Huel has been a godsend for me. I’ve been drinking it for over 2 years now, and for over a year it has been my primary food source, from which on average I’ve pretty much been getting 2000kcals a day.
I’ve always had the original flavour so was immensely disappointed to see it being phased out, I’ve tried all the other flavours as well as the flavour pouches and I’m not a fan at all.
I’m going to trial 100% Black Edition as I know I’ll have to leave v2.3 behind eventually.
Interested to hear if there would be any potential issues with such a low carb/high fat diet, in addition to consuming 4x the daily recommended amount of protein that obtaining 2000kcals a day is going to provide me?
Original hasn’t been officially discontinued as far as I know but you could make something very similar by buying U/U, some sucralose from bulk powders and some vanilla flavour.
@Coup The outlet site says “Available for a limited time only while stock lasts” so appears to be simply a matter of time.
Whenever I’ve experimented with U/U in the past I could never find a flavour strong enough to mask the overwhelming blandness, was very strange. Never did try sucralose though so something to keep in mind.
Nobody have any thoughts on going 100% Black Edition?
The main concern would be consuming 200g protein daily. I already began yesterday anyway and will trial it for at least a week or two just wanted to see if any of the Huel team would provide any thoughts or advise against it etc?
I’ll be interested to see how you get on. I’ve been happy with Huel 2.3 original for one or two meals a day and haven’t found either variant of Huel Black to be as compatible for happy digestion. Hopefully 100% will speed your adaptation to the different ingredients and levels of protein etc. Good luck!
I want to disclose this saying that there are plenty of people doing low carb diets and even lower carb diets (keto).
Despite that, I would personally not go 100% on Black. Do I think you will encounter any health issues? Most likely not. As long as you keep your calories within your needs, Huel should offer you a balanced nutritional input. So why the negative take?
The macronutrient split is even further from what the government agencies recommend. 20C/40P/40F (% of the energy from).
“General dietary guidelines for adults suggest an acceptable macronutrient distribution range (AMDR) of 45-65% of total energy from carbohydrates (CHO), 20-35% from fat (F), and 10-35% from protein § with a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 46 and 56 g/d or 0.8 g/kg body weight (BW) of P for females and males, respectively”
Protein content is extremely high. At 200g of protein a day (for 2,000kcal), that would mean that a person weighting 80kg would have 2.5g of protein per kg of bodyweight. To put into prespective the recommended to maintain muscle mass is 0.8g/kg and to build between 1.6g and 2.2g. Extreme high protein diets, while beneficial for weight loss in the short term, might cause some increase in your kidneys. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258944/
Protein is not the most efficient form for your body to take energy from. Carbohydrates are getting a “bad name” in an era where sugars and processed carbs are everywhere. These when paired with unbalanced diets and caloric overloads cause obesity, diabetes etc. However, carbs are the most primary source of energy. Long term low carbohydrate diets are not as well supported and studied.
And then there are the concerns when going 100% on a meal replacement diet. Again, it has been done multiple times, mostly successfully by other members of the community. However, evidence of long term benefits or harm is non-existent.
So, if you keep track of you health, you don’t notice any energy issues, etc. I think that you should be fine. It’s not going to kill you, and likely it will not harm you.
2000 calories is a fair amount of calories to be getting from Huel alone. Anyway you could drop this? If you switch to Black (which I find waaaaaay better personally!) how about dropping to three shakes of it per day, aka 1200 calories, and making up the rest with standard food?
@Hdoyle Not an option at the moment. As mentioned I’ve been using Huel to provide almost 100% of my daily calories for around a year now and never felt better so have no need to change this.
@Latestfuels Good stuff mate appreciate you taking the time to reply. In Huels guide to protein article they state:
“However, kidney damage due to a high protein intake has been an outdated concern in healthy individuals for some time and in fact, a typical Western diet has a protein content above the RNI. This is also despite there being no causal evidence for the proposed mechanism of kidney damage via high protein consumption. Studies have been conducted in recent years that have shown a high protein intake, in excess of 2.2g/kg/bw/day, does not result in kidney damage”
Also in the summary of a trial they conducted where participants were on a 100% Huel diet they state:
“Huel Powder can be the sole source of nutrition if consumed at an amount of at least 2,000kcal per day, although this is not something that has been actively recommended. The results of this trial support the claim that Huel Powder can safely be consumed as a total nutrition source.”
Was hoping a staff member could clarify that this statement is still applicable to Black Edition, I’ll have to try emailing them directly.
Currently on day 3 and feeling no different so far but will report back in a couple of weeks (if I’m still alive ) for anyone interested.
As a side note I’m finding the taste to be just as awful as every other flavoured variety of Huel that I’ve ever tried. Such a nasty cheap/artificial/plastic taste, nothing like vanilla whatsoever.
Sorry for the dig but the first vanilla (later renamed “original”) was perfect. To see you phasing out the one flavour that has been there from the start is incredibly frustrating to a long time consumer such as myself, particularly as I’m now so reliant on it as my daily food source.
Interesting you say that - ive been using GF Original for a year and switched to Black Vanilla this month - I found the taste to be very similar to Original - just slightly sweeter but not noticed any particular artificial aftertastes. The only change I’ve had to make is using a little less FB than Original to compensate for the slightly increased sweetness. I use a level tbsp instead of slightly heaped and find the tastes to be comparable.
Yep tastes are always gonna be subjective. Interesting how whenever it’s brought up here people in the negative camp always seem to report that same “artificial/plastic” taste. Wonder if it’s a specific ingredient or flavouring agent that certain people are more sensitive to than others?
I’ve just ordered 2 bags of chocolate anyway to see how that tastes, can’t say I’m very hopeful but worth a try.
I’ve been using Huel for about 3 years, and usually take Unflavoured Unsweetened. But just ordered Huel Black for rest days (I tend to train 4-5 days a week, and am 100% Huel 3-4 days a week).
I’ve found no real consensus on the best levels of protein intake. Most of the research I have done suggest a daily range of between 0.3g and 2.0g of protein per pound of body weight - with a suggestion that 0.3g would be too low for long term health.
The consensus for most active people seems to be 1g per lbs, although I’ve seen research that tested up to 2g without long time side effects.
I use Protein and Fat to calculate my basic calorie intake, and then flex my carbs depending on activity. Turns out Normal Huel for training and Black for rest days delivers in almost perfect balance.
Not really true… but I guess you are referencing the above content.
This was a one month trial conducted with the support of Huel. I’m happy with the outcome, just making sure you are aware that there’s very little scientific evidence that can be drawn from this.
Sorry I should have been clearer. I do mean in reference to this “Huel Powder can be the sole source of nutrition if consumed at an amount of at least 2,000kcal per day, although this is not something that has been actively recommended.”
Over a week in and no adverse effects so far, way too early to be able to conclude anything definitive though.
Wondering if someone can clarify this for me, as stated on the Black Edition page with regards to the macro split:
in Huel Black Edition we’ve set them at the ratio of 17:40:40:3 respectively; i.e. just 17% of the energy comes from carbohydrate, while 40% comes from fat, 40% from protein and 3% from fibre.
Then the nutritional profile states that 2000kcal a day will provide the following reference intakes:
Carbohydrate - 32%
Fat - 127%
Protein - 400%
Not sure if I’m phrasing this correctly, but how will the body “know” to obtain precisely 40% of its required energy from fat and 40% from protein in this case? Is there not a chance it could obtain more of its required energy from protein and the surplus fat being consumed won’t get used up or burned off?
Basically if I continue with 100% Black Edition how likely am I to begin gaining body fat, especially as the carb intake isn’t low enough to send the body into ketosis and eat into its fat reserves?
There’s a good chance I’ve butchered the entire theory on how all this works here as I have minimal knowledge on nutrition so hoping someone can provide some insight, cheers!
) for anyone interested.