Huel: The Future of Food ..

Soldato
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http://huel.com/

Hey guys. Have any of you tried Huel, or have thoughts on it? I've been using it for about four months now and have been making some decent gains. My goal is to put on mass (was always skinny as a kid) and I had hit a wall previously. A family member started using it too - this time for weight loss - and she's making decent progress. There's 150g of protein per 2000 calories and the macro split is 30/30/40. I tend to have 2000 calories worth in 3 shakes and another 1000 or so in normal food per day. The nice thing is how easy it is to work out calorie content - 3 scoops is around 450, 4 around 620 etc. I'm still not as regimented as some of you guys but am far more consistent now and generally have more energy which is translating to gains in the gym.

So thoughts - load of crap? Too expensive? The future of food??!

It's vegan and pretty much gluten free (there's some oats) for those that care about that stuff.
 
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Man of Honour
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Have you looked at it Stoodles? It's nothing like juice +/Herbalife in terms of it just being full of crap designed to crash diet on.
 
Man of Honour
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I can see the convenience if you're someone that doesn't care about what they eat (in terms of taste/texture/etc - I don't mean macros/kcal). Personally I'd never go for it though as I just like my food too much.
 
Soldato
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I'm actually considering trying it for times when I don't have time to make anything as atm I'm at work 6 days a week for sometimes 10-12 hours. Seems like a decent product and not too expensive.

Warbie, how does it taste? I assume you have the vanilla one?
 
Man of Honour
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No but it's powdered supplement that is aimed at lazy people who can't be bothered to cook and eat real food.

By that reasoning anything we consume like whey or protein bars are the same as juice plus or herbalife?

I did pick up 2 weeks worth last week just to give it a try, not as a full diet but it's useful for just being able to throw in my work bag and knowing pretty much exactly what I'm taking in Kcal/Macro wise. Especially this week while my bike is off the road which means I'm out of the house much longer than usual.

Would I switch my full diet to it no, is it useful in the same way as any other MRP but with decent ingredients yes.

Is it a magic diet bullet, definitely not.
 
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Man of Honour
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Well no, not really? :confused: Some people certainly use it like that yeah, but whey is meant to be a supplement to increase protein. Not replace protein sources. Unless you're MoNkeE, then it replaces everything ;)

But these are full meal replacements, and because of that, people will buy them because they can just have one of those instead of cooking or eating proper food.
 
Soldato
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Warbie, how does it taste? I assume you have the vanilla one?

It's tastes malty. A bit like how I remember Horlicks tasting from when I was a kid. There's a few things that help a fair bit taste wise. It's much, much better blended. Even more so than protein shakes. And serve cold if you can. Leaving it for a few hours helps too as it thickens right up to the consistency of Frijj. I've had enough time to experiment and now really enjoy it - it's like a nice, thick Frijj type drink. Some frozen strawberries and banana and you're good to go.
 
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Soldato
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But these are full meal replacements, and because of that, people will buy them because they can just have one of those instead of cooking or eating proper food.

It depends how you use it. I'm having two normal meals a day and the equivalent of three additional meals of Huel. It's also there for the times when there is no time to prepare food or have to skip lunch due to work etc. It's also completely replaced protein shakes and is what I have straight after working out. And even if you are replacing meals with it I don't think it's a massive deal - this is a far cry from other meal replacements I've tried and tbh when compared to my chicken, broccoli and sweat potato lunch staple it doesn't seems any better/worse. I've noticed no degrade in health or performance. I wouldn't suggest replacing all meals with it, but some or using it in addition to, I don't see a reason why not.
 
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Soldato
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Quick update. As an experiment I've been living almost solely on Huel for the last 2 weeks - say about 95% of my diet. It worked out as roughly 2800 calories and 210g of protein per day (I'm 5'8" and weight 72kg). This is with going to the gym 6-7 times a week. For the proceeding two weeks it was around 75% of my intake.

Up to this point everything has gone well. Performance in the gym hasn't changed - I'm slowly making gains and putting on mass - and calorie counting is super easy. Meal prep time is about 5 minutes per day. I was eating pretty clean before all this - shed loads of chicken, broccoli, spinach, sweat potatoes, all the usual stuff - and really haven't notice a change. Nutrition wise I suspect i'm actually better off now. The most difficult part, infact, has been having a weird urge to bite stuff. Which is partly why I'm going back to where I was before - Huel for breakfast, lunch and post workout, and one or two normal meals in the evening. And also because I'm getting bored of it. Blended with frozen fruit it pretty much tastes like a nice, thick smoothie, but sometimes you just need to tear into a steak! For now tho it's still going to make up the bulk of my calories as it's just too easy to eat clean, with no prep time and need for calculating calories.
 
Man of Honour
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According to them one serving is only 500 cals?

So that means for 4000 cals a day means 8 meals. So at £1.61 per meal that works out to £12.88 a day. Which for me is expensive as even with bulk buying meat and so on and veg and electricity etc... Is still more than I pay per day.

However I do get the appeal for the convenience.
 
Soldato
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The price is offset a little with the 7.5% subscription discount and the discount in buying 56,000 calories at a time. 4000 calories is a tenner. You're right though - it's not cheap, but not crazy expensive either. I'm not spending any other money on food. Or at least I wasn't. And it is all about the convenience. Knowing exactly how many calories I'm getting, the macros, and not missing meals because I'm late for work or cheating because I can't be bothered. I never struggled being consistent in the gym, but I really struggled being consistent with diet. It is a relief going back to normal food too tho - I ate an entire chicken last night :D
 
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Man of Honour
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Always buy in bulk. But not much mass food prep. I just get up early. I enjoy cooking and love eating so happy to put the effort in! However I do have lazy days. :) on those days using something like this would be handy but I just enjoy the smell and routine of cooking and actually just eating. I get a huge amount of enjoyment out of food.
 
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