Fruit smoothies - why I wouldn't drink them
Back when all I ever wanted to do was loose weight, I used to make many fruit smoothies thinking that they were 'oh so great', and would help me on my weight loss journey... Oh how wrong was I !?
Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all smoothies are awful because that is not the case, green smoothies with plenty of veg are perfectly fine, in my eyes anyway, all I am simply saying is that fruit smoothies should come with warning signs.
What warning sings are these?
- They are full of sugar
- Thus, they will spike your sugar levels
- Hinder your weight loss progress
Why will it hinder my progress?
If you provide your body with more energy/sugar than it needs, the excess sugar is converted by the liver into fatty acids, thus causing fat storage. However, it also depends on the individual and when you would consume the smoothie, let me explain...
Lets say you are having a fruit smoothie every morning sitting at your desk, that then means every morning you are spiking your sugar levels, causing an excess of sugar to be readily available to turn into fat. However, if you have a fruit smoothie before a workout, I guess it's not so bad as you can use the natural sugar for energy, just be careful not to have too much where you become sluggish and end up crashing down from the spike.
A highly active individual who is used to burning a lot calories in a day, or already has, or workouts to develop a muscular frame, would be less affect. This is because muscle burns fat! Well technically anyway... Basal Metabolic Rate refers to the amount of calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. The more muscular the individual, the higher their BMR will be, meaning they will burn more calories naturally doing nothing. Therefore, the active individual with more muscle mass will be less affected by the sugar, as their body will be able to use the sugar for energy, burning it off through exercise or just naturally resting.
Lets talk smoothie ingredients
If you have a fruit smoothie, say for example:
- 1 banana (90g)
- Frozen Berries (150g)
- Mango Chunks (100g)
- Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt (100g) (Low fat yogurt is an obvious choice for a dieter)
I entered the above information into MyFitnessPal, and this smoothie comes in at 304calories not bad aye? 64g Carbs - 50g Sugar- 2g Fat - 7g Protein
The problem with this smoothie is not the calorie content, it's not even the carbohydrate content, it's simply the sugar. Putting 50g of sugar into your body through one 'healthy drink' is rather a lot, I think anyway, I personally do not drink calories (unless its alcohol, of course).
How can I lower the sugar content of my smoothie?
You don't have to cut out all fruit, just simply cut down on it by only having 1 or 2 portions per smoothie.
You can also change the type of yogurt that you use (if you use yogurt that is) to a Greek yogurt with a higher protein/less sugar content (Total 0% FAGE is a great yogurt for this).
If you have whey protein, you can also add this into your smoothie, I would recommend getting a vanilla flavored protein, as this goes especially well.
However, if you are actually looking for a higher carb smoothie, to use as a pre-workout or post-workout, but you also do not want the high sugar content, you can add oats to your smoothie instead, this would be my choice of complex carb (slower releasing/less blood sugar spiking carb).
Amending the smoothie just slightly
- 1 banana (90g)
- Frozen Berries (100g)
- 1 scoop of MyProtein vanilla protein - (25g)
- Toatl 0% Fage Yogurt (100g)
- 1 cup spinach
This smoothie comes in at 260calories, 29g Carbs - 21g Sugar - 2g Fat - 32g Protein
That's a difference of 44 calories, with 35 less grams of Carbs, 29 less grams of Sugar, and 25 more grams of Protein, compared to the first smoothie
Don't get me wrong, I am not a smoothie expert or even a nutritionist, I am simply saying be careful when your making your smoothies not to add too much fruit if your goal is simply weight loss and you are an inactive individual.
Do you make smoothies? Let me know what your favourite smoothie is... mine is one that includes peanutbutter :)
