There are a lot of different ways to lose weight. Many people do this by watching the calorific intake of their food while others engage in exercise. Yet other people incorporate what they drink into their weight loss plan. To use weight loss smoothies or weight loss juicing, you must be cautious as this can easily spike up your calorific intake and make you go over your normal daily intake which can cause weight gain rather than reduce it.
Sugar consumption is a major disadvantage of both juicing and blending, as both can result to an increase in the levels of blood sugar. Blended fruits and veggies tend to be less satisfying than natural fruits and vegetables. Thus, you tend to take enormous quantity of juice and smoothies than natural forms which can hike your colorific intake. However, smoothies tend to fill you up more than juice because of the presence of pulp, fibres and skin.
A 2014 study  found that on average, fruit juices are made up of 45.5 grams of fructose per liter, roughly the same amount of fructose found in a liter of soda which is 50 grams.. It was also found that Minute Maid apple juice is made up of 66 grams of fructose per liter, which is much more than the amount found in Coca-Cola, which should really be a cause for great concern.
Benefits of Juicing Vs Blending – Weight Loss Juicing
The benefits of juicing include higher concentration of nutrients per ounce, boosting your fruit and vegetable consumption, and an easy way to eat your required daily amount of fruits and vegetables especially if you find it difficult to eat vegetable.
Juicing, however, deprives you of essential parts of the fruits and vegetables which is the fibrous content of the pulp and the membranes.
Blending into smoothies on the other hand, provides you with all the nutrients in the natural fruit, although you may find the texture difficult to swallow.
A smoothie contains fruits and/or vegetables, but other ingredients, like milk, yogurt or protein powder, may as well be added to it. Smoothies are made up of lots of ingredients like flaxseed, green tea, herbs and so on. They serve as an additional option for boosting your intake of fruits and vegetables but they can as well increase your calorie intake overall.
They may contain or not contain the fiber from the source material. It depends on what you want and the equipment you use like the blender.
Both blending and juicing have to be done with caution especially if you are on weight loss plan because they have the tendency of increasing the level of your blood sugar faster than the natural food and can easily hike your calories intake.
Juicing and Weight Loss
Juicing by itself will not necessarily result in low body weight. To gain a healthy body weight, you must be able to eat less calorie than you expend. It depends on the quantity of the juice or smoothie you take and the calorific contents of it.
For instance, if your daily calorie requirements are roughly 1600, and you eat 2100, you will gain weight, which may work against your weight loss goal. For a guide on how to check your daily calorific intake, the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, SuperTracker’s Food Tracker and my Recipe may be of an immense help.
Obtaining Doctor’s Recommendation for Your Weight Loss Smoothies and Juicing
Juicing is not recommended for everybody. If you are suffering from diabetes or kidney disease, you may be required to reduce or watch your intake of specific nutrients like carbohydrates, potassium or phosphorus. Adding specific fruits or vegetables to your smoothies may not be recommended. For instance, fruits like melon and banana are high in potassium, and are not good for people with kidney disease.
Again, a juice made of mostly fruits can be high in carbohydrates, and could result to an increase in the level of blood sugar, which is risky for diabetics. Juicing may contain a huge amount of calories. However, it depends on the size and the content of the juice. Excess calories can boost weight gain and complicate the issue you want to avoid. Speak to your doctor, registered dietitian, or other healthcare professional for recommendation on the healthy juicing option for you.
You may wish to try the following weight loss smoothies. To get full information on how to prepare them and the calorific content of each of the smoothies, follow this link.
- Mango Smoothie Surprise
- Blueberry Smoothie
- Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie
- Vanilla Yogurt and Blueberry Smoothie
- Peach Smoothie
- Lemon-Orange Citrus Smoothie
- Pineapple Smoothie
- Strawberry Smoothie