Housebound help?

I’m 5’4" and since becoming pretty much housebound I’ve ballooned up to 200lbs. I Am waiting for surgery on my hip, and after I recover, I should be able to get back into working out. As well as for my health, I need to lose weight for the surgery.
Until then, should I be restricting my intake more than others since I can’t exercise? I’m currently on two, 3 scoop shakes a day, and a piece of fruit in the morning.
Thank you! :slight_smile:

That sounds like a pretty solid plan for your situation. That deficit will almost certainly result in weight loss if you stick to it. I guess that comes to just over 1k calories. Perhaps one more shake of 3 scoops would be of use in avoiding malnourishment.

Thank you!

For safe and healthy weight loss we recommend a deficit of -500kcal per day up to a maximum of -1000kcal less than you need to maintain your weight. This is a useful guide on fat loss - http://huel.com/pages/guide-to-fat-loss and contains a link to estimate your required calorie requirements. 3 scoops, twice a day plus an apple sounds like too little (<1000kcal). So I would say to up your intake.

Remember Huel is nutritionally complete at 2000kcal. If you are relying on Huel for 99% of your diet then you won’t be hitting the Reference Intakes at your current intake.

Thank you for the information! I will add a healthy meal for lunch (or another Huel, depending on how I feel) :grin:

So if you only need 1400 cals to maintain but desperately needed to lose weight and want to regain health what would you recommend doing?

That’s a difficult one, I imagine the solution would be to supplement with a high quality vitamin and mineral tablet/capsule unless @JamesCollier thinks differently? It would be logical to think that because your calorie requirement is so low that your requirement for vitamins and minerals might be proportionately lower too.

James, if @angelicatoo is looking to lose some weight, has assessed her calorie requirements at 1400kcal/day how would you recommend her to make sure she get’s the micronutrients she needs whilst consuming 900kcal?

Hi both

Huel has optimum levels and meet requirements for all nutrients at 2000kcal. It’s likely, for many nutrients intake will be ok at levels less than this, but this can’t be guarenteed. It’s likely if one consumes a low calorie intake from solid foods, they too would not be meeting requirements for all nutrients.

900kcal per day is a very low calorie diet (VLCD) and Huel has not been designed for this purpose. However, a deficit from 1400kcal per day need only be proportional so 1000-1100kcal per day should allow a good weight loss.

It also depends on how long one needs to adhere to a lower calorie intake.

The options are:

  1. Consume the amount of Huel required to lose weight then supplement with micronutrients plus an omega-3 oil supplement (fish oils or flaxseed)
  2. Consume less Huel than the above, and have an addtional meal made of foods rich in vitamins and minerals
  3. Consume a good amount of Huel so requirements are met, but do a good amount of exercise daily to create the calorie deficit

I am 58, 5’0, weigh 10st 6lb and have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Metabolic Syndrome and double MTHFR mutation. I have been trying to research how to get the weight off and get all my nutritional requirements at the same time. I dont know about anyone else but the minute I start thinking and obsessing on food I start eating more as well so this Huel seemed like the answer. How much protein would you say I should aim for? and would it be enough re vits/minerals to add some leafy greens into the mix? I have always wished that there was the magic space formulae in leu of food,

I have 2 Huel meals a day and take a standard multivitamin, then have a normal meal at night (can be healthy or can be sausage, chips and beans like i had last night!) I lost 2 stone in about 6 months, and i think thats because although not 100% Huel or even 2000cal Huel - it was still a lot better than food i was eating before. And i feel so much better now and have a lot more energy; weight loss is good too :slight_smile:

That is good. Do you think about calories at all? My food quality is always pretty good but I find it hard work thinking about it and impossible to lose weight and eat properly at the same time.

I used to log calories on MyFitnessPal - it was good cause it gave me a idea of how many calories i had left for the day etc. I dont use it so much now though cause I’m familiar with what is in what I’m eating now

Huel will certainly help, but I wouldnt want you to miss out on any nutrients. If you had 1100 calories per day, including 80g protein you would lose weight. A little exercise - even a short walk - would certainly help and help you feel better.

I wouldn’t have said some leafy veg would be enough, to be honest. However, add this and a multivitamin and omega-3 supplements and you should be having sufficient.

1 Like

Well I have come to the conclusion that Huel wouldn’t work for me as a complete nutrition system, basically because I’m a short arse and I also find it a bit heavy and boring. BUT on days like this when I am too tired to think straight or make food it is brilliant. I have also been looking at intermittent fasting methods and I think it would be good for that.