Jack's Journey - Using Huel to replace breakfast or lunch

Experiences
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Bit of background for you -

I play futsal/football twice a week, gym 4/5 times a week and would consider myself fairly active. I have always struggled with weight/fitness but over the past 1.5 years I have seen huge improvements; largely due to dietary and nutritional changes. I weighed 98kg in January 2014, and now weight a slightly more respectable 82kg. I have dropped a lot of body fat and in general my strength has improved, going from a 50kg 1RM bench press to 80kg 1RM; and now able to complete a whole game of football without feeling like my lungs are in hell.

HOWEVER! I am a total foodie and unfortunately have a penchant for all foods wonderful/fattening/indulgent. I am not quite able to take my fat loss into the next dimension, and a large reason behind me seeing if Huel could work for me is if i can provide a decent nutritious meal for myself at low cost and minimum effort during my busy day, and then enjoy fairly healthy foods midweek and let loose a bit on weekends then I could transcend into the next level that I am after.

My plan is to use Huel to replace 1 meal per day, either breakfast or lunch, for 4/5 days of the week (most of the working week). A typical week would look like this -

Mon - Protein shake, Huel after gym, dinner
Tues - Protein shake, Huel after gym, dinner
Weds - Protein shake, sandwich, Huel
Thurs - Huel, sandwich, dinner
Fri - Protein shake, Huel, dinner

The thing is I love to cook and I wouldn’t ever want to replace solid food, however in a rush, after football late evenings etc I can see it being a good way to keep satiated and to keep from a frozen pizza or some other rushed and unhealthy dinner.

I receive my parcel today, complete with shaker and t shirt. The products look great, from a design point of view it’s a terrific looking brand! Seriously good design team at work here. Let’s hope it stands up to the test…

I had a 1 scoop taster (as I had already had a sandwich), and it was better than expected. I’ve had Hurricane MyProtein before which is quite oaty, so the texture although it had bits in was very smooth; didn’t get any lumps (although I will see how this goes when I have 3/4 scoops).

The overall taste was good. When I say good, I mean inoffensive, neutral without being bland, and had a very pleasant oaty/vanilla aftertaste. It was like a nice version of cold liquid porridge.

The only downside would be that some of the bits worked their way into gaps in my teeth, however this was resolved easily with a swish of water.

Tomorrow I’m off for a big lunch time gym session so will check back in with thoughts on a 3/4 scoop portion (probably accompanied by 2x tuna nigri from Wasabi as I just love those at the moment!)

Questions -
How much protein in a 3/4 scoop portion?
Can I mix my protein powder with it if there isn’t enough?
Best recipes for using as a flour?

2 Likes
2

Hi @Jack great to hear from you.

Sorry for the late reply.

Here are the answers:

  1. One level scoop is 38 grams, so in 75% of a scoop there is 28.5g of Huel. 30% of Huel is protein, and 30% of 28.5g is 8.55g of protein.

  2. There is 150g of protein in 2000 cals of Huel, which is plenty for everyone useless you are a professional bodybuilder. So there is no need to add more protein, but you can add protein powder if you like.

  3. You will find recipes here: http://huel.me/pages/how-to-use-huel for pancakes, cookies, and biscuits.

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Hi Julian,

Thanks for that.

I’ve so far been using Huel for breakfast (1x scoop with 1x scoop of protein powder), and then again for lunch (same again).

I have a sandwich as well for lunch and then a regular meal in the evening.

I’ve lost around 3kg in 2 weeks which is great news, no energy deficiency, no lethargy and if anything more focus and drive in the gym. Resistance training 2/3 times a week, cardio 2/3 times a week, so pretty active, but Huel is definitely filling me up and giving me the right nutrients to aid fat loss and maintain muscle mass/growth.

I feel slimmer, I am really enjoying being full for a meal and as a result I am eating/gorging less in the evenings whilst still getting all the nutrients I need.

Absolutely fantastic product, can’t wait to order the 2nd load.

I’ll update again in a few more weeks.

2 Likes
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That is brilliant news! Please keep that sort of feedback coming, it’s just what need to keep us going through the tough times. :smile:

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Just to let you know I’m down to 77kg, 5kg in 4 weeks! Combined with 3x football sessions a week and 3 resistance training sessions.

Really, really, amazing product.

I have it solely for breakfast now, and then with lunch and a small chicken salad.

All the while cheating at weekends with beer, pizza, and whatever I fancy!

2 Likes
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@jack thank you for the update, great news on the progress, congrats!

You use Huel pretty similar to me. Breakfast and lunch are Huel, traditional food family meal, then a snack of Huel in the evening. Then at the weekend eating out with friends, or a take away curry and beers. Still have Huel in the day time of course.

1 Like
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Hi @Jack hope you don’t mind if I use some of your post on twitter/fb? Thanks! :slight_smile:

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I made vegan pancakes with Huel in them as well they are great.