A lot of information to digest here but I appreciate the detailed response, I’ll have a good look over it soon when I’m not busy. I skimmed over and noticed you also use Huel. I am going to make a second order with a few extra products they sell to try them out, do you have a referral code so you can get £10 off your next order?
All Huel are good at are clever marketing they prey on people’s insecurities.
Simple way to lose weight is to ensure you’re in a calorie deficit, eating perfectly normal things is all that’s needed.
Plenty apps about to track calories and help with this.
The only use case I can see for Huel and other competitors are for those people who have to be on a liquid diet due to illness
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I do, I’ve sent it over on DM but think it might just work on first order 
@DaveJ I think you’ve missed the other use cases given in this thread - one being that it’s quicker to prepare than most other meals.
I work 3 jobs but still manage to make actual food in the limited time I have left over
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I don’t think that invalidates other people’s lifestyle. Not everyone is capable of creating well balanced meals so why not give them an alternative. I can’t speak for the competitors but Huel’s website reads more like a nutritional than a weight loss product to me.
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Exactly this. Huel and their competitors are food. Not weight loss products. Not nutritional supplements. Not meal replacements. Not liquid diets. They are food. Or more precisely, nutritionally complete meals that are healthier than most meals people consume with ordinary food.
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At home at the moment so on normal lunches with the 2 hours a day I am saving not travelling to work - really didn’t enjoy Huel myself the taste wasn’t great.
Yfood sounds like it could be the one for me (the chocolate sounds delicious!) - want to try a trial pack but I feel it would be wasted on me as I cannot have caffeine so on the lookout for an odd bottle.
Forgive the ignorance but are you supposed to use these as a permanent replacement or just short term?
If it’s the latter, would it not be difficult to switch from essentially having chocolate everyday to a simple sandwich for example? Are you not setting yourself up for more difficulties transitioning back to “normal eating” later down the line?
This is when I start thinking along the same lines as @DaveJ where just eating portion controlled meals in moderation would be better long term?
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I used to use Huel only as my lunch meal replacement because it was easier to do in the morning and also meant I wasn’t buying food at lunch so saving money.
WFH meant I had more time so just made lunch - I got through a bag of huel though and sold the other one.
When I go back to work on site will go back to RTD for lunch - it’s just easier and more convenient.
I am in good shape though (I think) run 35+ miles a week managed 10K steps a day every day this year so far and eat well. It’s just for ease for me to be honest.
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It’s entirely up to you if you want to use them in the short term to help achieve a specific goal. They’re not a weight loss product, but they way they work makes it easier to manage and track, so you can use them in the short term for that.
I think they are primarily intended to be a long term addition to your regular diet. They contain all the nutrients you need and would otherwise get from a well balanced meal. So if you don’t have the best of diets, and need that nutritional boost in a format that’s easier than adapting to cooking and consuming the perfect meal, they’re great for that. Likewise if you’re short on time, or travelling, they’re perfect for replacing your Tesco meal deal or to avoid McDonald’s on your lunch break.
You could also, if you wanted to, replace your ordinary food entirely with them, though given that they’re a new food concept, there are no studies that look at any long term effects that might have. I’ve been doing that for quite a while (sans the occasional snack or pizza, because I love pizza) because I don’t like most food. My diet is much healthier compared to what I used to eat. And the effects of that are evident in the condition or my skin, hair, and energy levels. I’m also no long iron deficient.
In the very long term, and what these foods were initially designed for, is to be a more sustainable format of food, in an effort to cure world hunger, and help cope food demand in situations exactly like what we’re in now, while remaining balanced and healthy. I don’t know how it’s like in other parts of the country, but at least in the early days of the pandemic affecting the U.K., it was incredibly difficult finding all the food you needed to maintain a balanced diet, even with limits on products, a lot of the isles were empty by the afternoon. Meanwhile my pantry is stocked full of Saturo and Yfood and are good thru 2021, with my monthly supply remaining uninterrupted, despite the substantially increased demand that these companies are now under.
I’m not sure if they will let you order just 6 bottles, but a single pack of 6 chocolate bottles is roughly the same price as the starter pack. You’ll miss out on the bars though, and that white chocolate one is to die for!
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That sounds good!
I guess I’m just a bit of a scrooge too, as these are really expensive compared to just making a something simple at home. I understand that peoples needs are different though and if that works for them, then great 
There’s a guy at my work also claims to have no time to make lunch each day. Instead he uses a website (I forgot the name) that gives him a bunch of ingredients and it makes a variety of meals. So on Sunday night he does this and batch makes all his meals for the entire week, all portion controlled, nice and healthy using fresh ingredients and he comes in with some really nice stuff 
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In terms of price, right now I think the main comparison given how they’re currently marketed, at least for the ready to drink versions are £3 meal deals, and they’re priced to compete with those. If you’re replacing meal deals and fast food, it’s likely going to be cheaper and healthier diet.
As the industry matures and scales, and the products go through revisions, the price should gradually come down, or at the very least not be rising with inflation (or doing shrinkflation). It’s very much still the early days for this industry, and we’re gonna see a lot of companies pop up to try and get a share of the market, similar to what’s currently happening with fintechs.
That’s dedication!
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There’s a whole world of #mealprepsundays out there too. People box up literally everythign they will eat for a week in pre made portions.
I love the concept of it but barely have space for a couple of days…
On the space food front, the key thing with it is, like with all foods, you can use it to aid weight loss, if you are managing your calorie intake. CICO is where it is at. With things like huel, it’s made a little bit easier, as you can standardise fairly easily those numbers.
You know 1 bottle = XXX calories every time. Whereas if you are cooking at home, it’s harder to get right, either down to having the right data, or just taking time to calculate it.
It is haha!
I keep meaning to give it a go just for the variety side of things because he claims it doesn’t take more than an hour. It also means I can have a bit of a lie in each morning instead of getting up to make my lunch for work 
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Sounds interesting, if you do get the site name please share.
Tried the yfood sampler and I was impressed. My wife hates saturo (says it doesn’t taste like milkshake at all, although it does to me, although I admit it’s a bit bland) but really likes yfood… it’d be interesting if she got into it for lunches as well.
Comes from germany as well as saturo, so 1-2 week delivery… I wonder if anyone from the UK will ever start a competitor.
I really want to clear my saturo stock so I can get my order in to get some limited edition coconut 
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I just placed an order and used a different email so I could use your link, glad we could both get some money off 
Thanks for the replies as well, you and everyone else on the thread have been helpful and It’s much appreciated!
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Both drinks are actually made in the same factory in Austria! Huel’s EU version is made in that Austrian factory too, so the number of places capable of making and packing these foods must be quite slim. Bizarrely Soylent is made in the UK though, so I’m not sure why Huel couldn’t be made here, because right now the UK version is imported from the US.
Huel is the UK competitor to Yfood, they’re just oat-based, rather than soy or milk like Saturo and YFood respectively. I love Saturo and think it personally tastes like a slightly savoury almost dark chocolate milkshake with a hint of something nutty. It’s nice enough that I find it to be similar to milkshake, but not as sweet, that I’m able to tolerate it regularly.
But whatever it is, that gives it that milkshake but not quite right vibe seems to put people off when I’ve offered it to them to try. I’ve noted similar taste or texture issues with most other drinks when people have tried them too. I guess because they look exactly like chocolate milk, but don’t quite taste how they expect chocolate milk to taste.
That hasn’t been an issue with Yfood. It very much looks and tastes like a milkshake, but is real food. It’s quite the feat. With that said, they taste a little too milkshake like, which includes being sweet. Yfood is certainly the nicer tasting drink, but i still find myself reaching for Soylent more often, because I prefer the more savoury taste it overall.
Random question, but then we live in strange times…
What’s the minimum age these products are designed for? Toddlers?! I’m guessing teens, right?
From some anecdotal evidence, it seems these products are gaining popularity among autistics. Total control and consistency in itself is attractive.
It could be a good way to help autistic kids and teens in particular, who struggle to get a balanced diet and can suffer some form of malnutrition, often mistaken for anorexia etc., when what they want is food that is more like fuel…
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It’s based on an adult diet… a teenager needs more calories per day and a child needs less, so you could scale it either way. Probably a bit expensive to be used everywhere like that, though.