Huel Black makes me sleepy

Consuming Huel Black for lunch makes me feel sleepy all afternoon. It is not the feeling of being tired but more general fatigue and inability to concentrate. I really want Huel to work so seeking advice here.

I have no prior experience with Huel. My usual eating habits used to be like this:

  • breakfast: Greek yogurt with oats, chia seeds, fruit
  • lunch: whatever is left by the family, usually some meat with pasta or rice and on occasional salad
  • afternoon snack: slice of bread
  • dinner: proper meal with meat, pasta or rice and vegetable
  • water consumption: around two litres throughout the day

With the pandemic going on, I work over the lunch period, so having something prepared in the morning helps me to get proper nutrition and not relying on leftovers :slight_smile:. I have chosen Huel Black as a lunch substitute for the lower carbohydrate content as I tend to have a lot of those in the evening.

No other eating or lifestyle habits have changed so I can only attribute the sleepiness to Huel.

I started a week ago with the recommended dose of 90g (400kcal). Within an hour of drinking, I get the fatigue that lasts until the evening. At first I thought I was not getting enough calories resulting in my body to save energy or something so I made it 135g (600kcal) from the weekend. This had no effect. I drink slowly, as long as it would take me to consume a meal.

I have no food intolerance. The exact same problem occurs after eating pho but I have not been able to correlate the problem with Huel. I have no problem with bread which rules out gluten intolerance.

I was hoping that if my body needs to adjust to a different kind of food, it would settle after one week but there has been no change during this period.

How big a portion of your diet was made up of carbs before you started having HB? If you’ve suddenly cut lots of carbs out that could definitely manifest as fatigue and lack of energy.

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Thank your for the quick response.

When I was still going to the office I prepared a low effort lunch box containing red bell pepper, eggs, cheese and vegan sausages. This is very low carbohydrates. With an apple for snack in the afternoon, the carbohydrates content is comparable to Huel Black but my protein intake was much lower. Total kcal is comparable but divided across 19% carbs, 28% protein, 48% fat, 5% fibre. So carbs is pretty much the same, but protein is a lot lower. Could that be making me sluggish?

I am paying more attention to how I feel. After a carb rich dinner today, I felt much better than the entire day despite becoming actually tired. So there is something about having more carbs.

I still have a lot of Huel Black to consume. I think a fix could be to go down to standard portion of 90g (400 kcal) again and eating 100g rice on top of that. That should make the balance similar to standard Huel.

You could trying adding oatmilk to your Black as well as blending in some carb rich fruits such as Grapefruit, Blueberries, Bananas, Peaches, Strawberries, Pineapple, Blackberries, Acai and Mango.

Confirming that adding carbohydrate has made all the difference. I will try the suggestion to add fruits as well

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Great news. That would have been super annoying if you’d not been able to figure it out.

I’ve been experiencing something similar.
I moved over to a keto diet recently, and have been on Huel black for quite a while.
I’ve also been doing some intermittent fasting.
I have found that quite shortly after eating Huel black there is a big hit of fatigue, this is very different from original huel.
This is not like a food coma, it feels very draining, very tiring, and I often need to rest after eating huel, also there is lack of clarity with working.
I will keep testing, and will try @Phil_C comment regarding carb-rich fruits, this might help

Very interesting, anyone knows why this can happen?

I have also experienced this. I have a high protein diet but having no carbohydrates at all does not suit me. I grew up eating oatmeal so I will stick to Huel White.

It’s hard to say without knowing the ins and outs Aaron but tiredness can be a symptom of switching over to keto, commonly known as the “keto flu”. We cover this in our article here.

This is due to reducing carbs in your diet and the body taking a bit of time to adjust, so I wouldn’t say this is an issue you can solely attribute to Huel Black Edition.

Very interesting topic - I just have the opposite problem, that is difficulty falling and staying asleep. I am often nervous and unable to get some rest.

Do you think it would help to reduce carbohydrate and increase protein (and/or fat?) intake? Maybe switching to black edition would do the job…I am just worrying about the higher caffeine content…

Huel Black has very low caffeine levels - vanilla is half of what is classified as decaffeinated.

Do you drink a lot of coffee by any chance?

Where did you find the exact caffeine content? Is there a list for every Huel product?

And is it really true that more fat and/or more protein improves sleep or makes at least more sleepy? Or is it necessary to reduce carbohydrate intake?

(The latter would be bad as I am trying to gain weight)

Thanks in advance!

it has been covered in previous threads such as this one

There are many factors that affect sleep so it’s possibly not diet related. You could do some digging into these factors to try and improve your sleep quality.

I am a regular user of Huel black and have not found my sleep to be impeded by Huel black.
I

The hypothesis was that Huel Black Edition might improve sleep quality, or make sleepy at least (due to the higher protein and fat content)…

I been drinking the normal huel for 12 months.
Everything was good! :slight_smile:

I tried switched to huel black. I find huel black makes me feel very tried, and if I drink 7 days in a row. I start really struggle to get out of bed in the morning. It feels like when you feel burned out after heavy workout in the gym. :pensive:

I stopped drinking huel black for 1 week,
and I notice I had more energy again and my mood improved.:smiley:

I treid huel black again and I started to feel very tried again and no
energy in the evening :pensive: I don’t drink coffee.

I’m switching back to the normal huel! :slight_smile:

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