Guides

How Many Calories In a Smoothie: Homemade & Smoothie Chains

Many of us are under the impression that smoothies are healthy, no matter what. However, smoothies are not always healthy, it all depends on what you put in them. A smoothie being healthy does not only rely on the nutrition but how caloric it is as well. 

How Many Calories In a Smoothie

Calories impact how our body uses energy. Too many calories and energy goes to waste and can become fat, too little and you will be tired and low on fuel for your body. So, if you want a smoothie, what should you know? We have ALL the information here for you. 

So, keep reading! 

Contents show

Why Do Calories Matter?

Calories matter because they will impact your weight loss and weight gain. This is attached to the premise that healthline.com looks into known as the ‘calories in vs calories out’ concept. 

This concept focuses on how if you eat fewer calories you will lose weight, and if you eat more you will gain weight. 

Calories are affected by many things, however, nutrient density is the most impactful. The amount of nutrition in food and how caloric it is can vary. Protein, fats, and carbs all have a different amount of calories per gram, and this will influence the overall Calorie intake you have. 

Calories are the amount of energy that a food will give you. Some food types will give us a lot of energy, and some not much. Peanut butter is an example of a high-calorie food, whereas a low-calorie food would be celery. 

The key to a balanced diet is to manage not only the correct nutritional intake but managing your caloric intake throughout your meals and snacks.

Are Smoothies High In Calories?

Are Smoothies High In Calories

It depends, while ingredients such as fruit and vegetables may be low-calorie, this is not always the only thing in smoothies. The smoothies you make at home are more likely to be low in calories, as you control what goes into them. 

However, smoothies from brands and chain stores are not always low in calories. Oftentimes, sweeteners are added, fruit juice, ice cream, yogurt, or whipped cream. 

A smoothie made at home can have as little as 90 calories, all the way to 300 or more. Alternatively, smoothies that are bottled and made to order can have as many as 300 calories, or even 600! 

The truth is that calories will vary from smoothie to smoothie, depending on where they are made, by whom, and what is in them. A green smoothie made at home will be much less caloric than a fruit smoothie made with sweeteners from a chain brand.

Calories In A Smoothie Homemade

The calories you may get from a homemade smoothie can range from 200 calories to 800 calories. The specific amount of calories in your smoothie will depend on what ingredients you include. Ingredients matter. However, most of the time a homemade smoothie will have fewer calories than a store-bought smoothie

This is why it is very important to know what ingredients make the calorie content go up. A homemade smoothie would be healthy and function well as a meal replacement option, however, it could also be highly caloric and closer to a milkshake. 

Here’s an idea of what calorie counts you can expect in your homemade smoothies. 

Calories In A Homemade Fruit Smoothie

Homemade Fruit Smoothie

Calories in a homemade fruit smoothie can vary depending on how you make it. If you make it with lots of fruit, and fruit juice, it is likely to be high in sugars, thus increasing the calories.

A fruit smoothie that is low in fats and has less than 40 grams of sugar could have less than 300 calories in it. 

However, if you add milk, nut butter, and other additional contents, you may increase the fat content, thus making it a lot higher in calories. 

An example of a smoothie could contain 153 calories, 2 grams of protein, and 2.8 grams of fiber. This would be a smoothie containing a single banana, a dash of fruit juice, a small amount of berries, and some plain yogurt. 

Calories In A Berry Smoothie

Berry Smoothie

As you may consider for other fruity smoothies, the calories in a berry smoothie can vary depending on what you include in it.

Berry smoothies can include quite a lot of sugar, some can be as high as 87 grams of sugar, with this amount, your berry smoothie would have around 470 calories. 

470 calories may not sound like a huge amount however it would take 45 minutes of running to burn this off.

Be aware that many berry smoothie recipes do include added sugars and this is generally where these calories come from. 

Fruit, including berries, already contains sugars, and no additional sugars need to be added. 

You could, however, make a low-calorie berry smoothie, which could be as low as 100 calories. This would only include a cup of frozen berries, almond milk, and some sweetener. 

How you make it matters.

How Many Calories in A Banana Smoothie?

Banana Smoothie

If you were to make a simple banana smoothie with bananas, brown sugar, and milk you could expect around 170 calories.

However, it depends on how you made it. If you used whole milk, the calories would be higher, but if you replaced the milk with water, the calorie count would be lower.

Similarly, you could also remove the sugar,  perhaps just having a very basic banana smoothie. You could also add in a couple of strawberries or other berries if you wanted added sweetness instead. Doing so would lower the sugar and increase the nutrients, thus lowering the calories. 

However, a banana smoothie could also be higher in calories, using one banana, with plant-based milk and honey or syrup could easily result in a smoothie of over 200 calories.

How Many Calories In A Chocolate Smoothie?

Chocolate Smoothie

Chocolate is assumed to always be very unhealthy and high in calories, however, you can make chocolate smoothies that are low in calories.

One of the easiest ways to do so is to use cocoa rather than a chocolate bar or chocolate chips as you would otherwise expect quite a surplus of sugar. 

You may find recipes for chocolate smoothies that are 1000 calories, however, these are much closer to being milkshakes, or desserts than they are smoothies. 

An ideal chocolate smoothie would probably contain milk, nonfat milk solids, banana, peanut butter, and cocoa mix.

Together these ingredients would result in a smoothie that is around 380 calories. 380 calories are remotely high but is fairly reasonable for a chocolate smoothie. 

Banana is an ideal ingredient for this type of smoothie as it will give it thickness and pairs well in terms of flavor too!  

How Many Calories In A Green Smoothie?

Green Smoothie

Green smoothies tend to have around 120 calories per serving. This type of smoothie is also the most likely to have the fewest calories.

Green smoothies are typically used for their healthful factor, weight loss assistance, and usually meal replacement. 

However, some green smoothies may have more calories if they are made for the purpose of workouts and similar purposes in which additional calories may be beneficial. 

A great green smoothie would be around 200 calories using baby spinach, mango, flaxseeds, banana, and milk. This gives a good fiber and carbohydrate content, with a high protein intake, and a decent amount of saturated fats. 

Average Calories In A Homemade Smoothie

Blender blending ingredients

The total calorie intake you can expect from a homemade smoothie could be anywhere from 200 calories to 800 calories. Which ingredients you choose to put in your smoothie will impact how many calories it accounts for. 

If you are using your homemade smoothies for meal replacement or workouts, then a smoothie that is higher in calories may be more beneficial to you than you may otherwise think as the MayoClinic states in regard to calories to weight loss.

Remember that calories equal energy. Yet, ensure that you are burning the calories you ingest, as ingesting too many calories but not using the energy provided can lead to weight gain. 

Smoothie King Calories

Smoothie King Smoothies

Smoothie King is probably one of the most popular smoothie chains in the USA. However, just because it is very popular does not mean that it is low-calorie or healthy.

We are well accustomed to Smoothie King and can tell you that there are some healthy Smoothie King smoothies, but there are also some which are highly caloric and more similar to desserts.

Let’s take a look at one of the favorite smoothie king beverages and what you can expect from them in their calories.

Smoothie King Angel Food Calories

Smoothie King’s Angel Food smoothie contains 350 calories at 20 oz. In a 20 oz Angel Food smoothie from Smoothie King, you could expect 71 grams of sugar and 50 grams of added sugar which is the primary contributor to why this smoothie is so caloric. 

If you purchased a 40 oz Angel Food smoothie, you could expect a whopping 690 calories, with 1.5 grams of fat, 165 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of protein. This results in 141 grams of sugar, 101 grams of added sugar, and even 100 mg of sodium 

While many smoothies at Smoothie King are healthy, we would say this is not likely one of them, even though it is delicious.

Smoothie King Gladiator Calories

There are different flavors of the Smoothie King Gladiator, so please keep that in mind when considering the calories.

For the purpose of this, we will look at the Gladiator chocolate. When ordering a 20 oz Gladiator chocolate, you get 230 calories.

It is actually fairly low in sugar, however, it is higher in sodium with 520 mg of sodium in a 20 oz. 

This is a high-protein smoothie also, offering 3.5 grams of fat, and 5 grams of carbs, but a whopping 46 grams of protein per 20 oz.

This makes it a great smoothie for those who are very active at the gym as Healthline.com states that protein helps provide energy for workouts.

However, if not, then this much protein could turn to fat if you are not using the energy from it. 

Smoothie King PB Swizzle Calories

The Smoothie King PB Swizzle is a smoothie bowl. It is made with an acai base, granola, strawberries, bananas, peanut butter, and blueberries.

This may sound like it will be low in calories, however, you would be mistaken. 

Smoothie bowls are also not meant to be a snack, they are meal replacements or even whole meals on their own.

This smoothie bowl contains 620 calories, as well as 22 grams of fat, 103 grams of carbs, and 7 grams of protein. This smoothie contains 58 grams of sugar, 46 grams of added sugars, and 170 mg of sodium! 

It only comes in one size so there is no variation or doubt around this smoothie bowl from Smoothie King.

Therefore, serving well as a breakfast or lunch, but just ensure you balance out your other meals around it, as 620 calories are quite a lot, especially for a breakfast! 

Smoothie King Hulk Calories 

The Smoothie King Hulk comes in many flavors, however, one of the most popular is chocolate, so we will focus on this one, however, be aware the other flavor varieties will not contain the same amount of calories. 

This smoothie contains 640 calories when you purchase a 20 oz serving. It contains a lot of cholesterol, sugars, and sodium. with 22 grams of fat, 104 grams of carbs, and 24 grams of protein.

You get 80 mg of cholesterol from this, 90 grams of sugar, 57 grams of added sugars, and 360 mg of sodium. 

The 40 oz contains 1280 calories, which for some could be half their daily calorie intake!

If you purchase this size you will get 44 grams of fat, 208 grams of carbs and 48 grams of protein, and a whopping total of 293 grams of sugars (added and natural).

Tropical Smoothie Calories

Mango drink in a takeaway cup

Tropical Smoothie is a very popular smoothie brand in the US, and many enjoy its variety of flavors.

However, just because they are a well-loved brand does not mean they are healthy. Tropical Smoothie is known to serve up green smoothies and healthful smoothies, however, they have some that are basically just desserts as well! 

Let’s look over some of Tropical Smoothies’ most popular smoothies and what you can expect from them in terms of calories.

Chia Banana Boost Tropical Smoothie Calories

The Chia Banana Boost from Tropical Smoothie Cafe is quite high in calories, however, like anything at Tropical Smoothie, you can customize it as you want to.

So, this means that the amount of calories in this smoothie can vary. Depending on what you add to your smoothie, your smoothie could range from 610 calories or higher. 

At a base level, however, the chia banana boost smoothie from Tropical Smoothie contains 610 to 770 calories.

While add-ins do increase the calorie count, you obviously cannot add every possible add-in, so there is a limit to how caloric this smoothie can be. 

If you do choose this beverage, try to minimize the calories, or even them out with nutrition and your remaining meals for the day.

Sunrise Sunset Tropical Smoothie Calories

The Sunrise Sunset Tropical Smoothie beverage is fairly medium in regards to its calories, although it is customizable, like everything at Tropical Smoothie.

You can deduct calories just like you can add them. If you wanted it to be less high in sugar, you could remove the orange juice, but you can also include edible straws, which add 40 calories each.

You could also add a ‘sub-Splenda to customize the sweetness of the Sunrise Sunset smoothie, adding 220 calories. 

Add acai for 70 calories, or avocado for 160 extra calories. 

At a base level, however, this smoothie is 400 calories. Yet, few will have it as it naturally is, so if you do customize it, ensure you are aware of the impact on the calories.

Bahama Mama Tropical Smoothie Calories

The Tropical Smoothie Bahama Mama smoothie contains a base level of 500 calories, however, it is customizable, such as everything on their menu.

This smoothie contains 117 net carbohydrates, 4.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of protein, and 3 grams of fiber. 

Do remember that when enjoying beverages from Tropical Smoothie you can add or remove different ingredients which will end up resulting in a decrease or increase in the calories for your beverage.

Ensure that you balance out the rest of your meals to ensure you get all the nutrition you need, but the right amount of calories.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie Calories

Peanut Paradise from Tropical Smoothie is a customizable protein-focused smoothie. It is made with peanut butter, non-fat yogurt, banana, and your own choice of protein.

Be aware that whichever protein you choose will influence the overall calorie count in this smoothie.

Whey protein will add 680 calories, while pea protein will add 730 calories. Of course, it is worth noting that Whey protein is not vegan, but pea protein is. 

This smoothie is listed as being 680-730 calories, however, as we can see this is simply the calorie intake from the added protein, so keep in mind that the additional ingredients will impact this.

As well as this, you can add ingredients that will impact the calorie count as well. 

You do not have to add protein to this smoothie, but, there is an option to have no protein in it, which simply makes it nutty and delightful.

Should you choose to add protein this would put the overall calorie count at over 1000 calories. 

Detox Island Green Smoothie Tropical Smoothie Calories

Some smoothies at Tropical Smoothie can be very healthy and this is one of them. The Detox Island Green Smoothie is only 180 calories. Of course, it is customizable, which does offer the opportunity for it to be less healthy and more caloric. However, at a base level, it is one of the healthiest, low-calorie smoothies they offer. 

It is made with kale, spinach, pineapple, mango, fresh ginger, and banana.

It is also naturally sweetened, so there are no added sugars. You can also add supplements to this, from vitamins to probiotics, or protein powder.

Jamba Juice Calories

Woman holding a Jamba Juice drink

The well-known Jamba Juice is most famous for its juices and the Orange Julius they sell, however, it sells a lot of smoothies too.

Jamba Juice smoothies are certainly growing in popularity, and they vary in their calorie content.

While they may not be the biggest smoothie chain in the US, they still get plenty of attention. 

Let’s take a look at which smoothies at Jamba Juice are favorites and what calorie content they have.

Orange C-Booster Jamba Juice Calories

The Orange C-Booster from Jamba Juice contains 230-400 calories. It is made with orange sherbet, orange juice, bananas, peaches, and a daily vitamin and zinc boost.

While this may not look like enough ingredients to add up to the calories included, a medium is 310 calories. 

The ingredients that make up the calories here are orange juice and orange sherbet. These two ingredients contain quite a lot of sugar, as Healthline.com states that juice can be very high in sugar, and sugar does increase caloric value.

It contains 44 grams of sugar, and 52 grams of carbohydrates in a small 230-calorie cup, while a large cup has 90 grams of carbs and 76 grams of sugar.

Do note, at Jamba Juice you can also customize the beverage, so the calories could be even higher if you chose to do so. 

The Go-Getter Jamba Juice Calories

The Jamba Juice Go-Getter averages 310 calories. It is made with a vegetable and fruit blend, kale, orange juice, mangoes, matcha green tea, and caffeine.

A small cup contains 260 calories, while a large contains 380 calories. In this beverage, you will find more carbohydrates than anything contributing to the calories. 

It contains 85 grams of carbohydrates and 62 grams of sugars in a large cup. However, that being said it is very high in vitamins A, K, and C. It offered 1010% of your vitamin C daily value! It is also low in fats, containing only 4% of your daily value for fats.

Watermelon Breeze Jamba Juice Calories

Watermelons are delicious. This Watermelon Breeze Jamba Juice smoothie contains an average of 410 calories.

It is made with raspberry sherbet, pineapples, strawberries, and a watermelon grape juice blend. 

The ‘watermelon’ title would probably have you thinking that it could not be high in calories.

However, you would be wrong to assume that it is not high in calories. This is because the juice and sherbet introduce a lot of sugar and carbs into the beverage.

A small Watermelon Breeze has 300 calories and 72 grams of carbs and 62 grams of sugar. A large will contain 480 calories and 117 grams of carbs and 102 grams of sugars which is a lot as you can see with this online converter, 100 grams equals 1/2 a cup! 

Like every smoothie at Jamba Juice, it is also customizable, so the calories in this smoothie could be even higher if you introduce add-ons.

Planet Smoothie Calories

Green beverage hold by a woman

Planet Smoothie is very popular for its tasty smoothies, but just because they are delicious does not mean they are all healthy.

While smoothies tend to have a healthy reputation, this is not always the truth. Smoothies can be very high in calories if they are made with juice and the wrong ingredients. 

Let’s take a lot at some of Planet Smoothies’ most popular smoothies and how many calories you are likely to find in them. 

Chocolate Elvis Planet Smoothie Calories

You may expect Chocolate Elvis to be incredibly caloric, however, a small 20 oz is 380 calories. While this is still quite high for a 20 oz beverage, the name would typically have most assume it to be higher.

That being said, a 44 oz large provides you with 750 calories. 

The downside to this smoothie is primarily in the fats, which totals 33 grams. And only grams of this are saturated fats!

Verywellhealth.com discusses the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats, which is important to know. 

There are also a lot of carbs in this smoothie with 143 grams in a 44 oz. It is not necessarily unhealthy, but you should ensure you can work off the calories it will provide.

The Last Mango Planet Smoothie Calories

This smoothie is delicious and provides you with 260 calories if you purchase a small size.

If you purchase a large, it will provide you with 530 calories. The sugar content in this smoothie is fairly high with 106 grams of sugar in a large, 39 grams of which are added sugars (not natural).

It also contains 146 grams of carbohydrates.

The large content of added sugars likely comes from the orange sherbet ingredient. However, even with this, it is still one of the lower-calorie smoothies at Planet Smoothie.

It contains only 3.5 grams of fats and will provide you with 5 grams of protein.

Shag-A-Delic Planet Smoothie Calories

This is a popular, very fruity 330-670 calorie smoothie. It contains bananas, blueberries, strawberries, nonfat milk, vanilla, and frozen yogurt.

A small Shag-A-Delic contains 330 calories, while a large one contains 670 calories. A lot of this comes from the 161 grams of carbs and 102 grams of sugars found in a large. 

On the downside, 42 of these 102 grams of sugar are added sugar. It also contains 2 grams of fat, none of which is unsaturated fat.

On the positive side, it does contain 13 grams of protein, which will be sure to give you a boost, as well as 21 grams of dietary fiber to give your GI tract a boost! 

Compared to other smoothie chains though, Planet Smoothie has healthy smoothies, especially if you customize them.

Smoothie Bowl Calories

two smoothie bowls

Smoothie bowls are usually much thicker smoothies, often served in a bowl, and eaten with a spoon.

Smoothies as it is can easily be turned into a meal by using them as a meal replacement, however, smoothie bowls turn smoothies thicker and use toppings to make them extra nutritionally valuable, and more filling for a delicious meal that benefits your body and gives you a boost. 

Smoothie bowls should not be treated as a snack, but are wonderful to enjoy as a replacement for your breakfast or lunch, perhaps even dinner.

When making one yourself, ensure that you know the values of the ingredients you include. 

How Many Calories In A Homemade Smoothie Bowl

When making a smoothie bowl at home it is important that you know your ingredients. Many smoothie bowls made at home can be higher than 300 calories.

Consider if you made a smoothie bowl using a single medium-sized banana, a cup worth of strawberries, a cup worth of blueberries, 2% milk, as well as 1.7 oz of oats, then you would be consuming 460 calories or so. 

This gives a good idea of what to expect from your average smoothie bowl.

A popular type of smoothie bowl these days is the acai bowl, and these tend to range from 200 to 500 calories. 

Some homemade smoothie bowls can reach 600 calories or so, but note that portion size for your smoothie bowl will influence the calories as well.

If you make a smoothie bowl well, however, you can make them low-calorie, such as with our 147-calorie smoothie bowl recipe

Smoothie King Smoothie Bowl Calories

Pureed fruit in a bowl topped with diced fruit

Smoothie King has 6 smoothie bowl options. They range from 470 calories to 620 calories. The Bee Berry Sting Bowl is the least caloric with 470 calories, it also has 76 grams of sugar and 96 grams of carbs. 

Alternatively, the highest calorie smoothie bowl at Smoothie King is the PB Swizzle Bowl, which contains 620 calories, and has 58 grams of sugar, as well as 103 grams of carbs. 

Their other smoothie bowls include the Hive Five Bowl at 500 calories, the Go Go Goji Crunch Bowl at 540 calories, the Berry Goji Getaway Bowl at 540 calories, and the PB Delight Bowl at 550 calories. 

This makes Smoothie King smoothie bowls around the same as typical homemade smoothie bowls in terms of their calorie count.

Playa Bowls Smoothie Calories

Playa Bowls Smoothie

Playa Bowls range a great deal in their calories. They range from 320 calories all the way to 950 calories depending on what you order.

Their least caloric bowl is their blueberry, strawberry & almonds oatmeal bowl with 320 calories, while their most caloric bowl is their trailblazer chia pudding bowl at 950 calories.

They divide their bowls into categories, one of the least calorie-heavy of these categories is the oatmeal bowl. The least caloric is the blueberry, strawberry & almonds bowl, and the most caloric is the power bowl at 540 calories. 

Their chia pudding bowls are very high in calories, with the least high in calories being ‘the jetty’ at 690 calories, and the most caloric being the ‘trailblazer’ with 950 calories.

Jamba Juice Smoothie Bowl Calories

Jamba Juice Smoothie Bowl

The most infamous bowl at Jamba Juice is their Acai Primo bowl. This smoothie bowl contains 520 calories.

It is made with strawberries, soymilk, blueberries, an acai blend, and bananas, as well as organic granola, shredded coconut, and honey as toppings. 

This smoothie is 520 calories at a base level, but do remember all smoothie products at Jamba Juice are customizable. 

So this smoothie bowl could be made to be higher or lower in calories than this depending on what you add or remove.

You can add toppings to this smoothie bowl including: 

  • Bananas (60 cal).
  • Strawberries (5 cal).
  • blueberries (10 cal).
  • Coconut flakes (25 cal).
  • Granola (100 cal)
  • Honey (30 cal)

Seeing this you can get a good idea of how much a single topping can influence the calorie count of your smoothie bowl.

Jamba Juice also offers other add-ons to your smoothies from whole food boosts to vitamin and protein boosts.

Jamba Juice also offers the following smoothie bowls.

  • Tropical Dragon twist: 410 calories.
  • Belgian Waffles Parfait w/Coconut Whip: 570 calories.
  • belgian Waffle Parfait w/ Greek Yogurt: 550 calories.
  • Chunky Strawberry: 610 calories.
  • Dragon Fruit Delight: 500 calories.
  • Vanilla Blue Sky: 320 calories.
  • Oatmeal: 170 calories.

There is a lot of range, but do not forget the toppings and add-ons. These can influence the calorie intake from these smoothies.

Planet Smoothie Acai Bowl Calories

Acai Bowl

Planet Smoothie offers 6 smoothie bowls, but 3 acai bowls. These 3 are the ‘nutty Brazilian bowl’, the ‘rio bowl’, and the Amazon Kick Bowl. The ‘amazon kick bowl’ contains 460 calories, the ‘rio bowl’ 340 calories, and the ‘nutty Brazilian bowl’ has 540 calories. 

The ‘rio bowl’ is made with acai, apples, and bananas, with bananas and chia seeds for the toppings.

The ‘amazon kick bowl’ is made with acai, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas, with granola and bananas as a topping.

The ‘nutty Brazilian bowl’ is made with acai, peanut butter, and bananas, with bananas and granola as the toppings. 

All three of these bowls are very similar, they all contain acai and banana and use banana as one of the toppings.

These bowls are very popular, as acai bowls have taken a lot of popularity recently. However, it is worth noting that Planet Smoothie does sell 3 other smoothie bowls. 

  • Daybreak Crunch Bowl: 560 calories. 
  • Two To Mango Bowl: 480 calories.
  • Dragon Fruit Beach Bowl: 480 calories. 

FAQs

Are Smoothies Good Or Bad For Weight Loss?

Smoothies can be good for weight loss. However, you have to ensure that you choose the right smoothies and ingredients and watch your portion sizes and other meals. Smoothies will not help you lose weight alone, you need to look at your overall diet.

How Many Calories Is A Smoothie With Just Fruit?

There are around 130 calories in a smoothie with only fruit per cup. It depends on which fruits you use as some may provide more calories than others.

Is It OK To Drink Homemade Smoothies Everyday?

You can drink homemade smoothies every day, but if you do you do need to keep an eye on your overall calorie intake as well as your nutritional intake as well.

Will I Gain Weight If I Drink Smoothies Everyday?

You may gain weight if drinking smoothies everyday if you do not monitor your diet around your smoothies. If you drink a smoothie every day and still have 3 meals per day as well, weight gain is likely.

Ella
Follow Me!
Latest posts by Ella (see all)

You Might Also Like

No Comments

Leave a Reply