Does Fit Tea Work? A Detailed Look at the Evidence

At the best of times, weight loss is a challenging task and people are constantly struggling with it.

Products like Fit Tea seem like a simple answer to this problem as they promise a radical solution to weight loss.

So, does Fit Tea work? Can you really lose weight with a tea to start off with and, if so, what makes Fit Tea special?

Well, to start off, we have to look at the tea itself and what people think of it.

What is Fit Tea?

Fit Tea is a brand of tea that has become popular lately, partly due to considerable support and promotion from celebrities. At its heart, the product is a form of green tea, with added organic herbs, including ginger and garcinia cambogia extract. At the same time, it also contains other ingredients, including honey, stevia, lemon juice and sea salt.

The general idea is that the tea is supposed to promote weight loss by increasing metabolism and also acting as a detox agent.

Now, many people do swear by it but, is Fit Tea any good or is it all just hype? In this post, we’re taking a detailed look at this question and the evidence actually present for Fit Tea,

Fit Tea Reviews

Like many products, there is a lot of hype and promotion that surrounds Fit Tea. In this case, the tea even has some celebrity endorsements, including Kylie Jenner, Brittany Spears, Hillary Duff, Kourtney Kardashian and a whole host of others.

And that doesn’t even consider all of the glowing reviews from other users.

So, is Fit Tea legit? The reviews and hype certainly suggests that it is but, how accurate are those views?

For one thing, it’s likely that the various celebrities are paid to endorse the brand. After all, the product placement is pretty overt, plus, celebrities getting paid to sponsor a product certainly isn’t a new concept.

The same practice can be seen with many other products and brands as well, particularly those that are associated with weight loss and appearance.

In many cases, celebrities don’t actually state that they are paid to endorse products (even though they’re supposed to) – but even so, it’s a pretty good bet that they are.

Because it’s likely that celebrities are being paid to endorse Fit Tea, we certainly can’t trust their views on it.

So, what about actual reviews?

Well, the products do seem to have passionate followers. The site Influenster offers a good indication of this. 

I also noticed that many of the reviews are long and detailed, which suggests that people were actually trying the tea. Nevertheless, the site is one that provides free products to reviewers - so the responses may be somewhat biased as a result. 

Even with that potential bias, it's clear that some people to enjoy the product and are seeing at least some success. 

There are also some negative reviews on the site. For example, one reviewer said that it gave them insomnia and didn't help with bowel movements at all. Others highlighted problems with the flavor.

A response to the previous review suggested that you can add cream and sugar to make the tea taste bearable. That's not a great practice for a product that's meant to help you lose weight.

Another option was adding lemon and honey. That's a healthier option. Even so, it's never encouraging when your tea doesn't taste good. This would also make it harder to drink the tea regularly. 

Problems with flavor aren't an unusual response either. I noticed the same comment in multiple reviews, including ones that were mostly positive. 

All of these reviews highlight one important thing about products like Fit Tea – it’s very difficult to get accurate information about whether they work. This is why it's so hard to answer the question 'does Fit Tea Work?'.

Much of this comes down to the placebo effect.

Basically, the placebo effect refers to the way that a given treatment or product can appear to work because the person expects it to. In some cases, that expectation can even be powerful enough to mean the person actually experiences outcomes.

One classic example of this is the use of sugar pills as painkillers. In fact, some doctors regularly prescribe placebos to patients because the effect is so powerful (1).

The placebo effect is particularly relevant for products that promote outcomes like weight loss or extra energy because individuals can’t objectively tell whether the product is working.

Now, in theory, you could do exactly the same thing before and after drinking Fit Tea and see if you lose any weight. But, that’s surprisingly difficult to do in practice. Instead, people tend to make subtle changes to their behavior and diet without even noticing it.

At the same time, even if you did find that you lost weight due to the tea, you still couldn’t be certain whether it was the tea itself that caused the weight loss, other aspects of your behavior or even just the simple approach of regularly having a low calorie hot drink.

Because of all these issues – it’s practically impossible to tell whether or not the tea works, simply from user experience.

The reviews even highlight this, as some people see little effects, while others appear to see large benefits. The most likely explanation for this is that some people are more objective and realistic about their outcomes than others.

At the same time, many people undergo a change in lifestyle when drinking the tea. That could involve watching their calories more, relying more on whole food and/or exercising regularly. All of those factors could contribute to weight loss and energy in their own right – making it difficult to know whether the tea itself was responsible for any observed outcomes.

Now, all of this doesn’t show whether the tea works. Thankfully though, we don’t have to rely on reviews to find out. Instead, we can take a look at what’s actually in the tea and whether or not it is likely to work.

How does Fit Tea Work?

Fit Tea is primarily promoted as a weight loss tool, with the site claiming that it can do the following:

All of these benefits sound great and it’s easy to see why the tea is appealing. However, there is actually little information about precisely how the tea is supposed to offer these benefits.

However, the implication is that the benefits come from the specific blend of herbs that are part of the tea. I’ll go into these ingredients in detail later on but they are as follows:

In theory, this combination of herbs is supposed to improve weight loss and give people more energy overall.

Additionally, some of these herbs can potentially have a laxative effect. This effect is often intentional, as many people view this as a form of detoxing. The underlying concept here is that the tea is going to help you get rid of toxins in your body.

However, the very idea of detoxing is misleading. We cannot actually use teas or other types of cleanses (like a water cleanse) to remove toxins. The biology simply doesn’t work like that. Instead, our body has its own systems for dealing with toxins and these work.

Now, some people do claim that it is possible for our systems to get overloaded, meaning that organs like our kidneys cannot function effectively at removing toxins.

But, even if this does occur, a detox isn’t going to fix the issue. Instead, decreasing the amount of processed food you eat and turning to whole and healthy food instead can be much more powerful.

Objectively, any increase in bowel movements could potentially increase weight loss – just not in a useful way. The same is true for any increase in urination, which can also happen with the tea.

In both cases, you may be decreasing your weight but it isn’t a permanent decrease. Plus, you aren’t changing your fat ratio in any way, so this type of weight loss doesn’t offer any long-term benefit.

But, that weight loss may be one reason why people are so excited about the tea because they do end up looking slightly better, at least in the short-term.

Do You Have to Exercise when Drinking Fit Tea?

Even the marketing for Fit Tea specifically says that the tea is designed to work as part of a healthy diet and exercise. So, if you want to lose weight with it, you do have to engage in exercise.

Likewise, the company gives this advice to get the best results:

Of course, you would tend to lose weight and gain energy by following the rest of that plan anyway, without even touching the tea. In fact, all of that advice is fairly common-sense for weight loss.

This idea is completely different from all of the hype that surrounds Fit Tea. Instead, the hype makes it sound like the product is a revolutionary way to lose weight, which it clearly isn’t.

Is Fit Tea for Everyone?

As I mentioned earlier, the reviews for Fit Tea don’t really provide evidence about whether or not the tea works for weight loss. Instead, the ingredients are going to provide much more information.

Before I get into them though, I wanted to point out something interesting from the Fit Tea website. Under their FAQs, they have this question and answer combination.

To a degree, that answer is standard. A company can’t claim you will lose a certain amount of weight without creating a legal problem for themselves. However, in this case, the company isn’t even claiming that people will lose weight. Instead, they avoid answering the question altogether.

That’s a concerning approach to take.

After all, the company strongly focuses on the potential for people to lose weight, yet, when you get down to it they refuse to commit to that idea.

While the information in the FAQ doesn’t prove anything, it is one more piece of evidence that suggests Fit Tea simply does not live up to the hype.

It's also worth noting that research suggests that metabolic outcomes of things like tea and caffeine are also strongly dependent on the individual (2). This may contribute to why some people seem to observe positive effects from Fit Tea while others don't.

Fit Tea Ingredients

So far, most of the evidence suggests that Fit Tea isn’t particularly effective. But, the real answers come from the ingredients. So, let’s take a look at them.

As with other products, the ingredients here are given in order of quantity – so the main ingredients are green tea and Oolong Wu Yi, which is a type of black tea.

But, it is worth noting that the company doesn't give any information on quantities. As such, you have no idea how much you are consuming of any of these ingredients. ​

Likewise, Fit Tea recommends consuming one cup of tea a day. That's a fairly low amount and would make it harder to get any health benefits. For example, many of the studies showing benefits of green tea have suggested that people need 3-4 cups of green tea per day, if not more (3). 

If you're going to try that approach, I would recommend drinking green tea, not Fit Tea. For one thing, Fit Tea's safety testing will be based on drinking one cup per day. So, it's hard to know what impacts drinking multiple would have on health. ​

Green Tea

Green tea has a long history as a healthy drink and has also been the subject of a significant amount of research. Interest in this drink often focuses on a compound called Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which is thought to be able to improve metabolism. (4).

At the same time, green tea also contains caffeine, which does have a mild impact on fat burning and is a stimulant overall (5). Nevertheless, green tea is a relatively minor source of caffeine compared to coffee.

Some research also suggests that caffeine and EGCG can work together in promoting the breakdown of fat (6) and experimental studies have indicated that green tea can promote fat burning (7,8,9) and even higher metabolism for some individuals (10,11,12).

In theory, this approach means that green tea can help promote increased weight loss.

But, not all studies agree with those outcomes. For example, one study showed no clinically relevant impact of green tea on fat mass for overweight or obese participants (13).

Some research does also support the idea that catechin-rich teas may offer benefits in terms of fat burning, which may be a result of interaction between​ the catechins and caffeine (14). Research suggest that consuming around 600 to 900 mg of catechins per day from tea may be most effective, with green tea offering the most benefits (15). However, results for this perspective have been mixed, with a meta analysis showing no clear positive outcome (16). 

Now, when it comes to tea in general, research does indicate that you take in a significant amount of the healthy components from the leaves when you drink it, especially in terms of antioxidants (17).

Nevertheless, many of the studies into green tea have been conducted on supplements, not on the tea itself, so it’s possible that the effects may not be as strong for drinking tea.

It's also worth noting that green tea extract is used in many other weight loss products (like Plexus Slim)​ and as a supplement in its own right. Yet, despite this, there is relatively little evidence to indicate that doing so helps with weight loss. That pattern suggests that the effects that green tea itself has on weight loss may also be relatively mild.

Plus honestly, if you want weight loss benefits from green tea, you're better off drinking that type of tea, rather than relying on something like Fit Tea.

Realistically, actual tea is likely to offer many more benefits than a hyped up weight loss product with extra ingredients. 

Oolong Wu Yi

Oolong Wu Yi is a type of black tea. As a general rule, black tea does not have the same strong reputation for weight loss that green tea does. Nevertheless, there is some hype surrounding Oolong tea and weight loss, especially as this type of tea does appear to have a strong role in Chinese tradition.

The company for Fit Tea claims that the tea helps to increase metabolism and burn fat, along with offering other health benefits. However, the site offers little evidence to support that general claim.

Nevertheless, while the research supporting oolong tea and weight loss is not as strong, there have been some studies indicating that the effect may be true (18,19).

So, both of these types of tea may contribute to weight loss, although the effect is unlikely to be very strong. Again, you could just rely on normal tea anyway. 

Other Ingredients

The two main teas within Fit Tea essentially act as a base for the tea, which suggests that at least some of the weight loss potential should come from the herbs. So, we’re going to take a look at them.

First on the list is Garcinia Cambogia extract. Now, this compound has been pretty popular recently, with some theories that it can help people to feel full and decrease their fat production (20,21). But, for the most part, these are just theories and there has been relatively little evidence that the herb can help with weight loss in humans (22,23).

Some of the other ingredients in the list are ones that have been associated with health benefits, such as pomegranate, ginger and even honey. However, despite those implications for health, none of these products are strongly associated with weight loss.

In fact, the arguments on Fit Tea for the association are fairly week too. For example, this is what the site has to say about the pomegranate.

So essentially, pomegranate helps with weight loss because it is natural and provides energy. That doesn’t even make sense.

Another couple of ingredients on the list are rooibos and matcha green tea. These are both types of tea. They have not been as well studied as oolong or green tea in general, but it’s likely that they share some of the same properties.

As such, they may also contribute to weight loss but again, not in a radical manner.

Most of the other ingredients seem to be mostly there for flavor rather than weight loss benefits. However, the other one that I want to point out is guarana (note, the company spells this fuarana on some of their ingredients lists, which is incorrect).

Guarana is a stimulant, like caffeine and is commonly found in energy drinks. As such, this compound may contribute to the energy that Fit Tea is supposed to offer. Likewise, it could potentially help with weight loss. But, that being said, guarana is a fairly common ingredient nowadays and it certainly doesn’t appear to have a dramatic impact on weight loss.

Herbs and Health

One of the outcomes of modern research has been growing interest in the impact of the foods that we eat. This is especially true for foods that come from plants, as there are many naturally occurring compounds that are associated with improved health.

For example, cocoa has been associated with improved cognitive outcomes and this has been connected to a specific class of compounds known as polyphenols (24).

At the same time, we’re only scratching the surface when it comes to healthy compounds that plants offer. In reality, there is still a lot we don’t know, even for the plants that have been heavily researched, like the coffee plant.

This means that there are many more potential benefits out there. But, at the same time, there is also the potential for plant-based compounds to cause harm, especially in the long-term.

One concerning outcome is that you often find people jumping on the bandwagon about the health benefits of specific compounds, especially herbs, long before the evidence is in. This happened with green coffee bean extract, which became popular for weight loss after Dr. Oz promoted it. Yet, it was later evident that most of the research surrounding the supplement was poor quality and the main study was entirely bogus (25).

Now, there is a huge number of different plants and herbs out there, many of which have unusual or unique compounds. This pattern combined with the time that research takes means that in many cases, it will take a long time before we truly know the health benefits and risks of supplementing with individual compounds or plants.

And, it would take much more time before we know the long-term outcomes, as most studies only focus on the short-term.

Yet, that doesn’t stop products like Fit Tea and many others from combining a bunch of herbs and plants and claiming that this is a great approach for health or weight loss.

As I’ve highlighted, some of these ingredients do have the potential for promoting weight loss. But, in most cases, the research is still pretty minimal.

At the same time, there haven’t been long-term studies looking into the safety of regularly supplementing with this combination of specific herbs.

After all, compounds from herbs can interact with one another and even with other types of medication.

One of the most well-known examples of this is St John’s Wort, which is commonly used for treating depression. This is an herbal supplement but it interacts with the contraceptive pill and can stop the pill from working effectively (26). The site Holistic Online also talks about a range of interactions between popular herbs, foods and medications. 

So, overall there is some evidence that individually the herbs in Fit Tea could help with weight loss but the research is still very limited. Plus, there is little evidence about the impacts of this combination of herbs, especially in the long-term.

Fit Tea Side Effects

As with many different products, there is the potential for side effects with Fit Tea.

Interestingly, the site for the company is incredibly vague about these side effects:

Now, Fit Tea does contain stimulants, particularly caffeine and this can result in side effects. For some people, these may include jitteriness, anxiety, irritability or a range of other issues. These symptoms are particularly common in people who are sensitive to caffeine.

Sensitivity to caffeine is normally pretty easy to spot and it’s normally best to avoid caffeine-containing products like Fit Tea if you are sensitive in this manner.

At the same time, there are other side effects to consider.

For example, the tea can act as a laxative, which can promote some bowel problems, including diarrhea and can also promote nausea and flatulence. In the long-term, use of the tea could potentially be dangerous, especially as these outcomes could lead to a nutrient imbalance.

Those side effects shouldn't be an issue if you are paying attention to your diet and your nutrient intake. However, they are certainly something to be aware of. ​

At the same time, you may also need to drink more water to make sure that you stay hydrated.

As I mentioned earlier, there is also the potential for the herbs to interfere with some medication. This may not be obvious if it does happen, so this is an area that you need to pay close attention to.

For the most part, these side effects are not horrible and they should be fairly easy to spot. However, they could easily cause significant problems if you were to drink the tea for an extended period of time.

The site Detoxdiy goes into some of these risks in more detail.

Overall, I’m not saying that the tea is unsafe but if you are going to drink it, then I recommend paying careful attention to the way that your body responds.

Fit Tea Cost and Customer Service

Fit Tea is primarily sold through the company’s website. The cost varies depending on the size that you are ordering but either way it is relatively expensive for tea.

Interestingly, the company doesn’t actually specify how much is in the bag but I would guess that it ends up being either one or two cups of tea per day.

There are also combinations available, which include supplements that the company offers. I’m not going to go into these supplements in any detail but, as a general rule, most weight loss supplements don’t actually work. They also have many of the same issues that I highlighted earlier about herbs and health.

There are other places to buy the tea and the supplements. For example, they are available on Amazon too. In this case, the products are a bit more expensive but you would typically get them faster.

Personally, I would always recommend ordering through Amazon, even with the extra cost. For the most part, Amazon tends to be pretty reliable about getting products to the customer. Likewise, when there is an issue (like the current one) the company is good at being upfront about it.

In contrast, some comments on the customer service from Fit Tea are concerning, like this one here:

Likewise, the company has a fairly low rating on the BBB, with a number of people complaining about delivery issues.

In most cases, the business didn’t even respond to the complaints made against it, which is not an encouraging practice.

Other times, people talk about multiple emails to the company. Sometimes people get a reply but other times the conversations seem to go around in circles.

I find it particularly concerning that people order products and simply do not get what they paid for.

Fit Tea versus Other Products

Regardless of what you think about the evidence for Fit Tea and its potential for weight loss, it’s clear that there are many other similar products out there. After all, Fit Tea is basically just a blend of different teas with some herbs thrown into the mix.

Other brands often take a similar approach, although the precise choice of teas and herbs may differ. For example, another one out there is Kou Tea and there are many many more.

In fact, detox tea is a category of its own and you can even find this type of product in grocery stores and in health food stores.

So, even if you are sold on the idea of a detox tea, I’d suggest shopping around and finding one that seems reliable and isn’t excessively expensive.

Is Fit Tea Worth It?

Most of the evidence that supports Fit Tea is associated with tea (particularly green tea) or with the caffeine content. In contrast, the research for the other herbs in the tea is much more limited and is mostly inconclusive.

It's also worth noting that you're only supposed to drink Fit Tea once per day, yet many of the studies indicating weight loss benefits of green tea or simply tea often highlight drinking multiple cups per day (27).​

Likewise, the potential of Fit Tea for weight loss may also be associated simply with the fact that you are having a hot drink. Some people find that doing so can help to suppress the appetite, especially as you typically aren’t eating at the same time.

With this in mind, Fit Tea may help to promote weight loss but no more so than standard green tea will.

Now, the research on the other herbs has been fairly limited, so it is possible that some of these offer weight loss benefits.

However, there is also the potential that these will have negative health outcomes.

Realistically, you’re better off simply relying on either coffee or green tea, as they both have a long history of safe use and may well promote health and weight loss.

But, regardless of the type of product that you choose, tea certainly isn’t a revolutionary approach for weight loss. After all, even Fit Tea itself focuses on the idea that you need to also have a healthy diet and exercise.

All of this brings me back to the original question: Does Fit Tea work?

In terms of all the hype that surrounds the tea, I’d say no. The tea simply doesn’t live up to the claims and isn’t all that good for weight loss.

But, if you look at the tea as a way to maybe make weight loss a little bit easier then yes, it could work. However, those benefits come mostly from the tea and the caffeine, not from the things specific to Fit Tea. So, you could get similar benefits from just green tea.

Personally, I’d always recommend green tea because ingesting additional herbs simply because they may offer health benefits is a slightly concerning practice.