Want to know more about how much protein you should eat? Check out this article.

3. Do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting.

There are many ways to train your muscles, and when the goal is gaining muscle definition as quickly as possible, nothing beats heavy compound weightlifting.

It’s better than workout machines, “pump” classes, bodyweight exercises, Yoga, Pilates, and everything else you can do to develop your muscles.

What do I mean by “heavy compound” lifting, though?

Well, by “compound,” I mean focusing on compound exercises, which are those that target multiple large muscle groups, such as the squat, bench press, military press, and deadlift.

And by “heavy,” I mean lifting weights that are above 75% of your one-rep max (weights that you can do 12 reps or less with before failing).

The main reason heavy compound weightlifting is so effective is it’s the best way to overload your muscles, which is the primary trigger for muscle growth.

By lifting heavy weights (and progressing to heavier and heavier weights as you get stronger), you create tremendous amounts of tension in your muscles, and this tells them to grow.

I think you can figure out how this benefits you when you’re restricting your calories for fat loss.

In short, it allows you to minimize muscle loss while dieting, or, depending on your circumstances, even gain muscle while you’re losing fat.

Want to know how to build an effective weightlifting routine? Check out this article.

4. Strategically use cardio to burn fat faster.

The best way to include cardio in a weight loss regimen is to do as little as needed to reach your desired rate of weight loss and stay fit, and no more. 

For best results do . . .

  • At least two low- to moderate-intensity cardio workouts per week of 20-to-40 minutes each. 
  • One HIIT workout per week if you enjoy it.
  • No more than 2-to-3 hours of cardio per week.
  • Cardio and weightlifting on separate days. If that isn’t possible, lift weights first and try to separate the two workouts by at least 6 hours.

Although you’ll often hear fitness gurus tout HIIT as the most effective kind of cardio for fat loss, this isn’t true. Moderate-intensity, steady-state cardio is just as good at fat-burning, easier to recover from, and doesn’t sap your motivation or energy as much as HIIT, which is why I recommend you do it for the majority of your cardio workouts.

5. Take fat loss supplements that actually work.

I saved this for last because it’s the least important.

Unfortunately, no amount of weight loss pills and powders are going to give you the body you want.

In fact,  most fat loss supplements are completely worthless.

But, here’s the good news:

If you know how to drive fat loss with proper eating and exercise, like we’ve just covered, then certain supplements can help speed up the process.

Based on my personal experience training for over 10 years, and working with thousands of people, I’m comfortable saying that a proper weight loss supplementation routine can increase fat loss by about 30 to 50%.

In other words, if you can lose 1 pound of fat per week through training and diet (which you can), you can lose 1.3 to 1.5 pounds of fat per week by adding the right supplements.

And here’s those supplements:

3 to 6 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight per day

Caffeine raises the number of calories you burn and also increases strength, muscle endurance, and anaerobic performance.

I get my caffeine from my pre-workout supplement PULSE, which contains several other natural ingredients proven to boost workout performance.

It increases energy, improves mood, sharpens mental focus, increases strength and endurance, and reduces fatigue…without unwanted side effects or the dreaded post-workout crash.

It’s also naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk.

Lastly, it contains no proprietary blends and each serving delivers nearly 20 grams of active ingredients scientifically proven to improve performance.

Compare that to other popular pre-workout powders and you’ll quickly see that PULSE gives you a lot more for your money.

So, if you want to feel focused, tireless, and powerful in your workouts…and if you want to say goodbye to the pre-workout jitters, upset stomachs, and crashes for good…then you want to try PULSE today.

0.1 to 0.2 milligrams of yohimbine per kilogram of bodyweight before fasted exercise.

Do you want to lose stubborn fat faster and preserve muscle while cutting?

FORGE is a natural pre-workout fat burner that’s designed to be used specifically when exercising in a fasted state.

It was created with three very specific goals in mind:

To maximize the amount of fat you lose while training on an empty stomach.

To minimize the amount of muscle you lose while training in this state.

To help you maintain intensity and focus in your workouts, which can wane when you’re “training on empty.”

And it does just that with clinically effective doses of beta-Hydroxy beta-methylbutyric acid (HMB), yohimbine, and CDP-choline.

Together, these molecules decrease fat mass–and “stubborn fat” in particular–when taken before fasted exercise, reduce exercise-induced muscle damage, and improve attentional performance.

Thus, FORGE helps you lose fat faster, preserve muscle, and maintain training intensity and mental sharpness while cutting.

So, if you want to get leaner faster, and especially in the “hard to lose” spots like the hips, thighs, and belly, then you want to try FORGE today.

1 to 2 servings of PHOENIX per day.

Do you want to lose fat faster without giving up coffee and pre-workout?

And without upset stomachs, jitters, nausea, or the dreaded post-workout crash?

Well, PHOENIX is a 100% natural and caffeine-free fat burner that helps you lose fat faster in three ways:

1. It increases your metabolic rate.

2. It amplifies the power of fat-burning chemicals produced by your body.

3. It increases the feeling of fullness from food.

In short, it speeds up your metabolism, helps your body burn fat more efficiency, and helps you control hunger and cravings and maintain high energy levels.

It also contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk.

So, if you want to burn more fat every day and have an easier time sticking to your diet without having to pump yourself full of harsh stimulants or potentially harmful chemicals, then you want to try PHOENIX today.

What About Using Detox Teas to “Detox”?

To answer that question, we have to start at the beginning:

What are “toxins” and how does our body process them?

Well, toxins are poisonous substances that you ingest or inhale. Plenty are manmade, but nature is overflowing with them as well. 

For example, caffeine and alcohol are toxins, the atmosphere contains toxins like ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and natural sources of water contain a whole host of dangerous contaminants like arsenic, fluoride, mercury, and cyanide.

The reality is modern living bombards your body with toxins every day, and if it didn’t have an effective way to dispose of them, you wouldn’t last long.

Fortunately, we do in the form of complex organic and chemical systems that eliminate harmful substances from our bodies and thus protect against disease and dysfunction.

The liver is the first line of defense because one of its primary jobs is transforming harmful chemicals in the body into harmless ones that can be excreted through urine, sweat, and feces. The kidneys help the body remove toxins and waste products as well.

Detox tea hucksters like to play on these facts by claiming that their products help “cleanse” the liver and kidneys, but this simply isn’t true.

First, the liver and kidneys don’t store toxins like a sponge, waiting for a good squeeze.

Instead, they turn toxic chemicals and waste products into molecules that can be safely removed from the body.

Second, you can’t boost your liver or kidney function with teas or supplements.

Instead, you can help them have an easier time of it by eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and limiting your consumption of toxins.

Another claim that’s often made to sell detox teas is that they “cleanse” your colon of toxic sludge lodged in your intestinal walls. This sounds healthy and pooping a lot brings your weight down, so it’s no surprise that many people go in for it.

Well, while it’s certainly true that the laxatives in many detox teas can make you poop a lot, they’re not ridding you of noxious toxic waste. It’s just poop that would otherwise come out.

Pooping is great, but there’s no scientific evidence that forcing yourself to poop a lot confers any health benefits.

Find the Best Diet for You in Just 60 Seconds

How many calories should you eat? What about "macros?" What foods should you eat? Take our 60-second quiz to get science-based answers to these questions and more.

Take the Quiz

The 4 Best Ways to “Detox” Your Body

Unfortunately, there are no “weird tricks” or simple shortcuts to getting and staying healthy.

You can’t erase or even counterbalance the damage of an unhealthy lifestyle by drinking detox teas or taking supplements.

If you want to live a long, healthy, vital life, healthy habits are the name of the game. Let’s take a look at them here.

1. Exercise Regularly

Exercising at least 2 to 3 times per week is the easiest way to improve more or less every aspect of your health.

If you want bonus points, do a combination of resistance training and cardio, and if you want even more credit, include mobility work in your routine, too.

2. Eat Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables

Just because you can eat a nutritionally bankrupt diet and be lean and muscular doesn’t mean that you should.

There are good reasons why people that eat higher amounts of fruits and vegetables are, on the whole, healthier and more likely to live longer, disease-free lives than those who don’t eat enough.

They plant-based foods provide the body with essential vitamins and minerals, as well as other types of phytonutrients that confer a variety of health benefits.

Two good examples of this are sulforaphane and anthocyanins, which are found mainly in broccoli and blueberries, respectively. These molecules confer a variety of health benefits, but are not found on food labels, which focus only on essential nutrients.

“Nonvital” phytonutrients like these, however, are one of the major reasons why a multivitamin can’t completely replace a vegetable-rich diet.

This is why the first commandment of healthy dieting is eating a variety of plants and vegetables, ranging from dark, leafy greens to onions and garlic, colorful fruits, cruciferous vegetables, and more.

Now, it can be argued that being lean and muscular and exercising regularly negates many of the deleterious effects of a nutritionally weak diet, but why use that as an excuse to eat poorly when you can have the best of both worlds?

That is, why not reap the immense benefits from both “healthy dieting” and exercise?

This is why I recommended earlier that you get at least 80% of your daily calories from nutritious foods and no more than 20% from “treats.”

For example, I get the majority of my calories from foods like these:

  • Avocados
  • Greens (chard, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach)
  • Bell peppers
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Mushrooms
  • Baked potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Banana & berries
  • Low-fat yogurt
  • Eggs
  • Seeds (flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower)
  • Beans (green, black, garbanzo, kidney, navy, pinto)
  • Almonds, pecans, cashews, peanuts
  • Barley, oats, quinoa, brown rice
  • Halibut, cod, tilapia, sea bass, tuna
  • Lean beef, lamb, venison
  • Chicken, turkey

And if I’m in the mood for something sweet, chocolate, ice cream, cookies, and/or muffins are my go-tos.

3. Don’t Smoke or Abuse Alcohol

Smoking weakens your immune system, and increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and just about every other illness you can think of.

It also dramatically increases your risk of death at every age (not just when you’re old).

Unless it’s abused, alcohol isn’t quite as dangerous, but it’s also far from “healthy.”

Drinkers love to believe that moderate alcohol intake is perfectly safe and even beneficial, but that’s not quite true, and what they want to think is “moderate consumption” is more like alcoholism.

This is why minimizing your alcohol intake is associated with a lower risk of death and disease.

So, if you want to keep your body as “clean” and functional as possible, then you want to limit your use of cigarettes and alcohol or avoid them altogether.

Some Nutritionists Charge Hundreds of Dollars for This Diet "Hack" . . .

. . . and it's yours for free. Take our 60-second quiz and learn exactly how many calories you should eat, what your "macros" should be, what foods are best for you, and more.

Take the Quiz

4. Get Enough Quality Sleep

woman sleeping

Sleep poorly for too long, and the consequences can be dire. Sleep well, though, and the benefits can be surprisingly far-reaching.

When you give your body enough high-quality sleep, many welcome things happen…

The bottom line is good sleep hygiene is like a good exercise routine: it improves your life in just about every way.

The Bottom Line on Detox Tea

Detox teas have become wildly popular because people love to believe in magic bullets for losing weight and getting healthy.

Unfortunately, “teatoxing” doesn’t help you lose weight for any reason other than it involves starving yourself, and detox teas do nothing for your body’s natural detoxification systems (your liver and kidneys).

In short, the whole kit and caboodle is a smoke and mirrors scam.

The good news, though, is you absolutely can lose weight quickly, safely, and healthily. All you have to do is follow the advice in this article:

  1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) caloric deficit.
  2. Eat a high-protein diet.
  3. Do a lot of heavy compound weightlifting.
  4. Use high-intensity interval training to burn fat faster.
  5. Take fat loss supplements that actually work.

What’s your take on detox tea? Have anything else you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below!

Scientific References +