I think itās important to notice how they use addiction in a very broad sense of the word. Meaning an addiction can be addiction to sex, gambling, substance abuse, food and eating disorders like bulimia.
Now, an addiction to sex is probably toughā¦ but if people went around comparing sugar āaddictionā to a sex āaddictionā instead of cigarettes or drugs, it doesnāt have the same doom amd gloom sound to it. Nonetheless, I think we all agree that a too high sugar intake aināt a great idea, but that is wildly different from the thought of avoiding it all together.
A few keynotes I gathered reading it:
Intermittent sugar access showed addiction like behaviour with binging and aggression. The control groups with sugar access but without deprivation/restriction did not show the same symptoms.
Itās unclear if palatable food in general can cause āaddictionā like behaviour.
How we define an addiction is quite important in relation to understand the effect of sugar intake.
The study is not based on fructose, so donāt be afraid to eat an apple even though itās high in sugar on paper
A personal thought of mineā¦ When you crave something sweet, I have yet to experience anyone go binging on regular sugar.
Not related directly to the talk about āaddictionā, but when talking about weight, obesity and sugar intake, this part is interesting:
The animals with ad libitum access to a sugar solution tend to drink it throughout the day, including their inactive period. Both groups increase their overall intake, but the limited-access animals consume as much sugar in 12 h as ad libitum -fed animals do in 24 h. Detailed meal pattern analysis using operant conditioning (fixed-ratio 1) reveals that the limited animals consume a large meal of sugar at the onset of access, and larger, fewer meals of sugar throughout the access period, compared with animals drinking sugar ad libitum. Rats fed Daily Intermittent Sugar and Chow regulate their caloric intake by decreasing their chow intake to compensate for the extra calories obtained from sugar, which results in a normal body weight.
@Thudd - I think most of us can find scientific papers tedious to chew through. I highly recommend scrolling down and reading from the ādiscussionā part of a study and on. It gives a bit more insight than just reading the abstract and itās usually written in a down to earth language.
@Teedee - Even though this thread got derailed, I really hope you will keep us updated on your process. There were a lot of great ideas in the beginning of the thread.
Iām sure there will be plenty of relevant help and advice from people in here if you need it
Sorry just a quick note TFT bloods should measure TSH and T4 as markers of whether each is within range as is good pracrice. T3 is then measured separately as necessary pending the results. As far as Iām aware all NHS England trusts do this.
My bad. Apologies as I guess my information is out of date. I just remember it being incredibly difficult to get the full spectrum of tests done. I ended up going private in the end.
I think from what Iāve read of other peopleās experiences there is a lot more flexibility from specialist endocrinologists in the private sector if blood test results come back within the ānormalā range but the patient is still showing symptoms. There is also a lot of debate about what the ānormalā range should be as guidelines vary from country to country.
Thats ok.I practice and lecture healthcare within the UK so we use the NICE guidelines which are accessible to anyone and available online. We use these to suit a UK population based on the latest evidence based research to inform evidence based practice and apply it on an individual basis. My research has not caused me to engage in endocrine literature so I can only talk of applied theory. Abnormal Thyroid functioning has been correlated to markers for other conditions but much of this is unclear. At one point it was thought to be changed because of stress or addictions, no polar disorder or even personality disorder not to mention a much wider range of physical health conditions.
So im 5lb away from losing a stone!!!.ā¦i have spent most of this time finding whats right for me and what worksā¦can i ask tho,how much does one level scoop contain??.cant find it anwhere on line so im just guessing what my intake is?.
It is better to weight it for the first few times, and I usually give it a tap to keep it the same.
Also be careful when working out calories for the day as coffes/teas/fruit etc all contribute. I also weight myself every day at the same time.
@Teedee get some kitchen scales if you can. You can get some nice electronic ones pretty cheap (Ā£5-20).
Iāve managed to make a scoop weigh anywhere from 21g-53g
Although if you pack it in, and level it off, you can get pretty close to 38g.
Seems like youāre doing just fine without needing to be too precise with the calculations though well done
Phil, Iāve missed this post but if you, or anyone, wants to raise something to a mod/admin then all you need to do is flag it, give your reason in the flag and Iāll look into it within a day.
@Teedee - What did you find worked for you in the end? Iām on breakfast and lunch, 94g of huel with 450ml of water and seeing no weight loss. I should be eating 2,158 calories per day. Two lots of 400 cals of huel and average about 500 cals my for evening meal. 1300 cals per day.
Iāve always found it hard to lose weight, the only time I could was the 5:2 diet, which I did for 18 months, but it stopped working after about a year. I think Iāve screwed up my metabolism.
when you say you should be eating 2158 calories a day, is that to loose weight or to maintain weight and how did you work it out?
If that amount is to maintain weight it will be difficult to lose weight because you will be close to your optimum weight.
If you are sure that you are at a calorie deficit then just give it time. When first starting huel you could find that you retain extra water while your body gets used to the new food source and you could even see your weight go up.
Hi Matt,
I used the TDEE calculator - that figure is just for maintenance, cutting says 1,658cals, which I think Iām still well under. I started on the ready to drink huel early May and went on to powder in June some time.
After experimenting, Iām finding mixing with half almond milk and half water makes it tastier and adds about 40cals per shake.
I read a few weeks ago about avoiding āstarvation modeā by eating normal calories two days a week, so Iām only Hueling monday - friday. Iām now considering going pure huel on a tuesday and thursday to see if that helps.
Iām about 196lbs and 5ā10" - maybe Iām just built to be this size! About ten years ago I was 240lbs and managed to lose that weight through exercise and diet. These days I cycle for at least 30 minutes three times a week and walk a hell of a lot more than I did.
(Also, sorry for being another person hijacking this thread!)
Thereās a few things that could be going on here.
Are you sure you are accounting for everything you are eating and drinking? For example, are you weighing and measuring? Is that 500 calories dinner really 500 or is it closer to 800? Counting milk in tea or coffee? Any fruit juices, soft drinks? Counting oil in cooking? Sauces or dressing on salads? Butter on toast, all of those sorts of things can wipe out your 500 calorie a day deficit surprisingly quickly.
Starvation mode is a myth. Your metabolism will change and you will require fewer calories as you lose weight, but your body is simply not capable of dramatically reducing the calories it needs to function just because you are eating at a slight deficit. Most of your TDEE is accounted for by your BMR, i.e. the calories you would use just existing if you were in a coma.
What frequently happens though with people who ādietā 5 days a week is that they wipe out their weekly deficit over the weekend. If you have created a deficit of 2500 calories itās terrifyingly easy to obliterate that with a few beers and a takeaway/tea and cake/a biscuit binge or whatever your reward food of choice is.
Iād spend a week weighing/measuring everything and see what the outcome is.
Yeah, pretty much accounting for everything. I turn down snacks and sweets from my colleagues for that reason. Iāve been counting for a long time, using my fitness pal for about eight years on and off.
Today for instance, breakfast 400kcal huel, 15kcal coffee with semi skimmed, lunch 440kcal huel, afternoon brew 15kcal tea with semi skimmed, Iāll have a healthy ready meal for evening meal which is 380kcal. So today Iām 1250 kcal so far.
There are days where Iāll share a supermarket pizza with my girlfriend, which is 600kcal so that takes that day up to 1,500ish. I know itās not all about calories, food type has to be accounted for too.
Iām very boring, sticking to two huels and two brews a day, then I know Iāve just got to be sensible for my evening meal!
I really like huel though, one thing I have noticed is that I feel a lot more focussed and alert because of it, and Iām not obsessing about food Iām missing because I know that, even just nutritionally, huelās better than the crap I could be eating! I just wish I could lose a few pounds. Iāll stick at it though, mainly because Iām stubborn!
One thing to note when it comes to cooking food. Cooked food is normally higher calories then stated on the packaging due to the cooking process breaking down the food and making more calories available.
Also most foods only estimate the calorie content based on fat, carbs and protein in the food meaning you could be consuming 10-15% more calories then you think.
You said that you share a pizza with youāre girlfriend, if this is a ācreate you ownā pizza from the supermarket counter then it is likely to be far more calories then 1200 as they donāt properly measure out the toppings.
All that being said it does sound like on your days off you are replacing youāre calorie deficit like @Liath said.
I practice and lecture healthcare within the UK so we use the NICE guidelines which are accessible to anyone and available online. We use these to suit a UK population based on the latest evidence based research to inform evidence based practice and apply it on an individual basis. My research has not caused me to engage in endocrine literature so I can only talk of applied theory. Abnormal Thyroid functioning has been correlated to markers for other conditions but much of this is unclear. At one point it was thought to be changed because of stress or addictions, no polar disorder or even personality disorder not to mention a much wider range of physical health conditions.
ā¦i have spent most of this time finding whats right for me and what worksā¦can i ask tho,how much does one level scoop contain??.cant find it anwhere on line so im just guessing what my intake is?.
well done
