I started Huel just over a year ago. I lost weight and it was convenient - I even made a thread on it saying how happy I was.
I thought that the hunger would go after I’d gotten used to it but it hasn’t. I have 3 scoops of Huel for my lunch and 30 mins to an hour later I’m craving food. If I hold off for another hour I literally feel like I haven’t eaten all day.
I want to carry on with Huel but I can’t handle being so hungry; it just doesn’t seem to keep the hunger away. It certainly fills me up but that’s because I’m drinking half a litre of liquid in one sitting!
My other meals are normal, it’s just lunch that I replace. It’s a shame but I can’t say I haven’t given it a good go; I’ve spent £100’s on it and dedicated over a year (every single day apart from special occasions) trying to make it work.
Probably an obvious question but have you tried 4 scoops instead of 3? 3 would be considered a light meal whereas the extra 150 calories in 4 would make for something more substantial.
I’m really sorry to hear that. I honestly am seriously surprised. Have you tried calorie counting, even just for a few days? It would be interesting to see if the amount of calories you require per day, matches what you are actually eating.
As @Jay eludes to, 3 scoops is not a universal measure of Huel. It is easy to measure certainly, but really we require more specific nutrition. I don’t eat a random number of calories per day like 682 kcal! But I do consistently eat 800 kcal a day for lunch. Now 5.26 scoops isn’t convenient measure, but 200g on the scales is.
I would implore you to monitor you calorie consumption more closely and make a more precise analysis of your calorie requirements.
When we were kids, my parents used to forbid us from eating anything sweet, inside a certain period of time before sitting down for dinner. They would tell us, “Unh-Uh, Mister! You’d better not eat that Jaw Breaker right now. It’ll spoil your appetite! And you won’t want any dinner!”
Or like how when my brother would always beg to have his favorite dessert —Apple Pie With A Slice Of Cracker Barrel Cheddar Cheese On Top — as his main course, before eating his meat and spinach like the rest of us had to. And pops would go, “What’s the matter with you, boy! Are you trying to spoil your appetite?”
The concept of “spoiling your appetite” by eating candy, cookies, chewing gum, or anything sweet — might be only an American thing. But I’m convinced that the sweetness of all of these meal replacement drinks, have a significant contribution to inducing the perception of satiety — in the brain.
Of course, it’s not only the sweetness that makes our brains perceive that our stomachs are full. The presence of fat, protein and fiber in the system, contribute to that perception too.
Those crafty food scientists and nutritionist boffins can engineer the sugar, fat and salt in foods in the precise combinations to make you never feel sated — and to always crave the food and uncontrollably eat more and more of it. That’s how your junk foods work — in a nutshell.
Then logically they can also flip that, and engineer the sugar, fat, protein and fiber contents of foods — and food-like powders — to the precise proportions that spoil your appetite.
Yup! They’ve got the concepts behind my parent’s pre-mealtime admonishings, down to a science!
Sounds like a plan. I have 2 bags of Huel left so I can experiment on those.
Thing is, I eat a sandwich of roughly 380 calories and feel so much more satisfied after it (wholemeal grain bread, 2 slices, 120 calories each, baby spinach and a tin of spring water tuna (120 calories). Whereas with Huel I’ll drink 500ml of 3 scoops, roughly 400 calories and half an hour later I feel as though I haven’t eaten???
I tend to find Huel for breakfast, a fairly big cooked lunch from our canteen at work, and then Huel at night works ok for me. It might be just psychological. I find if I have something like half a scotch egg around the same time as my Huel that I feel fuller, as if I’ve convinced myself I’ve had some solid food, even though it wasn’t much.
Drink more water too, which will make your belly feel full. I used to find that I had some hunger pangs happening too usually half an hour to an hour after eating Huel, but then I just drank another 500ml of water and the hunger completely disappeared - it’s almost like everything remixes up in your stomach and you’ve eaten again. Nowadays I just mix it all up together and often have a full 1 litre of water with the Huel itself in the first place (which might be a little to thin for some). I’ve also started shoving a banana and maybe a satsuma as well in there too it keeps me going for ages.
This seems to be a problem that keeps coming up for people on here. I’ve seen posts from several people where they have only had 2 or 3 scoops and then they say they are hungry. People seem to start out by thinking that such a small amount is a full meal. But it’s really not.
If I have some Huel and then I’m hungry again, I have some more Huel. 3 scoops wouldn’t be enough to replace a full meal for me either. Try doubling that and consume it gradually over 30 minutes or more.
3 scoops is only about 456 calories, which is not much more than one Tesco Chicken And Bacon Mayonnaise Sandwich. I don’t know about you, but one sandwich would not be enough for me for lunch. One sandwich is just a snack really, not a full meal. Same with Huel, 3 scoops is just a snack.
I’m not sure whether you’re male or female, but if you’re male, consider this: the average calories for a sedentary young man is about 2,500. That’s about 16.5 scoops of Huel. If you go by the traditional 3 meals a day, that means about 5.5 scoops per meal.
But it also depends how physically active you are. If you get a lot of exercise, you might need considerably more. I’m pretty active, and I can have 15 or 16 scoops per day PLUS an evening meal and not put on weight.
Yesterday I had a 100% Huel day and had a total of 21 scoops, which is about 3,192 calories. But my day included a 5 mile brisk walk in the middle of it.
Where did you get that figure from? I’ve always understood 2500 to be a fairly active person. I think it’s more like 2000 for a sedentary man. Looking at my fitness tracker I barely break 2000 on a weekend day if I’ve sat around doing nothing.
Definitely recommend monitoring your overall intake with something like the My Fitness Pal app.
I have a nutriblast for breakfast and then 3 scoops of Huel for lunch but have found that when I’ve taken much lower amount of calories for breakfast I struggle more with the cravings.
The thing is and I know it sounds crap but there is nothing wrong with feeling hungry unless you have not eaten for days and have no food source available, if you do take your mind off it by doing something.
Aim to drink at last 2 litres of water over a day as well (I aim for 3) it is all in your head your body does not have a separate mechanism for thirst and hunger so will think its hungry when its actually thirsty.
Too little sleep can lead to surging levels of hormones that stimulate’s appetite as well as decreased levels of hormones that cause’s feelings of fullness you getting 7-8 hours of good sleep a night?
Stress also heightens your levels of cortisol an adrenaline which fools your body into thinking it needs more energy to cope with something when it’s in your head so meditate every day.
Get more protein and fat into your diet to increase fullness from meals.
Take your time when eating/drinking a meal to increase your fullness wait 20 minutes after to see if you really need more.
few tips I don’t know you or your background so apologies if I come across as patronizing.