I have just placed my first order of huel and looking forward to trying it out but i have a bit of a dilemma. I currently work 12 hour shifts consisting of days and nights, the day shifts will be a doddle for huel but when transitioning to the night shift i often will be up from say 11-12 in the morning all the way through till 7am the next day and i need to eat during the night.
This is obviously going to mess up my numbers and i’m not very good with macro’s, i am wondering if anyone knows how many portions of huel i should eat during that time? Also i will be asleep from 7am untill 1-2pm the next day.
Does anyone else do similar shiftfs? Any help/advice on this will be great.
For ease lets say i will do a 100% fuel diet, i will then adjust if i decide to add an evening meal in but i doubt it as i don’t like eating big meals at night anyway, thanks.
I’m interested in replies to this as I mainly work 14hr night shifts with the odd day thrown in. I’ve just ordered my first bag of Huel because, like you maybe, when I’ve been awake for a long time I find myself grabbing biscuits to keep going.
My sleep patterns are so irregular I find it difficult to keep on top of my calorie intake per 24 HR period. And when I get home often my stomach doesn’t know whether it wants breakfast, lunch or dinner. Which ends up being irrelevant because by the time I’ve walked the dog I’m too tired to cook, let alone work out a nutritionally balanced meal plan. So I just eat more rubbish.
For what it’s worth, my thinking was that I would just work out 24 hrs worth of Huel, and give myself from, say, 9am on one day until 9am the next day to consume it. Then just fit that in around whenever I end up sleeping.
Currently when i am on day shifts i just eat as normal 3-4 meals per day usually consisting of museli for breakfast, a protein shake at around 9:30am chicken and vegetables at 12:00, a snack mid afternoon then dinner in the evening and try not to eat after 7pm as i feel it stays on the stomach.
However when i go into a night shift i find i am eating my usual meals and then having to continue to eat throughout the night, so in addition to the above minus the breakfast ofc i will eat a snack at 9pm then another full meal at 12pm and another full meal at 4am then go to bed when i get in at 7am, so i am effectivly eating an additional 2 meals on these days and a snack, if i convert that to huel consumption its a 96g portion at 12am and another 96g at 4pm with the 9pm snack. But my point is how does this affect my nutrients because i’m then going to sleep from 7am untill 2-3pm before getting up for work.
Those who work nights know that even though you think you just switch it round it never works out the same as during the day.
My shift pattern is 3 days on, 3 off, 3 nights, 2 off, 3 days on, 3 off, 3 nights, 8 off, repeat.
Anyone any ideas how much extra huel i should take during that first night?
Huel on shifts is really no different to solid food on shifts. That transition day can be a long one. I would simply consume Huel as you will be consuming it ongoing on your night shift. Let’s say you’re consuming Huel at these times:
9.30am
12 noon
3.30pm
6.30pm
On that day have the above then continue with:
10.00pm
1.30am
5.00am
Then sleep and continue with:
3.30pm
etc
Your energy expenditure will be higher as you’re not sleeping. On that day coming off nights onto 2 days off, you’ll probably only consume 2-3 servings of Huel.
Does that make sense?
I wouldn’t go straight into 100% Huel, I’d phase it in one meal at a time every 2-3 days.
Thanks for the reply, i think i will start by phasing it one meal at a time as you say, 100% huel straight off the bat might be a bit too much of a shock to the system
Hi guys. Thought I’d throw in my two cents here, working similar shifts.
I work varying degrees of severity, but let’s focus on the busiest parts of the year, at 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. These are easy! I just make sure I consume a good sized meal/Huel every 3-4 hours.
The on/off shift system is where I used to get confused, too. 00:00 - 07:00 and 12:00 - 19:00 in the same 24 hour period, 7 days a week. Your mind starts to play tricks on you, so it’s sometimes beneficial to make a note of when you eat something… anything! If you still work it like a normal day, but obviously a lot shorter and happening twice per 24 hours rather than once: breakfast at get-up; brunch snack; lunch midway; afternoon snack; dinner; bed. Rinse repeat. On the transition day, just continue as normal as if you’d just woken up.
@Nathan_Wright - phasing is definitely recommended. Without giving too much away, you’ll get to know your bathroom like the back of your hand… I’m two weeks in and I’m comfortably having 2-3 shakes per day and 2 meals, along with healthy snacks, and no ‘problems’ so far.
Awesome advice there @Blenks, definately going go phase the meals in, i’m still wondering where my huel is mind you, i ordered it on saturday thought it would come today, guessing it will be here tmrw
On the site they’ve said that they’ve received a lot of orders over the holiday period. I’d imagine they’ve got a big backlog to clear. I am expecting a few days delay.
@Blenks is right, we’ve received a lot of orders over the christmas period. But it’s also that our fulfillment company was closed up until today for the holiday break. They are fantastic, but they have over a weeks worth of orders, so it’ll take a few days to clear the backlog.
Sorry about this. We will get back to next day delivery very soon though.
So i am currently on the nightshift and thought i would share my thoughts on huel,
I woke up at around 12:30pm and made myself a 122gram huel shake which i sipped at for around 1-1 1/2 hours untill it was gone, at 17:00pm i made myself a jacket potato and some beans with some cheese so that i had at least some solid in me for a while before heading to work at 18:00pm with my two huel shakes ready for suring the night shift.
In between my potato and huel shake i drank a reasonable amount of water and had at least one cup of tea, i then had half of my first shake at around 21:00pm and the other half of the first one at 22:30pm which so far kept me pretty full, i did start to get a little hungry around 1am so i had half of my second shake then.
I am just about to have the last half of my shake at 3:15am and will most likely not eat again now untill i get up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
So totals for the day are 3 122gram shakes totalling 1491 calories and one meal of jacket potato cheese and beans i worked out to be around 600 calories, so i did go slightly over my 2000 calorie goal.
It is worth noting that today is my first day on huel, and even though i have jumped straight in on 3 shakes (mainly because i had nothing in as haven’t been shopping) i haven’t really felt like i have starved myself, nor have i had any cravings for junk food at any point which is great as usually when i try something like this i end up with a snack thrown in.
Sipping away at the huel every few hours i feel really helps keep those cravings away and maintain fullness and probably has some benfits on metabolism too, so i recommend spreading the huel out rather than gulping it all in one go.
The huel tastes lovely, i love the vanilla flavouring and although it tastes slightly grainy it wasn’t hard to swallow and didn’t cause any gag reflex!! Great job @JamesCollier@Julian and the team at huel.
I will keep feeding back as the days go on, cheers
Oh, almost forgot, i never recieved a T shirt or shaker with my first or second order and also i appear to not have a scoop either, i guess it might be due to the large christmas backlog, any chance of getting them sent out at some point or with my next order? Cheers lads.
How are you getting on now you’re a few days in? I’m getting to the point where I don’t quite feel ‘right’ late morning if I haven’t had my Huel… I’m going skiing soon and at the top of my packing list is “1x pack Huel”!
Hi, ive just finished my first full pack of huel and wow what a difference!!!
I felt energised and full even though i was only having huel up until my evening meal, the taste is lovely, i an eating the right nutrition and i’m pretty sure ive loat a bit of weight, i don’t have scales but my clothes feel a little looser around the waist.
Huel is fantastic for the night shifts as it isn’t too heavy for your body to be having late and throughout the night, fantastic product.
I blend 122grams with 500ml of water and have two per day, the flavour might get boring after a few weeks but i can try the flavour sachets then, great product!!!
