Been using Huel for the past 6 weeks or so for breakfast lunch & dinner. Only time I don’t use it is when I go out for dinner which takes place couple times a week. before I started Huel my typical calorie intake would be in the 2200-2400 range, I monitor my intake with ‘my fitness pal’ app as i’m very cautious about weight gain. Since I’ve started Huel I’ve been having typically 2800 - 3000 calories just to keep me satisfied. Since I’ve started my weight has remain stable, which is what im going for so no problems there, but my Question is:
Will I be intoxicating myself by having too much nutrition? - Im a 72kg male and 6ft height.
Why do I require more calories on Huel than I would from food? - Is the absorption less efficient?
Iron could potentially be an issue but unless you’re experiencing any signs of toxicity, I’d say it’s fine. If you’re worried, donate blood every few months and it becomes a non-issue.
First thing to consider, are you absolutely certain your normal caloric intake is 2200-2400 calories? People generally underestimate intake unless they monitor closely, and if you haven’t experienced weight gain, unless you were losing weight on 220-2400 calories, something doesn’t add up.
Secondly, how much water do you drink now relative to before? Hydration plays a very large part in hunger (many people confuse being thirsty with being hungry), and water intake needs to increase when on a liquid diet.
It’s not so much you need more water overall, more that people don’t realise how high the water content of a lot of foods is, do when switching to a liquid diet which only has the water you add, people don’t realise how much their intake has decreased.
In addition to that, if your previous diet had less fibre than Huel, you need more water as soluble fibre absorbs water on your stomach.
@JamesCollier will correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the micronutrient formula in Huel was initially designed so that you could consume around 3000 kcal of Huel without reaching upper tolerable limits on any micronutrients. So this shouldn’t be a problem for you.