I’d love if they offered a version of Huel that still let you hit your RDA of vitamins and minerals but with lower calories. It works fine for me, but it’s a little high in total calories for my girlfriend, she’s trying to stay under 1500/day.
Hey @Taylor_Huston - How often is she looking to consume Huel per day and what is she looking for in terms of serving size per meal and snack?
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Hi. I’m not a professional, but it seems to me that the calories already are pretty low for the amount of nutrition provided. I use the powdered version, and most of my meals come in at around 400 calories. My girlfriend was happy to see some weight loss from using Huel and Soylent.
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Have you tried the Huel Complete Protein? They are just protein with vitamins and might help if the Huel Black isn’t working for your friend.
She’d like to use it for most of her meals. We’re both really bad about cooking for ourselves, so if we don’t have something already ready like Huel we order takeout. Ideally she’d like to be able to get all of her RDA of vitamins and minerals across 3-4 shakes at under 1600 calories.
I’m also interested in information on this topic. I’m in a calorie deficit of 1500 cal/day and would love to get my DRA of vitamins, minerals, and protein (ideally 100g or more) inside of that calorie max. Any recommendations? I’m happy to mix and match powders (black, 3.0, protein) but prefer not to use bars or h&s. Thanks in advance, Charlotte, you are always so incredibly helpful.
Great questions here!
Huel products wouldn’t quite hit the daily value recommendations for the 27 essential vitamins and minerals at 1600 calories as Huel is crafted based on the general 2000 calorie per day diet so this (2000 calories or 5 servings of v3.0 or Black Edition) is the amount required to hit the recommendations for all of them.
With that being said, many of the vitamins/minerals (like vitamin C, for example) will hit the recommendations at 1600 calories of Huel powder alone (v3.0 or Black Edition) so it might be good to have a run through of the nutrition facts label for the range/flavor she’s consuming to see which vitamins/minerals she may not quite hit the recommendations for at 1600 calories (4 servings) and go from there. Happy to help with this if you’re able to let me know which products/flavors she’s consuming.
Lastly, if you’re ever unsure about dietary and supplemental intake in relation to health and whether it’s adequate, the best way to monitor how you’re doing is lab tests over time and discussions with your doctor to see if supplementation or additional intakes of certain nutrients is warranted!
If it’s alright, I also had one question - Does she take any supplements?
I would ask the same questions as above!
Thanks Charlotte! I also take a daily multivitamin (NatureMade Multi for Him) so hopefully I’m hitting the RDA when combined with Huel.
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Hi Taylor, my name is Mike and I’m a personal trainer(not a nutritionist), but I have been on the Huel train for a while and I have helped clients lose in excess of 100 pounds. From experience, (almost) no (even moderately active) individual should be consuming 1600 cal per day. It’s really not a sustainable way to live. The quality of the calories matters more than the calorie number itself and some people do really get hung up on the number. I would be comfortable saying that you could consume as much Huel as you could stomach and still pretty easily be able to lose weight. Pushing 2400 calories a day on Huel is an absolute stretch, I’ve tried to do it. If you are absolutely sure 1600 calories a day is right for you, I would consult a medical professional to confirm that. In other words you should have them calculate your basal metabolic rate(with testing, not a straight line calculator) to figure out how many calories you are going through on a daily basis without any activity factored. You need to hit that minimum to have a functioning metabolism. Then you can start talking about deficits. There are simple calculators online, but those aren’t the best on dialing in a real calorie expenditure. The people that designed Huel have a team of nutritionists and experts on staff. The stuff in there isn’t random. Hope this helps.
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I’m interested in using Huel as a complete people food. Animals thrive on using the same food every meal for their whole life. For example my cat’s are thriving on Purina ProPlan kitten food (the vet said it’s ok to keep using it into adulthood.) Our dogs have thrived on their single dogfood also. I have for years hoped for a “people food” to use every meal every day. Of course with occasional special meals.
So I started the other way - I found RDA for calories for a sedentary adult male is at least 2000 calories. That would be FIVE MEALS for the Huel powdered products. the RDA for protein for adult sedetary males is weight/2 in grams . At 160 pounds, that’s 80 grams. Yet even for the low-protein Huel Essential, that’s 100 grams for 5 meals/day. Huel Black would be TWICE THAT! So I’m wondering if I eat enough Huel to get calories, which would be 5 meals a day, if I’ll be overdosing on other nutrients. I would think this is a basic subject, but I haven’t found it discussed anywhere on the Huel website yet. How about adding a section on Using Huel as an Exclusive Food. Or maybe you need to develop a food for this purpose. You could call it “people food” - a takeoff on “dog food” or “cat food.” What do you think, Huel? Is 5 servings of Huel Essential a good ongoing exclusive food for me? If not, what do you suggest?
There are certainly situations, like certain medical conditions or other specific circumstances, where a 100% Huel diet would be suitable and helpful. If this is your situation, we’d recommend talking to your dietitian and/or doctor and they can help provide you with some personalized nutrition counseling and intake goals!
That said, a 100% Huel diet isn’t something we’d actively recommend for most healthy individuals. This is because variety is important to dietary intake. Eating a assortment of plants provides a variety of phytonutrients, and it can get boring to eat the same thing over and over. Besides just physical health, we acknowledge the social aspect of food in our culture, and sticking to 100% Huel might eliminate opportunities to cook food or share a meal with others, foods used to celebrate holidays, etc. which can have benefits for mental health.
Most people who incorporate Huel into their diet use it during their most inconvenient meal times. For example, breakfast is often a meal people struggle to fit in, so they will have Huel at breakfast to ensure they are starting their day with a nutrient dense meal. 