Years ago from college time, I have always been wanting to do a diet experiment with Soylent. However, I didn’t really have the chance to risk my busy school life for it. After graduating from my college, the COVID hit right at the time. Under the stay-at-home situation, I finally have the time and opportunity to safely experiment my long overdue Soylent diet.
Knowledge and Diet Preparation
The first phase, preparation, is the most important part. I have to get to know the best way to prepare my body for this experiment and the best products I should use throughout this process.
First thing I did was taking a nutrition course back to the college time. It helped me better understand how much energy I have to take daily without having any health issues. This course also taught me how unhealthy I was before. I was not eating enough calories or protein to support my body at all. After some basic calculation, I conclude that I should eat at least ~1900kcal everyday as an adult which include ~250g Carbs, ~100g Protein, and ~65g Fat. I started a tracker to better understand my daily intake. This tracker can be done using either pen and paper, or some Apps you may find on your phone. I won’t advertise any Apps to use since this is a very basic calculation.
Next thing is finding right products to use through this experiment. I was taking some Soylent from time to time during college, but there are more products other than Soylent showed up in the market after these years. One of Soylent’s competitors is Huel. The major difference between Huel and Soylent is that Huel has not only powder but also hot food. After some research, I decided to use both Huel and Soylent through this experiment. My daily plan would be 400kcal Soylent powder for the morning, Huel hot food 400kcal for the lunch, then Huel powder 400kcal for the afternoon, and Huel hot food 400 kcal for the dinner. That would be 1600kcal in total, and there are still 400kcal left which will be consumed from fruits and Huel protein. Sometimes, I would have other food for the day, but I have been limiting the occurrences of this situation.
Throughout the Experiment
Before starting this experiment, I asked around about how people think about Soylent/Huel. Although Most people think this is not a good idea, I still decided to do it myself and see what results turn out with my own experiences.
I first started with Soylent powder for most of my calories needs, then added some Huel powder. This pure powder diet did not make me feel really well, but not too bad. During that few days, the most wanted food from me was hot food since I was just drinking cold powder food. Then I added Huel hot food. This addition resolved most of my needs for hot food. After these few days, I was able to steadily consume Soylent/Huel powder with Huel hot food everyday without many issues.
Before I started this diet, I read that some people have hard time pooping while drinking Soylent/Huel powder. However, I never had this issue. My pooping schedule has not changed much, and I don’t fart like crazy as described by others. Well, I do fart as usual people do. Soylent/Huel didn’t change me into a person without farting at all.
There is another issue mentioned by people who drink Soylent/Huel, the body smell. It was said that drinking pure Soylent/Huel powder would make one smell very bad. Through my experiment, I not only had Soylent/Huel powder but also Huel hot food, so I don’t know whether my opinion would count as a pure Soylent/Huel powder diet result. Anyways, I did not smell worse because of drinking Soylent/Huel powder. If there is a change in my smell, it would be a better smell result after reducing junk food or garbage in my diet.
Result
The result of this experiment is significant to me. I become calmer since I finally consume enough energy everyday. I don’t have to rush into food whenever I have time anymore as a busy student, and I become much more thoughtful while eating different food.
Below is a pros and cons list for better understanding.
Pros
- More mindful with what I eat.
- Have a set schedule for eating.
- Never need to rush to food.
- No regular grocery shopping anymore!
- Better mode.
Cons
- Not able to randomly eat out.
- Might crave junk food after a period of time.
- Pooping/smell issue from others, not me though.