So so hungry. What am I doing wrong?

I agree with Marcus! Also try and up your water intake. Whenever you feel hungry, you may actually be dehydrated. Sip some water and wait about twenty minutes and if you’re genuinely still hungry, eat!

TheWhitePariah - I never normally intervene like this (and you can tell me to butt out!) but it sounds like you do not need to lose any weight as you’re already pretty small. There really is no need to ‘reset’ your digestion; just nourish your body with enough calories and all the macronutrients it needs and it will take care of the rest! I would also recommend resistance training to help you look strong and lean!

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@TheWhitePariah could you give me some more details please.

Age, gender, activity level (number of times your exercise per week) and you goal.

Well yes, but 3 scoops is over 400 calories already. I can’t add any more or I’ll be consuming too many calories over the course of the meals to lose weight. Again, I’m very inactive due to disability hence why the weight went on in the first place and the calculator says I must take 1600 calories a day to lose (and I know from past experience that I simply don’t lose on much more than that). If I added much more Huel, I’d start to gain.

This isn’t dehydration type hunger although I do know that this can be an issue. It’s “If I don’t eat, I’m going to pass out” hunger. Dizzy, shaky, hunger pains.

I’m making each meal with about 500mls of water, I thought that having more water was supposed to keep you fuller.

What I dont understand is how grown men are saying that a 3 scoop meal will keep them going from breakfast till lunch, these are people far more active than me too.

It’s really dispiriting at the moment.

Hi @tinkerbell,

May I ask your age, height and exact weight please?

Currently you are eating a 1000 cal a day deficit that is very tough, we advise to aim for 1lb per week, which is 500 cal deficit.

Also it will take some time for your body to adjust to the smaller portion.

Please read this useful guide - https://huel.com/pages/guide-to-fat-loss4

Thanks,

Julian.

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I have three scoop 500 cals for breakfast (8.20am) and that is good for me until noon, then I have 500 cals more.

I’m 12 stone, exercise 2-3 times a week, 5’ 10", 44 years old, male.

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Maybe I’ll try that, Julian. It’s just 500 calories for each serving sounds like an awful lot when you think that I’d have had, for example, two bits of toast for breakfast and that would total about 200. If I needed to take 500 calories every two hours (although actually I lasted about 2.5 this morning on three scoops), that would be an insane amount of calories for me.

Height - 5 foot 6, weight, a little over 300 (I don’t want to post the exact figure publicly), age mid 40s, female. I am extremely sedentary due to a medical condition; I do my physiotherapy in the mornings and try to do 10-15 minutes on the exercise pedals but I don’t go to the gym or walk or anything due to chronic pain.

I really really like the product; I’ve often said that if there was a pill I could take that would take care of all my nutritional needs I would do it in a heartbeat so I can remove food from my life. Like when you give up smoking and use NRT. This is pretty close (also, it’s delicious!), and I think it could be a great solution for me, but the amount of calories I would seem to need to consume to stop being so physically hungry that I feel like passing out just seems like too much for me to lose on. That said, I really really want to make this work so all suggestions are welcome.

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@tinkerbell thank you for info.

I’ve just use this info - 5’ 6’’, 44, 310 pounds, female, sedentary. To maintain weight 2687 cals, to lose one pound per week = 2187 pounds per day.

So how about this:

  • Breakfast = 3 scoops = 467 cal
  • Mid morning = 1 scoops = 156 cals
  • Lunch = 3 scoops = 467 cal
  • Mid afternoon = 1 scoops = 156 cals
  • Evening meal = 785 cals
  • Evening snack = 1 scoops = 156 cals

Total = 2187

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I’ll give it a try and see what happens. I do know that when I was doing WW, I wasn’t losing on about 1800 a day (however many equivalent WW points that is), so going above 2k is a massive worry but perhaps I could try and re-evaluate after a week.

I’m not sure these calculators take into account how sedentary I am - I mean, the furthest I walk is to my car and that’s on crutches. I think they assume some level of activity, ie, walking to the station, going to work, etc.

The problem (well, not a problem as such, but something to be aware of) with WW is that a lot of foods (fruit & veg) are free under their system. If you’re eating a lot of fruit and veg, then it’s easy to imagine your actual daily intake could be a couple of hundred calories above what you think it is under that system.

I’m also finding it strange that you’re struggling with hunger, especially if a couple of bits of toast keeps you going. I’m the opposite - a couple of bits of toast would leave me hungry again by mid-morning (6ft male, 85kg), whereas a 3 scoop huel meal not only fills me up, but leaves me almost bloated. I’ve cut down to 2 scoops for breakfast and that often sees me through to mid afternoon.

Have you tried drinking the huel over a couple of hours, rather than all at once? That might spread things out for you.

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@tinkerbell based on 5’ 6’’, 44, 310 pounds, female, you basel metabolic rate is 2073 cals. That is what you body needs if you don’t move at all.

Try 2187 and see what happens.

Just remember that I allowed 785 cal for evening meal but you will need to be accurate so weigh all your food and calculate as accurately as possible. Give it two weeks and if you haven’t lost 2 pounds you can reassess.

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I agree with @Badger 3 scoops of Huel is much more filling than toast.

Hi Badger

Well, toast might not keep me going, but then it’s only a couple of hundred calories. So I was struggling with why 400+ of Huel doesn’t either, since it’s double the amount surely it should stave off the hunger for far longer? This is why I thought I was doing something wrong; everyone says that Huel fills you up and there’s no hunger and hearing that 2 scoops sees people through for hours just depresses me! I mean, on Saturday I came in from being out and I honestly thought I was going to pass out I was so hungry, and that was with having 2 scoops for lunch on the go at 12.30 too - I had to cook my dinner at 3pm.

(I do love that you can use this on-the-go, though; it saves buying rubbish when you’re out).

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Hi @tinkerbell

Hunger is a complex sensation. Maybe we need to look at why you’re hungry. When you say you’re ravenous, are you craving any food in particular?

You mention you have a disability, may I ask what this is and if you have any other medical history or problems?

Do you work; are you keeping busy during the day?

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Hi @tinkerbell - I’m not on Huel yet (waiting for a supply of another product to run out, but then I intend to make the switch)

As somebody who also has a significant amount of fat to lose, has also been a member of Weight Watchers (actually with some degree of success, but ultimately I don’t think it’s right for me at my place of my life), I did want to give you a few comments from somebody in a similar place to you.

Firstly… there’s a difference between craving food and hunger - which sounds weird. Food is addictive. Sugar is particularly addictive. When I start eating nutritious food that gives my body the energy I crave, it does not necessarily feed the addiction in my body (that I know WILL go with time)… I start obsessing about food, feeling a hollowness in my body, my mind thinks “food, I need food, I need to have it”

Toast contains sugar, as well as being chewable - it makes sense the craving would be sated for a little while.

That’s the first thing I wanted to say. The second thing I wanted to say is that aiming for 1lb per week rather than 2 sounds good - in practice, that’s actually a huge amount. 1lb of fat is as big as a fist - it’s actually crazy how we’re taught to think of a pound as practically nothing, but it’s a LOT. To have that come off our body is phenomenal.

I would increase the amount you’re having a bit alongside Julian’s recommendations, talk to the community here and be confident that actually, ultimately getting the right sort of nutrition in you is actually fundamentally more important than simply losing weight. (When you’re bigger, the latter is important, but it will come alongside all the benefits of feeling stronger and calmer - especially when an increase of protein and decrease of carbohydrate starts giving you the chance of muscle)

Wishing you, myself, and all others in the quest of improving our health all the best!

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Thanks for the advice James, but this really isn’t just food cravings or needing to work out some psychological reason why I’m hungry. It’s physical hunger. Stomach growling, dizzy, faint, shaky hunger. I do know the difference. I’m not sure how many times I need to say that it’s “I’m going to pass out”-type hunger. I’m not just craving food and honestly those types of comments are really starting to depress me :frowning:

I’d really rather not say what my disability is on the public forum as it would make me identifiable and having just given my weight, I don’t want to be.

Thanks Sunflower. I’m increasing the amounts a bit today and we’ll see how it goes.

What I notice is that yes, it’s very “filling” - I’ve just had a 3 scoop meal for lunch and I’m fairly stuffed now - but it doesn’t last. The satiation wears off very quickly and them I’m starving hungry again within 2 hours - the type of hunger described above, not just “i’m craving food” sensations - whereas I wouldn’t necessarily be with actual food, and that’s causing me problems, because if I take in enough Huel to stop that, then I’ll undoubtedly gain weight.

Yeah, can understand the fear.

I guess one perspective I can at least offer is that I’d rather eat too much of the right nutrition than eat too much of the wrong nutrition :wink: I DO eat too much of the wrong nutrition whenever I’m not being careful.

Really frustrating to have the right nutrition and still feel unsatisfied.

I am going to put it out there that there are some particular foods - ghee is the one I think of - where if I’ve eaten it, I feel like I’ve had a good meal, and then a few hours bend over and want to scream with pain, whilst my stomach feels hollow and bloated. Seriously terrifying stuff that shouldn’t happen.

The few times that HAS happened, I’ve gone for toast as something that seems to soothe it as a very plain food that somehow calms me. If the pain IS like that, it may be that unlikely as it seems, there is some ingredient that is producing the effects.

Easiest way to identify that is a quick question - do you have a history of unusual food problems? I truly hope it’s NOT connected with that, because it’s awful.

If it’s definitely not an intolerance, slow down your intake, drink it over a greater period of time - one thing I’m doing with the product I’m currently using is having a lower powder proportion to water, and increasing the amount of times I’m having it - so I’m essentially having food more frequently but in smaller amounts - that’s helping me.

Could also until your body adapts decrease the amount of it to allow the calories for other foods - do find something other than toast if possible, as although it seems like low calories, it is even so high calories for the nutritional value (and as I say, has that sugar content in there).

It seems MOST plausible to me that this is an extreme body reaction to changes. (Which does not stop it from being real and terrifying)

you’re not just changing the calories, but you’re also changing what’s going into your body. That means that (1) your metabolism is going to be confused - if you’re feeding it the right stuff, it might be burning more, and (2) you’re not eating what your body recognises as food

This WILL change. Our bodies DO adapt. (Same thing happens when I started eating healthily at WW to be honest, just to a slightly smaller degree.

Stay strong <3

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Yes, I can see it’s physical hunger. Fair enough if you don’t want to disclose anything about your disability, I was asking because if it’s something that’s endocrinological, gastro-intestinal or neurological in nature, this may be the reason for the hunger and I could find a work around. Feel free to email me on james@huel.com if you’d like to pick my brains privately, or we can even speak on the phone.

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Sunflower: It’s not pain, although my stomach is rumbling. I’m obviously not able to make myself understood here for some reason :frowning: It’s when you’re SO hungry that you’re shaking, you’re dizzy, you feel like you’re going to faint.

No unusual history with food, no, apart from some slight intolerances to egg white and bananas, but this isn’t the same. Again, it isn’t pain. It’s blood sugar dropping, hungry, need to eat or I’m going to pass out. (And no, I’m not diabetic).

I know what you mean about the fear of putting on weight, but it isn’t that either, I simply can’t gain. I weigh too much already. If I gain, I’ll have to stop using the product which would be really frustrating because on paper it’s just such a fabulous solution for me.

It’s very very frustrating because although it fills me up initially, when I drink it, it doesn’t stay that way for long enough. I’m ravenous within 2 hours even with 3 scoops.

James - no, it’s not any of those things you mention. It’s connective tissue related and causes chronic pain, hence my level of inactivity - I only really brought it up to explain why I thought 2000 calories would be an overestimation in my case. I tend not to lose on anything near that amount. I keep busy during the day (as in, it’s not an idle mind making me want to eat), but I just can’t do any physical exercise like walking or going to the gym, over and above the physio that I do, and because I don’t work, I don’t have the normal “walking to work/the station/steps during the day” that other people described as “sedentary” do. I always thought that sedentary assumes some level of activity like that, which I don’t have, so I don’t think my BMR is anything like as high as it should be.

Yes, that’s what I would have thought - sedentary does involve some activity, but if you’re very restricted then your BMR is likely to be lower.

It might be that you’re better off having one scoop’s worth of Huel every, say, 2 hours. This will keep the energy going in and should curb the hunger. Also, part of this may be adaptation to a lower calorie intake.

Please do keep us posted as to how you’re getting on.

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