Depending on how many percent of one’s diet consists of Huel the volume of it can be quite large - 2500ml for 2000kcal for example. As it counts as “food” it would still be necessary to drink at least 2 liters of water or a similar beverage. Together with some hot drinks this would amount to about 5-6 liters daily, at least.
So what is your strategy to solve this “problem”? Not having 100% Huel? Using less water per scoop than what is officially recommended? Or cutting back on normal drinks?
I just drink a load of water whenever I’m thirsty. I keep about 4 litres of it in the fridge and either drink just water or zero cal squash for flavour.
Only do one certain hot drink a day, which is either tea or coffee in the morning but I often don’t really bother, huel with instant coffee mixed in works great for me.
Have always been a huge “drinker” though. Not so much alcohol but definitely water and squash.
Diet Coke. Way too much.
Yes, that can be a problem.
I sometimes feel that I get too much fluids. Thirst and the average filling state of the urinary bladder don’t seem to push me into the right direction.
Theoretically 2 liters of water and 2.5 liters of Huel should be above average relative to what most people drink.
How did you solve that problem? Just replacing one meal with Huel? Cutting back on normal fluids since you started to use it? Or do you prepare your shakes with less water?
Yes, Huel counts as food, and water in food is usually not counted towards the recommended water intake, but there’s an exception to be made here. If you consumed a large soup (not heavily salted), the water in it would certainly count. Same with Huel, depending on how think you make it, it will have a lot more water than typical meals.
Overall I use 2.1L of water for my Huel, and then drink whatever water is used to rinse out the remains. Then I usually have 1 cup of water (around 300ml), sometimes two during the day if I’ve been talking a lot or feel thirsty (which is rare). Maybe some water when I exercise. In total, I consume probably a little over 3L of water a day, and it certainly does not feel excessive nor make me go to the toilet too often.
5-6L a day would be excessive, I even doubt most would manage that - and perhaps it would start bordering on water intoxication.
Thanks.
If you only drink water it is easier to keep the balance. But you already said that you have nothing else than Huel and water.
It also seems that you use a bit less water for the shake preparation than what is officially recommended. This was also something that I suspected, but I felt bad about the idea of using too little water. Actually not only I seem to consider this. In my opinion the official recommendations use too much water for people on a full liquid diet.
What more does one need? 
I haven’t followed the official recommendations in years, I’m not even aware what they are. For me it works out at 700ml of water for 166g of Huel (666kcal). That’s pretty close to 1ml per 1kcal of Huel, which sounds like some very old advice I read someplace - and it’s likely outdated because Huel used to be much thinner in previous versions than it is now. I also use a blender, so mixing is trivial.
The problem with the blender is that you have to be at home. Theoretically I have one too.
“Need” may be the wrong word - but I doubt that many people live completely free of caffeine and alcohol.
Is there such a thing as not-at-home in 2020?
People use caffeine pills, add instant coffee, or brew coffee & then mix it with Huel. Or they eat the coffee-flavored versions. I’m also pretty sure someone has tried adding alcohol to Huel by now.
What I wanted to say is that there are lots of non-food or non-strictly-food products on the local stores that would be quite tedious to shop across various websites.
I don’t know how it is in your country, but here you have to be at home to accept a delivery. Officially it is no longer necessary since corona-sars2, but actually no one has ever left a package just in front of my door. When I am not at home I have to get it from the postal office. That can make web shopping a relative inconvenience, too.
Anyway, back to topic.
2-3 liters a day in total sounds reasonable to me. You just don’t seem to have a lot of pure water, but mostly with Huel. My problem is that I can get extremely thirsty, sometimes that much that I drink more than one litre.
What would you consider to be the maximum amount that is reasonable? Of course without having a full urinary bladder all the time…listen to your body or a hard cutoff?
Yes, that’s a good way of describing it - most of my water intake comes from Huel and from rinsing the blender/shaker.
My doctor is not your doctor, so don’t take this as medical advice. There likely is some sort of hard cutoff, at which you risk water intoxication. I don’t know the exact value, might be 10L, might be more or less, and it depends on the person. It should not be reachable unless you are intentionally trying to reach it or there’s something wrong with you.
Keeping that in mind, I’d say observe your body’s needs and you’ll eventually find out what works for you.
Important to note, if you find yourself “extremely thirsty, sometimes that much that I drink more than one litre” or just very thirsty all the time, or are drinking a lot more water than you used to, then it might be advisable to talk to your doctor. Excessive thirst is one of the first symptoms of pre-diabetes/diabetes, and various other disorders.
Thanks for your advice.
My lab tests are okay, though. I browsed the internet and I found that malnourishment may be a cause of mouth dryness - and I am formally underweight (BMI < 17). Could that be the problem?
Do you manage to keep a healthy weight/BMI with Huel? And would it be as easy for you to maintain your diet if you weighted less?
Do you think gaining weight would cause a better body feeling? I often thought about this issue. Maybe cravings for unhealthy drinks would also be less if I just managed to gain some weight.