Weight-loss diets are designed to reduce the extra calories in your nutrition, but fad diets also fall short on essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Balanced weight-loss plans use meal replacement smoothies without losing the essential nutrients while reducing the overall caloric intake. The meal smoothies serve an essential role in the weight-loss plan and can be made with a variety of calories to adjust the nutritional content.
Function
Within the weight-loss plan, meal smoothies function to replace most of your daily whole food meals and snacks. Typically, you consume a meal smoothie for breakfast and lunch with your third meal consisting of 600 to 700 calories of whole foods. The meal smoothies are designed to be calorie-controlled and can be adjusted to meet your individual weight-loss and nutritional requirements.
Types
Meal smoothies for weight loss can either be purchased from premade commercial varieties or homemade with your selection of ingredients. Common ready-to-drink meal smoothies include Slim-Fast, Met-Rx or Myoplex. While these ready-to-drink meal smoothies provide a balance of nutrients and essential vitamins and minerals, you can customize the flavor and add additional ingredients to meet your individual dietary needs.
Ingredients
The most important factor to keeping your meal smoothie low in calories and fat is selecting the proper ingredients. According to Susan Kleiner, a registered dietitian, "A smoothie is a delicious, portable, easy way to get in a few fruit servings and a lot of the nutrients we need, but you should look closely at what they put in it." Ingredients used for meal smoothies start with a liquid base including water, milk or fruit juice. You can also add yogurt for added flavor and nutrients. Fresh fruit such as bananas or berries adds essential carbohydrates along with a variety of vitamins and minerals.
Nutrient Facts
The overall nutrition and calorie count is determined by the ingredients and serving size. For example, a meal smoothie made with fresh fruit such as honeydew and kiwi contains 110 calories, 0 grams of fat, 27 g of carbohydrates, 3 g of fiber and 2 g of protein along with significant amounts of vitamin C and potassium, notes FitnessMagazine.com. Another recipe calling for low-fat milk, strawberries, blueberries, fat-free raspberry yogurt and ice cubes contains 162 calories, 1.5 g of fat, 29 g of carbohydrates, 3 g of fiber and 8 g of protein, according to MuscleandFitnessHers.com.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Weight Loss: Choosing a Diet That's Right For You - Continued; Mayo Clinic Staff; June 2010
- Fitness Magazine; Healthy Smoothie Recipes; Marianne Magno
- Muscle and Fitness Hers; Low Calorie Smoothie; Maura Weber; June 2003
- Men's Fitness; Tropically Trimmed; Ben Ince; March 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Weight Loss Basics; Mayo Clinic Staff; March 2011
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