100% Huel gym rat experiment

Hey everyone.

I’ve been using Huel for a few months now - 4 scoops 3 times a day with 2 normal meals (mostly clean stuff, bar the weekend when I often binge out!) - and have been maintaining my current weight/strength pretty well. This is with lifting 6 - 7 times a week. So far the convenience of Huel has been a godsend and has saved me a whole bunch of time. Reading this forum - particularly reports of you guys that are going 100% Huel - has tempted me to try something similar but with a goal to maintaining gym performance in a completely clean way. The current plan is to have 3 scoops 6 times a day for a total of 2802 calories and 210g of protein (pretty much dead on to maintain current weight) and just see what happens.

Now this could all fall through immediately as the thought of not eating anything solid for a month or so is a little daunting, but that’s the plan and i’ll keep updating this thread as long as it happens. The experiment starts tomorrow (15/02/2016).

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Great stuff @howie looking forward to the updates. Sounds like you’re working hard

I’m struggling a little with 6 shakes a day - 2800 calories of huel fills you up! More so it seems than with solid food (although it’s easy to over estimate calories when trying to bulk so perhaps I wasn’t getting enough before). This is another thing I like about huel - calorie counting is a doddle. Anyways, two gym sessions down and all good so far. Onwards and upwards …

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I’d be very interested in seeing how this goes for you, got my first lot of Huel last week and have been considering going 100% but I’m currently trying to bulk, I lift 5/6 times a week and I’m not sure how going 100% Huel would affect that!
I need around 2800 calories myself and that’s a lot of Huel, more than I’d spend on food in terms of cost, but if you find any serious benefits of going 100% Huel in regards to strength and muscle mass, then I might just give it a go!
Good luck and let us know!

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I’ve bookmarked this thread. Very interested to see how you get on, howie. Awesome stuff!

I did 1 month 100% huel (100% Huel for 1 month - 2000-3000 Calories & toilet trips) and suffered with having 3 scoops 6 times a day. It was too much protein and fibre together. Seeing as you have already started this, how are you getting on?

I’m on 15-16 scoops Huel per day plus an evening meal.

Be interested to see how your lifts progress

Hey guys. It’s going pretty well. I cheated for two meals as I was finding it, and am still finding it, hard consuming this amount of Huel each day. Also I just really wanted to bite something! That’s an odd urge. Good work, olivehouse for making it! I’ve no problem eating large quantities of meat and carbs, but by the 5th or 6th shake of huel have no desire to have anymore. For someone coming at this on the flip side and wanting to cut calories this is probably a good thing - it’s a good food replacement that does fill you up. So this is probably going to end up being an 80-90% Huel experiment :slightly_smiling:

Anyways, i’m trying to stick to it and gym performance hasn’t suffered at all yet. I’ve been in every day this week bar one that I went in twice and all targets have been hit. My weight hasn’t budged a kg. My hunch is i’ll end up back on Huel two or three times a day with a few normal meals as that was what I was on before and had zero trouble sticking to it, but i’m still curious if being totally ‘clean’ in a way I can’t be bothered to do with normal food will make a difference in the gym. All good so far.

Should be a good read. I’m trying to go 100% Huel but seem to end up eating one meal every other day.

I’ve been having 150g per serving which is about 615 kcal and 46g of protein. I have 4 or 5 of those a day so 2460 or 3075 calories a day and 184g or 230g of protein per day.

I find it easier to have a few big portions, rather than lots of smaller ones. Keeps me fuller and stops me getting sick of the stuff!

According to my Fitbit, I burn around 3500 calories on average per day. So I should, in theory, be losing weight. Only been at it a few weeks though.

I’m doing weights 3 times a week and walking most days.

Prior to the Huel I was having about 50 to 100g of protein per day, so I’m guessing that doubling my protein intake should help with gains in the gym?

Keep us posted with how you get on.

So that’s one week down and so far so good. There’s not much more to say at the moment. I’m lifting the same with the same frequency and energy wise I haven’t noticed a difference. I stopped taking creatine at the start of this experiment too and don’t miss it.

Can you post your numbers please. It makes a HUGE difference whether you’re a intermediate/advanced or beginner lifter to some of us here. You also mentioned removing creatine from your regime, may I question why? Creatine is one of the worlds most studied supplements and has had it’s overall impact proven ten fold. It has 0 side-effects to most people and it’s benefits are many.

HI Vastial,

I removed creatine for the same reason I stopped taking protein shakes - I’d rather just eat (or drink, in this case) normally. Creatine’s great if you keep taking creatine - as I understand it the benefits fade away when you stop. For what it’s worth I haven’t dropped any weight or noticed any negative impact since.

No.s wise what do you want to know? I weigh about 72kg and am 5’8". My max deadlift is 170kg, max squat 135kg. Not sure what my max bench is at the moment. I’ve been adding calisthenics to my regime over the last few months and can rep out 5*5 muscle ups with good form. I’m not being too scientific about all this - it’s more an experiment to see how I feel and whether I can continue training as regularly and making gains on 100% Huel. So far, bar the odd cheat meal out with friends, everything’s going well.

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That’s the experiment done. In the end it ended up being around 90% Huel as, on occasion, the urge to bite into something solid became too much! I never felt hungry or that I was lacking anything - I just wanted to eat. I’m now back to having Huel for breakfast, lunch and post workouts, and having two normal sized meals on top. This feels like the right compromise and i’m very happy with it. Conclusion wise I’m impressed. For a month I was gyming most days, making gains and, bar the odd acceptation, living purely on Huel. As a meal replacement it works. There’s not much more to say really. Thumbs up.

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Hi @howie - great - glad you got on well and a useful experiment.

What sort of gains did you make? Muscle size or lifting progress?

Hi mate. A bit of everything really. I put on a couple of kg which I attribute to consistently getting the right no. calories. Consistency has been an issue for me and this is the most obvious benefit. That and the convenience. Lifts wise - slow progress with weight and/or reps. Like before really - so no massive change here.

Small changes are all that anyone can expect in a short period of time, so sounds like all’s going well.

Keep us posted :slight_smile: