Hi everyone! I just got my first order of Huel and I’m using it for weight loss. According to the weightloss calulator, I should currently intake 1600 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week calorie deficit of 1000 and I am trying to have 3 meals a day and I was wondering if I could do 3 scoops in my first meal which would be 600calorie per meal and do 2 scoops in 2nd meal which would be 400 calorie and do 3 scoops again for the 3rd meal which would total 1600calorie a day. My main concern is that is it okay/healthy to take 600calories per meal twice or should I split the meals into 4? Thanks!
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IMO, either method is fine. The body is versitile and flexible. You can do whichever you want. Both should work just fine.
Some of the most successful weight loss programs involve eating one big meal a day. Whereas a few people find it better to eat many small meals a day. I am in the camp where I feel it’s best to concentrate the meals closer to one another and go through a period every day of a 14 to 16 hour fast. IMO, this fast really helps improve many of the hormone resistance states associated with being overweight. But I am biased since I lost 65 pounds in a year doing intermittent fasting while eating Huel for dinner. If you find that you are satiated by spreading apart more meals in a day, then for you that’s the best answer. (BTW, I often eat a good 800 calories of Huel as my dinner, and it’s just fine for me.)
Not related to your specific question, but an interesting little tidbit that a physician on a Joe Rogan podcast brought up. Studies have shown that when people eat the same limited foods (whichever food they choose) over and over for a period of time, that they naturally begin to curtail their total caloric intake. There’s something about how limiting variety makes it where the brain gets less and less excited when we eat the same food over and over again so it helps curtail food cravings. It’s a bit of a psychological trick. And it can prove useful for a period of time to assist body fat loss. Whether it’s people going on these bizarre “all-beef” diets or that old “rice diet” (90% daily food intake is white rice) by Walter Kempner and then resurrected again in the 70’s/80’s, these so-called mono diets can prove useful. Monotony cannot be sustained for many years, but it can be a good temporary way to help kickstart a fat loss. And if this also helps improve insulin sensitivity, the person can then expand their meal choices after the weight loss and still maintain their weight (so long as they do not indulge in things that originally made them fat).
So, going on an all Huel plan for a short while to lose weight may be useful for many people. It’s nutritionally sound and can have this psychological advantage of breaking free from food cravings. It gives the person a chance to just focus on eating one thing. This simplifies the program and can relieve some of the stress of going on a diet.
Also, the fiber and the carbohydrate source in Huel means that it will be a slow digesting meal compared to a typical Standard American Diet meal. So no matter what your meal size, a Huel dose will have a very favorable insulin/hormonal response compared to the same sized meal of, say, hamburger and fries. The low sugar of Huel will also help. So, it’s not just a total caloric restriction you are going on. You are restricting many of the components of the typical American diet that are causing excess body fat in the first place (simple sugars, saturated fat, trans fat) and are having a higher amount of fiber which is associated with maintaining proper weight. You are really replacing poor nutrition food for better nutrition food and that, in and of itself, may be enough to facilitate weight loss beyond a mere calorie restriction. 400 calories of pop tarts give a very different response than 400 calories of Huel.
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It’s whatever works for you. Huel is not specifically designed as a weight loss product but we do have a really good article on fat loss which may help you: https://huel.com/pages/guide-to-fat-loss
I would just add some people do use Huel for every meal. But really, the best use of Huel is to replace those meals when you don’t have time to prep something nutritious. Like midweek breakfasts or lunch for example. Sometimes you need an easy option and often this leads to unhealthy options.
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