My first experience with Huel

Experiences
1

Hi forum, sharing my experience with Huel.

A friend of mine mentioned that his colleague was into Huel. I always saw the ads and sort of dismissed it, as I assumed it was some kind of gym oriented protein powder - but having taken a look as he mentioned it, I realised it was a more general food / everyday product. I decided as I have always struggled with anxiety (particularly in and around eating and feeling uneasy after) that this would be an excellent solution for when I either forget to think about or plan meals, or I’m out far from home (times when anxiety strikes and the last thing I want to to is eat to avoid feeling uneasy). I’m a pretty thin guy as well, so I could most certainly be doing with gaining or at least continuing to maintain my weight.

The products seem to tick all boxes: affordable, handy, healthy and balanced and as far as I can tell, other than the socialising / joy of cooking and eating traditional food, no down sides. I made an order last week for a few RTD bottles, the Madras hot and savoury and the standard Huel 3.0 bag and one of the bars to try (more just to try). I actually since last Friday have tried the RTD vanilla, banana, berry and I have the coffee one to try still. They are a lot nicer and easier to drink than I expected, though they are thick. But I enjoy having them. The hot and savoury is nice as well, someone described it as a healthy Pot Noodle and I think that / soup fits that product best. Quite keen to try the other flavours over time.

My plan is to make a drink for breakfast in the morning, then for lunch have a hot and savoury. And to continue to eat veg / meat side of proper food for dinner. This also had me more curious about the whole vegan / plant based thing - I bought a few of these kinds of products last week at Tesco and so far they’re not bad either.

I am really hopeful this will help me eat more often, better and have less side effects around feeling uneasy after eating when out, without letting myself get too starved or under nourished leading to its own negative effects. I will find out in the long run I suppose, I plan to subscribe and continue to get the powder bags and hot and savoury. Can anyone recommend another good flavour to try?

Has anyone else had any positive experiences with the same kind of issues / hope in Huel to help overcome them as a key part of their plan?

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Hope Huel works well for you sb, sounds like you’re off to a very good start. I’ve always had a fairly disordered relationship with food and so the main appeal of Huel is its simplicity. It feels good to have things under control with the precise measurements and the reassurance of knowing the bases are getting covered. Convenience isn’t just for the time-poor but also for those who really really don’t want to make choices about food, or to prepare food, for any number of reasons. Good luck!

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Welcome to the forum @sb-huel :tada: and thanks for sharing your experience. We have quite a few customers in the same situation, I look forward to keeping up with your Huel journey and how you get on :heart:

My favourite powder is Banana v.30 it tastes like a fresh banana, I’m also a big fan of Cinnamon Swirl Black Edition.

As for Hot & Savoury I don’t think I can recommend the Pasta Bolognese enough :heart_eyes: I have it everyday and adding a splash of truffle olive oil is heaven, I also like this combo in the Chick’n & Mushroom.

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That’s true! The control is great. So two scoops = 400 calories, is it heard of to have three scoops = 600 calories if, the odd time, I replace dinner with Huel when travelling etc?

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I like the sound of cinnamon swirl! But the Black Edition is more gym / protein, is that right? Can’t wait to try the other hot’n’savoury flavours. I am loving the Madras, it is perfect in flavour and kick and texture when mixed right with water to not be too thin. The only issue I’m having personally, as much as I LOVE spicy food like this, it might be part of why I feel so bad after eating at times - as I think a lot of intense spice might be impacting my insides / making it sensitive or something like that. So I’m looking forward to trying some non spicy ones when the Madras runs out. I’ll give those a go.

It’s so hard to believe that these are as healthy as they are, they have the convenience and appeal of a Pot Noodle but without the insane salt / nutritional emptiness. No matter how healthy I’ve ate in the past, I was never able to cut those out but now I have a healthy alternative :slight_smile: Very happy one week in

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2 scoops is just a guide for people who have lots of little meals. You can have however much you want, and indeed, it’s reasonable to assume a 200cm tall active person will have more food than a 150cm tall non active person. And if you use scales, or just eyeball half a scoop or something, there’s no particular reason why you need to stick to the scoops either.

If I am replacing dinner with Huel, it’ll partly depend on what else I’ve eaten that day, but it’ll be at least 4 scoops…

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Depends on how much protein you want, and the rest of your diet. A lot of people use the black version if the don’t get enough protein in the rest of their diet, or they just find protein more filling. Or if you want low carb or whatever. Or they just prefer the taste (less oaty).

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I thought the black was always for people who care about GAINS but recently I tried some and found it more filling (the extra protein) and smoother texture (no oats) so I’ve switched over. The flavours are great too.

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I’m all out of the Madras stuff - I forgot to keep count, but for some reason in my head I thought it had 17 meals per bag, but it is only 7. It felt like more than 7. But I loved that, and it was easy to skip the usual McDonald’s pound saver combo on the way home at night, as I actually was so keen to get home and get more of that Madras stuff! However, I noticed, the spice definitely reacts with me. That’s possibly also an issue I’ve had in my former normal diet as I tended to favour high spice Indian curries etc. Still got the vanilla powder, and though it’s different to the RTD, I’m used to the little powder clusters now and used to drinking it slightly cold or more closer to room temperature.

Initially first thing in the morning it was a bit hard to stomach / due to how thick it is. However, I noticed, the flexibility makes up for this. I simply took it with me, got up, got ready, went into the office etc, and once settled around 9.30-10 the hunger feeling came back, so I drank the remaining stuff slowly across the morning. I think this actually suits me as someone who was decent at making myself have breakfast, but not always enjoying it. Now I have a steady little flow of energy and those at-desk cravings / hunger taken care of. Very happy about that. One of my issues was anxiety / eating. Well now, I can have this at hand wherever, get difficult things like meetings out of the way but then have nutrition straight after.

I think for my next order I’m going to go for two Huel 3.1 powder bags: cinnamon swirl and coffee. I like how cheap this is and how flexible it is. At some stage, I might try the Black Edition, but for now I’ll at least try the flavours of the powder I’m interested in. Once I’m confident in what I want I’ll setup the recurring order.

I want to continue the Hot & Savoury as well for variety / a little more feeling like I am eating something physical - yet not compromising with my former options which were either high salt / sugar tins or sachet based savoury lunch meals. At least these have the blend of nutrients, regardless of flavour, right? I think I’ll go for the Mac and Cheese, then the Cajun Pasta with this. And switch between them, again for variety. With lunch, as I said, it was (now costlier and less likely to be on offer) sachets - tasty, but high in salt and not sustainable or filling as such either, or the likes of noodles which aren’t very nutritious or filling and usually also high in salt. They also left me feeling hungry again before dinner time / end of the work day. So I’m very happy with the H&S and how easy it is to prepare without the compromise in being good health wise. I’m hoping these other flavours will be as tasty as the Madras was.

This is looking like it’ll come to £90 next time. If I’m to keep that up monthly, it will be costly. I need to justify it. This week’s grocery shop was much simpler - four dinner items / veg side. Some of which I can maybe stretch into two days.

I have noticed that my digestion in general has been better. Not that I was diagnosed with anything (though often given tablets like omeprazole etc). It was a bit of a chicken and egg phenomena with me, where the issue is: is it my anxiety making my stomach / digestion rough, or vice versa? Well with this, I’m going about my day confident I have enough energy in the morning and from lunch til dinner time. Not worried about whether I’ll be able to stomach those meals, or worrying about things like buying it in, or best before dates as such… the practicality is as much if not more than promised in the marketing.

Something I noticed last week was come 5pm, previously I was pretty hungry and hangry most days. A little tense / not a nice person to be around some days… Until I got home and cooked, and ate and then some time for it all to settle. It wasn’t great. But with this last two weeks, I notice that I’m still energetic and, whilst having a healthy appetite / hunger, I feel less in a rush, less irate and just about ready for dinner. Thankfully too, dinner has been going down a bit better.

I think that my irregular eating before, high focus on spicy meals and missing the odd day due to forgetting to buy something in, or missing an ingredient, or best before dates passing… I was definitely failing myself and letting myself miss out on some kind of nutrient or category of nutrient. Maybe even just plain not enough energy, yet working all day etc. If anything, the easiness and consistency of having Huel twice a day has given me a solid foundation that before wasn’t there.

One word of warning though, I noticed that with this being a very healthy, low sugar sort of diet, it’s easy for me to forget to have something sugary. Yesterday I felt pretty tired / rundown after dinner. Until I drank a sugary drink, but then I felt totally fine. For me, slowly cutting down on this until I adapt will be key. Something anyone reading this in the future should think about.

Overall, I am so happy with how my first order has went and I think I’ll definitely keep it going. I can’t imagine the long term benefits of the nutrition. I feel like it’s now easy to do a good job of making sure I’m eating enough and the right kind of things. If you people want to keep hearing my experience I’ll keep posting, or maybe just start a new thread down the line about specific products or experiences - whichever fits the forum best.

Thanks everyone for their replies as well! :slight_smile: Great community here, love to see it

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10

It’s so great to hear that Huel has helped in this aspect as we understand this can be a huge obstacle :pray:

If you decide to give them a go please let us know what you think!

Great idea! :raised_hands: please continue to share your journey we love being a part of it!

you guys are THE BEST! :star:

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Just ordered the coffee and cinnamon swirl Powder 3.0 bags this morning! Can’t wait to try them. Cinnamon swirl for breakfast then the coffee one for lunch maybe.

I’m holding off on the H&S as they don’t last as long as I assumed but I am planning to try them too in the near future or my next order

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So I got my package today. Just tried the coffee tonight, it’s not my favourite… it tastes very like the vending machine coffee at work. I could see how some people are into that taste, but I think it’ll be a struggle to drink. The RTD caramel coffee was totally different and sort of what I was expecting! Hopefully the cinnamon swirl will be nice so I can alternate between the two, too expensive to waste!

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Sorry to hear you weren’t a fan, if you enjoyed the Coffee Caramel RTD you might be pleased to hear we are changing our v3.0 Coffee powder to Coffee Caramel v3.1! Cinnamon Swirl is one of my favourite flavours across all ranges so I really hope you enjoy it.

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Hi, yeah it’s hard to stick / not my personal coffee taste. I think I will possibly give the new one a go - I got the email yesterday.

Drinking the Cinnamon Swirl now / this morning and it is beautiful. Though like flavoured coffees, probably not something I’d have everyday but very nice and the right intensity / balance.

I don’t suppose there’s a way to return the coffee one? I wouldn’t ask only I think I seen someone complain either on here or under one of your Facebook posts for a response to mention about possibly returning, or does that only apply if there is an actual issue with the product quality? It definitely is fine quality, it’s just that it’s not my taste and it’ll be a struggle to get my money’s worth from the 16 remaining portions! lol

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I’m glad you enjoyed it! plus variety is the spice of life!

If you send over your order number to team@huel.com the customer experience team can see what they can do to help you with this :slightly_smiling_face:

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I sent them an email last week, they have sorted me out over the weekend. I am very impressed, I did not expect them to go above and beyond with the solution they provided. The service is as high quality as the product! Looking forward to placing my next order, it will be a little bigger now!

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I’m very pleased to hear it, the team is really great if I do say so myself :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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so will their heads with that praise.

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I know! I felt a little weird being that positive in my response but they genuinely did do twice what I imagined they might. I thought they’d probably tell me because it’s opened and non returnable that they couldn’t help. But they did :slight_smile:

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I can only speak for mine personally and I now look like Arnold from Hey Arnold.