I am excited about huel 3.0!
I am skinny and want a medium/high calorie huel option for healthy weight gain/maintainence. The current version has this distribution in terms of RDA:
Carbohydrate: 15%
Fats : 15%
Proteins : 58%
A more balanced version of huel could have
Carbs: 30%
fat : 30%
Proteins : 30%
This would naturally have more calories because fats and carbs have more calories than proteins, and would be healthier (at least for people like me) at the same time. So please create this constitution?
If you blend in peanut butter into your Huel powder mixture you can kinda create something similar to what you suggest. And it tastes great.
And Dan can correct me if I’m wrong but I think protein is listed as 4 or 4.4 calories per gram, the exact same as carbohydrates. Fat is 9 calories per gram. But you are right that our bodies don’t use protein as a major source of calories to make ATP. Our bodies utilize fat and carbs for energy and only use protein for energy when those are seriously depleted.
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The DV (RDA) for protein is around 50g per day, but this only covers our very basic needs and prevents protein deficiency. The Western diet typically provides more, and Huel Powder does too. There are numerous benefits for including more protein in the diet than 50g.
Deron is right carbs and proteins generally provide the same number of calories per gram (4) while fat is 9. Although it takes more energy to metabolise protein which maybe where the confusion lies. We have more information on how the calories in food are calculated here.
The RDA is also based on an average person, so on an individual level it serves as a guide at best. It’s better to look at the macronutrient split which in Huel is 40:30:30 (carbs:fats:protein). You can see more here. Let me know what you think Anki.
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I appreciate your answer and I like Deron’s suggestion. There is one reason that you might still want to consider including a high calorie option: There are some products in market like Boost’s “very high calorie” drink. You can replace them with a more attractive healthy alternative, by simply tweaking the proportion of your ingredients. Cheers!
Thanks, thats a nice suggestion. I’ll try adding peanut butter powder to my Huel drink.
You might want to consider though that there is also a market for high calorie products. One of them is boost’s “very high calorie” drink. Your products could replace them with the promise of being healthier.
I go the opposite way and add protein powder, if you’re trying to gain lean mass a 1:1 ratio of carbs to protein is fantastic!
Thanks for your reply Dave. It is also much about fats. Fats carry a more calories and they are important for weight management too, and Huel is quite low on them. I am unsure about the 40% to 30% ratio between calories from carbs and fat. I think if a drink has more than enough proteins for your growth, it should ideally have sufficient amount of fats too.
Great point, thanks for your suggestions!
Don’t worry Huel has a good amount of fats. You can check out more [here], specifically the last section related to Huel. (Good Fats, Bad Fats, Their Sources and Functions Explained – Huel).
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Awesome, this is reassuring. Thanks!
I posted some smoothie recipes a while ago. Probably if you search weight gain or just my name, you’ll find them. I always add fat, nuts, something good for flavor, and long-chain polymetric fraction maltodextrin (NutraBio CarboMax). Is the maltodextrin bad for me? Probably. I don’t care. My shakes are like 1100-1300 calories.
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Ooooo my thin body would love a few 1000+calorie drinks.
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