The best green juice recipes for weight loss should possess the perfect trifecta of being rich in nutrients, boosting metabolism and helping to cleanse your body. The problem is that many people who are drinking green juice to lose weight are making a couple mistakes that are getting in the way of progress.
Let’s dive into the biggest ones and clear the air so you can drink your way to a slimmer waistline!
Does Drinking Green Juice to Lose Weight Work?
Green juice is great for you. It’s currently having a big moment in the spotlight and this one isn’t a fad – it’s just greens getting the long-overdue recognition it deserves.
And green juice is particularly great for promoting weight loss. Here’s why:
- You eat a wider variety of veggies, including greens that you normally wouldn’t venture near (raw parsley, anyone?) so you get a huge range of nutrients that energize and replenish your body.
- You actually get less cravings when drinking green juice, most likely because the body has all its nutrient needs filled and thus doesn’t crave so strongly, so often.
- You get awesome hydration! There’s a ton of water in greens, which go straight to your cells.
- You get a boost of energy since the green juices travel quickly and easily to the cells, supplying them with vital nutrients. And especially since these juices don’t slow your digestion or weigh you down, you can use that energy immediately instead of waiting for everything to digest.
- You get tons of nutrition with very little calories and very little sugar. Great for any weight loss plan.
But drinking green juice to lose weight isn’t as simple as just plying your body with glass after glass of green juice. The fundamentals of weight loss still apply. Here’s what we mean.
How to Green Juice to Lose Weight
There are a couple things to keep in mind as you green juice to lose weight. Here are the most important points!
Watch Those Liquid Calories
As good as green juices are, remember that liquids have calories. Duh, you say. But we wanted to make this point because it’s just so easy to disregard the caloric content of the things we drink.
And when you’re juicing for weight loss, calories matter. Which is where low calorie green juice recipes come in – like the ones you’ll find below.
More Greens, Less Fruits
As nutritious and healthy as green juice is, if you’re packing every glass of green juice with tons of sugary fruits, those calories can pile up quick. Of course that’s the last thing you want, especially when you can design yummy green juice recipes that are wonderfully low in calories and big on taste.
You don’t need to forego the sweet fruits altogether – it’s just a matter of knowing that just a little goes a long way and stocking up on other, less used, low calorie flavor enhancers. Especially since fruits help to make every glass of green juice a lot more palatable so you don’t want to leave them out altogether.
So grab this handy list of low calorie fruits – they’re all high in sweet, yummy flavor – so you can keep your calories low and your tastebuds happy.
Juice Thermogenic Ingredients
There are a bunch of helpful fruits, veggies and herbs that help to boost metabolism, support better blood flow and give you energy. Think chili peppers, grapefruit, and ginger, for starters. Take advantage of these – in moderation! – to boost weight loss!
When is the Best time to Drink Green Juice for Weight Loss?
This is a brilliant question since it’s not just the nutrient content of your juice that matters – when you decide to replenish your body with the juice is of key importance.
That’s because fresh juice is best consumed within 20 minutes of juicing it. That’s ’cause when you juice fresh produce, you are essentially breaking open the cell walls of these nutrient-rich fruits and veggies and activating the nutrients – the vitamins, enzymes, minerals, phytonutrients, chlorophyll, etc. – found in the produce.
And many of these nutrients are time-sensitive.
Of course, most of us don’t have the time to juice fresh every single time and that’s okay – as long as you know how to store your juice properly. By storing juice so that it stays fresh, you can preserve its vital nutrients significantly.
Okay, so you got the storing sorted. And FYI, Juicing is also a nice trick for Anti Aging 🙂 Now back to the question: is there a best time to drink green juice for weight loss, specifically?
Yes. Think of juicing as the perfect appetite-controlling, nutrient-boosting supplement to a healthy meal and drink a glass of fresh juice 20 minutes before a meal, on an empty stomach. This is the optimum time for mineral and nutrient absorption and also helps to reduce cravings.
6 Yummy Green Juice Recipes for Weight Loss
Here are a few of the best low calorie green juice recipes to get you started!
All Star Green Team Gigantic Green Juice Recipe
Sometimes you just need a whopping load of greens to power you through your day (and workouts). And this green juice recipe is perfect for doing just that.
It contains warming, circulation-boosting ginger, energizing parsley, and skin-health-boosting celery to boot. Kale, of course, is a supergreen – chock full of replenishing chlorophyll to get your blood super-pumping nutrients to all your cells!
This green juice recipe is also gentle enough to be perfect for the mornings – omit the ginger if you’d prefer a less spicy breakfast. As always – make sure you drink this juice recipe on an empty stomach to get the most benefits and an immediate energy boost. It’s better than coffee, IMHO.
If you’re a hard-core green juicer, you can also go ahead and ditch the sweet apple. And of course, if you’re looking for further weight loss benefits, go ahead and add half a lemon or a grapefruit to the mix – this juice recipe tastes great with both!
Spicy Fat Burning Green Juice
Here’s an unexpectedly delicious green juice to lose weight that has just the right amount of sweetness:
- 1 cup watermelon
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 cup watercress
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds (partially or entirely) removed
- 1/2 lime, juiced
It’s seriously rich in protective antioxidants, like the lycopene in watermelon, as well as very hydrating. Watercress adds a peppery kick and gives you a huge dose of cancer-protective benefits but the real star in this recipe is the spicy jalapeno, a thermogenic food, which thanks to its capsaicin content speeds up heart rate, reduces the bad fat in the arteries and stimulates metabolism since your body has to work harder to digest it (expending more calories) than it got from consuming it.
Kickin’ Kale Gentle Green Juice Recipe for Beginners
Considering the load of green goodness that’s packed into this juice recipe, it’s delightfully easy on the palate, making it one of the best green juice recipes for weight loss for beginners and advanced juicers alike. It’s actually one of the lightest, most refreshing green juices – probably ’cause anti-oxidant-rich, libido-boosting celery and highly-hydrating, mineral-rich cucumbers add the perfect, smooth and clean base for the stronger ingredients like anti-inflammatory, cell-protecting kale and circulation-improving, immunity-boosting ginger.
Cucumbers are pretty much green water (about 90%) so they serve as a great diluting base for stronger greens, such as kale. The same can be said of celery, which is also mostly water.
These watery vegetables are the perfect beginner’s greens – refreshing, hydrating, and gentle on your stomach. They’re also unbelievably low in calories and high in nutrients (Vitamin A, Pantothenic Acid, Magnesium, etc.) and rich in chlorophyll.
To top it off, flavor-rich cilantro and pH-balancing lemon add yummy flavor to the whole mix!
Skinny Greens Juice Recipe
This is the best green juice for weight loss when you’re looking for just the right amount of zingy spiciness:
- 1 lemon
- 2 green apples, such as Granny Smith
- 2 stalks of celery (individual)
- 6 large kale leaves
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1 inch turmeric
It may not be the best green juice recipe for those who like their juices a little on the sweeter side, but this one is very low in sugar and calories and contains a heap of weight loss-boosting benefits, with the aid of detox-aiding parsley, nutrition-rich kale, alkalizing lemon, and best of all: turmeric, which contains curcumin, a compound that’s been shown to help prevent fat accumulation and speed up fat loss.
Fire Up Metabolism Boosting Green Juice Recipe
When you’re feeling dull and sleepy there is nothing like this juice recipe to wake you up and get you moving at your full potential. Bursting with antioxidants and containing a good dose of apigenin (the immune system boosting, circulation promoting, cancer busting flavonoid), this juice will change the tune of your day and leave you ready to tackle any problem.
And did you know the glycoglycerolipids in spinach can help protect your digestive tract from any possible inflammation? That’s only one of the many, many benefits of these humble green leaves. Energizing parsley contributes a good dose of circulation-boosting, blood-purifying chlorophyll to the mix and the capsaicin found in the spicy pepper gets your body warmed up and kicks your metabolism into gear.
If you find this juice recipe is a bit too strong, try decreasing the amount of jalapeno from a half to a quarter pepper. If you’re the kind who wants something absolutely burning fire-hot, try putting the pepper in whole!
Klever Sage Yummiest Green Juice Recipe
Combine memory-enhancing sage with pH-balancing lime and you already have an awesome mix – but invite libido-boosting celery, digestion-boosting pear, and the ‘Queen of Greens’ kale into the mix, and you’ve got yourself a helluva green juice party.
And it’s one worth celebrating, since this is one green juice recipe for weight loss that’s damn healthy and tempting enough to try on beginners or those who swear they’ll never drink green juices. Juice this up, decorate the cup with a sliver of lime, and watch them go green!
