Huel Black

Having read about the new low carb version of Huel, am I right in thinking this would be better for those of us using Huel for weight loss?

Not necessary. Weight loss, or more specifically fat loss is caused by your body using more energy (calories) than you consume. If you eat too many calories of Huel Black you will still gain weight.

I have lost about 4 stone and standard Huel was a cornerstone of my diet.

Huel Black just has a different macro ratio. It is aimed at people who want to reduce their carb intake for whatever reason or want to eat more protein without having to eat more carbs.

Carbs are not bad. They are a great source of energy so if you exercise regularly or want exercise to help create your calorie deficit then carbs are good for this.

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But proteĂŻne helps with the hunger feeling right? And weight loss is quicker if you lower your carbs right?

Or have I been wrongly informed??

It really depends on what else you are eating and what your exercise regime is like.
Higher protein intake in conjunction with weight training can help to minimise muscle loss when cutting calories and losing weight.

Both regular huel and huel Black can help you lose weight if you consume it as part of a calorie controlled diet. Which one you choose is really dependant on what that rest of your diet is like.
As @Coup says, carbs are important for energy especially before exercise.
Personally I’ve started using both kinds of huel powder as there are days when I like to consume mainly Huel plus vegetables - it’s convenient for me to get all my protein needs from Huel and the rest of my food tends to be fresh fruit and veg.

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@Coup oup has explained it really well. Find what works for you @TheJackal

The first bit is right but as I’ve learned this week it’s more complicated than that, it’s blown my mind a bit.

Increasing protein leads to people saying they are fuller (study). However, this doesn’t seem to affect energy intake and weight loss (study). Like I said it’s complicated but it does appear that by exercising and increasing protein intake that you can increase fat loss while minimising muscle loss which is why high protein is still good (study). Hopefully that makes sense!

To your second question, it more depends on what diet you can stick to rather than the ratio of carbs, fat, protein in the diet. This is explained in more detail in our article under “Weight Loss and Weight Gain”

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My understanding of protein is that many people in the west consume too much protein, unless you are a vegan in which case you don’t get any (according to my mate Billy Bacon quiz team captain).

Too much protein and not drinking enough water (beer doesn’t count) can put a strain on our kidneys which struggle to remove the excess waste. When I used to consume more protein powder, I was alerted to the fact that it wasn’t really a good idea, although some sources say it is only detrimental to those with impaired kidney function. [I don’t know how someone in early stages of kidney disease etc. identifies that however.]

I am not an expert on nutrition, I just pick up what I think is useful for a long term vegan, but would you recommend that the average non-sporty type, stick to regular Huel unless they are building it into a fitness regime? I mean there are a lot of Huel users out there now using it to as a weight loss tool, and probably they are the people who are overweight in part because they don’t exercise much (as well as eating too much).

An average sedentary man doesn’t need more than about 60g protein a day, yet 2 meal of Black takes them over that and if they used it for their 2000cals over 3 times.

The reading material on Huel Black talk about the ingredients and it being higher protein, high fibre and lower carb, but don’t really go beyond that to the new user (or me).

I haven’t had time to read the links yet, but will do.

Just wondered what your thoughts on it are.

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This is correct most people consume more than the RDA. The RDA is a minimum requirement.

We used to think this was the case for protein, we now know this is not true. We have a section called “high protein intake concerns” that covers this here.

It completely depends on the individual. Some people fair better with more carbs, some with more veg and some with less fat. Huel Black Edition offers variety and flexibility.

This is true that they will have a hit the RDA. However, there are benefits of consuming more protein, you can feel fuller and it helps to build tissue for example.

The key takeaway is from a nutritional point of view both v3.0 and Black Edition are nutritionally complete, that’s the point of Huel. If there’s something that wasn’t quite right with v3.0 such as you don’t want to consume artificial sweeteners Black Edition should have covered most of these queries.

If you love the core Powders there’s no reason to switch - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

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Will Huel Black edition be available in UU?

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Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

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If person A had 2000 calories of Huel Black a day and Person B bad 2000 calories of Huel White a day, how would the outcomes be different?

Assuming everything else was identical?

What if they were both weight training? Would the person having the higher protein Huel Black gain more muscle?

What if neither were exercising? Would the person on Huel White gain more fat due to the extra carbs?

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It 100% depends on what the ‘everything else’ is.

If the rest of their diet was meat, then the person consuming Huel ‘white’ would probably be healthier. If the rest of the diet was carbs and no protein and they did lots of exercise then the person consuming Huel Black would probably improve their athletic performance more.

You’re asking an impossible question.
There are far to many variables.

The main difference between the two products is one has higher protein and lower carbs than the other. Huel is just food so you are really asking a bizarre question: it’s like saying ‘if I have toast and eggs for breakfast every day and my twin brother has just eggs, who will be better assuming everything else is identical’ but you’ve not given any info on what else you’re eating.

I understand you’re trying to work out which product is ‘best’ but there is no ‘best’ they are different. So the ideal product is dependent on whether you feel the part of your personal diet that you are filling with Huel, requires more carbs or more proteins.

Maybe you could post a bit about yourself: age, height, weight, exercise regime, whether you are active or sedentary during the day, what your goals are (weight gain or loss, improve athletic performance, weight train, improve general health or a specific problem etc) and when you eat Huel and how much, and what else you eat.
There are some pretty knowledgeable Huellers - they may be able to help you pick the better product for you personally :slight_smile:

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I think “everything else” meant everything that isn’t food. The question is, if someone eats only Huel, which Huel is best? What about if they’re dieting? What about if they’re trying to gain weight?

I’ve eaten 100% Huel the last three days and will do so most days for the next few months, so this question interests me. I’m eating 1500 calories of Huel and nothing else, and not exercising particularly.

This is the part that I struggle to understand. All Huel products are nutritionally complete, but they’re all nutritionally different. Isn’t that a contradiction?

I think it isn’t a contradiction, but I don’t understand why.

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Yes, that’s right. Everything else that isn’t food. They are only having Huel.

This is the part that I struggle to understand. All Huel products are nutritionally complete, but they’re all nutritionally different. Isn’t that a contradiction?

I think what they mean is that Huel has 100% of the recommended daily amounts for everything, plus they’ve whacked a whole lot of extra stuff in.

So if you had the daily recommended amount of Huel, you’d get a complete amount of vitamin d3, protein, etc for the day, plus an extra XX grams for protein.

So my question remains, which would be “better”, or rather what would be the difference between, a diet of 100 percent Huel White or a diet of 100 percent Huel Black?

Do those extra carbs/protein make a difference? Or doesn’t it matter if the total amount of calories are the same?

The Calories In, Calories Out crowd will tell you that it doesn’t matter if you eat 2,000 calories of sugar a day or 2,000 calories of steamed veg a day, the result will be the same in terms of weight loss/gain.

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Huel is just food so you are really asking a bizarre question

That’s quite a bold claim!

Are you saying it doesn’t make any difference what the food (or Huel in this case) is, or what it’s nutritional breakdown is?

If someone ate 148g of protein a day (Huel White) and their identical twin ate 200g of protein a day (Huel Black) there would be no difference?

I didn’t realise you meant 100% Huel diet

Personally… I think if you wanna go 100% Huel then Huel white is much more balanced unless for some health reason you need to reduce carb intake or avoid oats…

Right I see.

What might those health reasons be?

That’s what I’m asking really. What would be the difference between going 100% Huel White and 100% Huel Black?

When would one be more beneficial over the other?

What is the person was doing lots of exercise? Would more protein help with recovery?

What if they were doing weight lifting as that exercise?

Or what if they were doing long endurance runs as that exercise?

What if they were already overweight and wanted to lose fat. Would less carbs help?

Just wondering what the pros and cons of Black vs White are.

Or maybe Black is only higher in protein/lower in carbs as a side effect of not having oats in and they had to bulk it out with something else to make up the calories and that something else happened to be higher in protein/carbs?

But for some reason, I got the idea that the lower carbs/higher protein was intentional. But maybe I’m wrong?

[quote=“5kg2go, post:13, topic:16365, full:true”]So my question remains, which would be “better”, or rather what would be the difference between, a diet of 100 percent Huel White or a diet of 100 percent Huel Black?
[/quote]

Normal v3 Huel already has a lot of protein and if I’d consume only Huel then I would completely shoot over my protein needs by a big margin. I lift 2-3 a times week combined with a massive amount of bodyweight exercises.
A diet extremely high in protein, like Huel Black, is something that some people might want to consume for a few weeks or months for different reasons. Meanwhile in the long term, that is not considered a balanced diet. Not all carbohydrates are sugars, carbohydrates are not bad for you, on the contrary, good carbs like the ones you get from oats are very healthy.

I would eat Huel Black on some rare days when I haven’t had anything with protein in it for a meal. I will order Huel Black but Huel White will be the staple of my diet.

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Yeah you’re right. It was the most requested product: a low carb version of Huel.

For whatever reason, some people wanted high protein low carbs. Some of the reasons were:
-Wanting to be able to modify it to fit a keto diet
-Wanting Huel to fulfil all their protein needs so the rest of their diet could be carbs only
-Wanting a post-weight lifting shake to help build muscle (altho some prefer carbs as well to speed recovery)

I could be wrong but I don’t think anyone was requesting it so they could use it for 100% of their diet. Most nutritionists agree that carbs are an important part of the diet.
I think the idea of Huel black is to give more flexibility around your macros so you can choose one to fit in with the rest of your diet.
If you don’t have any specific reason to avoid carbs or oats then why not just go with Huel white?

I’ll let @Dan_Huel or someone more knowledgeable answer each of your specific questions, but most people benefit from a diet rich in both carbs and proteins so if you’re planning to go 100% Huel and don’t have any reason to want to avoid carbs, then Huel white makes sense. As for the ‘why’… again I’ll let the nutritionists answer this as it sounds like you want a scientific answer. Or do some reading on nutrition - there’s loads of good articles on the Huel website and the good old World Wide Web that have a wealth of info in balancing your diet and the specific functions that carbs, proteins, and fats perform in your body.
Human biology is fascinating!

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Thanks.

One reason I was considering Huel Black is to see whether my body can digest it better than the White.

I don’t get on with the White well enough to have it long term or every day. Although I’m trying v3 now so will see if that’s better.

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Ah ok I see. It’s a shame you can’t order one bag of each and test both!

When you didn’t get on with the previous version did you use it for 100% of your diet?
I’m wondering if you used it for just 50% and built up to that slowly, maybe you would be ok? You might then be able to use it long term without issues.
I’ve not had any problems with any version so far, but very rarely have 100% Huel - maybe once a month. I’ve never tried to do more than 50% Huel every day.
It could simply be too much fibre for you?