I’m diabetic and have been discussing with my doctor about going on the Newcastle Diet, as it has had a lot of excellent results in reversing a person’s diabetes. It was devised by scientists at Newcastle University and it consists of living on strict 600 calorie a day diet for a couple of months. Most people use meal replacement shakes and from what I’ve read about Huel, it looks like it could be a really good option, it having everything your body needs in it.
The norm for weight loss is use a calorie calculator like this: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm - and then consumer either 500 calories a day less, or for rapid weight loss go 1000 a day less than what you body needs per day.
I’ve just read the article you linked to and it says the diet is 800 calories per day (600 from shakes and 200 from green veg). My daily requirement of calories is 2300 so to only 800 is a daily deficit of 1500 which is too much is my opinion.
With Huel is a easy to know exactly how many calories you consumer, you simply weight the powder then calculate how many calories are in it. However, we have designed it to provide all the macro and micro nutrients at 2000 calories and above.
Thanks for your answer, it’s much appreciated. Any major changes to my diet I’ll obviously do in full consultation with my GP. I think you may be right about the amount of calories I was thinking of cutting being too much. I want the weight loss to be permanent, so a slower steadier approach I think may be easier to stick to!
Can you use Huel indefinitely, or do you use it for a certain amount of time? Ideally I’d like to be able to work it into my regular day to day diet.
I’ve not tried that particular diet, but I’ve tried something similar and it’s very hard to stick to! Something a little less dramatic is much easier to maintain!
Yes you can use Huel indefinitely. It’s been designed by a renowned nutrition expert James Collier as a nutritionally complete food. Here is a little about him:
James has worked for over 25 years in nutrition and dietetics. He worked for the NHS as a clinical dietitian for over 7 years covering an array of clinical areas, where he worked with people with a wide range of ailments. He specialises in providing advice for competitive bodybuilders, strongmen, boxers and MMA. He has lectured at university and has travelled to several nations to give seminars.
Huel is made from real food which has been turned into a powder form for convenience. This is the current formula:
35 % Fat (derived from linseed which gives extra protein and fibre also)
Wow! Really is packed full of goodness! It would cost a fortune to buy and prepare all those ingredients every day. I expect some people might be put off with the 35% fat figure, but I’ve been doing a bit of reading about nutrition in the last few months and linseed if I remember rightly is said to be a super food, due to it having ‘good fats’. Am I right? What exactly are good fats? It’s very confusing!
This is a bit simplistic but most natural (unprocessed fat) are good or ok for you. Trans fats are found in processed foods and are not good for you, they are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
It’s something I’ve read a lot on recently, and the old all fat is bad adage doesn’t really apply anymore. Bad fats are things like trans fats. Good fats are the fats you’ll find in nuts and seeds. Everything in moderation though I think is the best way forward!
Does the current formula still contain the mentioned blend of “Super Greens”? From the list of ingredients it does not appear so, what was the reason to remove them?
Same here, I’m curious about the super greens too. I suspect it was a flavour issue though. A while back I tried to create my own meal drink using various powders, including Spirulina, Wheatgrass and Chlorella, and I really struggled to get it to taste nice enough.
However, I often down a glass green stuff after my evening meal.
The reason we removed the super greens was cost and wrong nutritional profile. The super green that are current available as expensive and don’t provide complete coverage of all vitamins, pus the supplier was unable to customise to our requirements.
there have been two more studies confirming the original newcaslte results. I would like to use Huel to do this diet as I am diabetic (type 2) but am concerned that at the 800 calorie level Huel will not be providing me with the correct level of nutrition. I wonder if it is possible to produce a variation specifically for this purpose that will give the correct levels at this lower calorie intake.