Getting my first package of Huel tomorrow, so I’m starting Thursday. My idea is use Huel to replace breakfast and lunch (and any snacks in between) during regular work hours, and then have dinner with the family.
A bit about me. I’m 41, male, former athlete but now I’m old, fat, and out-of-shape! I am 5’9, 255 lbs. I’ve already lost 95 pounds over a couple years, but I’ve been steady at about 250 for about 3 years. I love to eat, and I don’t get much exercise.
I’ve tried everything, but I simply can’t stick to anything. I’m frustrated with myself because I always go full-throttle for everything but a rarely last more than a day or two. I’m hoping this will be different.
I’m thinking to start with one shake first thing in the morning for a few days, then gradually work up to having about 3 shakes by 5pm. Dinner at 7 and then done. Aiming for 2,000 calories a day. I also thought about taking only one scoop at a time, and having a half-strength shake every 2 or 3 hours to stay “full”. I’ve tried this with other shakes, but I was always so hungry that I ended up giving up. I’m hoping Huel’s proper full nutrition will help with that.
I don’t really have a question, just looking for advise and support. Any comments? Sorry for the long post.
Mmm using Huel for weight loss for me is not the best idea because sometimes it doesnt fill you as regular food. If you eat it, do it because of the complete nutrition, but not for weight loss.
Its super easy to measure the calories with Huel, I would take it as a base nutrition to cover most of the minerals and nutrients, but hack yourself with other tricks like trying intermittent fasting, drink much more water (specially when you are hungry), drink coffee (it reduces my appetite), use curry or spices in your regular food or even to Huel U/U as it really satiates the hunger.
But to lose weigh you have to “suffer”. I think that you are putting too much hope in Huel and it won’t make miracles, its just food, and in a conventional way is less attractive that anything that you can prepare yourself.
My advice is to try to fix your diet before you try Huel and analyse where is your failure (alcohol, sugar, bread, sedentarism…
Other advice: taking just 1 scoop of Huel normally doesn’t fill me and it makes me more hungry I normally take at least 500kcal per Huel.
Other advice: Enjoy what hunger means, its you body talking to you, your hormones activating your organs and your brain, making you less human and more animal. If you reconsider what hunger means in you condition (I suppose that you are healthy) you can even enjoy it, its just an evidence that you are alive, enjoy that.
Hey Jody, welcome to the Huel Forum, great to have you on board.
Thanks Adrian for your opinion here, however I don’t think this is reflective of how many Hueligans use Huel.
I would say that Huel can absolutely be used for healthy, gradual weight loss. There are plenty of people who done this, just search for Weight Loss on this forum. Huel is very filling because of a number of reasons: protein content, fibre content, slow-release carbohydrates as well as volume too which will contribute to satiety.
I would say though that going all in on Huel is probably not your best option. You’ve said that:
Take this learning with Huel. Weight loss is, in the simplest terms, to do with maintaining a calorie deficit over a long period of time, think in months and years, not weeks and days. Trying to build up to 2000kcal of Huel per day is only going to lead to you restricting yourself from foods you love and moments you cherish - like meal times with family. Huel is not about this. We see many people here diving into a 100% Huel diet, but it isn’t sustainable in exactly the same way if you restricted yourself to another food forever wouldn’t be.
However, Huel absolutely can be used to help you lose weight, even if you only have Huel 1-2 meals a day. As @airiartev has said, Huel is really easy to monitor calories with Huel, that means you can be super precise with what you are eating. We have a guide here which you should definitely read carefully as I think it would really help.
I hope this helps as a starter for 10, I would love some others here who have lost weight with Huel to chip in too. The key point I want to reiterate, don’t go 100% Huel to lose weight because I don’t think it is sustainable for you.
Hi @Wolframjack74 I am one of the many members here who have successfully lost weight with Huel. I found it really easy to track calories on 2 Huel meals (usually breakfast and lunch) and one veg rich meal a day plus low cal snacks in between. Eating at a deficit of 500kcal per day lost me 1lb per week. Total weight loss 28lbs. Happy to say, I’m still on the Huel and maintaining my new weight (give or take the odd couple of pounds now and then). I do go 100% Huel occasionally but more often than not stick with the 2 Huel meals and one healthy vegetarian/vegan meal per day.
Good luck with the diet. I started by getting my basic metabolic rate using this BMR calculator then using MyFitnessPal to track daily/weekly calorie intake. Good tip: drink plenty of water.
I’ve absolutely used Huel to lose some weight and generally feel better with regards to more energy etc. I’m also 41 and I was starting to put on some weight (mainly around the middle). I aim for around 1800-2000 calories per day and train 4/5 times a week.
I use Black Huel as this has lower carbs and means I can introduce carbs when I have snacks or as part of my evening meal. I will generally have breakfast and lunch as Huel (powder or RTD) and an evening meal with my family. Snacks during the day may be oats, cottage cheese, skyr, tin of tuna, protein bar etc plus fruit.
I’ve never felt better and my stomach is flatter having lost a couple of stone gradually over the last 2 years. You can absolutely make it work for you in terms of weight loss. Good luck!!
Ps I would second using MyFitnessPal to track daily calories. It’s so easy.
Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I also ordered Huel Black, I like the lower carbs and no artificial sweeteners. Like I said, I’m going to start out using Huel for Breakfast and Lunch, and having regular dinner with my family. My worst eating habits are: 1) skipping breakfast, 2) snacking while at work, 3) extreme hunger late at night. I’m hoping that fixing 1 and 2 will help with 3. And the financial investment will (hopefully) help me to stick to it. I usually drink plenty of water, but i need to make sure to drink a little extra.
I think it’s the “skipping meals” part that messes everything else up. When I used to skip a meal, it would just make me hungrier and more likely to eat unhealthily. Sometimes I’d end up snacking during the night. I also recommend not keeping snacks around or else you’ll end up eating them all. If you’re satisfied with your diet, you won’t feel the need to snack.
I do something similar, and I’ve enjoyed it so far. Two of my three meals a day are Huel (500 calories/2.5 scoops each). It’s more filling, so I use that to my advantage. I cook the third meal because I like cooking and it satisfies my cravings for meaty and savoury food in general. I can make whatever I fancy and with some healthier ingredient swaps.
P.s. I agree with the MyFitnessPal recommendations. Using it makes it easy to track calories and keep them within a limit.
Yeah definitely this, sounds stupidly simple but the amount of times I’ve been craving something late at night that I absolutely do not need, I’m regularly denied by just not having anything I’m craving - thank you lock down.
Also, on a related note, there’s a great new article on our site about curbing cravings which seems like it might be very useful to you.
When I used to use Mypalfitness measuring and weighing correctly everything i realised that I normally ate 4.000 kcal per day and although I wasn’t fat.
Then I started to reduce it progressively just to optimise my body.
One of the best tricks is buying at the supermarket just after having eaten, then is more probable to buy just the basics and what you need, nothing else
Wow, that’s quite high! I doubt I’d be able to eat 3000, let alone 4000 calories! But maybe you are bigger or more active than I am. I would usually eat 2000-2500 kcal a day without MyFitnessPal. Using the calculator, I now eat just under 1600 kcal a day (lose 0.5kg/week).
I can relate. If I shopped on an empty stomach, I would end up buying a takeaway on the way home because I couldn’t wait to cook the food. I waste £6-8 for a meal when I’m hungry like that. I think the Huel bars are perfect (and cheaper) for those kinds of moments. I just wish they were bigger like the old 400 kcal ones.
Also, a good trick is to use a shopping list. Without one, people forget to buy certain items and waste money on things they don’t need.
In my house, my wife does most of the shopping (or now, with Covid, sends me with a list or does curbside.) And she does most of the meal preps. If I stick to just her meals, I’d be fine. But it’s the fast food, extra pizzas, snacks, etc. Both at work and at night. Hoping Huel will help.
Finally got my first shipment. It was delayed due to shipping problem, not Huel’s fault. Had my first shake this morning…vanilla. It’s gritty, but I like it!
I would definitely recommend leaving it in the fridge for a hour or two before drinking as it allows the huel to fully hydrate and removing a lot of the gritty texture.
For the first time today I had a shake that I prepared the night before and placed the jug in the fridge - the difference was very noticeable in terms of how much smoother it was.
I did the same last night. It was definitely smoother and better. But I don’t really have a problem with it being gritty or even kinda chunky.
Today is day 3, had two shakes each day. I’ve had a tiny bit of tummy issues but nothing major. Just had some loose stool and more “urgency” than usual, if that makes sense. Sorry for the gross details.
Having said all that, I haven’t been perfect otherwise. I ate things I shouldn’t have, and a bit too much. But those were my off days at work and being home is tougher. I’m hoping I can stick to it more on work days until I get in the swing of things.
I probably won’t weigh myself until after a week has passed, and see how I’m doing.