Cucumber smoothies have been a popular trend for losing weight. Have you tried one yet? If not, maybe you should. But make sure it’s made with cucumbers, water, lemon juice and ice cubes.
Cucumber Smoothie
This cucumber smoothie is not only an effective weight loss drink but is also the perfect summer coolant. This drink will cool your body down during the scorching summer months by keeping you well-hydrated.
- In a blender, add 1 cucumber, ¼ cup pineapple, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp chia seeds and 4-5 mint leaves. Add ½ cup coconut water and blend to form a smoothie.
- You can add a pinch of chaat masala, cumin powder and salt as per taste.
- Drink this smoothie during mid-morning or evening for best results.
Cucumber Weight Loss Smoothies
1. Best Cucumber Smoothie for Weight Loss
Unsweetened almond milk is the perfect liquid base for our cucumber weight loss smoothies. It looks almost like milk, and the taste is so delicious. Its nutty flavor combines well with most fruits and veggies.
Almond milk is usually lower in calories than cow’s milk, if you use the unsweetened variety.
Two cups of unsweetened almond milk only contain 70-80 calories. The same amount of milk would have more than twice the amount of calories.
If you’re following a low carb or keto diet, you’re going to love almond milk.
The unsweetened variety usually only contains 1-2 grams of carbs, and most of these carbs are healthy dietary fiber. Compare that to dairy milk which contains 6-times the amount and most of it is sugar.
If you want to even further restrict your calorie intake, you could simply replace the almond milk for water.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 1 apple
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1 cup frozen mango chunks
- 1 medium-sized cucumber
- 1 avocado
Instructions:
- Wash the spinach
- Peel the apple and cucumber
- Scoop the flesh out of the avocado
- Add everything to your blender jar
- Blend for up to 1 minute on the highest setting
- Enjoy!
2. Coconut Water Cucumber Smoothie
Coconut water contains many nutrients that are good for you. The organic, natural variety is also free of added sugars and nasty additives.
Not to be confused with coconut milk, coconut water is the liquid inside of young, green coconuts. It’s low in calories, high in electrolytes, and very refreshing. It’s the perfect liquid base for weight loss smoothies and fitness drinks.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup coconut water
- 2 green apples
- 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
- ¼ English cucumber
- 1-inch ginger piece
- 1 lemon, peeled
Instructions:
- Peel and core the apples
- Peel the cucumber, ginger, and lemon
- Add all ingredients to your blender jar
- Blend for 45-60 seconds until smooth
- Enjoy your refreshing cucumber weight loss smoothie!
3. Cucumber Spinach Smoothie for Weight Loss
Spinach and other leafy greens are always a good choice when it comes to weight loss.
Weight loss isn’t rocket science. You simply need to burn more calories than you eat. Focusing on low-calorie but nutrient-rich foods is key if your looking to lose weight.
Eating more leafy greens is a great way to give your body all the nutrients it needs without increasing calories much.
Nutrient-dense foods like spinach and also help you control your appetite. You’ll never have to count calories again, if you focus on low-calorie foods that are rich in nutrients!
Spinach is a good source of fiber. It’ll take your body longer to digest than junk food. It can keep you full for longer and you’ll be less prone to snacking in between meals.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1 banana
- 1 small cucumber
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
- ½ cup frozen pineapple chunks
Instructions:
- Wash the spinach
- Peel the banana and cucumber
- Add everything to your blender jar
- Blend for up to 1 minute until well combined
4. Cucumber and Banana Smoothie
Coconut milk isn’t only for Thai curries and cocktails, it’s a delicious choice for smoothies as well.
Not to be confused with coconut water, coconut molk is the white flesh of mature coconuts. The milk has a creamy, thick consistency.
Coconut milk is a high-calorie food, and about 93% of its calories come from fat. Although the fats are considered to be healthy medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), I still would use it in moderation.
For weight loss smoothies, it’s best to use the unsweetened or low-fat variety.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup low-fat coconut milk
- 1 banana
- 1 cup baby spinach
- ½ cucumber
- 1 cup frozen papaya chunks
Instructions:
- Wash the spinach
- Peel the banana and cucumber
- Place everything into your blender jar
- Blend for 1 minute until smooth
- Enjoy your delicious smoothie!
5. Blueberry Cucumber Smoothie
A diet rich in antioxidant-bursting blueberries may be just what you need if you’re looking to shed some pounds.
Blueberries contain antioxidants called Catechins. One study performed on rats showed that after 90 days of consuming blueberry powder daily, the rats had less abdominal fat and lower cholesterol. In combination with a low-fat diet the benefits were boosted even further.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- ½ small cucumber
- 1 cup frozen blueberries
- ½ cup blackberries
- 1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Wash the fresh blackberries
- Peel the cucumber
- Add everything to your blender jar
- Blend for 45 seconds
- Pear Cucumber Smoothie
6. Pear Ginger Cucumber Smoothie
Ginger in combination with a balanced diet and moderate exercise may help you reach your weight loss goals quicker.
Obesity is often linked to inflammation and oxidative stress, which is caused by free radicals in your body. Ginger root contains natural antioxidants to help fight these free radicals.
Ginger not only can battle inflammation, but it may also help you to stay full longer. Some research even indicates that ginger can play a significant role in reducing belly fat.
The naturally occurring gingerols in ginger may also help you stabilize your blood sugar levels, which can be beneficial if you want to lose weight.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup water
- 1 pear
- 1 small cucumber
- 1-inch ginger piece, peeled
Instructions:
- Peel the pear, ginger piece, and cucumber
- Add everything to your blender
- Blend for 45-60 seconds until smooth
- Enjoy this healthy and easy cucumber smoothie!
7. Easy Weight Loss Smoothie
This is an easy cucumber smoothie for weight loss. All you need is a small cucumber, ½ cup of spinach and a kiwifruit. If you don’t like kiwis, simply swap it for an apple or a pear. For an even more refreshing taste, simply add some ice or frozen fruit.
Ingredients:
- 1 small cucumber
- ½ cup spinach
- 1 kiwifruit
Instructions:
- Wash the spinach
- Peel the cucumber
- Scoop the flesh out of the kiwi
- Blend for 45-60 seconds on the highest setting
- Add some plain filtered water if you prefer a thinner consistency
- Enjoy this quick and easy weight loss smoothie!
8. Cucumber Celery Smoothie
Drinking pure celery juice first thing in the morning has been a new health trend that’s marketed as a miracle cure for boosting health and losing weight.
The key to long-term health and a healthy weight shouldn’t rely on a single food. A balanced, nutrient-rich diet combined with some exercise is the key to staying healthy.
While I’m not convinced that celery juice is a cure for everything, I do enjoy my glass of fresh celery juice in the morning.
Celery juice is somewhat low in calories, having only 54 calories per cup. It’s also rich in nutrients (as all green veggies are), and replacing artificial high-sugar drinks with green smoothies can help you promote satiety and give your body the nutrients it needs to lose weight.
Ingredients:
- 1 small cucumber
- 1 green apple
- 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
- ½ cup green tea, chilled
- 1 cup ice cubes
Instructions:
- Brew ½ cup of green tea and keep it in the fridge for a few hours
- Peel the cucumber, apple, and celery
- Roughly chop the celery stalks
- Add everything to your blender jar
- Blend for 60-90 seconds
- Enjoy your refreshing celery cucumber smoothie!
How Cucumbers Benefit Your Health and Weight
1. Amazing nutrient density
Nutrient density refers to how much nutrition you get per calorie of a food. If a food contains a lot of calories, and not a lot of nutrients (like potato chips) then it has a low nutrient density. Cucumbers on the other hand, contain very few calories but are very high in nutrients.
This is great for two reasons:
- You can eat enough cucumbers to fill you up while staying in a caloric deficit to lose weight.
- All the extra vitamins and minerals in cucumbers will satisfy your cells, so you have more control of hunger and are less likely to binge on high-calorie foods.
This study put participants on a high-nutrient density diet and found that 80% experienced less hunger.
2. Helps you lose weight!
Thanks to their amazing nutrient density, you will get full before you will get fat from eating cucumbers. Think of your stomach like valuable real-estate… you should make sure the space is being taken up by good quality stuff, not food that will make you fat and sick.
Plus, all the extra nutrients will train your body to crave healthier foods, reducing the amount of junk you are tempted to indulge in.
The bottom line is this – if you want to shed fat, you need to be eating cucumbers. They’ll bulk up your meals (so you can reduce calories without feeling deprived) and they will help you make healthier choices in general.
3. Cucumbers Protect Your Cells
Cucumbers contain phytonutrients, which are plant substances with potential to prevent human diseases like cancer.
Cucumbers are known for their cucurbitacin, lignan, and flavonoid content – all potent anti-oxidants that protect cells from the damage of free radicals.
They also contain plenty of anti-oxidants like vitamin C, beta-carotene, and manganese. Some studies have even looked at cucumber extracts as potential cancer treatment drugs.
But here’s the thing…
Anti-oxidants are better used to protect your cells against cancer than to try and reverse it. Rather than waiting until it’s too late, try to include sources of anti-oxidants (like cucumber!) in your meals every day.
4. Keeps you hydrated
One of the reasons that cucumbers are so low in calories is because they are over 95% water.
In fact, cucumbers have the highest water content of any solid food… it’s kind of like “eating” a glass of water!
Actually, it may be even better for you than “eating” a glass of water. Dr. Susan Shirreffs of Loughborough University was quoted in the media explaining that “To be properly hydrated, you need to replace fluid lost from the body with one that’s similar to the body’s natural composition” and “Watery fruit and vegetables often contain levels of minerals and sugar that mirror this, so they can hydrate you more effectively than water alone.”
5. Supports healthy digestion
Thanks to their incredibly hydrating effects, cucumbers can keep things moving along in the digestive tract.
This is because proper digestion and elimination (you know what I’m saying!) depends on having enough water in the intestines.
During digestion, your body produces around 8.5 quarts of gastric juices, which travel through your digestive tract helping to break down food for absorption.
By consuming enough water, you ensure your body continues to produce these gastric juices for optimal digestion.
6. Reduces inflammation
The cucurbitacins found in cucumbers have been researched for their anti-inflammatory potential, with some pretty amazing findings. In this study researchers found that it inhibits inflammation.
Since inflammation is thought to be the underlying cause of most diseases, and directly related to conditions like arthritis, packing your meals with anti-inflammatory foods like cucumber, is super important.
7. Healthier heart
Cucumbers contain lignans, which have been highly researched for their cardiovascular benefits. This is how it works behind the scenes, when the cucumber’s lignans kick into action in your body:
Pro-inflammatory substances (called free-radicals) cause damage to the artery walls, which must be repaired using cholesterol that builds up over time.
When lignans are available in your body, they neutralize free radicals before they have a chance to cause damage, which means squeaky clean arteries.
8. Improves your skin
If you are struggling with wrinkles, dry skin, acne, or any other skin conditions it can be a sign that you are lacking hydration. When the skin is properly hydrated with water is has a healthy, dewy glow that can contribute to a younger appearance.
But that’s not all…
Cucumber actually possesses some other amazing skin benefits, which may come as a total surprise!
Cucumbers have long been viewed as having a ‘cooling’ effect, and now a study has confirmed that cucumber can soothe swelling and redness. This makes them the perfect treatment for sunburns, or skin prone to chemical sensitivities.
9. Cleans out toxins
Great news, cucumbers can help you detox from a night of drinking, a bad meal, or exposure to environmental toxins. Thanks to their diuretic effects, they can increase the speed at which toxins leave your body. That means cutting down your recovery time!
In fact, Khloe Kardashian has been open about using cucumbers to detox, by adding them to her water (you can get her recipe here). Drinking cucumber-based beverages is an amazing way to get a little detox into your everyday routine.
Who said diet always has to be boring and bland? The right kind of meals can not only help you with the weight loss process but are also delicious to have. From curry and raita to salad and smoothie, you can make a number of weight loss recipes with cucumber which are super nutritious as well as tasty.
10. Stronger bones
You probably already know that calcium builds strong bones – but did you know that vitamin K is a critical part of calcium ending up in the right place? Vitamin K is found in green vegetables, like cucumber.
Vitamin K is also a cofactor to one of the main proteins in your bones. So don’t just rely on calcium to build your bone strength! Getting more vitamin K has been associated with lower rates of hip fracture.
As we age we also lose height due to changes in our spine. Good news, vitamin K has been shown to reduce height-loss too. So if you want to grow tall (and stay tall) eat your cucumbers!