1. Intermittent fasting - I eat breakfast at 10am and last meal at 6pm. Its healthier and gives you 16 hours a day that you don't eat. Much easier to stay on budget.
2. 2 vegetable smoothies + Huel Black powder a day - I have a 400 calorie Black Huel powder smoothie at 10am and another at 1pm. This smoothie has > 40 grams of protein and I also blend it with frozen spinach (other vegetables as well on occasion) and the spinach tastes surprisingly good frozen. I also add a few bits of frozen fruit for taste. My wife does the same but adds pb2 peanut butter power for taste as well.
Benefits:
a. Protein makes you feel really full
b. Fiber from vegetables is almost zero calorie and makes you feel really full. It also has ummm.. other reliable benefits
c. Every day you are reliably at 800 calories going into dinner so you only have one meal to count calories for. If you want to lose weight, go low carb or keep dinner 600 calories or under.
d. This is essentially the same system as Jenny Craig, except the huel powder costs about $2 a meal. Its cheaper than Jenny Craigs/similar $10-$20 a meal and therefore sustainable
e. Vegetables are really healthy and you will feel better from the antioxidants
f. (Expert level) - I regularly add a fish oil capsule, and sometimes ginger or turmeric for added health benefits.
I started doing this in an effort to make a sustainable version of Tom Brady's diet as I started exercising again in my late 30's and kept getting injured. The increased vegetables actually fixed the issue and now I find I can adjust my weight with the diet at will. Interested in other opinions on it :)
At any rate, good luck! I hope you find something that works for you.
This is my current approach as well. Took me a good 3 weeks for my digestion to adjust though to liquid meals 2x a day so be prepared for that. I've managed to lose around 5lbs the last month so seems to be working. I tried fasting but it was too hard to stick with, so the huel shakes for breakfast/lunch seem like a much more sustainable approach. And you still get a nice meal every day. Only drawback I find is with being in the office again - I am sorely tempted to get a hot meal with coworkers.
It's a fair point and the powder is indeed a compromise, its reliable, stores well, I don't have to cook it and is fast. Raw egg would be great, except you would have to separate the egg whites as 2-4 yolks a smoothie every day could be problematic due to all things in the yolk.
I started with Soylent and that product really is a chemical mess. If I could just buy the brown rice/pea protein and flaxseed without all the vitamin additives it would be ideal and I do look for better powders every six months. To your point however, it can absolutely be improved and I am always looking for better ideas.
2. 2 vegetable smoothies + Huel Black powder a day - I have a 400 calorie Black Huel powder smoothie at 10am and another at 1pm. This smoothie has > 40 grams of protein and I also blend it with frozen spinach (other vegetables as well on occasion) and the spinach tastes surprisingly good frozen. I also add a few bits of frozen fruit for taste. My wife does the same but adds pb2 peanut butter power for taste as well.
Benefits:
a. Protein makes you feel really full
b. Fiber from vegetables is almost zero calorie and makes you feel really full. It also has ummm.. other reliable benefits
c. Every day you are reliably at 800 calories going into dinner so you only have one meal to count calories for. If you want to lose weight, go low carb or keep dinner 600 calories or under.
d. This is essentially the same system as Jenny Craig, except the huel powder costs about $2 a meal. Its cheaper than Jenny Craigs/similar $10-$20 a meal and therefore sustainable
e. Vegetables are really healthy and you will feel better from the antioxidants
f. (Expert level) - I regularly add a fish oil capsule, and sometimes ginger or turmeric for added health benefits.
I started doing this in an effort to make a sustainable version of Tom Brady's diet as I started exercising again in my late 30's and kept getting injured. The increased vegetables actually fixed the issue and now I find I can adjust my weight with the diet at will. Interested in other opinions on it :)
At any rate, good luck! I hope you find something that works for you.
1) https://huel.com/products/huel-black-edition