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Claudiu Pop is a nutritionist, medical writer, journalist, and the founder of Unfold Today. He specialized in fitness and nutrition, especially in weight gain, by helping people increase their body mass since 2019 with over 20 articles published in the field.
Medically Reviewed
Unfold Today articles that require additional medical expertise are reviewed by a qualified member of our Expert Review Network, a group inside Unfold Today's team that verifies content to guarantee that the information delivered to our readers is thorough, authoritative, accurate, and fact-based.
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.
As an experienced fitness adept, I know how unpleasant it can be to try to gain weight by focusing only on eating large meals while ignoring the power of high-calorie smoothies. You get filled up with all the solid food you need to consume, lose valuable time cooking and sitting down to eat the meals, and in the end, you barely achieve your daily calorie goals.
Fortunately, you can turn the act of bulking up into a piece of cake by adding weight gain snacks and most importantly high-calorie smoothies to your diet.
After all, weight gain smoothies, along with calorie-dense shakes, are some of the drinks with the most calories, fun to make, convenient, and have a delicious taste. All of these characteristics will help you gain weight far easier.
Before diving into the 15 high-calorie smoothie recipes for weight gain, let's take a look at how to make one from scratch.
You can make high-calorie smoothies following 3 simple steps:
Get valuable tips to nail each step and prepare the best homemade high-calorie smoothies by checking our detailed guide on how to make weight gain smoothies.
If you don't want to come up with the ingredients for your next high-calorie smoothie, explore some smoothie recipes tailored for weight gain.
Here are 15 high-calorie smoothies that will help you gain weight:
Here are the recipes for the 15 high-calorie smoothies for weight gain:
Calories: 1254
Since it has over 1000 calories and is the blend with the highest number of calories on this list of smoothie recipes for weight gain, the Green Seed Mix Smoothie is a game-changer if you are struggling to increase your size.
This dairy-free smoothie is rich in carbs and fats because it's made with:
Moreover, this green smoothie also offers a solid 35 g of proteins, even though it is made without protein powder.
The greenness of the drink is given by the combination of mangoes, avocados, and spinach. The taste is delicious, considering the tint of cinnamon and honey that the recipe asks for.
Calories: 989
Featuring a strong banana flavor with a very slight nutty taste, this High-Calorie Banana Smoothie made of bananas, yogurt, cashews, and oats, has almost 1000 calories. Moreover, it's packed with energizing carbs and muscle-building protein.
Calories: 773
If you're looking for a smoothie with exotic flavors that can help you gain weight, you're a perfect match for the High-Calorie Tropical Smoothie.
Made with tropical ingredients and protein powder, this sweet and refreshing smoothie is energizing, helps you build muscle, and brings notable amounts of healthy fats as well.
Calories: 728
Including a banana, whole milk, almonds, and obviously oats, the High-Calorie Oat Smoothie can help you gain weight easier by leveraging the nutritional qualities of oats in a more convenient way.
Loaded with more than 700 calories, this smoothie has a milky but slightly crunchy texture complemented by oats' earthy flavor, which is sweetened by the banana in the smoothie's composition.
Calories: 683
The High-Calorie Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie can help you gain weight because it has two calorie-dense ingredients at its core, bananas and peanut butter.
The core ingredients are complemented by some muscle-building whey protein powder, delicious honey, and creamy whole milk to result in a silky smoothie that flawlessly blends the banana and peanut butter flavors.
This smoothie is energizing, helps you build muscle, and brings numerous other health benefits.
Calories: 651
World-class tennis player Novak Djokovic shared the ingredients of this nutritious vegan smoothie in his book "Serve to Win". We bought the ingredients, blended them, and created Djokovic's High-Calorie Mango Banana Smoothie.
The main ingredients of the smoothie, mango and banana, bring a mouthwatering sweetness that's balanced by the slight tanginess of kale. Some almond butter and shredded coconut bring extra calories while rice milk thins out the texture of the drink.
Novak's delicious smoothie is a source of energy and healthy fats but also includes some muscle-building protein. Besides, it's packed with health benefits.
Calories: 594
The High-Calorie Apple Smoothie is a carb-loaded weight gain smoothie that is rich in proteins and full of health benefits.
Made with fresh apples, low-fat Greek yogurt, a little peanut butter, some muscle-building whey protein powder, and mouth-watering apple juice, this smoothie is a delight.
Calories: 525
Novak Djokovic, one of the best tennis players of all time, used this smoothie to energize in the morning on his road to winning the 2015 US Open.
This plant-based recipe will help you build muscle, boost your daily caloric intake, and gain healthy weight. Did we mention it's full of health benefits as well?
In terms of ingredients, the smoothie is made of bananas, chia seeds, flax seeds, coconut milk, rice protein powder, cocoa, cinnamon, and some water to thin out the mixture. The final taste is bittersweet with slight notes of banana and cinnamon.
Calories: 478
If you were looking for a fruit-based high-calorie smoothie, you just found yourself a tasty drink that will also make your bulking phase easier.
Rich in protein and fats, but especially in carbs, this smoothie is an outstanding energy source. This blend contains an almond milk liquid base, almond butter for thickness and leveraged healthy fat levels, and vitamin-filled solid ingredients, like bananas, strawberries, and fresh spinach.
The protein content of the smoothie is provided mainly by the protein powder.
Expert-approved smoothie. Novak Djokovic, a professional tennis player and multiple Grand Slam winner, recommends the mix of ingredients in this high-calorie smoothie recipe for weight gain.
Calories: 474
The Mint Chocolate Banana Smoothie is a high-calorie drink that has plenty of carbs and a solid amount of protein and fat as well.
The liquid base of this smoothie is made of whole milk. Along with the milk you need to add three types of powder (protein, spirulina, and cocoa, which gives the drink the chocolate flavor) and solid ingredients.
Most of this smoothie’s proteins come from the protein powder, most of the carbs from the banana and the cucumber, while the majority of fats are due to the addition of hemp seeds.
Expert-approved smoothie. Simon Hill, physiotherapist and nutritionist with a Master of Science degree, recommends the mix of ingredients in this high-calorie smoothie recipe tailored for easier weight gain.
Calories: 445
Since it’s full of carbs, Novak Djokovic's Banana Chocolate Kale Smoothie is very efficient at loading your body with energy as well as helping you gain weight.
This smoothie has a liquid base made of almond milk and the pulp of two frozen bananas, which also make for the main source of carbs of the drink. The smoothie also contains almond butter, which boosts the smoothie’s fat levels, and kale leaves, whose superfood-worthy contents fill this dairy-free drink with vitamins and minerals.
In terms of taste, the smoothie has a bittersweet but invigorating taste.
Calories: 432
If you love berries, you will enjoy this high-calorie smoothie. The Super Berry Smoothie will help you gain weight with its nutritious profile, which is composed mainly of carbs but also features decent amounts of protein and fat.
The liquid base of the smoothie is made of whole milk but adding full-fat Greek yogurt helps you get a thicker texture.
The raspberries, blueberries, and goji berries contribute to the leveraged amount of carbs found in the drink while the mix of seeds increases the fat intake. The seeds also contribute to the protein levels of the smoothie along with the dairies.
Add cinnamon and honey for taste and a slight boost of carbs.
Calories: 417
The Almond Banana Berry Smoothie is a high-calorie drink that is especially great for athletes doing clean bulking because it has a lower amount of fat than most of the other weight gain smoothies on our list.
This vegan smoothie is instead rich in proteins and carbs that will help you build muscle and load your energy reserves.
In preparing the Almond Banana Berry Smoothie, you will use almond milk as a liquid base and then add the berries, the chia seeds, and the banana into the mix, before topping everything with protein powder.
The main source of protein in this dairy-free smoothie is the protein powder, the carbs are provided by the fruits, and the 8 g of fat come from the chia seeds and the almond milk.
Calories: 411
As its name suggests, the Green Protein Smoothie is a high-calorie vegan drink that has plenty of proteins. Also, since it offers mainly proteins and carbs, this smoothie is especially useful if you are on a low-fat diet.
The Green Protein Smoothie has a coconut water base, which is completed both with fruits, like bananas, avocados, and apples, and vegetables, like spinach leaves and celery, that provide the blend's green color.
Add some protein powder for a protein boost and a little lime juice for taste.
Expert-approved smoothie. Celebrity chef and nutrition consultant Sergio Perera recommends the mix of ingredients in this high-calorie smoothie recipe for weight gain.
Calories: 406
If you are looking for a smoothie made with ice cream that will help you gain weight, look no further. The high-calorie Vanilla Banana Ice Cream Smoothie will energize your body and please your taste buds.
The downside is that this drink has lower amounts of protein than the other weight gain smoothies on our list.
The ice cream and the orange juice make the liquid base of this carb-filled smoothie. It’s also worth knowing that ice cream is the main source of fat in the mix of ingredients.
There is a large variety of people looking to gain weight who can benefit from drinking high-calorie smoothies, including:
Besides, smoothies are one of the most effective weight gain foods for females. About 9 in 10 women who successfully add pounds have smoothies or shakes on their female weight gain meal plans.
Given that you know who should mostly take advantage of the nutritional qualities of smoothies, we can explore what are the benefits of consuming these drinks.
Here are the benefits of adding high-calorie smoothies to your diet:
Whether you are a bodybuilder going through a bulking phase, a skinny teen that would like to get thicker, or a parent worried about their underweight children, you will see that consuming high-calorie smoothies is going to make your weight gain efforts far easier.
However, only blending and drinking smoothies will not ensure you will gain healthy weight.
Here are the three main habits you need to adopt to gain healthy weight:
First of all, if you want to gain weight, you need to stay in a caloric surplus, meaning that you need to eat more calories than you consume every day.
Secondly, you need to avoid empty calories, meaning that you should restrict yourself from consuming food that's high in calories but has very few nutrients. A few examples of food with empty calories are fast food, sodas, and high-sugar sweets.
Then, you should add healthy high-calorie foods and drinks to your diet.
Besides calorie-dense smoothies, you will find that our lists of high-calorie snacks and best bars for gaining weight will help you add pounds even easier.
And if you don’t want to spend too much money on your daily weight gain meals, get some affordable ideas from our list of cheap high-calorie foods.
However, if you only consume calories and don’t exercise, you will only add fat, instead of sculpting a muscular attractive body. So, working out daily is essential if you are looking to gain healthy weight.
Bonus tip to meet your daily calorie goals: eat more frequently, so you will avoid getting full after consuming very large meals.
Alternatively, to quit feeling filled up, you can include more low-volume high-calorie foods in your diet.
High-calorie smoothies can not only help you gain weight easier but also maintain it, especially if you are prone to weight loss. People who generally tend to lose weight easily are either suffering from a medical condition, undergoing a nausea-inducing treatment, or having an intense metabolism.
To maintain your weight, you need to eat as many calories as you consume per day, and calorie-dense smoothies can help you meet this goal.
Another benefit of drinking high-calorie smoothies is that they load up your energy reserves due to their nutritious content. This ability makes smoothies a great choice for athletes and an effective pre-workout alternative for fitness enthusiasts.
High-calorie smoothies rich in carbs and proteins can replace pre-workout meals that help you build muscle. The higher carb content is also one of the differences between smoothies and shakes.
Yet, don't get energy from smoothies with high quantities of sugar because they are dangerous for your health, especially if you have diabetes.
According to CDC, only 1 in 10 adult Americans eats enough fruits and vegetables every day.
Thankfully, as they are made with fruits and vegetables, high-calorie smoothies are a great way to bring micronutrients, like vitamins and other minerals, into your body.
Moreover, smoothies will help you meet the American Heart Association’s recommendation of 4 servings of fruits and 5 servings of vegetables per day for a healthy eating pattern.
Besides the fruits and vegetables in your smoothies, make sure you also eat solid veggies and fruits.
"Keeping solid meals in your diet is important for satiety and dentition," says Iulia Serban, registered dietitian nutritionist.
The last but not least benefit of consuming high-calorie smoothies is their convenience. After all, blending a few ingredients to make a weight gain smoothie is handier than cooking a large meal and is oftentimes better for your digestion too.
Talking about convenience and digestion, if you have a sensitive gut, take a look at our list of easy-to-digest foods for an upset stomach.
If you are following a special diet that restricts certain foods from your diet, you will find useful this rearranged list of the 15 high-calorie smoothie recipes for weight gain already described earlier in this article.
Whether you are allergic to nuts or you are looking for a high-calorie smoothie made without the classic peanut butter among its ingredients, here are some nut-free smoothies for weight gain:
If you're on a low-fat diet, you don't want to drink smoothies that are rich in fats. So, here are smoothies that are low in fat:
Head over to our article about high-calorie low-fat foods to find many more nutritious culinary ideas that will help you gain weight without increasing your fat intake too much.
Smoothies can only help you gain weight, especially if you consume high-calorie ones. To ensure you gain weight you need to be on a daily caloric surplus, which means you need to eat and drink more calories than you consume every day.
Adding protein powder to your smoothie is an easy way to boost its protein levels and total calories, which will help you both to build muscle and gain weight.
As proof, 9 out of the 15 high-calorie smoothie recipes tailored for weight gain in this article feature protein powder among their ingredients.
However, you should be careful about what kind of protein powder you add to your smoothie. Go for the protein powders made with natural ingredients.
The best smoothies for gaining weight are the high-calorie ones, which have over 400 calories.
As long as they are high in calories, both smoothies and shakes will help you gain weight. It comes down to your own taste and texture preferences when deciding between smoothies and shakes.
To boost the calories in your smoothies, you can add vegetables, fruits, dairy products, nuts, seeds, grains, and other add-ins, like protein powder, honey, or chocolate syrup.
Given the many health benefits that high-calorie smoothies bring to your body, they are one of the best dietary choices when you are looking to gain weight or build muscle.
And, as you now learned how to make a high-calorie smoothie, you will finally be able to easily meet your daily calorie goals while getting closer to your ideal body shape.
If you don't want to blend a weight gain smoothie from scratch, you can always come back to this article and follow one of the 15 high-calorie smoothie recipes.
