I’ve been using Huel on and off for a few years now, and it started because I needed something quick and easy to have in the morning, because I was never much of a traditional breakfast person. Huel has been great for this because it genuinely fills me up.
More recently however, I’ve been following a 16-8 intermittent fasting routine and using Huel as my first meal of the day. This also has worked great, because intermittent fasting in itself helps to make you feel full for longer and have less need to snack throughout the day. Huel only compliments this and quite often I make it through my whole day of working having only had 1 serving of Huel and feeling completely satisfied and energetic.
So if anyone follows an intermittent fasting routine, or has been struggling with it, I highly recommend giving this a go.
It did take some getting used to but I found that the best way to start was to allow myself 2 servings of Huel throughout the day, starting off as late in the morning as I could manage without starving myself. I would then gradually shift the time of my first meal later and later until I was able to hold off until around midday, and I stared to find that this 1 serving in the middle of the day would see me through until dinner time.
If anything, I’d imagine Huel would have the opposite problem - it’s filling and fairly low-calorie, so it might be difficult to actually reach an adequate calorie intake in that 8 hour window if you go full Huel. I’m on a 1200 kcal diet, and even with just three shakes I’ll often forget I was supposed to have that third one until fairly late in the evening.
It is normal to feel highly energetic when one begins fasting. The problem is that this does not last forever, because the body sooner or later punishes a caloric deficite.
How long have you been doing this?
It is a tricky one. It all sort of happened organically for me. I just had Huel when I felt like a needed it, which started to become less frequently so it is sometimes a struggle to get to an appropriate calorie intake, although there are plenty of hungrier days where I take in more!
Absolutely. I’ve been doing it on and off for a few months, I mainly keep a deficite on less active days when I’m working from home, and I balance this with more calories on more active days. All in all, its made me feel much better, and lose some weight which is always nice!
Thanks for sharing Robbie!
We have a whole article on intermittent fasting if anyone is interested.