So i started Huel about 3 weeks ago, i had serious reservations before hand but kept seeing it around, for the past 15 years i have worked as a chef, contrary to what most people believe chef’s as a whole have some of the worst diet’s around, miss breakfast, nibble at what you can all day to survive and then eat a frozen pizza at midnight when you get home - such is the life of most chef’s, certainly me and i slowly but steadily gained weight.
in 2015 i started my own business, freelancing and this year we built our first kitchen from scratch, we now offer dinner parties and bespoke catering for client’s, when i began 3 years ago it immediately gave me more control over my work hours and days, i started eating breakfast, changed nothing else and in 2 months i lost 3 stone i guess just because i gave my metabolism something to do throughout the day.
Things went well and i kept it off for a while but with work getting super busy again i started skipping breakfast and slowly but surely re gained the weight, i’m now 31 i suffer from IBS, often stress sets it off, sometimes dairy, occasionally gluten so i made a decision to try Huel, gluten free berry and its been a mixed bag really, i have been having it pretty religiously for breakfast and within the first few days i was less bloated, much more awake in a morning less groggy, it has created some serious gas issues however, occasional stomach pains but its hard to say if its the Huel, my body simply getting used to it, stress of December or something else.
I guess the biggest let down is i don’t think i have lost any weight, i’m sure it will take longer, i may go to two Huel’s a day but i’m unsure how my digestion will take to that.
I’ve heard people make all sorts of complaints about their Huel, but this is the first time the their bag of gluten free berry has been mixed. I think that’s how they get all the ingredients together to be honest, mate.
This has been discussed before. I think like it or not you are still consuming too many calories somewhere in your diet. You can only lose weight if your calories in are less than your calories out.
What else do you eat during a typical day. Try inputting your data into http://tdeecalculator.net and go from there.
As @hunzas has said, weight (fat) loss = calories in - calories out. You can work out your TDEE, but this is only a guide. It took me around a month of trial and error to eventually come to the conclusion that I need around 1500 calories net to lose weight. So on days I don’t exercise I eat around 1500 (or try to) and on days I do exercise I eat around 2000.
If you are in a calorie deficit you will feel hungry. If act on this hunger and eat so you don’t feel hungry you won’t lose weight. I’ve lost 3 stone now, purely from doing the above, and Huel (which is not a weight loss product) has been an instrumental part of that.
If you don’t already, you also need to know what calories are in the other food you are eating. Looking on packaging and weighing out food will achieve this, which is a little bit of a faff at the beginning but it won’t take long to build up a mental picture of how many calories are in what foods you eat. It’s also a good eye opener, as one meal I used to consume a lot of was 1200 calories and I would think nothing of having some snacks after it as well.
Yep, it is only when you look at packaging on food and then see how many calories per 100g etc. will you realise that you are probably eating too much. Portion sizes appear to be increasing, and things like pizza for example are extremely calorific. You read the packet of a shop bought pizza and it may be 1500 cals; most people eat a pizza by themselves, but read the packet and it says 2 or 3 servings!!
Cheers for the replies, @hunzas i’m unsure if you misunderstood my mixed bag pun or i misunderstand your reply but i think we can leave that one their.
I tried the calculator which comes up as over 3500 calories to maintain, its a wild stab in the dark but i would guess i consume 1500-2k a day, the vast majority of which is in a single late meal.
on average i work 5/6 days a week, 60-70 hours with about another 20 hours of commute, according to my phone (which i’m sure isn’t 100% accurate) i usually do 15k to 30k steps a day up down and around and around the kitchen, i have done food diaries for the doctor in the past, had blood tests to check my thyroid and for diabetes and they have always come back fine, so i put my weight down to bad convenient food at bad times much more than the actual amount i eat.
By disappointed in no weight loss i mean i’m disappointed in comparison to my huge weight loss years ago when i began religiously having breakfast again, i’m well aware Huel isn’t a weight loss product, i don’t want a weight loss product i need to change my diet in the long term, and flash burning weight now in a way that’s un-maintainable in the long run won’t help at all.
one day (if i don’t die in the meantime) ill be retired and ill have plenty of time to eat well and exercise regularly, id love to be able to do it now but unfortunately this is the career i chose and this is what i love, unfortunately it takes a huge amount of sacrifice and alas this is the problem with millions of people being obese and simply being told to exercise and eat healthily by people on pedestals then they wander why nothing changes, millions of jobs in the UK rely on terrible work hours resulting in poor social lives and poor diet’s and honestly products such as Huel seem to be the answer to this, i’m not a vegan i never will be but i can respect the decision, even as a chef i agree that current global food production is untenable and there needs to be changes i simply don’t accept that outlawing all meat and animal products from 7.5 billion people in one fell swoop is the answer, gradual changes for life certainly must be.