Still hungry, help!

Ok, so I’m a 270lbs male, 6 ft tall Started using Huel over a week and half ago. 2 shakes a day with frozen fruit and 3 scoops of Huel, I’ve even tried 4 scoops at times and I’m still HUNGRY??? In the past I’m usually not eating breakfast and most times, not much for lunch, but when I finally do eat it’s usually fast food and a lot of it… I’m trying to get down to a sensible weight atleast 40lbs lighter. Been back at the gym, 7 weeks now 3-4 times a week 30mins of cardio, 30-40 mins resistance training, staying away from the fast food, so I was hoping Huel to the rescue. But as I said I’m still STARVING and craving fatty meats what’s the deal?? Everyone says their getting full using Huel, what’s wrong with me!?

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Huel fills me up. I’d recommend you make sure you are having enough huel. I use a Huel calculator I found on the Apple App Store to make sure I’m getting enough. Are you eating food food as well? Or all Huel?
You are also making what sounds like a dramatic change in nutrition. Your body and brain want the fast food from before. It’s like they’ve become addicted to it in a sense.

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I eat a sensible dinner, lean meats(Turkey, Fish and chicken) and vegetables. I snack on fruit all day, eat granola and oatmeal. But I’m still hungry… My caloric intake to lose around a pound a week is like 2800, which I’m way under everyday just about, and even when I’m right on the 2800 mark I’m still STARVING. It’s crazy!!

3 scoops Huel is roughly 500 calories. The frozen fruit is gonna add another 50 to 100 calories, depending on how much you use. Multiply that by 2. That’s 1100 to 1200 calories from those 2 shakes.

Using this calculator, your weight, and height, assuming an age of 30, and moderate exercise you need to consume about 3000 calories per day and you’ll still lose about a pound a week.

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

Even if those assumptions are off a bit or you are doing a little more or less exercise than “moderate”, you are still very shy of what you probably need. Granted these are estimates, but 1100 calories ain’t even in the same ball park as to what you need for your size and your physical activity needs. Your body maintains homeostasis and is telling you that you need way more food intake. Don’t worry about needing to eat more Huel. Huel has glycemic index of only 27, so it won’t invoke a strong insulin response. Also, your regular exercise will definitely improve your insulin sensitivity. So go ahead and eat more Huel. Add some stuff to it as well.

Your starvation is true physiological starvation. Not just some psychological craving. Your cells are telling you you need more calorie intake. If you continue to restrict calories like this and try this level of exercise, your body will just feel really, really tired and you’ll be constantly Hangry.

By the way, I am 5’ 11" and used to weight 277 lbs. Right now I’m close to 200 lbs.

One day I did a 35 mile bike marathon. I put down about 4000 calories that day and didn’t think twice about it.

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I remember when my wife was on Weight Watchers and they switch up plans to some sort of all the fruit and veg you could eat. A lot of people were gaining weight and the feedback was more veg, less fruit. When you say “snack on fruit all day” I wonder if you are getting a lot of sugar that is driving your hunger?

How much time is between breakfast and lunch? Maybe you would do better with spreading the Huel out more, three smaller meals.

It is curious because I am getting going on Huel and finishing up some Atkins (low carb) bars and shakes I have and I’m confused how I seem to not be as hungry … to the point I need to remember to eat.

Thanks, by the way I’m 43… more Huel? Wow, okay I already went through my first two bags in less than 3 weeks. I’m using a calorie counting app and with the Huel and food consumption I’m usually just under 3000 calories, the calorie calculator says I should be around 2800 a day a yet I’m still hungry. and definitely not losing a pound a week!! I’ve tried 4 scoops in the morning, 3 at lunch, with a dinner of lean meat and veggies… warm Huel, cold Huel and still nothing is curbing my hunger it’s crazy!!

Usually 4-5 hours between meals… idk it’s becoming very discouraging.

Have you tried a shake with two scoops Huel and 400 ml water for 300 calories? Do this four times during the day, about every three hours. Maybe the grazing is the trigger too? Even go all Huel plus dinner to get to 2800 calories.

I’m 280, 5-11, 60 yrs old and fairly inactive. Today I had a 500 cal shake at 8:30a and came home at 4:30p thinking I probably should do a second shake, wasn’t hungry but don’t really want to be.

have you tried adding fats or oils to your huel? maybe you arent counting macros like i am, but huel is largely lacking in the fats i need for the day so i add them to my shake in the morning. that should help control cravings and hunger. it sounds like youre burning through the very small amount of carbs that is in huel and then your body is telling you it needs more energy through strong lipids cravings.

I really like to snack on celery salad or something else low calorie while I am sipping on my Huel. I usually have my Huel with just water in the shaker bottle. Physically eating something while I am drinking seems to trick my body into feeling fuller than if I did not.

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Hello, Huelers! I’m having the same issue. I began my Huel journey nine days ago…and it seems I’m hungrier with each passing day. In addition to wanting to rid my body and life of meat, I’m also trying to lose weight. Utilizing the calorie calculator and entering my data (age 55; 200 lbs; 5’-9” tall; and a rather sedentary lifestyle), I need to consume 1,579 calories/ daily to lose one pound per week. Seemed fair enough. But, the hunger pangs are driving me batty. I was having two shakes daily with sensible meals as well. Today, I’m already starving for a third shake and it’s only 4:50 CST. What am I doing wrong? Should I increase the number of Huel meals I have per day…say, one every three hours, perhaps with two scoops of powder so as to not exceed my caloric intake? I currently use 15 ounces of water per three scoops and crush multiple ice cubes via the blender as well. Do I continue with the same amount of water for fewer scoops? Feeling dejected in Chicago. :disappointed:

Hey Drew. You may have been consuming a lot of calories prior to this new journey, so your body may be in shock. I’d maybe increase your daily caloric amount (whether it’s with Huel or another meal, up to you). Just keep the calories clean and healthy.

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You are confusing psychological hunger and habit with true hunger.

200 lbs, 5’ 9" means your BMI is 29.5. You are considered “overweight” and a half BMI unit away from being “obese”. (I am not judging. My BMI years ago was 38.5. Today my BMI is 22.5)

What I am saying is that there is no physiological reason you need to consume more calories than what you are. If you give it time, your brain will adjust. Give it time, and focus on lowering your insulin levels. Once that happens, excess fat will come out of adipose tissue and be readily available to make energy. When this happens, you will feel better, feel more energetic, and will (at least for a few months) actually do all of this while eating less . This is when your fat will be available to make energy, and therefore you will not need to consume as much food, at least until you lose a certain amount of the excess fat and then reach a new equilibrium.

Trust me. I used to feel the same way as you. I used to think that I “had” to eat a certain amount or a certain amount of hours since last meal. I then began practicing intermittent fasting and struggled with it for a few weeks. My brain threw temper tantrums, like a toddler. I laid awake a few nights feeling hungry. But I manned up and forced my way past it. In two weeks, I was used to it. Well worth it. I basically learned how to eat correctly. I had been eating food incorrectly for 30 adult years and I reversed that in 2 weeks. It was psychological torture, but well worth it.

Now, I did my research. I read countless examples of overweight and obese people who went for 2 weeks or more with no food and did just fine. In fact, once they got past the initial hurdle, their energy levels went up. Yes, by day 3 of no food, they had MORE energy and felt great, and kept it up for 2 weeks or longer. They lost a ton of weight and were perfectly healthy.

I do not bring up the subject of fasting because I think you should fast. I am not trying to convert you to the church of IF. Instead, I am pointing out the fact that overweight people can go for long periods of time without food. Everyone who has ever successfully done fasting (including me) say the same thing: what they previously thought of as “hunger” was all just in their head. I mean, yes, eventually a person will need to eat. However, there is no physiological reason that a person with a 29.5 BMI cannot go without any food (just water) for 2 weeks. Therefore, a 29.5 BMI man can easily live on 1579 calories per day. It’s just a matter of facing your inner toddler. Drink plain water or non-calorie tea/coffee instead of more calories. 1575 calories is plenty.

This may not be the answer you want to hear. You might end up blocking my posts. The truth is sometimes brutal and mean. (Trust me. I’ve been rejected by my fair share of women, so I understand this concept.) But take this from experience, I used to be in your shoes (figuratively, I didn’t actually steal your shoes.) You can overcome this. But you must first face truth.

Your answer does not lie with how much “Huel should I consume?”. Rather, how “much Huel should I NOT consume?”.

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Are you changing lifestyle habits too or are you asking Huel only to lose weight?

If you use the sensation of hunger as a reminder to do some weights or 20-30 minutes walk or whatever is your thing to DO before you drink water and some Huel, you’ll be too busy to think much about hunger. Also the retraining of habits helps with that psychological stuff that Deron was talking about.

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Truth can be difficult to bear, Deron…but it’s also liberating. I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve shared here in response to my post. It’s exactly the sort of answer I’d hoped to receive.

I’ve just reread this for the third time—and remain awestruck.

I’m going to double up on my efforts immediately given this wealth of information and support. Deep within, I know I can do this.

Again, my heartfelt thanks. I’m truly grateful for this forum and Huelers like you. Block you? Not a chance! Your insights are, in my opinion, invaluable. :smile::+1::+1:

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@Drew

This is me from many years ago (and my awesome dog). Then this is me now.

I don’t do this to brag. Far from it. I was obese for many years and I still have loose skin as a result of it. I also have carried with me a bit of residual insulin resistance from being big for so long. I can easily gain weight if I am not careful.

I had lost a lot of weight at one point by vigurous exercise 2 to 3 hours per day. But I still remained in the overweight zone. I was healthy, but it was very time consuming. And I was always hungry. Once I discovered IF, weight loss became much much easier. I still exercise, but not nearly that much. Weight management became much more proficient. I no longer view IF as a weight loss thing. It is just my normal routine. My biggest hurdle wasn’t the physical effort. It was a mental effort.

big%20Deron

small%20Deron

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That’s awesome!

Handsome pupper!

BD

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Agreed! Thank you, miked. I hadn’t contemplated the importance of this before now. :+1::+1:

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Deron, may I ask what your fasting regimen is (duration, etc.). As for exercise, do you walk/cycle/run in moderation? Thanks again for sharing. It’s very helpful to me.

Loving the pooch by the way!

Homer was a great dog. Alas that pic was taken many years ago. He lived 11 glorious years and wanted for nothing.

I worked my way up to a 16 hour daily fasting regimen. I first started by going 12 hours between my dinner and breakfast next day. I did that for about 3 days. Then I extended it to 14 hours per day for a few days. Then 15 hours. Then 16. I even failed a few times and had to remind myself it was only psychological cravings. It’s okay to fail a few times. Changing habits doesn’t happen like a switch. Sometimes you gotta struggle with it a while to topple over the tower. Gotta rock it back and forth a bit. (think of all the people who quit smoking. Many of them took several attempts before they finally could quit altogether. No different from trying to change your eating habits.)

Once I had gotten used to 16 hr, I then got into a routine of eating my last meal by 6 or 7 pm and then eating breakfast next day by 11 am to noon. Occasionally I wait till 1 pm. So it’s a range of around 16 to 18 hours most days.

I exercise in the morning in the fully fasted state. This actually took longer to adjust to than the fasting itself. When I first started doing this my exercise capacity was very limited. But that’s fine. It took almost a month for me to get used to this and actually be able to exercise at a good capacity. Although technically I still cannot exercise at the full level that I’m able to if I’m in a Fed state. but I noticed that exercising while fasted enhanced the effects of fasting in terms of losing weight. my exercise itself is fairly limited. Most days I do it is 30 to 45 minutes. I use kettlebells and a pull-up bar in a push-up stand at home. But I am not using heavy weights or going balls to the wall. For other types of exercise I will either walk or ride my bike. Exercise has taken a backseat to my low GI diet and intermittent fasting. it should also be noted that I stopped all exercise while I was getting used to intermittent fasting. I didn’t want to trigger any kind of psychological hunger response.

there are many ways to lower your insulin levels. Eating a low glycemic meal versus a high glycemic meal will reduce the amount of insulin released during that meal. Huel is a good example of a low glycemic food. exercise itself has an immediate effect to lower insulin and has a spillover effect to keep insulin levels lower throughout the day. It’s kind of complicated but it has to do with the fact that exercising muscles do not require insulin to uptake glucose, therefore the pancreas senses this drop in blood sugar and tapers off the insulin as you are exercising. , Ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting lower insulin the most. during the fully fasted State your insulin levels are only at the lowest amount necessary to keep glucose going into your brain cells. Ketogenic diet is simply restricting what you eat. While an intermittent fasting is restricting the time that you eat. But they are cousins of each other.

I’m not trying to advocate one particular diet or way of eating over another. I’m simply pointing out different ways to lower insulin. if you want to lose excess body fat, chances are the most effective way is to lower your insulin. There are many ways to do it. You can combine these or just do one.

there are many different hormones that have an impact on body fat regulation. Some promote the storage and some promote the release of fat from fat tissue. Cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, norepinephrine, thyroid are all examples that of hormones that play a minor role. but Chief amongst these hormones is insulin, when it comes to body fat regulation. Insulin levels fluctuate wildly depending on what we eat, how much we eat, and the timing of our meals. Our insulin levels also depend upon our level of insulin sensitivity, especially in our liver and muscle cells. years and years of exposure to excess starches and sugars cause our liver and muscle cells to become deaf or resistant to insulin. They down-regulate their insulin receptors or the response to these insulin receptors. As a result the pancreas has no choice but to release more insulin every time we eat a meal, in order to make the liver and muscle cells do what is necessary to help control blood sugar. on the flip side, our fat cells remain sensitive to insulin. And insulin tells fat cells to store fat. This mismatch between the sensitivity of our fat cells versus the other cells is the cause of us fattening as we develop insulin resistance over the years. Our fat cells in our abdominal area remain the most sensitive to insulin. This is illustrated quite well in body builders who inject insulin for its anabolic effect. They are muscular, have very little subcutaneous body fat, but they have big round bellies.

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