Recently, I decided to do a 100% Huel diet to kickstart my weight loss journey and help overcome binge eating. I thought that I would start documenting that here to keep me accountable!
3 days in, I’ve lost almost 10 lbs, which I know will be predominantly water weight (I was consuming an awful lot of sodium prior to starting.)
Wish me luck!
Starting weight: 226.4lb/102.7kg (22 March)
Current weight: 217.2lb/98.5kg (25 March)
Weight lost: 9.2lb/4.2kg
Goal weight: 130lb/59kg
Still to go: 87.3lb/39.6kg
Hi, welcome to the forum! Really glad you know about water weight – it’s a demoralising surprise to some to find out their initial losses aren’t sustainable.
Best of luck with your effort. A few things I’ve experienced that may be relevant:
If, like me, your binge eating habit involves sweet food, try slowly (over months) reducing Huel’s sweetness by mixing in U&U. I most like 1/3 sweet now, and at this point I (touch wood) don’t crave sugar much at all. My favourite snack right now is muesli with nuts and berries. Like seriously what even. (I expect to backslide due to the Event, though.)
Huel isn’t ‘low calorie density’. I find it averagely filling, but people vary. I’d find 100% Huel great for a moderate calorie deficit, but to feel good on a larger deficit I think I’d need low calorie density food as well.
When I am able to eat whatever I want, I seem to have absolutely no self-control (and have pretty big binges in response to feeling guilty about it). Taking that option away is actually very comforting and easy for me. I do worry about how I’ll respond when I reintroduce regular food again, but I’m hoping that I can take this time to try and repair my relationship with it.
In response to your tips:
I actually find Huel too sweet at full strength (I think it’s because I am so sensitive to artificial sweeteners.) My trick is that I use less per drink, but drink more often. This has the added benefit of forcing me to drink more water (I honestly have gone entire days without drinking any water before this!)
I absolutely agree with your second point, but I also know myself well enough that this would lead me to backsliding this early on. Once I have a healthier relationship with food and can eat without binging, I would like to slowly reintroduce solid foods.
The timing of this is also perfect, what with the current…situation. I’ve been vegan for 5 years, and the staples I usually buy at the supermarket seem to be the first to disappear at the moment! At least this way, I know I’m getting all my essential nutrition.
Just wanted to get that out straight away! Keep us posted on how you’re doing, it’s great to see you’ve already received some stella advice. Keep it up
Week 1 is complete! A few things I’ve learned this week:
Huel is very satiating. I was worried that I would find it difficult to avoid binging on food in the house, but I haven’t been tempted at all!
I absolutely hate the taste of the new chocolate Huel. I don’t want to waste it, so I am mixing it with the vanilla (20g chocolate to 80g vanilla), but I will not be buying that again.
I’m finding it very freeing to not have to worry about where I am getting all my nutrition from, and I have more energy.
Finally (and most importantly), I have an underlying health thing and have been going through a lot of tests over the last 8 months to try to figure out what is going on. I had been throwing up anywhere from 3 to 10 times a day, everyday, and no one can figure out why. Because of the whole Covid situation, my next appointment was pushed back indefinitely. Since starting Huel, I haven’t been sick a single time! To be absolutely clear, I don’t think this has fixed anything, but it seems to be something my body can handle better while waiting for the next round of testing.
Starting weight: 226.4lb/102.7kg (22 March)
Current weight: 213.6lb/95.9kg (30 March)
Weight lost: 12.8lb/6.8kg
Goal weight: 130lb/59kg
Still to go: 83.6lb/36.9kg
That’s really tough @Error - I’m so sorry to hear that, because I know just how much it sucks.
Mine isn’t accompanied by nausea - just vomiting (it’s actually regurgitation - not vomiting). They’ve already established that it isn’t any of the easy-to-diagnose things (allergy, reflux, bacterial, etc), and so we’re working our way through various other things.
Two things being thrown around are rumination syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), but they are waiting until everything else is excluded before looking at those as a possibility. I’m pretty confident that it’ll turn out to be POTS because of a lot of other health things I’ve had since my teen years, but there isn’t a POTS centre in Scotland, so I’d have to go to Newcastle for diagnoses.
In the meantime, it’s nice to be getting my nutrition without being sick all the time!
Glad they have narrowed it down for you! I have never heard of those syndromes.
I ended up with CVS as my doctor just couldn’t be bothered to work out what was wrong with me, she flat out asked if I was doing it myself because I was bulimic then offered me anti-depressants or hypnotherapy…
The only reason those two syndromes are being considered is actually because I suggested them (my no-BS American self gets pretty insistent about figuring out my health!) I happened to be up late one night and couldn’t sleep, so I put on the Netflix show “Diagnosis” (episode 5), and a light just went on. There is actually the mention of doctors naively attributing it to an eating disorder. Again, I’m really sorry that you’re having to deal with that.
