First week of Huel

Experiences
1

I’ve been interested in using Huel since hearing about the job position of living of it for a year. I really wanted to apply but unfortunately I live in Reading, but I still decided to try Huel out. (my girlfriend is rather sceptical about it.)

I’m 25, about 5’10 and weigh around 76.8 Kilograms. I decided to only get a week’s supply to see if i like it. If I do then I want to do one week on Huel and one week off. I am aiming for 5 100g portions a day giving me around 2000 calories as I want to loose a bit of weight.

08:00 am I had my first mixture with milk after reading it in a thread. It was rather pleasant, It still tasted kinda powdery but it didn’t bother me.

11:00 this is when i’m usually hungriest during the day but i felt fine. This mixture was with water and wasn’t as nice but was still drinkable.

14:00 I was starting to feel hungry now so I had another mixture, I had to shake this mixture and it was lumpy, also more powdery, so I added more water but I still couldn’t get all the lumps out.

15:30 still hungry, but I appreciate that it’s going to take more than one morning for my stomach to get use to being empty. However in terms of energy levels they feel fine, just hungry.

18:30 feeling pretty darn hungry right about now but apart from that everything is good.

21:00 not feeling as hungry any more and am going to stick to the plan of having 5 drinks a day and not anything else. already thinking about how I can change the flavour up a bit, whilst it is nice I feel it could become a bit boring by the end of the week, even tho I know it’s not meant to be super tasty.

but overall I’m happy with the first day… just kinda hungry, but it has stopped me from snacking on junk food during the day and looking forward to continuing it on.

2

Hi, welcome to the forum!

How physically active are you? You could be getting hungry due to not getting enough calories. For example, if you are moderately active, the calorie calculator says you should be having 2,661 to maintain your weight or 2,161 to lose 1 lb per week.

Another thing to try is to spread it out even more. You could try having a 3rd of a portion every hour.

1 Like
3

As @Marcus said above you probably are feeling hungry because you aren’t consuming enough calories. You are about the same height as me and I tend to feel hungry if I have less than 2400 cals a day, particularly around lunchtime. In my mind 2000 cals isn’t enough for me, it’s something you have to experiment with to find the right level for you. It varies based on your height, muscle mass, activity level etc etc so no online calculator can take all those factors into consideration.

Perhaps add in an extra shake in there around lunch time and see if that helps with the hunger.

With regards to lumpiness I had the same problem when using the shaker. I now use a blender in the morning and take a couple of Sigg (https://www.sigg.com/en_uk) 1 litre bottle to work and that keeps me going all day. I have a fridge at work I can use which is handy though.

I hope some of that helps and lets us know how you get on! :smile:

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4

Hi Rich,

Almost in the very same boat as yourself.
26 years old, 5’11 and 76kg.

I’ve done long-term shake only diets in the past and it’s a tough first couple of weeks. Getting out of the habit/routine of eating real food is tough to adapt to, and this could be a reason you’re frequently feeling hungry.

Also, if you’ve been used to eating lots of sugar (choc, biscuits, sweets etc), coming off it cold-turkey is manic. A withdrawal symptom is hunger, cravings etc. Although that passes in 2-3 days if you’re lucky.

Drink a pint of water between shakes every day, that’ll also keep you feeling full.

I’m also on about 2000 calories, my BMR is 2600. I’m just aiming to cut down to 9% BF, hence the deficit for now.

I’m currently on 100% HUEL until 29th November and see what my BF% is from there.

Check out the MyProtein flavour packs as well.

My only tip for the lumps is to add a metal shaker ball into the mix, this helps with more lumps but I’m still yet to have a smooth shake!

Will be interested to see how you get on.

5

Everything is good! There is a difference between being hungry and having an empty stomach. It will take time to learn the difference.

A number of new customers find they do not feel full while on soylent; they learn that what they used to consider ‘slightly hungry’ is actually satiated. It takes some time to get accostumed to this new level of ‘fullness’ if you, like most everyone, are used to eating until full.

6

Hi there,

going to start off by replying to your questions.

I guess I live a moderately active lifestyle, i’m not muscular in anyway but I can do a fair bit of walking at work and occasionally heavy lifting (I’m an undertaker) and I try to fit in at least two 30 minute swimming sessions a week, but nothing strenuous.

but I think starting form tomorrow i will make my first mixture with 500ml of semi skimmed milk, that should add an extra 250 cals bumping me up to 2250 for the day giving me I guess a 500 cal deficit. that seem’s more in line for my weight as I reckon i’m more on a 700 cal deficit for these last two days (still feeling kinda hungry)

I’ll admit that I am a sugar junkie and it’s not been easy turning down the doughnuts my girlfriend bought (wicked woman) and other snacky foods but I really want to to do an entire week just on Huel.

okay, Day 2:

07:00 I woke up feeling rather energetic for once which is a big deal for me, hopefully that will continue on.

08:00 I had my first huel, wasn’t really hungry but it seemed to be a good time to have it, I have also been adding slightly more water to the mixture, filling the huel bottle to the top after blending, just seems to taste better that way, less powdery.

10:00 had my second huel, was feeling a bit hungry by now but not as much as on Monday. I also noticed that I was starting to burp not long after the huel for a short while, which seemed strange!?

13:30 feeling hungry so I had one, this one I had to handshake as (I blend the first two in the morning) again lumps even with the extra water but it’s not much of a problem for me. but again I started to burp for a short while

18:30 got home much later that I thought I was going to so I had this rather late. I got rather hungry around 16:00 but that seemed to pass.

20:00 last one of the day, and i’m feeling good. i’m still hungry but the hunger from today seems different hunger to yesterday, I think it’s as you described Ric, that i’m not starving but rather just empty. and it is a lot more bearable today.

so far day two is going well. and I’m still happy with the flavour, I feel good and Proud that I’ve avoided all snacky food. hopefully tomorrow will go well after two days of no solids!

I was wondering if there was anything in particular I could drink? so far I have just been having plain water in between the huel as i didn’t want to add extra cals, but that is getting boring now. is things like black coffee ok, or honey and lemon?

whoever gets that full time job is going to have one heck of a challenge!

7

Coffee, tea, flavored waters, sparkling water, diet sodas if you are not averse to artificial sweeteners.

Basically anything that doesn’t contain sugar.

8

Cinnamon tea might be good. Cinnamon is great for blood sugar control.

9

sorry, I’ve had internet troubles for the last few days and couldn’t update.

Wednesday went well. feeling pretty use to it by then, apart from being rather burpy for awhile after drinking a mixture.

Thursday I had some hunger pains come back again but they didn’t last long. one thing that started to happen, was that I am starting to get a dry mouth now, and drinking water doesn’t really make it go away. Not sure if someone can explain that?

Friday: I have definitely been waking up with more energy and also getting a better nights sleep whilst being on Huel. I haven’t really noticed any sugar withdrawals even tho I am a big sugar junky. I still feel hungry but again I think it’s more of an empty feeling. I am still getting the dry mouth and burping.

I feel like next time I do this I will only have two Huel portions and then have a proper meal in the evening. It is rather hard having a pure Huel diet and I am really missing solid food. I haven’t noticed any weight loss either but I wasn’t expecting to loose any just after 5 days.

10

Nothing wrong with the odd burp. It livens things up. But if you think it’s a problem, maybe you are drinking it too fast and swallowing lots of air with it?

Not sure what the deal is with the dry mouth. Sipping water in between drinking Huel really should prevent that, so I don’t know.

11

I noticed a bit of a dry mouth feel after my morning Huel, almost like I need to brush my teeth again feeling. After a hot drink, it goes away - I have my coffee fix about 2 hours after my huel, give it a try?