Proper amount of fruit in a diet (fruit smoothie)

[Volmike98]

right now I am mostly just doing cardio and pushups, situps, pullups, biking, running etc. I am slowly improving my diet, like cheerios and a banana for breakfast. I am wondering what a healthy amount of fruit is for weight loss. I have been eating the small meal every 3 hours, but my dad just bought a smoothie machine. So I really like to put like a half cup of blueberries, 5 or 6 strawberries, orange juice, a banana, and ice and blend it up it is delicious. I am wondering if all the natural sugar is detrimental or is a good fill for one of these small meals if I make a glass and a half of it or so. It is all natural, no extra crap added.

[Obnoxious123]

enjoy the fruit brah, it's natural sugar, not refined or anything. you can get the exact values of it by measuring how much your putting in and going online like typing "blueberries nutritional info" in google (i use fitday.com) and entering in how many g's/oz you use

[ShannonBanana]

right now I am mostly just doing cardio and pushups, situps, pullups, biking, running etc. I am slowly improving my diet, like cheerios and a banana for breakfast. I am wondering what a healthy amount of fruit is for weight loss. I have been eating the small meal every 3 hours, but my dad just bought a smoothie machine. So I really like to put like a half cup of blueberries, 5 or 6 strawberries, orange juice, a banana, and ice and blend it up it is delicious. I am wondering if all the natural sugar is detrimental or is a good fill for one of these small meals if I make a glass and a half of it or so. It is all natural, no extra crap added.

It depends on your macronutrient needs (determined by your your weight loss/fitness goals, your current height and weight and activity level) . There's no magic number/amount of fruit that's specifically advisable. If you want to lose weight all you have to do is check your basal metabolic rate (how many calories you'd burn per day if you are sleeping all day -t he calories you'd burn just powering your lungs, heart, etc) add the number of calories you generally burn in your workouts, and then eat a couple hundred calories under that amount. You need to create a calorie deficit, basically- take in less that you're burning. Google basal metabolic rate to figure out yours and add your calories burned at the gym to know what you have to shoot under.

In terms of how much fruit is too much? Check your macronutrients needs (Protein, Fat, Carbs in grams per day) (you can do it on this site) and figure out how many carbs you need per day. Then use fitday.com or another site to figure out how many you're eating. If you're trying to lose weight you need to make sure you're new smoothie drinks are forcing you over the border to where you're eating too many carbs by combining that delicious fruit with other carbs like starchy vegetables, grains, etc.


You mentioned you are doing a lot of cardio, so you would be advised by many to eat a fair amount of carbs to power you through those cardio workouts. But keep in mind that fruit has a high glycemic index, meaning the fructose is a simpler sugar and easier to digest and hits your bloodstream pretty quickly giving you quick energy. The carbohydrate strands are really short like a simple sugar, which is what makes it taste so good, and it will raise your blood sugar and leave you feeling energetic and happy. This is great right before a cardio workout, i think. Fruit also has a tone of antioxidents so it's good to eat a lot of multi colored ones. But since you are trying to lose weight you need to make sure that you're not going overboard on the calorie intake. And you may want to cut back on other carbs if you're eating a lot fo other carbs. When you eat grains, eat whole grains- they have a lower glycemic index and will give you more energy in the long run.