I was crunching the essential amino acid breakdown - Huel vs Huel Black vs Whey.
Am I right in saying that although there are more grams of protein in Huel Black per serving (40 vs 29) the actual amino acid composition change means there is less Lysine per 100g of protein (30% less than in Huel White).
I’ve been taking 1g of protein per kg of bodyweight for Weight training (whey) and bumping that an extra 20% when using Huel vs Whey as as protein source to cover the Isoleucine and Lysine (80% content in Huel protein vs whey).
So if I used Huel Black I’d actually have to have more shakes (despite the 40 per serving) than Huel White to cover the Lysine. Why has the amino acid profile changed so much? What has the amino acid profile been benchmarked against?
We haven’t benchmarked the amino acid profile of Huel Black Ed against anything particular because it’s not an amino acid nor protein supplement. As long as we have more than one sources of protein in our products we are ensured of a high scoring protein with more-than-enough of each of the essential - and indeed, non-essential proteogenic amino acids.
Indeed, per 100g of product, they are both nearly bang on in the amount of lysine (Black is 1695mg vs. Powder 1663mg). I guess you are correct in that there’s less lysine per 100g of protein in Black; until now I’d not really looked at it.
If you were set on having a set high amount of lysine per day, then yes, you would have to have more Huel. But I’m not sure why it’s that important. If you’re having Huel and whey in your diet then I don’t need to know much about the rest of the food you’re consuming to guess that you have a more-then-adequate intake of lysine.
Why the particular interest in isoleucine and lysine? I take it you train?
Indeed I’m into weight training which is why I’m so interested in the amino acid profile - I want to ensure I’m maxing out those gains
As I’ve stepped up my Huel intake I’ve cut out whey supplementation. At this stage I eat Mon- Fri every meal with the exception of dinner. I love the standard Huel, but my interest in the Huel Black is for when I’m cutting to max out the protein to calorie ratio in order to prevent muscle loss on a calorific deficit.
As a weight trainer myself of +30 years, I know how important nutrition is. But as long as you have adequate total protein from at least 2-3 sources, with good amounts of all essential amino acids and include 3g leucine 2-3 times per day, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the details. I personally wasted years of catabolic nervous energy worrying about these little things in my younger days when I should have been sticking to the basics and growing!
“Don’t get too hung up on the details” ?!
Bit of a strange answer to an important question i think.
To be a complete protein it has to have a minimum of 5.1% Lysine.
That means 90gr of Huel Black has to have at least 2.04gr of Lysine and it only has 1.525gr.
As our body needs all EAA’s in the right ratio’s, a lag in one brings the absorption of all others down.
People training and eating only Huel Black care about this and should thus supplement L-Lysine.
