Newbie & Going 💯

Experiences
1

Hello all,

I’ve been reading up on Huel like a maniac over the past week (Huel web team, that spike in website visits? :wave:) and I’m utterly convinced that I need to try Huel out.

Background:
I’m 37 years young, I’m 5ft 9in and I weigh a frankly ridiculous 227lbs (16st 2lbs).
I play racketball (it’s similar to squash) 2-3 times a week, but due to my obsession with unhealthy, yet tasty food and drink, I am not losing any weight at all, despite regular exercise. Obviously this is down to consuming enough calories to maintain or gain, neither of which I want.

When I met my then girlfriend (now wife) 4 years ago, I was 189lbs (13st 7lbs), was entering every mud/obstacle run under the sun and eating sensibly. This isn’t to blame my wife at all (:thinking:), but through lots of meals out in the early days of our relationship and preferring to spend my time getting to know her, rather than continuing to run through mud, I very quickly piled on the pounds and subsequently into very bad habits.

I have tried and failed numerous diets over the past couple of years, all ending prematurely for a number of reasons.

Targets:
Short term - My first target is to lose 16lbs, so that I am down to 15st.

Medium/Long term - I want to return to a similar weight as I was when I first met my wife, which will be in the the region of 189lbs-196lbs (13st 7lbs-14st).

Plan:
As of Monday the 1st of October I will be consuming Huel 4 times a day, 7 days a week and nothing else. :joy:

At my age/height/weight, the amount of calories I require to maintain my weight is 2,674 per day. By consuming Huel 4 times a day (2,000 calories) I will be reducing my daily calories by 674 per day. I will also continue to exercise 3 time a week, burning a further c500 calories on those days.

This should mean the following:

  • I will consume 12,500 calories per week;
  • That is 6,218 calories below what I need to maintain my weight;
  • With 3,500 calories equal to 1lb of fat, this equates to losing 1.8lbs of fat per week.
  • At a rate of 1.8lbs per week I will reach my short term target of 16lbs inside 9 weeks. :tada:

To further bore you to tears with maths, this means that at 4 meals of 125g Huel per day, I will require 18 bags to cover the 9 week period.

Well played Huel, well played indeed! :wink:

Anyway, thank you for reading (assuming you made it this far), if anyone has any advice (flavours/mixing/curling up in a ball crying) please do let me know.

I will add to this topic as I go. Day one is fast approaching! YIKES!

Mark.

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It will be hard. But you can do it. We believe.

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I’ll be following this thread with great interest. I don’t think it will be hard at all :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you for the belief. I agree that it will hard going. In a perverse kind of way I’m looking forward to it.

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Start slowly … maybe 1 or 2 meals a day of huel
The weight will tumble in the first few weeks
Keep it up and after a week or so increase huel intake
It’s a great journey with one BUT …!!

Clothes will have to be replaced as they become too big to wear !!
It could be expensive !! But worth it !!

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I think, especially if you’re used to junk food or poor of fibers food (as I was before of Huel), that going from 0 to 100% in one day is a little bit too much. Usually the best thing is to try it slowly, because adapting to a new diet can be hard. Many experience problems like bloating and even worse (I had :poop: :bomb: issues the first day :smiley: ). But then, many others have no issues so just do as your body tells you.

That said, I’m sure you’ll have a great journey! I’m actually on a two meal / day program (breakfast with Granola and dinner with Huel - free lunch as I please) and I’ve lost 10Kg in the first 4 months. Now I’m woking out and mantaining my weight + (slooooooooowly) increasing mobility and muscle mass. :slight_smile:

Welcome to the Fellowship of the Shake and good luck (also, I hope you’ll like the taste as I do :stuck_out_tongue: ) :smiley:

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I agree that you should ease into it slowly, not go 100% straight away. Also, very important, drink plenty of water (to keep your bowels regular).

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Thanks @Africorn. I hope you’re right, but I’m going into this expecting it to be hard, so that way I can be pleasantly surprised if it’s easier than I thought.

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I’m due a wardrobe update, so this will be a good reason to get cracking.
Very much looking forward to the weight tumbling.

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Ha. :poop::bomb: sounds like great fun :scream:!!

Well done on your journey so far. 10kg in 4 months is great going. Congratulations sir.

Thank you for the welcome to The Fellowship of the Shake. I won’t let you down.

What flavours have you opted for?

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11

I’m using New Vanilla 2.3, mixed with various stuff, like fruit, cacao, honey, fruit juices when I want to use the blender. When I don’t want or when I’m in a hurry, I use the marvellous Flavdrops by MyProtein, which I strongly suggest because they are cheap (one 50ml bottle can last months) and great to add flavour to Huel.
I’ve also heard that Berry Huel is good, but never tried. :slight_smile:

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Great tip - thank you. I’ll check these out.

This is the flavour that I am going to buy the most of. I’ll get a couple of the vanilla and try adding things to it (like you suggested). :+1:

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If you play racketball, I take it you’re in the US (but maybe not) otherwise I’d have pointed you in the direction of:

http://www.uncleroys.co.uk/natural-extracts-essences-and-colours.html

(thank you @hunzas)

I’m not crazy about the myprotein flavdrops myself.

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Oh, and I mix Vanilla Huel 50/50 with Unflavoured/Unsweetened as I find the Vanilla too sweet.

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I’m in the U.K., so I’ll check Uncle Roys out. Thank you for the link.

I’ve read quite a few comments saying the same. I’m not a fan of overly sweet/sickly food or drink, so I think going for the U/U option, and adding to it, makes a lot of sense.

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U/U on its own takes quite a bit to flavour. That’s why I like to mix it with Vanilla… both the Original and the New and Improved.

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Everyone is different but I didn’t find it hard going from one for breakfast to 3 meals a day of Huel. I’m pretty similar in that I’m the same height, burn over 1,000 cals about 4 times a week, need to lose 10kg. I’m doing 1,410 cals a day in consumption but averaging 1,440. I can lose faster but I like my soya lattes… cutting back on those gradually.

I guess having 4 meals a day is a good plan but I’m having oat bar snack at 10:30 and 15:00

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Yeah, it depends on your tastebuds. For me on the contrary plain Vanilla is not sweet at all, and I always add flavours. I also need variety, that’s why I don’t go for berry or coffee Huel, I prefere having a simple base and then build up what I want.

I’m gonna try the unsweetened too in the future, but only because I’d like to try savory flavours, maybe one day I’ll create Liquid Pizza Huel :smiley:

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Oh, and another great thing you can do with Huel is baking! I’ve done some great Huel Muffins, and I’ve seen also cookies, cakes and bread :slight_smile:

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I am aiming to go 100% soon after restarting Huel, i would be a lot healthier for sure. I don’t eat good I hate cooking, even more so since getting divorced. Today at lunch time I went to Tesco and ended up getting a cheese and onion and a tuna sandwich, cheese and onion pie and a packet of onion rings crisps. Oh and some jam doughnuts :grimacing:. Nice pig out this afternoon but very naughty, need more discipline. Back in work tomorrow so will try harder.

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