I ATE NOTHING but HUEL for 30 Days and This is What Happened (Perfect Food for CLIMBERS?)
Hooper’s Beta Ep. 82
INTRO
Have you ever struggled to “eat right?” I mean everyone always talks about how a proper diet is so important for climbers, but then they say we need such and such amount of carbs and protein and fiber and vitamins and blah blah blah so you gotta get all these ingredients from the store and cook yourself these healthy meals like 3 times a day and oh my god who has time for that?
What if I told you there was another way? What if I told you there was a food that has all the nutrients you need, takes 30 seconds to make, tastes amazing, costs the same or less than regular groceries, AND is delivered to your front door?
You’d call me crazy, right? But as it turns out, this magical food does exist. It’s called Huel and it’s advertised as a “nutritionally complete food.” So I made a decision, in the name of being healthy and climbing well! I’m throwing out everything in my pantry to see what happens if I try to live, work, and climb on only Huel for 30 days.
Considering I don’t exactly have an “iron stomach,” this… could get interesting.
In this video we’re taking an up-close and personal look at what my mind and body endure while only eating Huel for a month. To that end we’ll take a series of objective and subjective measurements related to overall health and climbing ability and track those changes week by week. I’ll also vlog the entire process so we can experience what happens in real time. After that we’ll call up some experts to get their opinion, and then I’ll share my personal thoughts on Huel and the challenge as a whole, as well as my recommendations for other climbers.
DISCLAIMER
Right before we jump into it I want to be clear that this video is not sponsored in any way by Huel.
Also, remember that I’m a physical therapist, not a dietician, so take my opinion on nutrition with a grain of salt. However, we will be talking to a real dietician later on, so stay tuned for that.
ABOUT HUEL
So in case you didn’t catch it in the intro, here’s a quick summary of why I think this Huel challenge will provide useful information to you, our lovely Hooper’s Beta fam.
Huel claims to contain all the needed macro- and micro-nutrients in perfect balance.
All you have to do is add water to the powder and shake or blend it up, so it takes about 30-60 seconds to make and requires no cooking.
Each scoop is exactly 200 calories, so it’s easy to get the exact amount of calories you want; no more, no less.
It’s inexpensive, costing less than $2 per 400-calorie serving for the Huel 3.0 powder.
There are many different flavors which you can also combine to make new flavors so you don’t get bored.
Since it has the consistency of a smoothie it can be easier for people to digest compared to solid food and less likely to leave you with that “heavy” feeling.
It’s shipped directly to your front door.
Now if that doesn’t pique your interest, I don’t know what will! Let’s keep cruising!
THE SETUP
Before I start the challenge I first have to figure out exactly how many calories I need to consume each day to not wither away and die. A quick BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate, calculation yields 2700 calories a day.
Second, in the hopes of not getting completely burned out from just eating one thing all the time, I’m going to spread out the bulk of my calories between several different flavors of the Huel 3.0 powders, supplementing that with some Huel Bars and Huel Hot & Savory, all of which have the same balance of nutrients just in slightly different form factors.
Finally, I need to get my baseline health and climbing measurements. I’ll do this through a series of subjective and objective measurements which I’ll track throughout the 30 days. You can see all these measurements and more in the show notes, but here are some of main ones:
Max reps for pull ups and push ups
Max hang weight on the hangboard
Max vertical jump height
Body weight
Body fat percentage
Mood
Perceived energy levels
Cravings
And yes, even bowel movements
I’ll also get a blood test midway through the challenge to make sure I’m not dying. More on that later. For now, let’s get to Hueling.
THE CHALLENGE
Week One
Summary & Conclusions:
OK so one week in and I’m feeling pretty good! I go through normal ups and downs like anyone would expect, but nothing crazy. My stomach has a small adjustment period but it seemingly normalizes really quickly. I honestly feel pretty normal after just a few days. I’m surprised at how good I feel. I expected the first week to be a bit rough because of the major change in diet, but that wasn’t the case. I expected to have stomach pains, maybe diarrhea, and I honestly expected to have 2-3 bowel movements a day. I expected to be sooo hungry and coming back constantly wishing there was more food. I even expected I would go to bed early to avoid stomach pain or feelings of hungry. But… no. None of that. I feel good I climbed well, worked out for a long time, and overall just felt great. Honestly, I’m stoked!
Week Two
Summary & Conclusions:
Second week rolls around and…. Whoa, this is strange. So, Saturday night I am having a fun climbing session in the gym. It was a bit hot and I was sweating a lot, but I didn’t care, I had good energy and I was climbing. I didn’t drink a lot of water but that’s OK, I got my HUEL! Sunday morning rolls around and… what the hell?? I feel nauseous, stomach cramps, and really, just pretty terrible. The fetal pose is the most comfortable position for me at this time. Wait… I feel… hungover?? But I didn’t drink anything the night before??? What the heck? I sit on my couch sipping water and not moving because movement caused pain. I drink some Huel, no go. I eat a Huel bar, OK, this is a little easier. Maybe this will settle… An hour or so into this, I’m finally feeling better. And by that I mean I am not out of the fetal position. I get up, I get moving, and…. I even go out on the water (hey, couldn’t resist! I love being active!). It took me the greater part of the day to feel “normal” again. In fact, when a friend sees me a few hours into the day they tell me I look pale. I ignore it, because I want to be there and not on my couch in the fetal position but really, I could have been back at home. The day goes on and I feel better. I sleep, wake up, and I’m back to normal. I feel great, and the rest of the week goes off without a hitch. So hey… no big deal, right???
Week Three
Summary & Conclusions:
Week 2 and the Sunday Crumday is in the rear view mirror. I am cruising. I’m training well, I’m loving the lack of time needed for meal prep. I have all this extra time on my hands because I don’t have to cook at all. Living. The. Dream. What about missing regular food? Guess what…. I honestly am NOT MISSING FOOD AT ALL! What the hell? Am I turning into a robot?? Anything is possible I suppose. I am walking on cloud 9. My bowel movements… sorry to say it but I have to. They are the most consistent they have ever been. The timing is the same, the consistency is the same. Whoa! I’m crushing it. So much for a weak stomach! I have a blood test coming up too.. Oh boy, I cannot wait to see HOW GOOD I am doing on the molecular level as well. Honestly, I expected everything to be *fantastic* what could go wrong?? Having done research, and read even more of it, I was stoked to have some data justify how amazing I am feeling. But… then my world comes crashing down. Two days after the test, I get a call from my doctors office. Now, as a responsible adult…. I ignore it because why would they call except to tell me my results are THE BEST THEY HAVE EVER SEEN?!?! OK, next day… two more calls… Are they that eager to tell me how good I am?? I call back… “uhh yes high, we have your blood tests back and the doctor wants you to avoid foods that are higher in potassium for the next 30 days and then to get your blood tested again because your potassium levels came back high”. High Potassium?!?! So what? Whooo cares. That’s no big deal, right???? (spoiler alert, maybe not so right)
Fortunately, I am blessed to have many friends in the medical field, soooo I start to ask around. And my eyes… they grow wide. I start hearing the concerns related to high levels of potassium, and I am starting to freak out. Kidney damage, cardiac arrest. Kidney damage. Cardiac arrest. Uhhh… that’s not good. SO… I call my great friend (who we will talk to soon) Dr. Ellie Anvar and she tells me “listen, if you want to finish this challenge, you need another blood test TOMORROW otherwise it’s not smart to continue”. OK so now I’m officially freaked out. What the hell!!! I’ve felt so good! Now this “potassium” is going to derail me??? Uhh not so fast! Time for another blood test.
So, I get another blood test, this time making sure I’m well hydrated, and it comes back much better. I realize, I had start to become more dependent on Huel for my hydration instead of drinking water as well. I figure I am getting plenty of hydration through Huel… so I got a little lazy. My blood values are back to normal, and I’m just happy as a camper again, right???
Week Four
Summary & Conclusions:
OK, maybe not. In fact, week 4 is the “longest” week of the challenge. And honestly, not because I want real food or just something different. It is because of the mild anxiety I still have about the high levels of potassium. I am now counting down the days to the end of the challenge, whereas before I was pretty dang stoked on the challenge and didn't want it to end!. I am really conscious about my body and feel like my training and my health is what keeps me feeling great. It keeps my energy levels consistently high, keeps me feeling happy and healthy, and helps me in so many areas of my life. So, I now feel like I am potentially doing something harmful to my body and this makes me… stressed. And anxious. Every time I consume Huel, I suppress those feelings, but it is hard to shake. “Am I just being stubborn? What’s the cost to really finish this challenge?” This is the clearest moment I have about the connection of mind, body, and… food! Mental health is always important and definitely is such an important role in your performance. And if food is impacting that, keep that in mind with any food or diet changes that you yourself may decide to make. If you make a huge change in your diet and it makes you miserable, the physical benefits may be outweighed by the negative mental effects.
WHAT I HATED VS. WHAT I LOVED
So we’ve seen the vlogs and we’ve heard from the experts, but what do I actually think about Huel and the 30 day challenge now that it's said and done.
Well, here’s what I pretty much hated:
Processed food. I personally prefer to get my nutrients from whole, natural foods. Now I’m not going to get into the research for or against nutrient supplements, because that’s a whole other video in itself. Suffice to say that if I have the time, I’d rather make a home-cooked meal than eat something that was created in a lab. But, since I don’t have the time, I am OK with things such as Huel to get those nutrients.
Hot & Savory. To be fair, I think the Hot & Savory is fantastic for camping or backpacking, but as an everyday meal replacement it doesn’t quite cut it for me. It’s more expensive than the Huel 3.0 powders and doesn’t have as good a taste or consistency in my opinion. Additionally: there were only two flavors while I was doing this challenge, so I got bored quickly. However, they’ve since added a few more flavors so that’s a positive.
Inconvenient in large quantities. Since I had to get all my calories from Huel, I had to carry around so much water on climbing trips, which was a pain when I was hiking to the crag and didn’t have access to my car for a while. Then, I had to wait until I got home to make the Hot & Savory unless I wanted to bring a stove with me everywhere. I could have relied on bars more on climbing days, but they’re only 200 calories each so it still would have been annoying and I don’t like the taste of the bars nearly as much as the 3.0 powder. Also, if I wanted 600 calories from bars, that means 3 more plastic wrappers of waste. I would much rather them have a 400 calorie bar option to cut down on waste.
The bags. Man these bags are annoying. First of all, they never reseal easily because there’s always a bit of powder that gets stuck in the plastic closure. Second, they’re kind of stiff so it’s almost impossible to not get powder on your arm or sleeve when you reach down with the scoop. Third, the bags aren’t recyclable. Now, I understand that you’re probably reducing your waste overall by using Huel since each bag contains 17 servings, but it still just feels downright wrong to throw these thick plastic bags into the trash. Especially if you consume a lot of Huel, you’ll be throwing away a lot of bags. And to me that’s just not a good feeling. I wish Huel had a different system, like reusable containers that you send back when you get a new shipment. Overall, the issues with the bags might sound pretty inconsequential, but it’s something that affects my view of Huel as a product and company.
The bathroom trips - I did find it slightly annoying the amount I was peeing, at times it felt excessive. If I was really hungry, I would drink a lot of huel and follow it up with a lot of paranoid water consumption, which meant a lot of trips to the bathroom. It was mostly an inconvenience at work trying to pee between patient care, and may not be as much of an issue if you supplement your diet with Huel, rather than replace your entire diet with Huel.
Now you might be thinking, man, he really doesn’t like Huel very much, does he? Well not so fast! Here are the things I absolutely loved:
No diet guesswork. The number one thing I loved about this challenge and what I think almost everyone can relate to is the elimination of guessing in their diet. I feel like climbers in particular can struggle with diet because there’s so much emphasis on strength to weight ratio. It’s hard to know “am I eating too much, too little, or just right? Am I eating just because I’m bored, or am I actually hungry?” This kind of thinking can have a huge negative impact on your mental health. But with Huel, the guessing game is suddenly eliminated. I was amazed how freeing it felt not having to think about where or what I was going to eat. That part of my life just became simple and easy, and that made me happy.
Convenience factor. I don’t know about you guys, but my schedule is jam-packed. And I love that. I love my job, I love climbing, and I love making these videos. But making time for all those things can be a serious struggle sometimes. Luckily, Huel is soooo quick and requires no planning, so I honestly felt like I had more hours in my day. Without having to worry about each meal, I could spend that time focusing on other things.
Healthy digestive system. My digestive system was suuuuper happy during this challenge, apart from those couple of outlier days. Seriously, I had some of the best GI consistency of my life: no gassiness or stomach pain other than those couple of outlier days, and all of my bowel movements became clockwork. This obviously won’t apply to everyone, and I definitely don’t recommend just completely replacing all your food with Huel overnight. You need to ease your body into big changes, which is exactly what I did before this challenge by slowly incorporating Huel into my diet. And because of that, my GI tract was happy and healthy.
Saves money. As much as I try to make my own meals, it’s hard to resist eating out, especially for convenience and/or socialization (although that has obviously changed a bit with COVID). If you buy a subscription to Huel, I find it quite cost effective. And when compared to eating out, it can save you a ton of money. Without Huel, my monthly expenditure on food is normally around $600-800, but for a month of Huel I spent $450 and that was including the Hot & Savory and Huel Bars, which are much more expensive than my personal favorite, the Huel 3.0 powder.
Performance Boost: OK so let’s be real… in the beginning of this challenge when I was drinking plenty of water… I was super well hydrated. This higher level of hydration really felt like it gave me a performance boost. I was getting complete nutrition. I had a balanced diet. I was eating the right amount of calories. And I was staying super well hydrated. All of that lead up to me feeling like I had great energy for training.
No social pressure. This one might sound a bit silly, but it actually had a big impact on me. Huel helped eliminate the odd social pressure around eating unhealthy foods. As in, Jared wants to eat something unhealthy, and he’ll feel better or more justified if Donna makes the same decision. When Donna says “no way, I won’t eat that crap,” Jared feels bad about his decision, so he projects that into social pressure by saying things like “live a little” or “stop being so serious all the time!” Because of this challenge, I didn’t have to deal with any of that. I got to say “no thank you” to that sugar packed glutton treat because “I’m doing a Huel only food challenge so I can’t eat other calories”. Honestly, it was really nice!
Taste. Let’s be real… I loooove some of the flavors! Especially the flavor combinations! Peanut butter cup (chocolate and peanut butter), vanillamon (vanilla + cinnamon), and chocoberry (chocolate and berry) are diamonds. They taste delicious. And, you get to make up fun names for the combos. Side note: there’s a new flavor as well. Caffe Latte. Let me tell you… a little caffe latte with some actual coffee rather than water… a dream. It’s like getting a fancy coffee from a boutique coffee shop but with healthy HUEL rather than a bunch of sugary syrups. Yum!
THE FINAL RESULTS
Now let’s talk about the measured results. How did my body respond to 30 days of Huel, both mentally and physically?
Well, the physical changes were all pretty consistent with my expectations, considering the following:
Before the challenge, I had been training consistently.
I was already eating healthily and managing my sugar intake.
I wasn’t trying to lose or gain weight.
As far as general body measurements, I lost a little bit of size off my waist, thighs, and biceps.
I cannot speak for the accuracy of the scale / how I was measuring my body fat %, but I used the same system over 30 days so the results are precise if not accurate.
I believe the changes came from having a balanced, consistent diet every day with Huel. It prevented me from overeating regularly or over consuming due to “boredom” eating, so I did slim down a bit. I think I also slightly underestimated my caloric needs on my long climbing trips, so I was operating on a small caloric deficit on heavy active days, but that was just a few days out of the 30.
As far as strength measurements, I noticed improvements in my max weight hangs, my vertical jump height, max push-ups, and max pull-up weight. Again, this is consistent with what I would expect from my normal training routine, in which I’m performing exercises to improve in these specific areas.
So overall, I slimmed down a bit and saw some nice strength gains over the course of the challenge. Not exactly big, dramatic changes that’ll blow your mind and make a viral video, but who cares? These are real-world results which show that climbers can live on nothing but Huel for a month and not only stay alive, but thrive!
But this is just one specific case-study, of course. I think it would be really interesting to see how a different lifestyle or training routine would affect the results of a challenge like this. For example, what if my pre-challenge diet was full of unhealthy foods, or what if I had been focusing on endurance training rather than strength? Would the Huel-only diet have produced a different result? Based on my subjective measurements, I feel that introducing Huel into my diet would have had a more pronounced effect in that case.
Furthermore, what if I modified my caloric intake with Huel? For example: strength training with an additional 200 calories a day. Would the extra amount of calories BOOST me to better numbers? Could this be a new “offseason” training tool? What about the opposite: standard training at a caloric deficit? Would I maintain my numbers while losing some weight to get lean for climbing season? Or would my training start to decrease due to not having enough food?
These are all questions that I think are best answered on a personal basis. Think back to the nutrition video we did with our Dietician friend Savannah Miller. One thing she stressed is that climbers need to find a diet that works for them. Everyone will have slightly different nutrition needs, and you can’t take someone else’s perfect diet and expect it to work the same for you. Which brings me to the final section of this video: my recommendations.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
Okay, the big one: Would I do this challenge all over again?
Well… No. I don’t like certain aspects of a 100% Huel diet. As mentioned before I’m still slightly concerned with the higher potassium and sodium content and needing to counter that with a consistent high level hydration for a high calorie diet. Which is one of the reasons why I’m not only consuming Huel on a day-to-day basis now. But, the other major factor is that I do prefer non-processed foods and enjoy eating more whole foods, not just drinking all my calories. However, there are very specific instances I am curious about and would potentially use a 100% Huel diet again for the other training cycles I mentioned before. I am really interested in an off-season and peak season experiment: I would like to try adding 200 extra calories a day in the off-season to see if this would boost my training and build more strength. And then, in peak season, I would like to subtract 200 calories a day and see if I can maintain my strength while losing weight to improve my strength to weight ratio, and see if this helps me send some harder projects.
Second, and equally important: Would I recommend Huel for climbers?
Heck yes! I think Huel is awesome. It’s inexpensive, a huge time saver, and a complete nutrition that tastes great and makes my body feel good. So I definitely recommend other climbers try it out. It’s far superior to any protein powder or anything like that in my opinion. I want to clarify a couple things, though:
Your mental health is extremely important. If a major change to your diet is making you unhappy, it’s not worth it in my opinion. You should feel better because of your diet, not worse.
Keep track of your training, your goals, and your mental health so you can see which diets work for you and which ones don’t. Don’t discount the subjective changes like mood or energy level; these can have a huge impact on your life and climbing.
Don’t get stuck on one diet, fad, challenge, etc. If you don’t feel good, make a change. Better yet, talk to a dietician. It’s a small investment that will affect your entire life.
And finally, make sure you are staying well hydrated any time you make any major changes in your diet. Just because you’re drinking all of your food, doesn’t mean you can stop drinking water. Water consumption will greatly affect your performance, health, and mood, so stay hydrated folks.
Will I continue to have Huel in my day-to-day?
Absolutely! For me it has become an essential part of my routine. However, I still choose to get half my calories or more from regular food.
Favorite flavor and flavor combos?
Here’s my personal flavor hierarchy:
Choconut (peanut butter and chocolate)
Caffe Latte con Cafe (caffe latte huel with real coffee instead of water)
Vanillamon (vanilla with a dash of cinnamon)
Salted Caramel and vanilla
Chocoberry (chocolate and berry)
Salted Caramel Caffee Latte
Banilla (Berry and Vanilla)
Vanilla
Peanut Butter
Caffe latte
Peanut butter cup with banana (peanut butter, chocolate, and banana Huel)
Mocha Cinnamon (Chocolate with Coffee Huel and a dash of cinnamon)
PB&J (peanut butter and berry)
Salted caramel
Peanut butter and banana huel (I wish this was better! In real terms of real foods, that is one of my favorite flavor combinations!)
Berry
Chocolate
Yup, that’s right. Plain chocolate? Not my favorite. But that’s 17 different flavor combinations! And There are definitely more that I haven’t tried. So, one of them has got to work for you
Suggestions for Huel?
Make a Huel 4.0 powder that is more balanced for people with high caloric needs. I still avoid drinks such as gatorade or other electrolyte replacement drinks when I have a heavier Huel day because I don’t want to overload my body with sodium and potassium. Also, something better than the plastic bags would be great, although I realize that may be part of how they keep costs down.
And that’s it! I hope you found this video informative, or at least entertaining, and if you did, consider giving it the old thumbs up as it helps YouTube recommend our videos to other people. Until next time: Train, figure out what diet works best for you, Climb, talk to a dietician if you’re unsure, Send, consider adding Huel into your routine, aaaaaaand Repeat. Ciao!
Disclaimer:
As always, exercises are to be performed assuming your own risk and should not be done if you feel you are at risk for injury. See a medical professional if you have concerns before starting new exercises.
Written and Produced by Jason Hooper (PT, DPT, OCS, SCS, CAFS) and Emile Modesitt
IG: @hoopersbetaofficial