The Complete High Protein Food List {printable with calories}

Fruit smoothies can be incredibly high in calories. During weight loss, it’s smart to choose nutrient dense smoothies for your breakfast drink, that are low in calories. Here are 19 low calorie smoothies to start your day off right.

When designing a balanced diet, I never forget fruit!  Fruit is essential for a healthy diet. According to the USDA, the recommended servings for fruit is 1-2 cups of fruit per day.

A terrific way to meet that recommendation is through fruit smoothies. Unlike juice, smoothies blend up the entire fruit so you still get the fiber. Fiber help slow the absorption of the fruit, so your blood sugar stays stable for a longer period of time. This way, there is no quick energy and quick crash like refined sugars.

While fruit smoothies are a great way to get nutrients and fill your fruit quota for the day, they can pack on more calories than necessary. 

High calorie offending smoothie ingredients include:

• Nut butter. I love to add nut butters to my smoothies, but measuring it and limiting it is essential to keeping calories down.
• Too much fruit. While the whole point is to get your fruit servings for the day, too much fruit is unnecessary. Keep fruit to 1 cup or less in your smoothie.
• Fruit juices. Every smoothie needs a liquid, but be careful what you add. Juice can add 120 calories or more to your smoothie as opposed to water.
• Milk and creams. Adding skim milk is a great choice, but whole milk or cream could double your calories.
• Sugar, honey, or high calorie sweeteners. There’s a reason smoothies from a smoothie restaurant are so high in calories, and it’s SUGAR! Yes. I agree. They taste amazing. But, the trade off might not be worth it.
• High fat yogurts. Including a cream yogurt makes a delicious fruit smoothie, but choose nonfat yogurt and save half the calories. Choose nonfat Greek yogurt and boost the protein in your shake.
• Coconut, avocado, or seeds like chia seeds. There are whole food, healthy, high fat ingredients like avocados, seeds, or coconut. These are delicious and healthy for you. But they are also high in calories. Simply weigh and measure before you dump these high calorie whole food into a smoothie. Chances are, you will be adding ingredients that you can’t even taste. Is it worth it to over do it? Probably not.

Smoothie ingredient low calorie wins:

On the opposite end of the calorie spectrum are bulky, nutrient rich, but low calorie ingredients! These include:

• Veggies, like spinach or kale.
• Water instead of juice or milk.
• 
  

Here are the top 19 that I love for sticking to a diet, and still enjoying my fruit smoothie.

19 Smoothies, Under 200 calories

1. Blueberry Cobbler from Hungry Girl 178 calories (This one has a boost of protein with some nonfat greek yogurt in the recipe)
2. Apple pie Smoothie 136 calories
3. Watermelon protein smoothie from Health Beet (me!) 93 calories
4. Salted caramel mocha from the Seasoned Mom 100 calories (this one uses protein powder to make it a high protein shake)

5. Shape shifter from Best Health Mag 98 calories A basic Green smoothie recipe that’s very high in micronutrients!
6. Strawberry Kale from Jessica in the Kitchen 130 calories
7. Blueberry spinach from Kristine’s Kitchen Blog 168 calories This reminds me of something you might find at Smoothie King- so reach and delicious!
8. Raspberry Lemonade from Taste and See 195 calories The perfect refreshing summer drink! Use frozen raspberries to make it extra refreshing.

9. Cauliflower strawberry banana from Live Eat Learn 149 calories Bananas are a great addition to smoothies. Bananas can make a creamy texture that you’ll love.
10. Strawberry Mango from Well Plated 161 calories
11. Red Beet Power Smoothie from Healthy Nibbles and Bits 169 calories (packed with veggies like carrots, celery, and beet!)
12. Skinny Pumpkin Pie Smoothie from Amy’s Healthy Baking 75 calories

13. Strawberry smoothie from the Coupon Challenge 86 calories (classic strawberry smoothie, with the addition of chia seed! Take note though. To keep the calories low, this recipe only has you add 1 teaspoon of chia seeds. That’s all you need!)
14. Mint Chocolate from Nics Nutrition 175 calories protein
15. Orange Creamsicle from Eating Well 184 calories (I love this healthy addition of coconut water!)
16. Mango Lassi from Snack-Girl 158 calories

17. Vitamin C fruit smoothie from Happy Healthy Mamma 183 calories (Stay healthy all winter with some vitamin C)
18. Pear Avocado from Eating Bird Food. 145 calories
19. Cherry Quinoa from Skinny Fitalicious 168 calories

Which smoothie are you going to start with?

Pin to your favorite healthy recipes board!