7: Weight Loss, Muscle Building and Performance Smoothies
Smoothies can help with practically every aspect of your health and that includes boosting performance for gym rats and other people interested in building muscle or losing weight. If you want a smoothie that will take you beyond just being ‘healthy’, these are some of the best options for reaching your weight loss goals or muscle building…
The Long Distance Smoothie
The long distance smoothie can help you to get more out of your runs and improve your performance in all kinds of aerobic exercise. The precise ingredients are:
- 1 cup of frozen blueberries
- 1 cup coconut water
- 2 tbs chia seeds
- 2 medium frozen bananas
- Pinch of salt
- 1beat
This combination has a ton of different benefits that will help you to run further and faster and lose more weight as a result – some of which you’ll already be very familiar with. We’ve seen that beats help
to improve vasodilation for example to help you get more blood and oxygen around the body for weight loss. We’ve also seen that coconut oil (and thus water) can provide you with a whole lot of energy in the form of ketones. The decision to use a water rather than a milk is important to prevent bloating and to keep you feel light when you hit the tarmac. Just make sure that you give yourself plenty of time before you go for the run – ideally consume this around an hour before you head out.
Then there’s the blueberries which will fuel you with vitamin C and the bananas which provide plenty of good, usable energy. You might also have guessed that the salt and the bananas are in there to replenish electrolytes as you run and to avoid cramping. All that remains is the chia – what’s this all about?
Chia seeds are some amazing seeds that have the ability to hold several times their volume of water. You can then consume them and they will then slowly release all of that fluid inside the stomach. What makes this so amazing is that it allows you to have a steady supply of hydration as you run.
If you have ever heard of the ‘Tarahumara Tribe’– a tribe of people who are known to run marathons on a highly regular basis – then it might interest you to know that chia seeds are thought to be one of the keys to their amazing abilities!
Muscle Building Smoothie
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 helping of chocolate protein shake
- 1⁄2 a banana
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- Cherries
- Kiwi
- 1 tablespoon honey
This is that same smoothie we had for sleep but with the addition of the protein shake. Again, you will likely want to choose whey protein, which will release readily into the bloodstream and which comes from milk and so is very healthy and natural. Drink this smoothie straight after a workout and you’ll replenish your muscles by providing the amino acids they need to repair microtears caused by training. What’s more, is that the sugar in the smoothie will head straight to the muscles to restore glycogen – rather than being stored as fat.
Better yet, consume this smoothie just before bed and you’ll have another anabolic window where you’ll see enhanced muscle growth. In this case though, you may want to use a casein protein instead of whey. Casein releases protein much more slowly and this in turn means that it will provide a steady supply as you are sleeping.
Fat Burning Smoothie
How can a smoothie filled with sugar possibly help you to lose weight? Read the ingredients and then we’ll get down to the mechanics of how this one works…
The key ingredients are:
- 2kiwi
- 1 green apple
- A handful of spinach
- 1 leaf kale
- 1 banana
- 1⁄2 cup of fresh apple juice
- Macha tea
- Pinch of ground cayenne pepper
- Lemon juice
Firstly, this is a vegetable smoothie that will provide you with much less sugar for each glass and thereby be less likely to lead to fat storage. This is one for those who are worried about their teeth too!
Meanwhile, the apple that is present will provide you with vitamin C. Vitamin C is important because – as we’ve seen – it can increase serotonin. What we didn’t mention about serotonin though, is that it helps to suppress the appetite!
Meanwhile, the macha tea, ground cayenne pepper and lemon juice are all thermogenic to some extent. That means they actually raise your metabolism to help you burn more calories throughout the day. If you can use this smoothie instead of having your regular breakfast, you should find it does a ton of good to help you burn through calories. This is especially true if you have it within 30 minutes of waking up – the spinach will supply you with a good amount of protein and studies show that consuming protein as soon as you wake up can lead to weight loss!
Conclusions
Now you have not only a huge selection of delicious smoothies to choose from but also a full understanding of why they are so important for your health and how you can use them strategically to enhance your weight loss, immune strength and more!
Make sure that you don’t consume more than one of these a day and that you use the tips provided to actually make them fit into your lifestyle. Think about what the results are that you want from your smoothie and design a few recipes that you can use to get all the different benefits you require. That might be better digestion, better sleep, muscle building, fat loss or all of the above!
And of course you should vary your smoothies and have different combinations to maximize the variety in your diet. That said, you should also make sure to keep coming back to the same smoothies and same ingredients to ensure that you get the long term benefits of building up lots of antioxidants and nutrients.
How about having a weight loss smoothie every other day and an energy/defence smoothie in- between?
You’ll find that whatever your choice, you start to quickly feel more energetic and generally healthier. Your mood will improve, you will lose fat and you’ll develop a healthy glow that you just can’t get from supplements. Of course for best results, combine this with a healthy lifestyle and training regime!
But you won’t believe just how transformative these effects are. You’re going to have to actually give it a go for that…
