Hi all,
When i first considered the concept of Huel my biggest concern was the effect it would have on my gym routine, and if it would support it. So i did a bit of research on this forum and other websites and most of the feedback from gym users was positive, so i took the plunge and for the last week i’ve been on huel. I thought i’d share my experience so far with you guys, i think it might benefit anyone who has the same questions i did!
So to start out, me before huel… i lead a fairly active life style, being in the military i tend to be up and about for the most part of the day. On a usual day at work i’ll be doing at least an hours worth of cardio in the morning and then following a gym routine of the evening. My biggest problem was my eating habits. Due to not being provided with any facilities to cook by the army, and the provided food being a massive sub standard i found myself either eating microwave food or food i prepared at the weekend and containered up. It resulted in me not getting anywhere near the right amount of nutrients my body needs to repair and maintain itself. To that end i was supplementing my diet in a big way with the use of protein shakes just so i could avoid injury! Huel looked to be able to solve my problem!
I started huel a week ago today, and i have to say i’m impressed, like REALLY impressed.
100% Huel: So i started off on 4 shakes consisting of 122g of huel each for the first two days. My hunger cravings tend to hit me the second i wake up as my body has spent the night attempting to repair itself, so as soon as i wake i get the first shake down my grid. I find it takes about 15 minutes to process and stop any cravings for food, but once it does i don’t feel overly full, but i don’t feel hungry at all, so mission achieved! throughout the mornings i didn’t find myself craving anything, no snacks, nothing. Come mid day i wouldn’t say i was hanging out for food, but i could feel my body needed something, so second shake down and i was good to go again. Talking convenience, at this point in the day i’ve spent approximately 3 minutes sorting my meals out, can’t complain at all at that! My final two meals i did around 1600 and 1900, my final following immediately after my gym session.
As satisfied as i was in the first two days, i did feel i was missing out on food, i wasn’t hungry, but when come dine with me is on tele it makes me want actual food lol so the last 5 days i’ve been mixing it up. I’ll do 3 shakes a day and have either lunch or dunner as an actual meal. It kind of keeps the normalisation in life. It’s a big change to just go 100%, it felt a little like i was depriving myself of something enjoyable, so i find 3-1 works for me. Its a happy medium.
GYM! So the main point for me, the Gym routine and Huel! Again, in this respect i have been surprised. My gym routine is fairly intensive, and i follow it 6 days a week. I’ve attempted to put up an image of a standard days routine that i follow. If the image appears or not is a different matter.
So yeh, i know it isn’t overly intensive, but when i see what some people do in the gym i like to think it’s at least comprehensive lol Like i mentioned earlier, i usually supplement my diet heavily with protein shakes, i was using both PHD diet whey and PHD pharma-whey. I was taking on about 50-70g of protein from the shakes to compensate for the lack of nutrition in my diet. I was still finding that it wasn’t enough, and i was allllways hungry, which led to me eating shit like maccies. I got DOMS big time at least twice a weak, and no one likes doms, especially after leg day when the local tescos confront you with a shit load of stairs to walk up lol
On Huel i’ve found it to be revolutionary (for want of a better word). I’m on more of a cutting routine at the minute as i used christmas as an excuse to bulk up, so even with the calorie deficiency the gym leaves me with, i’m sticking to the 2000kcal a day. The first two days at the gym i worked relatively hard, and felt nothing the following day. Now usually this tells me i havn’t put enough effort in, so in an attempt to see if it was huel i did the next two days HARD. I upped all my weights by a minimum of 10kg and really thrashed myself in they gym. for example, one was a leg day, usually 140kg on the press is pushing myself, i went to 160kg, needless to say i struggled to walk out of the gym (thats a lot for me, i’m no power lifter) lol
The following two days i was ready for it, i planned my whereabouts to avoid any type of incline never mind stairs, and was in no rush to be helping next door move house. This is the shocking part for me…Nothing…well i say nothing, i can feel i’ve been to the gym, but no DOMS! At first i didn’t know if i was disappointed or amazed! But i am genuinely impressed. It would appear that huel is providing my body with everything it says on the tin…holy S**T, i product that isn’t a blag!!! I’d be slightly apprehensive about taking on 150g of protein a day if i was just using huel as a diet, i’d stink, and protein farts are the worst! But for me this seems to be a miracle!
Right i know i’ve banged on a lot so i’ll quickly summarise and leave you to it.
Can gym goers use huel? HELL YES!
Should gym goers use huel? DAMN RIGHT!
The last week has been something new for me, and i don’t think it’s going to be something i’m going to change in the foreseeable future. Yes Huel will get a little laborious if you go 100%, my advise would be to eat food, make Huel your staple, but don’t deprive yourself, i firmly believe you should enjoy food, and if you deprive yourself of it then you’re setting yourself up to fail.
I’ve taken some before Huel pictures as i like to monitor my progress in the gym, if people are interested then in about a month i’ll chuck the before and afters up.
I just want to add before i go, i’m in no way a power lifter or a pro athlete, i just follow a standard routine, so for people who are wanting to look like Arny this will most probably be irrelevant and seem amateur lol
Anyway, if anyone has any questions i’m happy to chat.
Matt
