My story so far, Newbie

Experiences
1

Hi folks, i am 58 and always been fit-ish,
An ex-service man who works offshore, and since I was about 45 iv been putting on weight, and according to my doctor the fittest fat bloke he knows, as iv always been able to carry it. My BMI has been gradually increasing over the years and I’m now at the point because of it I couldn’t get a medical, (Over 40 bmi and that’s it no joy, no medical). Id like to blame Lock down but in the End its me putting food in my mouth with little to no discipline. We All love a biscuit, or in my case a packet of them.

I’ve tried all sorts of dieting in the past and even Juicing, (which worked temporarily, and I did lose some weight), but it was a chore to keep up and hideously wasteful, messy and expensive for what the end result is. Two expensive machines and a field full of carrots and greens. Juiced red cabbage should be placed on the Human rights list as a serious offence to mankind. Uughh foul.

So, about the middle of last year I was told about Huel and thought I would look into that and never bothered, (huge mistake) thinking I could carry on swimming my way to a health body weight, (wrong). Since this second major lock down and my local pool being shut, I thought I’d give this ago
I swim 5 times a week normally Monday thru Friday, my 45min session I try to complete 2000m and usually get between 1800 and 1950 depending on who I’m sharing the lane with, everyone swims at different speeds. Eg. 25m pool Freestyle.

So, I’m a week into my Huel Diet, I went on to an online calorie calculator and put my details in. And below is what it spat out.(2528Kcals) I had tried the, “My fitness pro” way and everything id eat I have to put thru the App and found that a chore, Just too just too much work, What appealed to me was that Huel was the scoops each scoop was roughly 200kCals, WOW, how easy is that, No brainer, let’s hope I like what’s on offer, Id tried Slim fast so eating powders wasn’t an issue, id had protein powders my entire civilian life so what’s the difference id thought. In for a penny so to speak. So I chose to go extreme and go for the 1600kcals or less

With the information my plan was formed, plus a few videos from You tube about people who had given it a go. I was determined I could do better than before and see how far I could get. So, armed with information at hand I decided to make my 1600 kcals a day (8 scoops). My goal. The BMR is for a sedimentary lifestyle with zero exercise.
So, what’s the mission.
Mission:- To do 1 Month purely on Huel and lose as much weight as possible.
To do 1 Month purely on Huel and lose as much weight as possible.

Well, I’m 1 Week into my mission and discovering what I like and don’t like about the different flavours of the brand, some are ok, and others are what I’d call a taste sensation and is like taking medicine, An Absolute belter has been the introduction of the hot meals, I was a day late to that party, and I’m currently working my way through the range. One meal at a time and mixing and matching too. So now it feels like I am actually having an evening meal and sticking to my calorific intake and scoops. It’s such a No brainer.
Iv even been mixing and matching one scoop of each. I’ve not been using any scales and attempting to just use the measuring method prescribed by Huel. That may or may not come later.

So, what about any other things iv put thru my digestive system, I’m drinking my coffee black, my tea is either green or with as little milk as possible in my English breakfast, Tetley. I haven’t upped my water intake, but I probably should. Other than that, I’ve been ridged in my mission.

Iv lost 8.3 lbs in 7 days. Which is more than lightly due to shocking the system and that will slow down over the next week and weeks.

my routine is:-

Breakfast:-07:00- 0900,Snack:- 10:00 -12:00, Lunch-: 12:00-13:30, Snack-14:00-15:30,

Evening meal:-1700-19:00, Snack:-20:00-23:30.

I pretty much stick to these meal times if i miss it tough luck, iv missed it.

I split the 1600 Kcals -8 scoops through these meal times, lunch and evening meal ill have 2 scoops in one go and only one scoop for the snacks, So I’m permanently in a calorific deficit.

Have i found it hard? Well no not really iv only felt hungry a couple of times, and then ill just have to wait usually an hour or 30 mins to my next feeding session and that normally does me until the next meal time. Im tracking everything in notes on my phone as thats always within arms reach.

i hope you enjoy my story so far.

Phill

5 Likes
2

Hey Phil, welcome to the forum and thanks so much for letting us learn a little about you and your experience so far, it’s been really interesting to read this.

Lockdown has been hard for a lot of people and your situation isn’t uncommon at all, I don’t mean this in a harsh way, simply that you are not less resilient or less disciplined than the rest - you’re human :blush: so don’t be too harsh on yourself, but also it sounds like you’re using this as a really positive motivation to make yourself healthier and that’s awesome!

As you may have, or probably will read we don’t recommend going 100% Huel and it sounds like you have found out why. It’s not really that maintainable. Similar to your juicing, we need to make habits we can stick to - lifestyle change, not short term quick fix solutions. Huel should make up part of a healthy lifestyle you can maintain, as opposed to a quick month of dieting and then back to old habits. Huel is good, nutritious food, not a magic solution.

I am totally with you on the calorie counting, I’ve not tried it in a long time. I have Huel for breakfast and lunch and a traditional cooked dinner like you and even the thought of measuring my dinner puts me off the idea. I would be interested to know, but I can’t be bothered to do the weighing. Huel makes this so much easier to have a pretty good guess at your calorie intake, so thank goodness for that! Obviously, to properly measure that you’re in calorie deficit you need to do this to be sure, but hopefully we’re making that a little easier for you!

Remember that initially you will experience a drop in body weight from water loss. Your weight will likely go back up briefly, but don’t be disheartened, it’s the progress over the months that count, not the fluctuations of the days and weeks.

What is your 1600 calories a day based on? Was the 2500kcal your recommended intake to maintain your weight with or without exercise? Listen to your body, and if this is too hard to maintain, you can always increase calories slightly and still be in a calorie deficit.

All the best to you! Keep us posted! What Huel are you enjoying at the moment?

1 Like
3

Hi Tim thanks for the reply.

The calorific intake was calculated by an online calory counter based on my figures it asked for, Age, weight, hight etc. and the numbers it spat out are what I’m using.

It gave me my BMR (2106) and a few others and since I’m on lock down and the only exercise I’m getting is walking the dog, I chose the closest to my current lifestyle.

This was (2528), and I then chose 1600 kcals to lose weight,

I was initially going to do the hole month on the powders and see how I got on, then stumbled across the meal replacement Hot food, Wow, all I can say, its game on, what a

A game changer, I’m using it as a soup, as its more palatable for me in that form. Its so easy just to count scoops brilliant.

To easy your mind I don’t see this as a long-term solution but as a kick start, and moving forward I will adjust the diet as I go. But for now it’s working, losing the dairy and sugar has been the biggest and hardest

Thing to get over. I do use condiments like Lea and Perrins sauce and Franks Hot sauce to flavour my soups, so it’s not an issue the taste anymore.

Thanks for getting in touch

Phill

2 Likes
4

Ex stag monkey myself although I rarely admit it.

If your stomach can handle it then crack on. Many people find it just doesn’t work for them.

Back when I needed to lose weight I was doing 4 weeks on 100% huel, 2 weeks huel+traditional food. Found Thats to be workable for me, but your mileage may vary.

Best calc I found was https://tdeecalculator.net/

I tried to do the macho 1500 deficit thing. Then I went for the 1000 deficit. That wasn’t much fun.

Settled for the long term game, 500 deficit. I’m now back to tiptop shape. But whatever you do, just make sure that it’s something you can do sustainably. This transformation of bodies, through Huel, can’t just be a random physical thing. Your mind has to follow.

Hope it all works for you as well as it did for me - it’s not just weight loss when using it like this, general better sense of self.

1 Like
5

Hi
Iv been on my diet for 3 weeks now and iv lost 7.7kg- 16.9lbs mainly eating HUEL, iv cheated a little by having some toast with my hot and savoury evening meal.( max two slices) does any one know how many cals in a slice of bread?.
my fav flavours are (hot and savoury) the Madras and Mexican hot chilly, both mixed with the Herb and Tomato. These i have for my evening meal. im not to keen on the Thai Green.
Other than that the other normal flavours are ok with no particular favs , just trying to have a different combination each day.
Iv been trying to keep below 1600 cal per day, and to be honest iv been struggling to eat that many, only managing between 1400 and usually 1000 per day( toast not included).
i lost 3.6kg the first week 2.4kg the second week and 1.6 kg the 3rd week, can any one explain the slow down especially as iv not been eating my target 1600 cals per day.
thanks folks

6

Usually when you start dieting you lose a lot of retained water - that accounts for seemingly larger losses early on - as your water levels balance out then the losses do the same and you will find sticking to the same routine / dietary intake will result in normally consistent losses that will be smaller than the first few weeks.

2 Likes
7

Hi if your bread is shop bought and not home made the calories are usually clearly printed on the loaf wrapper. There will be variations depending on what type of bread you use eg thickness, wholemeal, white, seeded etc. :bread:

1 Like
8

Hi guys Update .
6 weeks into my weight loss, and iv lost 10.7kgs or 23.5 lbs. Still on 100% Huel. and have lost between 1.3kg - 0.8kg per week.

5 Likes
9

Hi Phil,
I’m just curious how you’re doing and whether you managed to keep going with 100-%-Huel or rather Huel at all. I’m at the end of week 2 (2/3 of my calorie-intake being Huel) and at the moment very enthusiastic and full of energy. Would love to learn from your experience so far in terms of what to do or to avoid in order to not give up Huel. Thanks in advance.

10

Hi Kassandra,
just going back onto the Huel this month, after a 3 month break, I managed 7-8 months on 100% Huel and lost roughly 25kgs, I worked out my Base metabolic rate and decided to drop 1000 cals a day. that left me roughly 1500-1600 cals to play with. After the first month i struggled to eat enough huel to cover it. i was using shakes for every meal other than my main evening meal which i used Huel hot, i started each one but eventually just got a large plastic container and mixed the lot together, (Herb and Tom. mexican chilli, and madras.) all in the same container, i make a soup and have it that way, it works for me. it does get a little same tho. i do have toast with it and use bread thats 100cals a slice. i also put in Wostershire sauce and Franks hot sauce to add flavour.
my worst mistake was purchasing The green curry, not for me. one of the best things you can do is track your food/ huel intake on your phone, i use Notes and made up a template
DATE Jan WEIGHT BMI / BF% Loss / Add Breakfast / Scp etc
07:00-09:00 10:00-12:00 12:00-13:30 14:00-15:30
and wrote down what i had at each meal time only using the scoops ( 200cals choc)
if i missed a time slot that was it it was over i had missed it. move to the next slot.

good effort its not easy losing weight but this way makes it a little easier and defiantly more manageable
phill.

11

Hi Phill,
Thanks so much for responding and congratulations with your great weight loss :tada:. Sounds good that your picking up your Huel diet again. Are you intending to go 100% again? Up to now I think it’s easier for me to have a non-Huel dinner even though I first wanted to go 100%. But I’m a little worried that I could get bored after a while. Was that the case that you had a break for 3 months or happened that just out of personal reasons? Whatever, I wish you success with your diet plans :grinning:. Kassandra