Notes

WEIGHT LOSS SMOOTHIE INGREDIENTS

Weight loss smoothies need to be low in calories, but should ideally be high in nutrients. That allows you to cut back on calories to lose weight, but provides your body with sufficient vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients important for good health. This will help the weight loss process too. If you are nutritionally deficient, you’re more likely to be tired, struggle with food cravings, feel sluggish or suffer outright ill health.

1. ADD MILK/ WATER

Water has, of course, zero calories, and will be the lowest calorie liquid, along with tea, that you can add to your smoothie. While water has no calories, its also essentially has no nutritional value. Adding some form of milk (or coconut water) will add micronutrients and protein to your smoothie.

As a rule of thumb, don’t add fruit juices to a weight loss smoothie. First of all, you’re adding whole fruit to your smoothie, so you don’t have to add fruit juice too. It’s overkill. Furthermore, in fruit juice the fiber has been removed from the fruit, leaving it high in sugar and calories. Adding green juices is fine – in fact great!

Below, you’ll find a list of different liquids to add to your smoothie, along with their calorie content (serving size 1 cup). As you can see almond milk is a popular choice for smoothies, because it is low in calories, but still provides valuable nutrition. Coconut water is also popular, but tends to be harder to get hold of (unless you’re fortunate enough to live where they grow!) and is more expensive.

1 cup Calories
Almond Milk 35
Coconut water 46
Skim Milk 80
Soymilk 100
Hempmilk 100
1% Milk 110
Rice Milk 120
2% Milk 130
Vanilla Rice Milk 130
Oat Milk 130
Whole Milk 150


2. ADD CARBS (AND FIBER)

Fruit and vegetables will make up most of the carbohydrate and fiber content, and much of the nutrients in your smoothie. Fruit makes smoothies tasty, but tends to be higher in calories than vegetables. Just watch your portion sizes when adding fruit. Aim for no more than 2 cups of fruit per serving. If you can, try to add leafy vegetables to your smoothie. If you’ve never had a green smoothie, start by adding a ½ cup of raw baby spinach. You wont taste it!

3. ADD PROTEIN

Weight loss smoothies that serve a meal replacement (e.g. instead of breakfast) should ideally include protein. Protein helps you feel full, and helps make your smoothie more of a meal. Protein is also important to maintain muscle mass. During weight loss, you tend to lose some muscle along with body fat. How much muscle you lose will depend to some degree on how much protein you’re consuming. Furthermore, if you’re exercising (as you should), fuelling your muscles with protein will aid recovery from your workout and maximize your results. So any post-workout smoothie should include protein. Good low-calorie protein sources include the following (where possible, try to choose low-fat options):

Greek yogurt (twice as much protein as regular yogurt)
Yogurt
Kefir
Silken tofu
Cottage cheese
Ricotta cheese
Protein powder (Whey, hemp, or brown rice protein)
Beans
4. ADD FAT

Fat really has got a bad rep. Yes, fat is high in calories, but fat in moderation has it’s place in good health and even weight loss. Fat helps your body to absorb certain vitamins and is vital for proper growth, development and general good health. Fat is also important because it provides taste to foods, smoothness to smoothies, and, significantly, helps you feel full and less hungry. Just think about, when was the last time you ate a no-fat diet-food and felt happy about it and satisfied? Likely, never. Incredibly, some healthy fats (e.g. in olive oil, avocado) can actually help you lose belly fat!

Adding a little fat to your weight loss smoothie will make it more effective in warding off hunger and keeping you healthy. Just be sure to add healthy (monounsaturated/ polyunsaturated) fats. If your smoothie doesn’t have any ingredients that contain fat, add 1 tablespoon of healthy fat per serving:

Nuts/ nut butters/ seeds (also doubles as a protein source)
Avocado
Coconut oil
Flax seeds/ Flaxseed oil
Chia seeds
Tahini (sesame paste)