The downward spiral

Weight loss
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I guess I’m your typical overweight person, nothing inspiring about that.

After graduating as a biologist, I started a carreer in academia, met the love of my life with whom I shared a passion for the good things in life, had a beautiful son and am now living the life of a full-time working, 34 year old woman. During my youth I was sportive and had a normal weight, but life, stress and laziness let the kilo’s creep on. I guess this sums up the weight issues of about almost everyone.

And oh, I “tried”. I tried to start to run, I tried to count calories, I tried to do Weight Watchers. But you can guess I didn’t try hard enough, cause my BMI is still 30.

As everyone with obesity, I know I have to “do something” about my weight, but doing that takes more effort than plopping in the couch with some nice tapas, eating a nice pannini at lunch and NOT going on that run.

As I’m now not living for myself anymore (remember I have a small baby boy?), the “doing something” has become a more pressing issue. However, I don’t have the mental energy to count calories, points or think what I want to eat that is tasty but doesn’t contain a lot of calories and then going to the store to fetch those things. As all working parents can relate to, mental energy is only available in small doses, correlated to the amount of sleep you got, and better spend on tending the relation with your loved ones than one grocery shopping diet food.

Cue in Huel. 2 scoops for breakfast, 2.5 for lunch, a piece of fruit as a snack, healthy evening meal. Easy peasy.

But hey ROAG (not my real name btw), what about shopping for the healthy evening meal and your mental energy!? Got you there!!! Diet plans down the drain! Well, devil inside my head, that’s sorted by our subscription to an unspecified meal-kit company, thank you very much. We’ve been doing this for a few months now and it’s such a life saviour in terms of time expenditure and healthy eating. We eat much more varied, much less meat and much more vegetables without the hassle of shopping and meal-planning, but with the bonus of having nice home cooked food.

Calorie wise this will bring me around 1500 calories per day. My BMR was measured with a fancy machine a few weeks back (perks of being in science I suppose) and this was 1633kcal. I’ll see where this gets me.

What do you guys like to say? Onward and downwards!? Make it so.

9th July 2019: 86.7kg, BMI 30.7

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I would say onwards and upwards (towards a more healthy lifestyle)!

Best of luck. Determination and consistency will be key. Look to the big picture and future and always keep going.

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Hi @ROAG Many of us here, including myself, use or have used tdee.com calculator and myfitnesspal.com for managing calorie intake and successfully losing and maintaining weight. Good luck!

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Thanks for the advice :slight_smile:

I also tried MFP but, as I mentioned, I just don’t have the mental energy do do it consistently. That’s why I roughly counted that if I eat 4.5 scoops of Huel, plus 1/2 fruits as a snack and the evening meal, I’d come in around 1500-1600 kcal. That would be around a 15-20% calorie reduction and would be a fine way to lose fat.

I agree it’s a great tool and it surely worked for me in the past, but between remembering which sock goes on which foot and keeping a tantrumming toddler happy, it’s not the best strategy for me at the moment :slight_smile: That’s why I just wanted an easy plan and Huel seems to be right for that. Let’s see :slight_smile:

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Sounds like a plan to me. I’m doing something similar. I’m doing 3 (two scoop) shakes a day for a week and going to 2 shakes plus an evening meal after that. Reason I’m going to 2 shakes is that I could not remotely do 100% Huel for any longer than that. It’s especially hard with kids where I’m making them sarnies and evening meals etc - its just too depressing to do all that and sit down at 7:30pm for an evening “meal” of shake.

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I agree! I find the evening meals really important as a family gathering and bonding. Also, I want my son to have healthy eating habits and trying lots of different foods. That doesn’t go well when he would only see me slurping sweet shakes or eating nothing at all :wink:

Also, I LOVE food. I love to cook and eat and try out new things. Cutting out regular meals would mean a 100% fail guarantee for me :neutral_face:

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I think many people have Huel for breakfast and lunch and a more ‘traditional’ evening meal. I know I do. Works for me.

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Yes, that routine has worked well for me so far. May well go 100% when I go camping later on, but will see how it goes.

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Your weight is similar to my own. We’ve been using Huel for a few months and even with the set back of having had some minor surgery a couple weeks ago, my weight is trending down. I’ve also recently added in IF at 16:8. Mostly this is to give my brain some extra justification to NOT snack after the kids go to bed. My last food is dinner. Then late breakfast basically (Huel). Then lunch Huel. Then a light family dinner. Sometimes I have an afternoon snack if need be.

While it’s not just for you anymore, it is also for you as self care. It’s easier to change our habits now. Not 10-20 years from now when something ‘bad’ happens. As a parent we sometimes forget ourselves so good for you!

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Thanks! It’s nice to hear from people who are in a similar situation :slight_smile:

What do you mean with added in IF at 16:8 (I need to get into the lingo :wink: ).

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So while I type, I’m eating my first Huel lunch at work. I feel SUPER self conscious! :persevere: I feel really uncomfortable that my colleagues see me making and eating my Huel. I didn’t anticipate that to be honest. How do you guys feel about that or cope with that?

Taste-wise it’s ok for me. It tasted a bit like I thought, but I’m not a big fan of the artificial sweet taste. It lingers a bit too much in my mouth. Maybe I’ll have to try the unsweeted version?

For lunch, I’m going to eat 2.5 scoops plus a fruit or a fresh fruit salad. Then I’ll have something to chew, get some fresh fruit into my system (something I almost never eat tbh) and can have some social time with my colleagues as well.

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Intermittent Fasting. I do 16 hours fasting, 8 hour eating window. There are a few different variations but this is working for me to not snack in the evening.

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Oh my. I don’t know if I could do that… I think I would eat too much in the time I could eat :wink:

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So, today was the first Huel for lunch at work day. I was a bit nervous and self conscious, but in the end my colleagues didn’t react or reacted positively. For the social part, I ate an apple with my colleagues who were eating a delicious pannini and a sandwich. Hmmmm! :wink:

I still think the taste is too sweet for me (vanilla), so I added a bit more water.

Dinner tonight was “risotto” with orzo (Greek pasta), fennel, zucchini, 20g of bacon in small cubes, 120g Victoria bream filet and a splash of olive oil and lemon juice. Delicious!

Now I just need to refrain from snacking in front of the TV. Wish me luck!

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Tried the chocolate Huel powder today. Yum! I like it much more than the Vanilla (which gives me a chemical aftertaste).

Also weighed myself this moment, although I know that’s just silly. -300g! :wink:

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Because you’re not measuring every calorie (which I agree with by the way, I don’t need that looking over me… kudos to people who manage it) I wouldn’t be surprised if total calories per day fluctuates, and as a result, weight loss will fluctuate. Don’t be annoyed if some weeks it doesn’t go down (or even goes up a little). This will happen I’m sure. Just stick with the routine and the overall trend will be downward. And don’t forget to recalculate your new requirements when you eventually drop a waist size or two!

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Thanks! That’s also my philosophy. The extra kilo’s came on gradually, so they’ll also gradually disappear with small changes :slight_smile:

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I was self conscious about Huel at work too to start with, but determined I was going to give this a go whatever people thought. I got used to it, now it’s fine and actually my colleagues have now noticed my weight loss and are really encouraging.

Evening snacking is my downfall too, I actually cut down my breakfast Huel to one scoop as I’m not really hungry in the mornings, was struggling with 2 scoops, and it gives me calorie room for a chocolate biscuit or two in the evening if I fancy one. That seems to work for me. Then the trick is stopping at 1 or 2 :joy: mostly I win, sometimes the biscuits win :grin:

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Thanks! That’s a really good tip :slight_smile:

I’m normally also not a breakfast person, just two coffees till lunch, but since I’m “on a diet” I get hungry in the morning :neutral_face: :woman_facepalming:t2:

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So, yesterday was an interesting day… I had a holiday from work ("feast of the Flemish Government) and was determined to eat Huel for lunch and dinner. Cue in my husband that needed to stay home sick. We played boardgames and shared some potato chips, but I ate less then I would normally eat. Only ate Huel for breakfast and ate a small wholegrain bread for lunch, shakshuka with ciabatta for dinner (although my son ate half of my ciabatta bread :wink: ).

All in all, I think it was an ok day, considering the circumstances :wink:

Now I’m eating a Huel vanilla with banana flavour boost. I must say, YUMMY! Like it much better than the vanilla on it’s own, not such a chemical taste. I also let it stand in the fridge for half an hour and this indeed help with the consistency, making it thicker. I like it!

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