What To Order At Smoothie King, Jamba And Robeks For Fat Loss

A 24-ounce Mocha Madness carries 810 calories and 163 grams of sugar. Coach Brian walks the menu boards at Smoothie King, Jamba, Robeks and Tropical Smoothie and reads the numbers out loud. You will know which drinks are food and which ones are dessert.

Tropical Smoothie's Mocha Madness runs 810 calories in a 24-ounce cup. Of its 185 grams of carbohydrate, 163 grams are sugar. This episode covers how to tell which drink you are ordering at a smoothie shop before you pay for it.

Three Products Come Out Of The Same Cup

Every smoothie shop sells three different things in the same size cup.

The first is a fruit-heavy drink with almost no protein. The second is a protein shake that can work as a meal. The third is a dessert served with a straw.

They sit next to each other on one menu board. Nothing tells you which is which.

That 163 grams of sugar in a Mocha Madness is about two and a half times the sugar in a 20-ounce Coke. Nobody walks up to a counter expecting that from a coffee smoothie.

The Words On The Board Are Marketing

Greens. Wellness. Get fit. Performance.

None of those words is a nutrition claim. They are marketing, and they sit on some of the heaviest drinks in the store.

The Hulk Strawberry sits under Smoothie King's own Get Fit section. It runs 820 calories with 134 grams of carbohydrate and 120 grams of sugar. Eighty-five of those grams are added sugar.

The American Heart Association puts the daily added sugar limit for men at 36 grams. One drink is more than double that.

My own coaching call is a little wider than the Association's. I will let a man run 50 to 60 grams if some of it is coming from fruit. Added sugar is the part I want down, whatever syrup or sweetener it arrives in.

Smoothie King

The Hulk Strawberry is 820 calories with 134 grams of carbohydrate.

The Slim and Trim Strawberry sits right next to it at 160 calories. That is 28 grams of carbohydrate, 13 grams of sugar, zero added sugar and 13 grams of protein.

Same store. Same cup. One is a dessert and the other is a snack you can fit into any day.

At 160 calories the Slim and Trim will not hold you for long. It will hold you in a pinch.

Robeks

The Peanut Power in a large runs 1,130 calories. That is 129 grams of carbohydrate, 73 grams of sugar and 46 grams of protein.

The protein is real. The carbohydrate is roughly double what most men want in one sitting.

I rode three hours on the bike this morning. On a day like that I can account for 130 grams of carbohydrate and 73 grams of sugar. Coming out of a normal forty-five minute workout you did not burn anything close to it.

Do not make this your recovery drink. It sits on your stomach rather than doing the job you wanted from it.

The Mahalo Mango in a medium is more reasonable at 350 calories. It carries 85 grams of carbohydrate, 74 grams of sugar and 2 grams of protein.

Lower in calories does not mean the right calories. Carbohydrate on its own does not hold you.

Jamba

The PB Moo'd in a large runs about 965 calories with 150 grams of carbohydrate, 123 grams of sugar and 31 grams of protein.

The Apple 'n Greens in a large runs 400 calories. That is around sixty percent fewer calories than the PB Moo'd.

Then read the rest of it. Ninety-six grams of carbohydrate, 74 grams of sugar and 6 grams of protein.

An apple is about 100 calories and roughly 25 grams of carbohydrate. That drink is close to four apples.

Would you sit down and eat four apples? The greens in the name are there to make the answer feel different.

Tropical Smoothie

The Mocha Madness is the one from the top of this post. 810 calories, 185 grams of carbohydrate, 163 grams of sugar.

The Detox Island Green is the counterweight. In a 24-ounce cup it runs 210 calories with 53 grams of carbohydrate, 39 grams of sugar, 6 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein.

Thirty-nine grams of sugar is still more than the Association's daily figure for men. It is a carbohydrate-heavy drink at a calorie count you can work with.

It is also the one smoothie on that menu made without turbinado sugar. Every other drink gets it by default.

It is light on protein. Add a protein boost and you land somewhere near 20 to 30 grams more.

You Do Not Need To Detox

Your body does that job on its own and it does it well.

Detox powders, detox foot pads, potions in a bottle. Read the ingredient list before you spend anything on any of them.

Do not spend $150 to $200 on a seven-day smoothie detox program. Email me and I will send you my home shake guide instead.

Count Carbohydrate In Units

Total carbohydrate matters more here than sugar alone. Carbohydrate covers the sugar and the starch together, and your body processes both.

The CDC uses 15 grams of carbohydrate as one serving. It is a teaching tool for diabetics planning meals rather than a limit. It works as a unit of measurement for anybody.

Run these drinks through it.

The Hulk Strawberry is about nine servings. The Peanut Power is about nine. The PB Moo'd is closer to ten. The Mocha Madness is closer to twelve.

A plate of spaghetti with meat sauce runs four to five.

The Glucose Tolerance Test Comparison

Doctors test how a body handles sugar with a glucose tolerance test. The patient drinks 75 grams of pure glucose on an empty stomach and gets checked two hours later.

Several of these smoothies carry more total carbohydrate than that test does.

Read the caveat before you do anything with that. The test uses pure glucose and nothing else. A smoothie has fiber and fat and protein mixed in, so it will not produce the same curve.

The comparison shows you the size of the load. It does not predict your number.

People respond differently to the same drink. Fitness, activity, medication, fiber and protein all move it. A continuous glucose monitor is the only way to see your own answer.

The Sugar Rush Is A Myth

A 2019 meta-analysis pooled 31 studies and more than 1,200 participants to look at carbohydrate and mood.

It found no positive mood effect from carbohydrate at any point after eating it.

What it did find in the first hour was more fatigue and less alertness compared with people who got a placebo.

Your blood sugar goes up. Your body releases insulin to bring it back down. That drop is the flat feeling you get an hour later.

That dip is not a true low. A genuine low blood sugar reading is under 70. What most men feel is fog and fatigue, closer to the couch after a holiday meal.

The Dip That Makes You Eat Sooner

A study in Nature Metabolism tracked real meals with continuous glucose monitors and looked at what happened after a bigger dip in blood sugar.

Compare the people with the biggest dips against the people with the smallest. The big-dip group ate their next meal 24 minutes sooner and ate about 312 more calories across the whole day.

That study was run on standardised breakfasts rather than smoothies. The pattern is what carries over.

Put the two pieces together. A drink like this eats a large share of your calories for the day, leaves you looking for food sooner, and gives you less energy while it does it.

Liquid calories move through you faster than food calories. That is the trade you are making.

The Long View

A major analysis in the BMJ pooled 17 long-term studies. Drinking one additional sugar-sweetened beverage a day was tied to an 18 percent greater rate of type 2 diabetes.

Adjust for body fat and the figure was still 13 percent higher.

Read what that says and what it does not. It is an association rather than proof of cause. People who drink more of these also tend to carry more weight.

It applies most directly to drinks made with added sugar, which is what most of these chains use by default. It does not hand the same number to a whole fruit smoothie you blended at home.

One smoothie does not give anybody diabetes. A daily 800-calorie drink that is heavy on carbohydrate and light on protein is a different question.

Açaí Bowls Are Smoothies With A Spoon

Same trap, different utensil.

Smoothie King's açaí Cocoa Haze bowl runs about 630 calories with 125 grams of carbohydrate, 63 grams of sugar and 4 grams of protein.

Jamba's açaí Primo bowl runs about 510 calories with 100 grams of carbohydrate, 65 grams of sugar and 8 grams of protein.

The base is sweetened before anything goes on top. Then come the granola, the honey, the agave drizzle, the nut butter and the dried fruit.

A finished bowl lands between 600 and 800 calories depending on the toppings. Assume any açaí bowl you did not build yourself starts at 500.

Every topping adds 50 calories at minimum and closer to 75 or 100 in practice. A quarter cup of granola alone is 80 to 100.

Five Steps At The Counter

Pick the smallest practical size. A small cup solves the portion problem before you order.

Ask for no turbinado and no added sweetener.

Check the total calories, carbohydrate and sugar on the website before you order.

Add a protein boost rather than treating a fruit drink as a meal. A 210-calorie smoothie plus a scoop lands around 300 to 350, and that works.

Watch the extras. Sherbet, frozen yogurt, nut butters, coconut, granola. Those multiply the total.

The Gas Station Beats The Smoothie Shop

Walk next door instead.

A Core Power shake and a piece of fruit gives you about 320 calories with roughly 30 grams of protein, about 40 grams of carbohydrate and a couple of grams of fiber.

It costs less than the smoothie and it does the job the smoothie was pretending to do.

Adding a protein scoop at the counter costs about eight dollars on top. A 300-calorie smoothie with 20 grams of protein for nine dollars is not a good trade.

A Man Who Started This Week

I posted an update on my stories today about one of the men who started with me a week ago.

He made a decision. We built him a clear plan. He has been executing it for four or five days and he already feels better.

That is what the first week looks like when a man stops researching and starts doing.

Action Steps

• Read the nutrition page on the chain's website before you order.
• Pick the smallest size on the board.
• Ask for no turbinado and no added sweetener.
• Order a protein-forward option rather than a fruit-only drink.
• Skip the granola and the nut butter on an açaí bowl.
• Take a Core Power and a banana from the gas station when the numbers do not work.
• Send questions to brian@brianparana.com.

More From Driven For Health

• Episode 145 opened the what-to-order series with Chipotle.
• Episode 156 covers the gas station and episode 157 covers the airport.
• Episode 89 covers a new type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
• Episode 91 covers type 2 diabetes and erectile dysfunction.
• Episode 98 covers what a continuous glucose monitor can teach you.

Get The Guides

There are two and they are different things.

The Eating On-The-Go Guide runs over 25 pages and covers fast food, fast casual, fine dining, on the go, gas stations and airports. Grab it at go.brianparana.com/eatingonthego.

The home shake guide covers building smoothies at home. It has no landing page. Email me at brian@brianparana.com and I will send it over.

The Call To Rise

The Call To Rise is a 100-day Fat Loss Challenge designed for driven men ready to get back to a healthy body, boost their energy, and lead as a powerful man.

If you are struggling with some form of chronic illness such as high blood pressure, cholesterol or even Type 2 Diabetes - this program is designed for you too.

Through a proven system of strength training, personalized nutrition, and real accountability, most men lose 20 plus pounds and rebuild the confidence that comes with it and even improve chronic illness issues. It's more than a fitness program, it's a body transformation experience with a Brotherhood of like-minded men committed to showing up, leveling up, and leading in a body they are excited about.

This is your wake-up call to rise.

www.thecalltorise.com

Frequently Asked Questions

How many calories are in a smoothie shop smoothie?

They range from about 160 calories to 1,130 in the same size cup. Smoothie King's Slim and Trim Strawberry is 160 calories and Robeks' large Peanut Power is 1,130.

Which smoothie should I order for fat loss?

Look for a drink with real protein and low added sugar rather than one named after greens or fitness. Smoothie King's Slim and Trim Strawberry gives you 13 grams of protein and zero added sugar for 160 calories.

How much added sugar can a man have in a day?

The American Heart Association puts the daily limit for men at 36 grams. A single Hulk Strawberry carries 85 grams of added sugar.

Are açaí bowls healthy?

An açaí bowl is a smoothie served with a spoon and the base is sweetened before the toppings go on. Most finished bowls land between 600 and 800 calories with little protein.

Do smoothies spike your blood sugar?

A glucose tolerance test uses 75 grams of pure glucose and several of these smoothies carry more total carbohydrate than that. A smoothie also has fiber and fat and protein in it, so it will not produce the same curve.

Does sugar give you an energy boost?

No. A 2019 meta-analysis of 31 studies found no positive mood effect from carbohydrate at any point, and it found more fatigue and less alertness in the first hour after eating.

Why am I hungry again so soon after a sweet drink?

A bigger dip in blood sugar after a meal predicts eating sooner and eating more. People with the biggest dips ate their next meal 24 minutes sooner and took in about 312 more calories over the day than people with the smallest dips.

What is the Call To Rise program?

The Call To Rise is a 100-day fat loss challenge built around strength training, personalized nutrition and real accountability. Most men lose 20 plus pounds and rebuild the confidence that comes with it.

Listen to the full episode of Driven For Health.

Read the companion article on brianparana.com.