Gaining weight with huel concerned about too many vitamins

Hi I’m considering going onto a huel enhanced or 100% huel diet. Ive always been thin around 9 to 9.5 stone I want to get up to a healthy bmi I think I need about 2500 or 3000 cal per day to gain the weight I need. However I am concerned with over intake of vitamins as I’ve heard this can be bad for you. Thanks.

Any advice please?

No need to worry about too many vitamins from consuming Huel.

I just don’t know how I can get the calories in when its 2000 per day and I need 2500

Hi @Farook_Karrmaluk

Toxic effects of vits and mins begin at levels way, way above those that Huel provides, so on 3,000kcal per day, you’ll be fine.

2 Likes

Yeah, have as much Huel as your body needs. You’ll feel great.

Could we have a concrete value for this? How much Huel do I need to eat in a day before I would be over one of the safe upper limits for an adult human? Which vitamin or mineral is the first one to become a problem?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. People have different requirements and the RDAs are based on estimates.

Vitamins A, D, E and K are a few that can be harmful if taken in excess. You can look up the amount on the Huel nutrition label and compare with the established upper limits for each.

I tried to look for vitamin D, but the nutrition label states vitamin D2, which is different from vitamin D3 (vitamin D is available in two distinct forms, D2 and D3). From what I’ve read in a number of journals, vitamin D2 “should not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation or fortification.”

For example, multivitamins may contain either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3, but most companies are now reformulating their products to contain vitamin D in the D3 form.

[Note: I am not an expert by any means on this.]

Case against vitamin D2 as a vitamin supplement, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

1 Like

I have now worked my way up to 5 shakes a day with 4 scoops of Huel. I am also eating breakfast and an evening meal. I am consuming in the region of 3,800 to 4,000 calories a day. I am a particularly hard gainer. I’m tall slim and very athletic. I’ve never felt better if I’m honest. My gaining has plateaued though and I’m actually looking at the daunting task of increasing my calorie intake. I think I might gradually increase over the following month.

When I first started I thought I was going to cry when alarm went off to drink another one. It is scary how fast your body adapts though. Now I beat my alarm every time.

1 Like

Most vitamin D3 supplements aren’t vegan and Huel is a vegan product. The vegan D3 is actually quite a lot more expensive than non-vegan versions.

Just go outside more and sorted :wink:

Yes I know it varies, but actually not much.

You have stated that you are confident that a 2000kcal portion of huel per day has no adverse effects.
We know that this contains 11.2mg of zinc. According to these lovely people, zinc intake of above 50mg per day will effect “copper status indexes” (what ever that is, see page 240). So if you consumed 10000kcal of Huel (5 times the expected amount), there is some reason to believe that the zinc level might be a problem. Possibly “copper status indexes” are not actually a big deal. I’m not any kind of nutritionist, I don’t know. Possibly some other nutrient would become an issue before zinc does.

However, all of this does suggest that someone with the appropriate understanding of nutrition could give a definite answer to the question “How much Huel would a healthy adult have to eat for vitamin or mineral levels to be a possible problem?”. Not when it will defiantly become bad for me personally, but when some abstract healthy human average-person might potentially be harmed.

Not a nutritionist, just an internet wanderer. I’ve removed the reference notes for ease of reading.

"Zinc has been used therapeutically at a dose of 150 mg/day for months and in some cases for years, and in one case at a dose of up to 2000 mg/day zinc for months

A decrease in copper levels and hematological changes have been reported; however, those changes were completely reversed with the cessation of zinc intake.

However, zinc has been used as zinc gluconate and zinc acetate lozenges for treating the common cold and therefore the safety of usage at about 100 mg/day level is a relevant question. Thus, given that doses of over 150 mg/day for months to years has caused no permanent harm in many cases, a one week usage of about 100 mg/day of zinc in the form of lozenges would not be expected to cause serious or irreversible adverse health issues in most persons.

One study has shown zinc to be highly efficacious for curing warts; oral intake of zinc sulfate for two months at levels up to 600 mg/day was found to induce complete clearance of recalcitrant warts, with a success rate of 87%."

Going off their figures of 150mg without issue 150/11.2 (per 2000kcal)=13.39.
13.39*2000=26780kcal per day

That given I think zinc would be the least of my worries.

Of course. And no problem for you or me. But there are those who live in an area where it’s difficult to get sun exposure, or they can’t spend 20 to 30 minutes outdoors a few times a week. :wink:

Hi @Ric
D3 is not vegan so it doesn’t work for us.
D2 is active and does convert to active D3 in the body, but there is some conversion loss which is why we have a relatively high level

1 Like

Some good points raised in this thread. I’m going to work on an article covering each micronutrient and the amounts supplied by Huel. Quite a big job, so please bear with me :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Thank you for undertaking this!

(I notice that the people in this reddit thread are essentialy looking for this information too, it may not be an uncommon question))

So is d2 safe?

@Farook_Karrmaluk
Disclamer; I am not a doctor or any kind of medic!

To quote this page of the WHO guidelines vitamin D has a “lowest observed adverse effect level of 50μg/day” and ““no observed adverse effect level” of 20μg/day

Eating Huel at 2000kcal per day provides 15μg of D2. So provided you do not have any medical conditions it seems highly likely you could eat up to 2660kcal without any issues. It is also probable that you could eat up to 6660kcal without any adverse effect from the Vitamin D content. Obvously if you eat 6660kcal you will probably get fat, which is also not good for you.

If you wait for James Collier’s article you will get a mich more professional analysis of this.

You mean 15mcg. Big difference between milligrams and micrograms.