Best Time To Drink Green Juice For Weight Loss

Everyone is intersted in losing weight, especially around the holidays. And one of the most common questions in the juicing world is what is the best time to drink green juice for weight loss.

Well, before we get ahead of ourselves, I think that it’s a good idea to go over a brief primer on weight loss and juicing in general. So, in addition to tackeling the topic of green juice and weight loss, I am going to cover fasting, fat vs weight loss, and how green juice can work into your diet.

It seems like it’s a lot of material to cover, but I promise I am going to keep this as short as possible.

Is There A Best Time To Drink Green Juice For Weight Loss?

Ok. So you came here to find the answer to that question. And I am going to give it to you first up.

Yes, there is a best time to drink green juice for weight loss. That time depends on how you schedule your caloric intake.

Basically, you will want to follow a modifieded intermittent fasting schedule. There are litterly thousands upon thousands of studies about intermittent fasting and time restricted fasting (I’ll link a few at the bottom of the page so you can review).

What I always suggest to people who are looking to lose weight is to do three things:

• Keep Track Of Calories
• Eliminate Calories from Processed Foods
• Eat In A Restricted Time Frame

Basically, if you’re doing the three things above, you will lose weight. There is no way you won’t.

First, track your calories using an app. Before you do this, get a good sense of what your daily calorie requirements are. There are lots of online tools. This calculator is my go to.

If you use an app like MFP, then they have their own.

Then you need to stop eating processed foods. Follow the conventional wisdom where you wouldn’t eat anything that your great, great, grandparents wouldn’t have eaten. That means most of the snack foods are out the window. Stick to real food.

Finally, eat in a time window. That’s all that is necessary for losing weight.

So, my first juice would be for breakfast (break fast, get it) which might be around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. You want to eat for around an 8 hour window. So, if you are having dinner at 8pm, count backwards.

The reason that the best time to drink green juice for weight loss is in the am is that it provides you with very little calories, but it floods your body with the vital nutrients that you need. And if you’re going to have it mid day, then it’s a great alternative to something such as coffee or tea which has too much caffine.

(an intersting note here is that caffine is both good and bad for weight loss. on the one hand, caffine can speed up metabolism, but on the other hand it can also increase cortisol levels, which promots fat gain and prevents muscle gain).

 

Can You Drink Green Juice Every Day?

Sure. You can drink green juice every day even if you want to lose weight. The main thing about losing weight and drinking green juices is that you need to keep your calories under control. You don’t want to have more calories in than out.

Remember, that juice is not a calorie free drink. It’s not black coffee or water or sparkling mineral water. Juice has calories.

If you drink green juice, you will have less calories than if you were to juice something such as fruit juice and certainly less calories than if you were to drink something such as soda.

I would suggest that if you’re looking to lose weight, a morning time period is the best time to drink green juice. If you have a heavy meal in the morning, it can make you feel tired and less likley to excercise and do other positive, calorie burning things.

Some people have concerns about drinking juices every day of the week because they worry that it might not be healthy. But there is no problem with it. I’ve discused this at length elsewhere on my site, but the only problem that you might face if you start drinking a ton of green juice is if you drink a lot of spinach juice and over do it with the oxalic acid.

Why Timing Is Important For Weight Loss: Fasting and Fat Explained

This is quite a large topic. There are dozzens of books and thousands of articles published each year covering it. There are even TED talks that cover this topic.

Rathter try and review all of the litterature, let’s take a look at a simple video:

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That short video does a pretty good job at explaning the situation. So, essentially, eat in a constricted time window. And my suggestion would be to have your green juice first thing in the morning. It would be the best time.

Can Green Juice Help You Lose Weight?

Yes. The reason that green juice can help you lose weight is because it’s low in calories, and fills you up. It’s not like a big bowl of pasta, or rice and beans, or oats. There are very few carbs and caloreis in green juice.

What you are doing is avoiding the excess calories that prevent most people from losing weight.

A green juice won’t burn off calories, but what it will do is make you full so you’re not as hungy  and don’t eat something full of unnecessary calories.

My plan of attack woud be to find your total dalily calorie requirement.

Then I would set up a window of time in which you can eat. Many people follow the popular 8/16 intermittent fasting schedule. So a common look for something like this would be:

First Meal by 12 noon and dinner before 8pm. That means that you can have your green juice at 12pm to break the fast and then eat lunch and then dinner around 7-8p.

The rest of the time you will be in fasting mode. This helps your body burn calories more efficently.

So, the way that green juice helps you lose weight is by reducing your calories, and also helping keep your body in a close to fasted state. It’s superior to having a big breakfast such as oats, pancakes, or eggs for breakfast.

I would add a protein powder to the juice if you are losing weight and concerned about muscle loss.

 

• Intermittent Fasting Study 1
• 16/8 Time Restricted Fasting