Let me start by apologizing in advance if you are eating / drinking your lunch. This post contains descriptions of bowel movements.
So, I’ve been using Huel now for 1 month. I started in my first two seeks just having 2 x Scoops for Breakfast for 2 weeks then moved onto 2 x Scoops for Breakfast and 2 & half / 3 scoops for Lunch in weeks 3 / 4.
I started off not really noticing much difference in my bowel movements. Lots of gas (as expected from reviews) and what I would consider ‘normal’ bowel movements for me. at the end of week two, my movements were actually better than normal.I suffer from IBS, have done for a number of years now and my bowels are always all over the place. I decided to use Huel as a way to ensure I wasn’t eating rubbish a) for health reasons b) also to control my IBS symptoms.
I’ve had high fibre diets before and people with IBS can go either way with fibre. It’s either fine or all hell breaks loose. Normally, I’m fine with so assumed I’d be fine with Huel.
Starting from week 4 however, I’ve taken a turn for the worse and ‘things’ are painful. Stomach cramps, loose movements, constipation… you name it, I’m feeling it.
Now I know that Huel has a curve that you have to ease into which I did with my first two weeks before moving up to 2 Huels a day but surely I shouldn’t be going backwards?
The first 2 weeks were fine and week 3 was actually good but week 4 is making me consider stopping.
I might give it another couple of weeks and see how I go with my next delivery.
I’d be really interested to hear from anyone else who either suffers with IBS and is using Huel or if people have had a similar experience - starting off fine but then regressing. Can I get over this hump by pushing through?
Honestly, I would do it, back to 1 huel-meal per day for a while. I don’t have a diagnosis of IBS, but sensitive intestines I do have, and they never forgive “pushing through”.
Hi @Clennon We are all different. It can take days, weeks, months, for our gut flora to get used to dietary changes. Good advice to ease off to one Huel meal a day for a week or so then gradually increase again.
It’s a shame because I’m totally over the taste now and actually quite enjoy them. My end goal was to basically replace most of my weekly meals with it.
I’ve had the same problems when I first started Huel. Next to a severe IBS I also have some intolerances, using a Low-FODMaP diet. But with every diet or change in food my bowels have to get use to it. Of course when you have IBS then you’ll know you won’t be pain-free all of the time.
For everyone it’s is different. I have stomach problems as long as I can remember. And for me personally with some medication for my gullet/oesophagus and Huel it’s more stable, I’ve more pain-free days.
Hi – when I started using Huel I eased my way into it using RTD’s which seemed to have a lighter impact and then gradually phased that out to powder plus fresh mixed ingredients to where I am now – powder only with powdered or concentrate flavourings.
No I don’t use the gluten-free, as far as I’m aware I don’t have any intolerance’s to gluten. My pre-Huel diet included Gluten and I was fine.
I’ve never really done any analysis of my IBS triggers.
What I found odd with Huel was the delayed reaction to it. If my IBS had played up in the first couple of days I’d have expected that but for it improve my general symptoms in week 2/3 but then regress in week 4 I found very odd.
What flavours are you using? I can only tolerate the Original and even then I mix it 50-50 with the unflavoured. It is much less sweet but I find that all the “new” flavours (I started using huel when there only was the original) give me cramps or other issues, I have heard this from several other people too, some claim it is the sucralose in the sweeter flavours that causes these cramps. I have no idea if that is the case though.
