Hi, love the product, o
Just made a subscription order. As a type 2, 205 pounds, 5,9”, 63
I am doing 2 scoops at 5am, 2 scoops at 11-12 then regular dinner. Work long hours in office, not a lot of exercise… looking to maintain blood glucose, lose some weight, but not starve, right now hungry 3-4 pm, troll for sweets. Home at 6 and dinner. Do I need to add more Huel?
Taking a stab here. Former Type 2 DM years ago. 5’ 10", used to weigh 277 lbs many years ago. My A1c was 8.9 at one point. 145 lbs today. A1c last month was 4.7. Let me offer two things to try:
- Can you delay your breakfast by 2 hours? 5 am must be soon after awakening. Is it possible to wait until 7 am to have the first two-scoop Huel? As we sleep, our growth hormone and glucagon go up a little and should counter the effects of insulin a bit. Hunger should be mildly suppressed soon after waking. Most people should be able to go at least a few hours after waking before having to eat breakfast. Eating soon after wakening is more of a habit and not necessarily a true physiological need… unless you’re doing some physically demanding stuff. And even then, it’s possible to do physical stuff without breakfast first.
(I fast for 16 hours every day. I eat my dinner by 1800 - 1830 time each day. Go to bed around midnight - 0100. Then when I wake around 0800 I don’t feel hungry. I can go several hours and even do weight lifting around 0900 or 1000, and then eat around 1130. I’m skinny now and still able to do this even without my old fat stores. But, I had to train my brain to get used to going long period of time without food. Well, I say “long period” but now 16 to 17 hours without food is routine. My point is not to talk you into some kind of intermittent fasting regimen, especially since I don’t know what diabetic meds you may be on which may make a prolonged fast difficult. My point is to show that it’s possible to wait a few hours after waking before eating breakfast. If you force yourself to wait an hour or two later, your brain will adjust after several days.)
The advantage of waiting a few hours to start breakfast means that you’ll scrunch your breakfast and lunch into a shorter window, concentrating these 800 calories (2 scoops x 2 meals) into a shorter time window and might be the trick to stop your hunger feelings mid-afternoon. Then you eat your regular dinner.
- Second options is indeed to add more Huel to the lunch dose, since your hunger cravings are mid afternoon. This would mean you’d be increasing your total food intake for the day.
If the goal is to lose weight, keeping insulin down is the best way to do it. Calorie restriction is one way to help since the less total food you eat each day, the less total insulin your pancreas needs to make each day. So the first option is preferable. It may allow you to not feel hungry in the afternoon, while maintaining the same total Huel dose that you already are doing. But, if you absolutely must eat the first Huel dose at 0500, then making the 1100 Huel dose a 3-scoop is the next best option. It’s better than you trolling for something with sugar or refined carbs which can spike insulin.
I’m not trying to suggest you rigorously count calories. I don’t believe in the old “calorie-in-calorie-out” model since that is not the most correct way to view weight loss. Huel is a good product for Type 2 DM to use since the insulin response is rather muted compared to a meal with a bunch of sugar or highly refined starches and/or saturated fat.
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Some great points there from Deron.
You can also have your Huel over a longer period. If you take 15 minutes to consume your Huel try having it over 30 minutes/1 hour and see if that helps too.
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Thanks so much Deron!
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If you have type 2 diabetes your body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. At first, your pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for it. But, over time it is not able to keep up and cannot make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels.