Please don’t read this if you are bothered by descriptions of bowel movements.
I started using Huel about two months ago. I slowly worked my way up to four servings per day (and “regular” food for supper).
I had flatulence for quite awhile, but seem to have gotten past that (other than noted next). However, I continue to consistently have diarrhea several times a day. Usually it’s diarrhea combined with gas, or what I would call explosive diarrhea.
I’ve researched the subject on the forums.
I’m drinking half my body weight in water, as recommended by someone (170+ oz per day). Could that be too much water, and be contributing to the diarrhea?
I’ve also been taking Align for almost two weeks, which hasn’t helped.
The only other possible culprit I’ve seen mentioned in the forums is the sucralose. Could I be one of the “lucky” ones who gets diarrhea from too much sucralose?
I’ve taken a few days off from Huel, eaten “regular” food, and the diarrhea goes away. So, I know it is the Huel.
Switch to UU. Still get all of the nutrition that brought you to this point. Stop passing gas so bad your sleeping dog would get up and walk away, let alone your SO.
Embrace the bland. You’re in this for a reason.
That’s all I got.
Really sorry to hear this. It’s unlikely sucralose is the cause. That is a lot of water, I would reduce it. Ignore most comments around drink “X amount of water a day” everyone is different and your body is good at working this out for you. Drink when you feel you need to.
I agree stop having Huel for a few days and gradually reintroduce it back into your diet.
Holy non-cow milk! 170 ounces of water? 5.1 liters or more of water per day. Yeah. That’s probably doing it. And I assume this is 5 liters of water on top of the fluid from 4 servings of Huel?
@Deron That’s including the water in the Huel. Someone posted a few times in the forums to drink half your body weight in ounces of water, and I also read the same thing in an article online. Perhaps that’s a recommendation for people who aren’t overweight?
I’ll try cutting back on the water and see if it helps.
I think you may have misread my post. I stated that I have previously not used Huel for a few days, and the diarrhea stopped. (No Huel=no diarrhea.)
Are you suggesting taking a few days off and starting over? (1 shake for a week, then 2 shakes for a week, then 3 shakes for a week, etc.) I’m not sure I understand how that would change anything, when I’ve already went through that process.
I used to donate plasma when I was younger and they always told me to drink half my weight of water in ounces to stay hydrated. I’ve done it ever since and to my knowledge its never caused me diarrhea. Though 170 is way higher and everyone is different, that’s just been my experience.
I too have the diarrhea issues with Huel, however. More so in the beginning than now, almost six months in. How much Huel are you having? I was having all five servings at one point and then I lowered it to just two, one for breakfast, and one for dinner, with a regular food lunch. So my suggestion would be to lower the amount of servings and see if that helps.
I’m currently consuming four servings per day, plus a regular meal.
I really like the convenience and nutrition, so I really don’t want to cut back.
I think I might try enzymes and/or switching to U/U. I read elsewhere in the forums that someone found out the sucralose sweetener was causing their diarrhea…
Another thing I can suggest is adding a protein powder to your servings. That way, you are still getting your nutrition and calories in, while cutting down on the amount of Huel you’re consuming. It’s what I’ve been doing for the past month or so and it’s worked out well. My recipes nowadays are a scoop of U/U, a scoop of either chocolate or vanilla, and a scoop of vanilla Muscle Milk. That comes to 540 calories per serving. It also makes the protein to carb ratio even,
Dan, i think that it’s important to keep in mind how much water anyone should be drinking during the day rather than anything else that a person usually does drink…
myself, for example, before i started getting serious about my health and exercise drank hardly anything other than coffee, soda, beer, and liquor. i stumbled across a quote in a magazine one day about how much water i should be drinking, along with tips to do moderate exercises without weights to stay in shape, and i was convinced that this was a good idea. well, i checked with various sites on the web too to see what anyone else had to say about the issue. anyone is welcome to draw their own conclusions.
being a “nutrition executive” i would think that you would have a good idea about healthier things to put into your body aside from fast foods and alcohol…right?! flat out suggesting that people should ignore decent, if misguided, advice isn’t cool. ya, it’s not the right thing for everyone. being one of ‘those people’ that have suggested drinking half your weight in oz of water a day, i was going on the assumption that anyone following this logic was moderately active and needed to keep their organs hydrated to function properly. think i even stated as much a couple of times. who knows.
TO THE o.p.: that could be causing your diarhea. when anyone consumes that much liquid it will cause any solids that you have in your system to liquify…diarrhea. not sure about the gas. i had some pretty dank gas for the first week, week and a half, but that went away once my body adjusted to the higher fiber content and most of the junk was flushed out of my system. i would suggest checking with your doctor if you have been having diarrhea for this long. that doesn’t sound healthy, or pleasant. good luck with that
good stuff. remember to ease in to a new diet, give your body time to adjust. don’t start out with three 3 scoop shakes a day. my first two weeks in i was fighting with tarry bowels and gas. everything is golden now, 2 months later.
best of luck with that
Acute diarrhea can be harmless. But with chronic diarrhea, there’s the risk of dehydration due to loss of fluid. Dehydration is when your body doesn’t have enough water. This can be life-threatening, so drink plenty of fluids.
… Complications of chronic diarrhea
dark urine.
excessive thirst.
dizziness.
fatigue.
vomiting.
fever.
Sep 25, 2017
Chronic Diarrhea: Treatment Options, Symptoms, and Causes
Do you have H. Pylori? I had some ‘side effects’ from Huel for longer than it seems I should. Months went by… then I had this sharp-ish pain… turned out to be an ulcer from H. Pylori. After the antibiotics my BMs have been better for the most part. Of course Huel is high in fiber, and liquidy, so soft (or somewhat loose) stool shouldn’t be unexpected, eh.
This whole topic has been about water, which is what OP specifically mentioned. I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by hammering home the point that sugar sweetened beverages and alcohol are not the fluids you should be drinking regularly.
By definition misguided advice can’t be decent advice. All that suggesting drinking half your weight in oz of water from the off will do for most people is make them feel uncomfortable. There are no nutritional benefits to this. Drinkng around exercise is a different topic which i feel is where you are coming from.
yeah, sure…but before i became a little more serious about my health and watching myself get older i didn’t really care too much about what i was putting into my body as long as i could still get out of bed and do what i needed to do every day. i was relating my experience to what the o.p. was talking about, and even mentioned how i had participated in this conversation with several other users in the forums.
i wasn’t using the term ‘misguided’ as a direct quote from a dictionary, i was implying that i had given advice that might not have been relevant to everyone at face value. but, like the beverages that i have enjoyed drinking prior to getting and staying healthy, it is a good idea to keep that fact in mind that anyone should drink more water on a regular basis RATHER THAN any of the more appealing alternatives out there.
i don’t know what else to say about that…here is some of the information that i have used to make my own decisions on:
Fifteen benefits of drinking water
It lubricates the joints. …
It forms saliva and mucus. …
It boosts skin health and beauty. …
It cushions the brain, spinal cord, and other sensitive tissues. …
Just be careful with sites like medical news today.
Yes water does all of those things but take the cushioning brain and spinal cord and helps to maintain blood pressure points. The water you drink will have little effect on them. If these basic functions fail so do you and you die. So drinking loads of water will make no difference.
No one in the Western world will need to worry about the points above as they only become an issue if you go without water for days.
