What's with the 400 cals?

I just came back to Huel finishing off my old stock and ordering some H&S.
The branding, the free mug and the instructions for the H&S talk about two scoops or 400 cal meals.
Looking further, all the branding (price per meal etc) talk about 400 cal meals.
Now I’m no maths expert but 400 cal meals x 3 makes a 1200 cal day. That’s way short!

Anyway, I use three scoops and I’m wondering why we are talking about 400 cal meals which seems like too little to me

Thanks,
H

Its not designed for three meals a day, is the very simple answer here.

If you check out all the literature etc it talks about 4-5 meals a day (I mix it up with bars and H&S to get to around 1800).

Although it’s a complete meal, It’s not necessarily designed to have just huel.

400 Kcal for breakfast or lunch is about right, allowing most people to have larger home cooked meal in the evening. That being said if you were to go 100% huel it’s designed to have lots of small portions throughout the day.

I see.
Maybe it’ changed form when I started my journey 3.5 years ago. Or maybe I just didn’t pay much attention.

Anyway, a 400 cal breakfast or lunch just doesn’t do it for me so I’ll continue to scoop up :slight_smile:

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Yeah best way really, “you do you” as they say.

My breakfast is usually a coffee enhanced Black Edition Chocolate shake “+ a bar of some description so that’s 600 calories minimum right there, so totally get where you’re coming from.

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It’s simply to put a recommended serving.

400kcal has many advantages:

  • relatively small; ppl with less caloric needs can have a 400kcal meal
  • Easy to divide and multiply (20% of your DV; 1/5th of your daily-- based in 2,000kcal)
  • 100g are roughly 400kcal in most meal replacement products
  • Many meal replacement companies have 400kcal servings (including Soylent) which makes this measurement standardize and helps transition from one another
  • Still filling for 3h+ for most people
  • Fits well in the shaker; it’s not too much liquid, bloating

EDIT: Easy to add on too; if 2 scoops are 400-- 3 are 600. It’s a pretty number

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It has yes, we shifted the serving suggestion to 400kcal because 500kcal was off-putting to some - for some people they just weren’t thinking “I can just have less” :man_facepalming:

Many people though will have 200kcal as a meal instead. It really depends on you, and as you’ve rightly done you’ve scooped up!

This is true actually, good point. I guess it helps consumers when we all talk about 400kcal, it means nutritional content/price are all on a level playing field, easy to compare.

How many calories in your birthday cake?

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Happy Hueliversary @Tim_Huel

enjoy cake

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Thanks both! Yes, 5 years on the forum (5 years on the 25th since I started at Huel!), I will be releasing my memoirs soon. I love my job! I didn’t get any cake, so to answer you @hunzas - not enough. I did get a lovely card from my work pals though!

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A good card is the most important thing I think.

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Instead of cake I imagined a massive huel bar of your favourite flavour with candles in it.

All of that makes sense. Thanks all for your input :slight_smile:

Honestly for me it was off-putting as well. Feels like when you buy something at the supermarket that says “2 servings” and it barely contains one… I just combine one Huel H&S cup with a sweet old Huel with 3 scoops to feel filled.

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fairly certian my wife will argue that… cake to her is waaaaayyyy more important :wink:

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Hahahahahah the video its great

That is how I feel with the recommended meal size. 400kcal is just an small meal. I have to always put at least 550kcal.

400kcal is just a quick lunch.

Is it all Men commenting here?
1200kcal is typically the recommended calories for a woman trying to loose weight.

I have 1 scoop made with coconut milk (250kcal) for breakfast and same for lunch leaving me 700kcal for my “normal” evening meal.

2 scoops would be too much for me if I want to drop any weight at all!

Hmmm

My understanding is that 1200 calories a day for a female is minimum rather than “recommended”.

If you are trying to lose weight in a sustainable way i always suggest checking out what it says on https://tdeecalculator.net/ rather than just arbitrarily jump to the absolute minimum.

:+1:t3:

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1200 kcal is for a very low calorie diet.

I understand the benefits of adopting the standard of 400kcal, its balanced and fast.

But for a diet of a normal guy that exercises 2 per week and needs 2400 kcal it means to make 6 different Huel shakes, which its too much.

I always use 500-550 kcal, from which I would need 4,4-4,8 shakes for the whole day, which sounds acceptable and more realistic.

I dont blame Huel for using the 400kcal standard, in fact its ok, but for the day to day usage, it means that one normal meal is 2€ instead of 1,6€ as normally advertised.

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Not sure why you assumed I had not done my research and “jumped to the minimum”?

Just checked on the site you recommended. This gives my Basal Metaboic Rate to be 1761kcal. The amount necessary to maintain my current weight while performing moderate (3 times a week exercise).

Received wisdom is to reduce calorie intake from basal metabolic rate by approx 500kcal per day for a gradual, healthy reduction - hence aiming for 1200kcal per day.

I agree it’s best to use a calculator to ascertain BMR as we’re all different shapes, sizes and activity levels.