How To Use Huel

Huel is a meal replacement that is super popular among the busy and health conscious, due to its convenience, low cost and nutritional value.

No matter your lifestyle, preparing Huel can take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes so you can have more time to yourself, whether that be a lunch time walk or an extra 10 minutes in bed on a morning.

Huel can be used to support your goals, most commonly being to lose weight or extra calories to gain muscle.

If you aren’t already invested in the brand, in this post we are going to show you how easy it is to Huel and the range of benefits the meal replacements provide.

Read on to find out more...

How To Prepare The Perfect Huel Shake

Add cold water to your shaker’s 500ml fill line, then:

• Add 2 level scoops of Huel Powder
• Replace the internal grid into your shaker
• Tightly screw on the lid
• Shake for 10 seconds

More tips for the perfect shake:

• You can also use scales to measure your Huel
• To make the drink more chilled, add ice cubes or chill in the fridge overnight
• Add more water if you find the consistency too thick
• Use less water if you would like the consistency to be thinner
• Try replacing the water with milk or an alternative to give a creamier shake

You can also purchase Huel in a ready-to-drink bottle, which is already prepared to simply shake and drink. This means no preparation or mixing at all, with the perfect consistency and delicious flavour available everytime.

How Many Huel Shakes Should You Drink A Day?

Depending on the individual, their goals for using meal replacements, lifestyle and general overall nutrition, Huel meal replacements are advised to be used for one or two meals a day, as part of an overall healthy balanced diet.

The rest of your diet should be made up of balanced meals that are rich in nutrient-dense whole foods, such as fruits, veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats.

As many of us are often rushing to work with not much time for preparation, breakfast and lunch are better suited for replacement with Huel. Using Huel at breakfast and lunch could also reduce consumption of snacks during the day and satisfy hunger for longer.

Although it is possible to replace all meals with Huel, there are advantages and disadvantages to converting to liquid meals. 

Advantages

• Huel products especially Ready-To-Drink require no or little time to prepare and can be enjoyed straight away making it super easy for those on the go
• Nutritionally balanced with a good mix of macros
• Low cost
• Well-balanced diet including all of the nutrients that you need could improve your health
• Easy to count calories if wanting to lose weight
• No cooking involved
• Long shelf life reduces food waste
• All ready-to-drink bottles are made from 51% recycled materials and are 100% recyclable

Disadvantages

• Boring and repetitive
• Not tasting or chewing real food
• Hard to stick to over time
• Missing food
• Social situations such as going out for meals with friends or family
• Body not having a range of food types which we need.

How To Use Huel To Lose Weight

Using Huel for weight loss, as part of a calorie controlled diet, can be an absolute game changer.

Swapping a more calorie dense, less filling snack or meal for a Huel meal replacement can help you feel fuller for longer and use less calories. Huel meal replacements contain 20-30 grams of protein per serving, along with a balanced macro and micro nutrient profile.

Benefits Of Huel For Losing Weight

Huel ready-to-drink shakes help you save money and time on meal prep.

As Huel includes high protein, fibre and low sugar, it promotes simplified weight loss. Counting calories is super easy and allows you to grab a nutrition meal on the go.

Two of the key ingredients for successful weight loss are: simple food preparation and a caloric deficit.

Calories Needed

To lose fat, you will need to consume fewer calories than your body uses, which is known as a calorie deficit.

As an example, let's say that Sophie needs 2000 calories to sustain her body weight, based on her current lifestyle. Sophie works in an office, doesn’t do any workouts or go to the gym, however she does walk her daughter to school every morning which takes half an hour.

For Sophie to lose fat, she needs to ensure she is in a calorie deficit and needs to burn off more calories than she consumes.

To achieve this, Sophie could lower her calorie intake by replacing one or two of her meals with a meal replacement. Or she could create a calorie deficit by keeping her calorie consumption the same, but increasing her energy expenditure.

An easy way to do this would be walking more every day. Sophie could also start exercising, or if she already does, increase how often she trains.

It’s important to be aware of how many calories you need to sustain your current body weight, so you can make the appropriate adjustments.

As long as you are consuming less calories than your maintenance level - you will lose weight.

Sample Meal Plan Using Huel For Weight Loss

Breakfast- Huel

Snack- Piece of fruit

Lunch- Huel

Dinner- Chicken with vegetables

How To Use Huel To Gain Weight

Huel meal replacement shakes are the ideal addition to your diet when trying to gain weight. In order to gain weight, add muscle or build strength, you need to consume more calories than you burn to create a calorie surplus. 

Adding anywhere from 300-500 calories to this number for steady weight gain, with 700-1000 for faster weight gain.

Using Huel for weight gain is an easy way to get the extra calories your body needs.

If you’re looking to stay lean whilst adding some muscle mass, you’ll want to go with just a 300-500 calorie increase over your ‘maintenance’ level.

So - how do we calculate our ‘maintenance’ and ‘bulking’ calories?

There are a number of ways to calculate how many calories you need to gain weight:

1. Manual calorie tracking
2. Bodyweight multiplier
3. Harris Benedict formula

For more information visit: How To Bulk Using Huel for Weight Gain

Benefits Of Using Huel To Gain Weight

Huel is a great product for weight gain, as it includes all of the essential macros, and is super easy to prepare and great for on the go. All of the calories are calculated for you, so there is no need for you to mix, measure and add up your calories, this is already completed for you. 

Huel comes in many delicious flavours including salted caramel, vanilla, chocolate, banana, berry, cinnamon swirl, coffee, mint chocolate, original and unflavoured and unsweetened so you can include a variety of flavours as part of your diet, and you won’t get bored of the Huel taste.  

How To Measure And Weigh Huel

There is no need to use the scales, a scoop of Huel of around 50g is around 200 calories, your scoop is provided in the pouch when you purchase your Huel.

If you would like to weigh your Huel more accurately, you could use some simple kitchen scales and add water to your shaker's fill line, then place on the scales and zero them and then add your Huel powder for an even more precise measurement.

Huel Powder For Baking

Did you know you can also use Huel to bake?

You can create delicious recipes such as pancakes, cookies and bread and are all nutritionally complete.

The possibilities are endless, as long as you count the calories that you are using.

See below an example recipe from Huel:

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 150g dairy free spread (at room temperature)
• 300ml oat milk
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 150g Chocolate Huel Powder
• 150g self raising flour
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 100g dairy free dark chocolate
• 200g dairy free spread (at room temperature)
• 300g icing sugar
• 5 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp oat milk (plus more if needed)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 190C and grease the base and sides of 2 x 20cm cake tins with dairy free Line these with baking parchment.
2. Put the dairy free milk in a jug with the vinegar. Put all the other cake ingredients into a large bowl and pour over the milk mixture and mix until smooth. Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool then turn out onto wire racks.
3. For the buttercream, melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over simmering water. Whilst the chocolate is cooling down slightly, beat the dairy free spread and icing sugar together with a wooden spoon and sift in the cocoa powder. Pour in the melted chocolate and milk and mix until smooth.
4. Sandwich the layers of chocolate together with half of the buttercream then pile the rest on top of the cake.

Nutrition (per portion)

Huel Ready-To-Drink

Huel Ready-To-Drink has many benefits, with the top of list being how convenient it is to have your meal ready at any time with no preparation.

Other benefits include:

• Eight tasty flavours
• Simply shake and drink, no mixing required
• Easy to drink on the go
• 15 months shelf life
• Bottle is 100% recyclable, and it's made of 51% recycled plastic

Potential Risks and Side Effects

Huel is made up of plant-based ingredients, however some users can experience reactions as they begin adding the meal replacement to their diet.

The most common Huel side effects are:

• gas formation
• bowel problems
• digestive issues
• upset stomach
• bloating
• acid reflux
• heartburn
• headaches
• rash and skin problems
• brain disorders
• nausea

Most users don't experience any side effects at all as they are fairly uncommon. Those who do suffer the side effects usually find these disappear pretty quickly as their body adapts to the new diet.

The Verdict Is…

Huel is a healthy, super easy to use supplement, that when used as part of a controlled diet, can support your goals of losing weight, gaining weight or simply living a healthier lifestyle.

Huel can keep you feeling fuller for longer and can help you to reduce snacking and over indulging on less nutritionally dense foods, to help with weight management.

Although Huel powder is convenient, if you would like to go for the super easy option, Huel ready-to-drink meal replacement shakes are easy to grab and go alongside your busy lifestyle, so you never have to miss a meal again.

Shop Huel Ready-To-Drink.