I’m very close to converting to 100% Huel from 1 shake a day. Are there any medical cons to this?
Heya there! We get this one a fair amount and yes there’s plenty of people who have attempted 100% Huel here, just take a search of the forum. Medically we haven’t found any problems with this 
but this isn’t what we intend Huel to be used for. Huel is healthy convenience food, for your time pressured meals. What we find is that those that go 100% end up missing their fave foods or the socialising of food (which is why we don’t think Huel should be used this way) - it’s too restrictive.
However, you can obviously make up your own mind. Our recommendation would be to start slow and build up to 100% over a few weeks, that way your body will have time to adapt. And if you start thinking that it’s boring or restrictive and Huel isn’t for you, then go back to our recommendation of 1-2 Huels a day for time pressured meals! Hope that helps.
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Enough of us eat 100% Huel (or some other complete food) diet for many years now, with no medical issues cropping up. We would have seen some indication of something wrong with Huel by now, but nothing so far.
Hence 100% Huel does not pose a medical problem. The complete foods companies are being, perhaps rightfully, overly cautious about saying “100% complete foods diet is safe”, just in case there are some ‘genetic freaks’ who cannot properly digest Huel without being aware of their own medical issue that prevents them from doing so.
The very first vegans (and vegan companies) likely had the same issue - nobody would dare claim that everyone can survive on a diet that does not include any animal products.
The only issue with 100% Huel is the social aspect for some. If you have no issue with always eating the same food, and if don’t mind not eating out when with friends, then 100% Huel should be no problem.
Just my personal experience rather than any medical advice etc.
I’ve gradually moved from having Huel for Breakfast, to having it for Breakfast + Lunch to where I’m at now. I currently exclusively drink Huel on work days and any day off when I don’t go anywhere — essentially I don’t have any other food in the house these days. I don’t have any problems/adverse effects having regular food occasionally - eg. if I go out on a Saturday night and eat a pizza.
I don’t ever feel bored - actually I love the fact I now invest no time at all in planning or preparing meals during the week.
The only thing I’d say to watch out for is make sure you’re never ‘denying’ yourself something. If you want to live entirely off Huel then great - there’s plenty of evidence to show this can be a perfectly healthy lifestyle. If you don’t want to but you’re telling yourself you should or need to then this won’t be sustainable long term. This is true if any lifestyle choice I think.
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I go for six weeks on 100% huel at a time, at a caloric deficit of 500 because I’m messing around with body composition right now and then do two weeks of a couple of Huel meals and a healthy evening meal of whole food at a maintenance caloric value with added protein.
It’s helping me drop body fat percentage while putting on muscle. It’s tedious but after the first 0.6lbs of weight loss, you can’t avoid losing some muscle - hence why I mix it up a bit on a sort of short term bulk and cut cycle. It is working well, I lost plenty of fat and have dropped down into the healthy area in terms of both general weight and body fat percentage.
Long way to go but huel does make it a lot simpler than trying to calculate absolutely everything manually, and all the legwork in terms of minerals etc has already been done.
In terms of medical side effects, I’ve only had good ones so far, my blood pressure was at the “uh oh I need to possibly take tablets for the rest of my life” stage - that’s now fixed and I’m right in the centre of healthy zone. I was having blood sugar spikes, they’re gone. I used to feel dizzy first thing in the morning when I got out of bed, that’s gone. I am full of energy now whereas previously I struggled to move around because I have to take lots of medication. Not to mention losing over two stone.
And I love chocolate black edition mixed with mocha. I can literally eat it every day and still look forward to it’ll the next day!
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This this this 
I hate the idea that people are out there denying themselves their favourite foods or social occasions because they’re on “The Huel Diet”. That’s not a thing, have Huel as much or as little as you need.
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Would you also count it as “100% Huel” if someone consumes beverages that contain some calories? Does Huel have to be the only “food” one consumes to qualify for this “label” or would you expect someone to have it as the only source of calories?
I think most people qualify it as your former example - where it represents the ‘food’ component in addition to beverages.
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I’ve been having Hule most days for the last few months, started with a scoop a day (love black, not so sure about the white), but now have it breakfasts and lunch. sometimes weekends too.
100% seems a lot though,. i know loads here have done it, but not for me, maybe ill try it one time.
i think has to be only significant cals. like the few calories in drinks is fine, but if they have like coke loads tghen no.
I would love to increase my Huel consumption, but at 200€ per person per month Huel is definitely not cheap…
There are some meals like dinner or breakfast that can be easily cooked for 0,30€ at home instead of 1,75€ of Huel for 500kcal
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One can get a lot of calories from “normal” beverages, though…but yes, maybe most people still won’t consider this to be “food”…on the other hand people consuming liquid meals might have a different notion of “food”, that’s why I asked. Although it might also be a factor that Huel ist not of a completely liquid texture…
I agree, at this stage Huel is too expensive to replace all meals. My salary was cut because of the crisis and I started cooking my own meals again as it is considerably more affordable even in Northern-Europe.
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Hi. I’m really new to Huel.
I developed IBS last year & spent the last 6 weeks really suffering with bloating & pain after every meal.
Friend suggested Huel only for a few weeks then reintroduce foods 1 at a time to see if we can find the main culprits!
I started Monday and have been just having Huel x3 or 4 per day (i know it’s not recommended to jump straight in with total replacement but i was pretty desperate!). I’m very very impressed and have not had a single ibs symptom since Sunday. I feel great & look 100 times better than i did!
I’m not sure how long i’d stay 100% Huel but i can certainly see why people do
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Congarts. My IBS symptoms subsided a week ago. So I did 100% Huel for like 3 days and went back to normal diet + 1 Huel a day. Hope you can go back to eating some normal food one day. I love Huel but can’t imaging drinking it 4-5 times a day for rest of my life.
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There are other meal replacement shakes that are less expensive than Huel, so even if you struggle to afford buying Huel it is still possible to go on a full liquid diet (although the quality may not be as good as if you were on a 100% Huel diet).
Vegan and without soy and sweeteners?
Not all of them, but some yes.
Btw: Huel uses sweeteners, too…
I’m contemplating it too - just for short periods of time to reset my eating habits. My big concern/query is how do people get past missing eating actual food? How long does it take to get used to? Or has it not been a big issue for those who have chosen to go this route?
Im 100% huel most of the time but often have cravings for more traditional food. When i first set out, i was sure that i would be able to eat nothing but huel. That turned out not to be the case as it grew too monotonous and i found that sometimes i didnt know what to do with the time i had saved not cooking.
I find that monday-friday only having huel is easy and convenient, although at the weekend when i have more time i often miss cooking. At these times i’m am more conscious of what i am eating and don’t mind taking time to cook a healthy dinner once every other weekend or so.
My recommendation is not to tell yourself your only having huel, as you probably won’t stick to it. Instead only cook when you really want to. That way you will probably find a nice balance, swapping the boring meals for huel, saving time, while enjoying those meals you cook. On the other hand if you never have the want or need to cook then you will easily make the transfer to 100%.
Hope that helps.
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