I’m using almost 100% huel and train 3 times a week (weights). I have goals like lowering my fat% and building muscle mass. Also I use intermittent fasting 5 days a week.
At the moment I take 3 shakes huel white while cutting and 4 shakes huel white while bulking.
I make sure I take a shake before and after training.
Huel black seems interesting because of the higher % of protein. But what would be the ideal planning of my shakes?
Mostly I take my first shake at 1200 and my last at 2000. I work out around 1800/1900.
Would it be better if I take a huel black shake after my workout for example? Only on training days? Or would it be better to take one before?
First of all if your goal is to build muscle i would suggest not doing intermittent fasting. It generally seems to be a better idea to try and spread your protein intake evenly during the day and fasting will not help you achieve that. The reason is that your body has a limited amount of protein it can use for protein synthesis (although the research on the topic is still ongoing) and excess protein will be converted into energy. Also the type of protein you consume also seems to have influence the upper effective limit of protein that your body will use for muscle building and it is beneficial to mix the sources of protein in meals - e.g. I add a bit of whey and casein to my huel. The number usually seen is around 30-40g per meal but that will vary based on your body, lifestyle, protein sources etc.
Intermittent fasting is useful (doing it myself) - it has potential health benefits and will aid fat loss. But it’s not optimal for muscle building. This is because the mTor enzyme - the enzyme that controls the rate of muscle protein synthesis - will be ‘switched off’ while fasting. Switching it off does have longevity benefits, though.
So, whether you IF or not depends on your priorities regarding muscle building vs maintaining and fat loss.
Whether you have your Black meal before or after your workout depends on when you’ve had you meal prior to that.
Thanks for your reply.
I’ll try to stop IF when bulking and only do this when I’m cutting. For me it’s mostly for health benefits so I don’t want to stop IF completely.
For protein sources I could check for vegan options.
So if I understand it correctly I could use IF when cutting and better not while bulking. I use its especially for the health benefits. What about planning one fasting day (24h or so) a week during bulking instead of the 16/8 method?
My meal plan when cutting is;
12h - 500 cal shake
16h - 500 cal shake
18/19h - workout (3x a week)
20h - 500 cal shake
And when bulking maybe I can plan the same and only add one 500 cal shake at 08:00h.
I only have huel white at the moment. Which shakes would be ideal to change to the black version?
I don’t know if it’s important info but I have bulking and cutting periods of 2 months each. So 2 months bulking, 2 months cutting etc.
With reverse dieting in between.
I have a little stubborn belly fat that I want to lose and also building my muscles.
Hi @Tessa - there are a number of strategies with positives and negatives. I can’t give too much individual advice without knowing much about you in case it would be poor advice.
Some people may use IF on their cutting periods or maybe, on non-training days during bulking.
Your plan looks great, but a caution is that when on 1500 calories of Huel per day, do bear in mind that you’ll not be meeting the minimum recommended intake for all nutrients.
Hi James, i have 1400 cal of huel white a day, how would that affect me nutrientwise? Also doing IF but am trying to get rid of this beer belly i’ve invested 15 years in
Also sorry to take attention away, jsut thought i’d ask you here while i could see you!
You could add in some extra veg and a good multivitamin & mineral - Huel is nutritionally complete at 2000 calories, so any intake less than this, may require additional vits and mins
That is confusing; I thought your earlier reply was advising him to use black during the day and white after training? So … the ones before his training?
