A weight loss plan that incorporates smoothies can be a great way to lose weight. Commercial diet shakes, like Slim-Fast, help you to stay full, but they are loaded with sugar. When you make your own smoothies instead, you can get more nutrition with fewer calories. You also get to create smoothies to suit your exact tastes.
Features
A smoothie weight loss plan helps you to reduce your overall calorie intake by replacing meals with healthy smoothies. You can replace just one meal with a smoothie or all, depending on your desires and goals. To create your own smoothie, you simply start with a liquid base, like water, milk or juice, and add fruits, vegetables nuts, or anything else you want.
Benefits
In most cases, the ingredients of a smoothie are healthy. Though you are drinking them, you’ve added whole fruits and vegetables, which means they still have the necessary fiber to keep you full. These foods are not only low in calories, but they are also high in nutritional value, with many vitamins and minerals. Drinking smoothies allows you to have a low-calorie meal that keeps you full, helping you to avoid other high-calorie foods.
Misconceptions
It’s a mistake to think that all smoothies are created equally. If you are adding several ingredients, there is a good chance that it is a high-calorie smoothie. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t still healthy, but you will not lose weight drinking them. Some smoothies from smoothie chain restaurants even exceed 1,000 calories per drink, because they add ice cream, sugar or nut butters. Even though a smoothie is healthy, you still need to count the calories of your ingredients if you want to lose weight.
Meal Replacement Tips
A typical smoothie does not include much protein. If you are going to replace meals with your smoothies, include a source of protein in the smoothie, such as protein powder, tofu, yogurt or milk. This will help fill you up as well.
Decreasing Calories
If you want to decrease the calories in your smoothie, consider using water as the base. Other liquid bases–milk, soy milk and juice–can add 100 or 200 calories to your smoothie. You should also avoid adding nut butters, as these are dense in calories. Try adding bulk to your smoothie with spinach, which is low in calories.
Photo Credit
- fruit smoothie image by Shirley Hirst from Fotolia.com
