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Iulia Serban, RDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist with a Bachelor's degree in Nutrition and Dietetics, and a Master's degree in Nutrition and Quality of Life.
If you love banana smoothies but you don’t know to make them high-calorie, you are missing out on a huge boost in your daily efforts to gain weight. What's worse is that if you drink low-calorie banana smoothies, you hurt your ability to gain weight by filling up your stomach and not leaving space for other high-calorie foods and calorie-dense drinks.
From recipe creator's experience: I drink high-calorie smoothies daily and I almost always include bananas among the ingredients I use because I love their taste and I know they supercharge my energy levels.
Happily, from today on, you will be able as well to prepare high-calorie banana smoothies for weight gain by following our dietitian-approved recipe, which counts among the best high-calorie smoothie recipes.
In terms of calories, the main version of this banana smoothie has about 1000 calories (989 specifically) but this number can be modified, depending on your needs. To do so, you just need to adjust the portion of each ingredient by following these instructions:
To make this high-calorie banana smoothie, you need these kitchen tools:
The main ingredients of this high-calorie banana smoothie are obviously bananas. They give the smoothie a thick consistency, whether you use unripe, ripe, brownish, or frozen bananas.
Sliding to the second ingredient, Greek yogurt adds texture to the smoothie along with a significant number of proteins.
Furthermore, cashews are in the mix because they pack many calories and healthy fats. Moreover, this type of nut has a neutral flavor that won't modify the banana flavor of the smoothie.
Next, oats bring extra carbohydrates to the smoothie, thus more calories.
Last but not the least, although it has zero calories, water accomplishes the important task of thinning the smoothie, so you don't end up with a thick paste.
1. Peel the bananas and break them so they will fit in the blender.
2. Think whether all the ingredients will fit inside your blender.
In case you have a smaller blender, like the one we used for this recipe, split the ingredients into 2 or 3 equal portions, then follow the instructions for each portion separately.
3. Add all the ingredients to the blender, making sure the water is at the bottom of the blender.
If you have a blender with an ingredient recipient that needs to be turned upside down when installed on the blender, always add the water lastly. This way, the blades will work smoothly instead of clogging in other ingredients.
4. Blend the ingredients until the smoothie has a fine texture (about 30-60 seconds).
If you have a weaker blender, you may want to mix the ingredients for longer than 1 minute. Nevertheless, to avoid overheating your blender, respect the blending time recommendation in your blender's manual.
5. Pour the smoothie into a glass, or into a shaker bottle, and serve.
There you have it: a high-calorie banana smoothie tailored for weight gain with an interesting texture and a strong banana flavor that's calmed down by a slight note of cashews.
Having almost 1000 calories, the high-calorie banana smoothie is the drink with the second most calories in our list of weight gain smoothies.
Even though the high-calorie banana smoothie has just a few ingredients, it sports a high level of carbs, a decent amount of fat, and enough protein to replace pre-workout meals for muscle gain, which is great considering that this high-calorie smoothie is made without protein powder.
Most of the carbs of the smoothie come from bananas, which are one of the fresh fruits with the most calories and the 2nd best fruit in the ranking of weight gain foods for females. Oats, however, also bring a fair share of carbs to the smoothie.
The 2% fat Greek yogurt contributes the most to the smoothie’s protein levels while the smoothie’s fat comes mainly from cashews, which count among the high-calorie nuts.
Since this smoothie has only 22% of its calories coming from fat, it joined our list of low-fat high-calorie foods.
Source: FoodData Central – Raw bananas.[1]
Name: FoodData Central
Type: food database
Operated by: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Characteristics:
Source: Nutritionix – 2% Greek yogurt.[2]
Name: Nutritionix
Type: food database
Operated by: Syndigo LLC
Characteristics:
Source: FoodData Central – Dry roasted cashew nuts.[3]
Name: FoodData Central
Type: food database
Operated by: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Characteristics:
Source: FoodData Central – Rolled oats.[4]
Name: FoodData Central
Type: food database
Operated by: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Characteristics:
As a bonus section to this recipe, let's compare Unfold Today's high-calorie banana smoothie with the high-calorie protein banana smoothie offered by Smoothie King, and see why you would want to pick one over the other.[5]
Name: Smoothie King
Type: smoothie bar
Operated by: Smoothie King Franchises, Inc.
Characteristics:
Unfold Today's High-Calorie Banana Smoothie
Smoothie King's High Protein Banana Smoothie
As a takeaway, Unfold Today's homemade high-calorie banana smoothie provides 147% more calories and 236% more carbs while being more than 5 times cheaper than Smoothie King's high-protein banana smoothie. The only upside of going for Smoothie King's smoothie is that it has a little more protein.
For other affordable weight gain ideas, visit our list of cheap high-calorie foods.
No matter how much you like bananas, sometimes you can feel like you need a break. When times like these arrive, get inspired with new ideas by visiting our list of high-calorie smoothie recipes for weight gain.
And if you’re also into shakes, visit our comprehensive article about high-calorie shakes, where you’ll also find some banana shake recipes, many of which are high in protein, like the Banana Peanut Butter Shake.
Besides following other recipes, however, you can come up with your own. Generally, to make a smoothie that will help you gain weight easier, you need to pick ingredients that are rich in calories, as we did in the high-calorie banana smoothie recipe.
Learn what can you put in a high-calorie smoothie for weight gain.
The calories of banana smoothies can vary a lot, depending on the ingredients used to make them. For example, a banana smoothie made of 1 banana and a drop of milk will barely get past the 100-calorie mark while a mix of 4 bananas, yogurt, oats, and nuts will result in a smoothie with calories ranging from a few hundred to over 1000.
Unfold Today has rigorous sourcing principles adhering to the top journalistic standards, so our writers always look for official, experienced, and first-hand sources. Read more about how we keep our content trustworthy and updated by reading our editorial process.
