@Andy_Smith (Andy Smith) posted a new topic, subject "Start of my Huel journey". It read:

   Hi all,
    
    First of all, a thanks to everyone on this forum, the posts were super useful in researching Huel and deciding to take the plunge!
    
    My first order just arrived today, I went for the vanilla and then the Mocha and Banana flavourings for a bit of variety.
    
    I currently weigh 86kg and am 172cm, so a BMI in the unhealthy range, about to tip over into obsese - which is what prompted me to finally give this a go. I exercise about 3 times a week (running 5km usually), and do plenty of walking inbetween, but general laziness to cook in the evenings is meaning too many takeaways and no calorie deficits, so my weight has been pretty consistent over the last year. Aiming to drop around 15kg which feels achievable, going to start off aiming to do 1kg a week but if the calorie deficit is too tricky I'll increase the amount of Huel I'm having to boost it a bit.
    
    Aiming to use Huel for 2 meals a day, probably breakfast and dinner during the week while I'm at work, as lunchtimes I'm generally pretty good at buying healthy stuff.
    
    Have read mixed opinions about easing in gently or just going for it, I think I'm going to just go straight into two meals a day and see how I get on, and cut back on the breakfast meal if I'm finding it tough.
    
    I think for me the evening meal will be the hardest, on days I'm running after work I don't think it'll be an issue but the other evenings and weekends I can see the urge to snack being high!
    
    Will update this thread with how I'm finding it a week in

Then @andeem (Anders Emretsson) said

    Good luck! 1 kg a week is a challenge but doable when you have some fat to lose. To make sure you lose fat rather than muscle mass, some strength training is recommended in addition to your running.

@Tim_Huel (Tim) replied

    Hi Andy,
    
    Thanks for telling us about yourself, welcome to the Forum  !
    
    It sounds like you have some good motivation and considering your current exercise I think you shouldn't find losing weight too challenging once you get your calorie intake under control.
    
    It might be worth working out how many calories you generally eat for lunch. If you are a creature of habit I imagine your lunches are generally quite similar. I would never weigh my food or measure calories every day, but I eat the same two breakfasts (for example) most days. So I worked it out once and now know approximately how much each meal is in calories. Along with my Huel, it makes it easy to know if I've eaten enough/too much/too little. MFP is the classic go to but at work I have a bit of software called Nutritics which is good too.
    
    All the best and keep us posted!

@Andy_Smith (Andy Smith) replied

    Great point RE strength training, thanks!

@Andy_Smith (Andy Smith) replied

    Thanks Tim. I've downloaded MyFitnessPal, Nutritics sounds good too, will have a sbernard@example.net. Worked out that my regular lunch is about 500 calories, which is good to know!
    
    A few days in now and I have to say I'm really enjoying it so far. Having 100g of Huel in the morning with the banana flavour, then 100g again in the evening with mocha. Finding I'm full in the evenings which is great as I was worried about that and snacking, but so far so good. I might try cutting down the Huel in the morning to 75g as 100g feels like a little more than I need, so will see how that goes

To which @Andy_Smith (Andy Smith) replied

    So a few months in, I thought it was probably time to post an update!
    
    I've gradually cut down from Huel twice a day, to once a day on average, usually in the evenings. Finding it's really useful when I've come back from a run, am starving, and the temptation is there to order a delivery. With Huel, it's so quick to make that it's the best option!
    
    Current favourite is blending it with a banana and some blueberries. I've also found that chucking in a teaspoon of decent hot chocolate powder makes for a nice treat when you need something sweet.
    
    Weight loss so far stands at 10kg, which I'm very happy with. I'd put a large part of that down to Huel, combined with tracking calorie intake and making sure I have a decent deficit (hovering at around 1,000 calories deficit a day, although I think I'll start to cut that to 500 now I've dropped a decent amount of weight).
    
    I think Huel played a huge part in getting my body used to a much lower calorie intake - the feeling of being full, and also having a nutritionally complete meal with very little effort is not something I think I'd have managed had I gone the “traditional” route and tried making healthy foods myself. I'm now finding that as I know one meal a day is taken care of by Huel, I can be a bit more adventurous with healthy options for breakfast and lunch!
    
    Considering trying some of the bars next, I feel like those might be a good pre/post cardio snack, would be interested to hear thoughts of anyone who has used them for that purpose

To which @IrishAidan (Aidan Parle) replied

    Nail on the head regarding strength training. Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle! (I'm a big Venuto fan)


{'source': 'discourse', 'url': 'https://discuss.huel.com/t/start-of-my-huel-journey/6104', 'title': 'Start of my Huel journey', 'views': 1227, 'has_accepted_answer': False, 'word_count': 936, 'like_count': 8, 'reply_count': 3, 'participant_count': 4, 'posts': 7, 'tags': '', 'author': '@Andy_Smith (Andy Smith)', 'participants': '@Andy_Smith (Andy Smith), @andeem (Anders Emretsson), @Tim_Huel (Tim), @IrishAidan (Aidan Parle)', 'image_url': [None], 'created_at': '2017-04-05T06:04:56.196Z', 'last_posted_at': '2017-06-21T15:40:51.518Z'}