I am currently strongly considering a Huel only diet for the next 60 days. I am going to try to gain about 1-2 pounds per month while on the diet. I haven’t seen anyone else try to gain weight with Huel, so I am wondering if anyone has advice on how to go about this. Are there certain supplements I should be taking with the Huel such as vitamin d, magnesium, fish oil, etc. And if anyone has done something similar, what advice might you have for someone about to take the plunge? Thanks in advance.
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Hi @trowen
Depending on your size, if you choose to have Huel only 100%, you’ll likely need quite a bit of if you’re trying to gain weight. Make sure you include Huel Powders as your core Huels.
If you’re an otherwise healthy person, you shouldn’t need any additional supplements. Huel Powders have high amounts of omega-3s and more than optimal amounts of vitamins, including vitamin D.
If you’re currently not having Huel regularly, then I suggest you start with one or two Huels per day and build up over a few days.
While I appreciate the tenacity, let me go ahead and give you the answer to this test before you take it. You THEORETICALLY could gain weight on Huel as gaining weight simply comes down to maintaining a calorie surplus. The problem is that if you are already lean and you need to gain weight, the amount of Huel you would have to consume on a daily basis is mind numbing. Odds are you will lose weight while on Huel. I was on Huel for a month straight years back, now I do a scoop a day. It keeps the vitamins, fiber, and gut in check. I lost weight as someone who was already pretty lean. You would need to figure out your basal metabolic rate as well as activity and exercise and exceed that. In your case, that could mean over 3k kcal per day. In terms of downing that in Huel shakes it’s pretty unrealistic. You will get sick of ingesting that much Huel. I had a tough time stuffing in 2k calories of Huel a day and I was dropping weight. Something to keep in mind. If you want to gain weight you will have to add calories from fats, ideally nuts and that sort of thing. I wouldn’t use Huel as the mechanism to do that. You will be disappointed. Huel itself is amazing, it’s just not super calorie dense.
I thought of this too, and decided against it. Now that we have a nutritionist here ( @JamesCollier ) I too could benefit perhaps.
It’s not a good idea to gain weight with Huel though, no? Huel’s current products seem to be optimized for the daily need. So on a caloric surplus one would be taking in more of everything. For instance, more salt than needed. Which may lead to blood pressure problems.
Or vitamins. Mayo Clinic recommends: “Stay reasonably close to the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)”. Do you need a multivitamin? | Mayo Clinic Connect To gain 2 pounds per week, trowen would be eating about 50% more. Is this “reasonably” close?
Perhaps better than what @trowen would eat otherwise. Or maybe @trowen should go for 1 pound per week, not 2.
Hi @Alp
You’d have to really go some to consume anything close to high levels of any micronutrients with Huel meals! Overdoing salt wouldn’t be an issue from consuming Huel Powders.
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The problem is the logistics. One huel shake is only 400 calories. As someone who has consumed piles of Huel, it works better as a supplement than an absolute replacement, and even they suggest that.
Good to know, thank you.
Hi trowen did you decide to go on a 60 day huel diet? If you did would you mind sharing how it went and how you felt while you were only eating huel?