Juice or Smoothie For Weight Loss

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Juicing and smoothies are both super healthy things to add to your diet, but they each have different benefits and drawbacks. If you are someone who wants to lose weight, then it is important that you focus on the right one. And even though this is a site that is geared towards juicers, for people who want to lose weight, the correct method is often going to be smoothies. There are a few exceptions to this basic rule, but as a general strategy, you are going to want to focus on smoothies if your goal is fat loss.

Fiber Vs No Fiber: Calories

Really the general rule is that you want to have as little calories as possible when dieting. In the weight loss community you will run into things called BRM calculators, macro calculators, and other means of measuring the daily caloric requirements. When you are cutting (which is the terminology that you will see when you read about fat loss) you want to keep your calories under your daily maintenance. Drinking vegetable juice is not the ideal situation (unless you are doing a liquid fast and need the nutrients). A smoothie is a much better alternative. This all boils down to the fiber content. Fiber fills you up and it will prevent you from wanting to eat food that has calories that will tip you over your daily caloric set limit.

A regular green juice is perfect for people who are doing a detox, or people who want to focus on getting a high value of nutrients. It’s not something that is commonly found in smoothies simply because the fiber itself does not have the high level of nutrients. So, there is a bit of a trade off when it comes to smoothies and juices. The fresh green juice will have an abundance of nutrients (antioxidants, vitamins, minerals) whereas the smoothie will have more fiber and less nutrients.

 

If you are planning on doing a few days of a liquid diet, then green juices is definitely something you need to do. A high quality green juice made with spinach, kale or other leafy greens such as parsley, is going to provide you with a ton of the vital nutrients that you need. A water fast is simply too dangerous, so many people suggest going instead with a diet of fresh green juices.

You can read up on which blenders are best for smoothies here.

The other good thing about a blender is that you can use it to make protein shakes. Mixing protein with fresh green juices is a good way to get more protein into your diet, but if you’re cutting and are looking to lose fat and maintain muscle, then smoothies made with protein powder is definitely the way to go. Add a neutral flavored whey protein into a smoothie that is made with something such as berries, ice, and bananas. This will boost your protein macros for the day and keep your calories down.