Smoothies are an easy and quick solution for people who are short on time. There are a lot of good smoothie options to choose from, but there are options that will make your smoothie healthier if you’re trying to lose weight.
Smoothies with reduced or low fat varieties, unsweetened additives, and high in protein, or have ingredients high in nutrients, like chia seeds, flax seeds, spinach, and kale, are the healthiest smoothies for weight loss.
Add fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, and bananas to your smoothies to give them a sweet (yet healthy) addition to most of these diet friendly smoothie recipes.
Top 5 Best Smoothies for Weight loss
1. Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- 3 cups of frozen strawberries
- 1 fresh, ripe banana
- 1/2 avocado
- 3 cups frozen mango
- 1/2 cup low fat 5% Greek yogurt, or dairy free yogurt
- 1/8 tsp almond extract
- chai seeds or flax seeds
- 1 scoop protein powder
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
2. Berry Beet Smoothie
- 3 cups of mixed berries frozen berries
- 1 ripe banana
- 1/2 of a small beetroot
- 1 cup spinach, 1 1/2 ounce
- Chai seeds or Flax seeds
- 1 scoop protein powder
- 2 cups coconut water
- 1 cup ice cubes
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
Each serving contains:
3. Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie
- 1 cup frozen strawberries, 3 ounces
- 1 cup frozen raspberries, 3 ounces
- 1 ripe banana
- 1/2 Avocado
- 1/4 cup peanut butter powder
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 scoop protein powder
- 1 or 2 cups water, depending on how thick you want your smoothie.
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
4. Mega Mango Smoothie
- 2 cups frozen mango cubes
- 1 apple
- 1 orange
- chai or flax seeds
- 1 scoop protein powder
- 1 cup fresh orange or mango juice.
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
5. Cheeky Cherry Smoothie
- 3 cups frozen cherries, pitted
- 1 large banana
- 1/2 cup low fat 5% Greek style yogurt, or dairy free yogurt
- 1/2 Teaspoon almond extract
- 1 scoop protein powder
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
Please note that these recipes may contain common allergens like nuts or dairy. Adjust ingredients as needed for dietary restrictions.
Homemade Smoothies vs Store Smoothies
Smoothies made at home are a lot healthier than smoothies that you buy from stores as smoothies that you buy from stores contain a lot of added sugar.
At home you can hand pick fresh ingredients to make your smoothies are healthy and suit your nutritional needs. Smoothies bought in store contain less fresh ingredients and contain preservatives.
When purchasing a smoothie from a store you are hoping it is made from actual high-quality food, but you have to take their word for it. When making smoothies at home you choose what to put to into them, so can ensure they are high-quality.
Making smoothies at home is a lot cheaper than buying them in stores. For example, the average cost of at smoothie made at home would cost between £1-£1.50 depending on the smoothie, where ad in store they can range between £2.50 and £5.
This means that by smoothies in stores will cost you around 2-3 times more money than if you make your smoothies at home. My favourite blender is the NUTRIBULLET PRO 900 SERIES!
We have a clear WINNER! Homemade Smoothies are by far a much better option than store smoothies, as they are both far cheaper and a lot healthier option.
5 Ingredients to Avoid Putting in a Smoothie
When making a smoothie just a few poor choices when choosing your ingredients, and you will end up with a high calorie, high sugar smoothie instead of a healthy 1.
Here are 5 ingredients to avoid when making your smoothies…
1. Sweeteners
Moet smoothies contain fruit in, so no further sweetener is required. I would never add sugar: white sugar, table sugar or honey, as you’re already getting enough sweetness from the fruit.
2. Flavoured Yogurt
Some flavoured yogurts contain around 26 g of sugar per 6 oz Containers, which is over the daily recommended amount for women, and 2/3 of the daily recommendation for men in just 1 small yogurt.
3. Canned Fruit
Canned fruit may seem like the quickest, cheapest, and easiest option for adding fruits to your smoothie, but most varieties of canned fruit are full of syrups which adds to the amount of sugar in your smoothie.
4. Sugary Fruit Juice
For the same reason that you want to avoid flavoured yogurt, adding fruit juice will largely increase the amount of sugar going into your smoothie.
5. Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt
Adding ice cream or frozen yogurt to a smoothie can be tempting to make that it extra sweet and creamy. However, this will highly increase the amount of sugar in your smoothie and turn it into a less healthy, dessert-style milkshake.
Top 3 Healthiest Green Smoothies
Kale Smoothie
- 2 cups of kale leaves
- 1 large banana
- 1/4 cup chopped pineapple
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/4 cup of low fat 5% Greek yogurt, or dairy free yogurt
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
Mango Spinach Smoothie
- 2 cups of baby spinach
- 2 cups of frozen mango chunks
- 1 banana
- 1 cup almond milk
- chai seeds or flax seeds
- Vanilla protein powder
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
Spinach and Kale Smoothie
- 2 cups of baby spinach
- 2 cups of kale leaves
- 1/2 avocado
- 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
- 1/2 squeezed lime
- chai or flax seeds
- Vanilla protein powder
Put the ingredients in a blender and blitz until smooth.
Add as much water as you want depending on how thick you like your smoothies. Serve immediately for a better taste, or keep refrigerated and drink within 24 hours.
Please note that these recipes may contain common allergens like nuts or dairy. Adjust ingredients as needed for dietary restrictions.
Top Smoothie Tips to Take Away
As discussed when choosing whether to make your own smoothies or by from stores, you should always choose to make your own, as it is a much cheaper and healthier option.
Always use fresh ingredients in your smoothies and do not use sweeteners, or any high sugar ingredients to make your smoothie taste sweeter, as the fruits in the smoothies will do that for you.
Smoothies are a great addition to a healthy diet to lose weight, but it is important to drink them along with having a balanced and healthy diet and training plan in order to lose weight efficiently.
Hopefully you will get the chance to make some smoothies listed above, and other healthy smoothies and find some that you enjoy.
If you have any questions or want to share your favourite smoothie recipes, feel free to leave a comment below.