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Home » Blog » Weight Loss

Is A Smoothie Sabotaging Your Weight Loss? How To Lighten Up A Smoothie

Published: Jul 11, 2017 · Modified: Aug 3, 2023 by Megan

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Smoothies are a great snack or meal replacement, but can be tricky for those wanting to lose weight because they're highly nutrient dense. If weight loss is your goal, the probability of a smoothie sabotaging your weight loss is high if you're not paying attention to the amount of ingredients and calculating the appropriate serving size.

If weight loss is your goal, a smoothie sabotaging your weight loss is likely if you're not watching the ingredients. Here's how to lighten up a smoothie!

How is a Smoothie Sabotaging Your Weight Loss?

While smoothies are nutritious and are typically made with healthy good-for-you ingredients. Fruit, milk, yogurt, vegetables, peanut butter, oats, dried fruit and coconut to name a few.

So how could it sabotage your weight loss? To answer that, let's look at an example of one of my all-time favorite smoothies.

Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie
  • 1 small banana - 90 calories
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk - 30 calories
  • 2 tablespoons rolled oats - 38 calories
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter - 200 calories
  • 1 cup baby spinach - 7 calories
  • 2 tablespoons dark chocolate - 140 calories

Regular Version Total Calories - 504

Trust me, this smoothie tastes like dessert.

But it has more calories than most people's average breakfast of 300-375 calories. Yikes! A smoothie like this should be eaten as a meal replacement unless your activity is high enough to expend the extra calories (and that doesn't mean you should workout extra just to eat it either) which leads me to...

What Science Tells Us About Weight Loss

You need to burn more energy than you consume in order to lose weight. In other words, you need to eat less calories than your body needs to perform basic functions - i.e. sleep, eat, think, breathe. This is you BMR, or basal metabolic rate which you can calculate here.

This, however, does not mean eating excessively below your BMR. That is dangerous and can lead to a multitude of problems that will inhibit weight loss. Eating a small bit under your BMR will stimulate weight loss, assuming no other medical conditions are working against that.

So how do you lose weight and eat a smoothie?

You can swap the ingredients or play with the quantity of ingredients to make it lighter in calorie count. Let's see how we can make a skinny version of the banana peanut butter smoothie.

Skinny Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie

Skinny Peanut Butter Smoothie
  • Swap 1 banana at 90 calories for 1/2 banana at 45 calories (freeze the other half for a future smoothie)
  • Add 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce  - 25 calories
  • Keep 1 cup unsweetened almond milk - 30 calories
  • Keep 2 tablespoons rolled oats - 38 calories
  • Swap 2 tablespoons of peanut butter at 200 calories for 2 tablespoons of powdered peanut butter at 45 calories (or reduce to 1 tablespoon of peanut butter bringing the total calories to 264)
  • Keep 1 cup baby spinach - 7 calories
  • Swap 2 tablespoons dark chocolate at 140 calories for 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder at 45 calories
  • Add 1-2 drops of stevia at 0 calories

Skinny Version Calorie Total - 209 

By making these changes, we cut over 1/2 the calories while keeping the ingredients healthy and nutritious.

If weight loss is your goal, a smoothie sabotaging your weight loss is likely if you're not watching the ingredients. Here's how to lighten up a smoothie!

Pin the graphic above as a reminder of how to lighten up a smoothie!

What's Good for You May Not Always Be Good for Your Weight Loss

Even healthy food can lead to weight gain or inhibit weight loss if you're not mindful of how much energy is in the food you're eating.

Eating for weight loss does not mean eating foods that aren't nutritious or healthy. It means making intentional choices about the quantity of food we eat and being strategic about pairing the ingredients in a way that keeps you feeling full, healthy and nourished.

About Megan

Megan is a certified nutrition practitioner, author, freelance food photographer and fitness instructor living in Phoenix, Arizona. On her blog, Skinny Fitalicious she shares EASY, gluten free recipes for weight loss. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates.

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  1. Ashley @ A Lady Goes West says

    July 11, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    Good suggestions, Megan. I don't have smoothies as much as I used to, but they can TOTALLY be a calorie bomb. Love your tips! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 12, 2017 at 7:44 am

      They are. Often they're worse than eating a regular meal if you're not watching the ingredients.

      Reply
  2. kathryn says

    July 11, 2017 at 10:21 am

    I like this post but I think that the "skinny" version of your smoothie still needs 1 T. of PB or something to add some fat for sustenance.

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 11, 2017 at 11:10 am

      My version actually does have 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in the powdered version which adds plenty of satiety. You can also add protein powder or collagen which would increase the protein making it more filling.

      Reply
  3. Kelli @Hungry Hobby says

    July 28, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    Reason why I limit the amount of energy bites I make and consume so tiny for only a little tiny BITE for a ton of calories I don't get it lol

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 29, 2016 at 3:30 pm

      I think there's a common misconception that if you eat healthy, you can eat as much as you want which is not true. I feel that gets lost in blogging where food bloggers are posting tons of "healthy" dessert recipes.

      Reply
  4. Lindsay Cotter says

    July 28, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    This is really helpful information and I love the smoothie recipe remake you did! It helps to see the two smoothies side by side to compare the ingredient amounts and total calories. It really is an eye-opener!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 31, 2016 at 2:39 pm

      Glad you liked it! I plan to do more of this.

      Reply
  5. Jody - Fit at 58 says

    July 28, 2016 at 3:06 pm

    I have written about this too in the past & quite honestly many of the "food creations" on blogs & IG. You have to add up all that stuff you are adding on top of the Arctic Zero or the Quest bar! 🙂

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 31, 2016 at 2:39 pm

      I know, that's why I get so frustrated with the people saying we need to stop counting calories. For people like me, that just does not work.

      Reply
  6. Blair says

    July 28, 2016 at 1:35 pm

    So true! If I tossed in everything that I want into one smoothie it would be a chocolate-peanut butter calorie bomb! 🙂 I love finding ways to lighten them up without sacrificing taste!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 28, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      Right? Then it's more like dessert than a healthy snack.

      Reply
  7. Erin @ Erin's Inside Job says

    July 28, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    Love this. It's so easy to get carried away and throw ALL THE FRUIT in smoothies, which isn't the best thing. I like to make sure that my ratio of veggies is larger than that of my fruit.

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 28, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      I love that rule!

      Reply
  8. Alaina @ The Simple Peach says

    July 28, 2016 at 10:04 am

    There are so many misconceptions about smoothies. I watch the amount of fruit and nut butter I use and pump up the greens. I also tend to choose berries over tree fruits to keep the calories and sugar lower.

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 28, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      Berries are an excellent choice! I also like doing cantaloupe as they are lower in calories too.

      Reply
  9. Patricia @Sweet and Strong says

    July 28, 2016 at 6:29 am

    I used to put a lot of fruit and sometimes even two full tbsp of nut butter. I know use a lot less fruit, if using a banana I only use half, and only add about 2 tsp of nut butter and the smoothies still taste delicious! It's definitely easy to add too many ingredients and calories!

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 28, 2016 at 1:40 pm

      That's great! It's easy to get carried away.

      Reply
  10. Susie @ Suzlyfe says

    July 28, 2016 at 3:35 am

    I definitely talk to my weight loss clients about what they are eating, adn if they tell me smoothies, I have to dive in deeper. Right now, I am trying to GAIN weight and so am having 1-2 smoothies a day! If you aren't careful, they can be a nutrition and calorie mine (Just like salads)

    Reply
    • Megan says

      July 28, 2016 at 1:39 pm

      I think they can be great if done the right way.

      Reply

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