In this post, we will talk about ripe bananas and how they can help you to accomplish your weight gain and weight loss goals.
People looking to stay healthy should include big portions of fruits, nuts, and veggies into their daily diet.
Ideally, you should choose fruits and nuts depending on whether you are looking to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain weight.
One fruit that has always been controversial in this regard is banana.
Some say that bananas are fattening, while there are others, who claim that the fruit aids weight loss.
Reading this article will clear this confusion for good.
Contents
Myths About Bananas and Weight
It is often said that eating milk and banana for a few weeks is a great way of shedding some flab.
Most dietitians recommend having at least one banana every day even when you are trying to lose weight.
Most athletes prefer having bananas as their pre-workout meal. This helps them to bulk up their muscle mass and provides them with enough energy for performing an intense workout.
Ripe Banana Nutrition Facts
Banana is a nutrient-rich fruit. One medium-sized banana weighing around 120 grams would include:
- 105 calories
- 27 grams of carbs
- 3.1 grams of fiber
- 0.43 milligram of pyridoxine or vitamin B6
- 422 milligrams of potassium
More than 50% of the carbohydrate content of ripe bananas are sugars, 14.4 grams to be more precise.
This allows the fruit to provide athletes and individuals performing high-intensity exercises with some quick energy and improves their performance.
Should You Treat Banana as a Weight Loss Fruit or a Weight Gain Fruit?
When taken in small portions or as a substitute for a complete meal, ripe bananas do help in losing weight.
Here is some useful information for you:
- The fiber content of bananas is reasonably high. So, adding banana to your meals help in bulking them up and stops you from consuming unnecessary calories.If instead of snacking on some chips or fries, you eat a medium-sized banana, it will surely help you to lose some weight.
- Banana is a high-calorie food option. However, the high amount of digestible carbohydrates and sugars present in banana help in making your meals more satisfying.Adding a banana to your daily diet would ensure that you don’t keep craving for those process sugary snacks.
- Like green bananas, ripe bananas also contain RS or resistant starch.The primary function of RS is promoting fat oxidation and reducing fat storage in our adipose cells. These features of the fruit allow it to aid weight loss.
- Bananas are rich sources of micronutrients, which play the role of cofactors during glucose metabolism.For those who don’t know, cofactors are nonprotein chemical compounds responsible for accelerating enzymatic activities for releasing energy.When glucose metabolism occurs without any hindrance, our chances of gaining weight or developing diabetes reduce significantly.
- Contrary to the popular belief, the glycemic index of ripe bananas is pretty low. However, their satiety index is impressively high.
The above facts suggest that you can use bananas in different ways to maintain, gain, or lose weight. Read on to find out more.
How to Gain Weight by Eating Ripe Bananas?
A fruit that is filled with carbohydrates should help you gain weight. The statement stands true even for banana.
But you cannot expect to increase your body weight simply by gulping up several bananas throughout the day.
Take bananas by combining them with milk, honey, and nuts. This will ensure that you are not consuming some empty calories and start adding mass to your body.
To make your meal even tastier, you can prepare banana shakes. In fact, most dietitians would advise you to take one or two glasses of banana shakes every day when trying to gain weight.
To increase the nutritional value of the shake, you can add other calorie-dense fruits to it along with ripe bananas. You should look for fruits filled with natural sugars.
Here’s a delicious recipe for you:
Step 1
Chop berries, mangoes, and bananas in equal portions.
Step 2:
Put all the fruits into the blender add a cup of milk. Blend the ingredients together until smooth.
Step 3
Add some honey and pulse the mix.
Step 4
The shake/smoothie is now ready to be served. Pour it into a glass and serve with a handful of chopped almonds or walnuts on top.
The power of the carbohydrates and calories stored in bananas increases when consumed in combination with other high-carb and high-calorie food items such as mangoes, nuts, milk, etc.
You must try the above recipe if you are looking to gain some weight following weeks of illness. The smoothie is tasty and will work as an appetizer.
Individuals looking to gain muscle mass would also be benefited by this smoothie.
Being a high-calorie food option, it will provide them with the required energy for following an intense workout routine. As a result, achieving muscle gaining goals would become easier for them.
How to Lose Weight by Eating Bananas?
When trying to lose weight, you must treat banana as a food item that would prevent you from eating more.
As a result of being a calorie-dense fruit, it will meet your calorie requirements pretty easily.
The high quantity of satiating fiber in it, on the other hand, would keep you full for a prolonged period. The bad habit of grabbing unhealthy snacks would no longer hamper your weight loss plans.
The fruit is known to boost metabolism, which is the most crucial trigger of weight loss.
Here are a few rules you must follow to use banana for losing weight:
- Limit your daily banana intake to a 5-inch piece.
- Take banana either just before or after working out. This will lift your energy levels and also aid the recovery process.
- If you are experiencing bloating, take a few pieces of banana. The potassium content of the fruit is instrumental is reducing water retention and therefore triggers weight loss.
Conclusion
The above discussion shows that having ripe bananas is beneficial both for people looking to lose weight and gain weight. However, if you have diabetes, do speak to your doctor before adding this fruit to your diet chart.
