IMO replacing all or most of your meals is crazy, but it is a heck of a lot healthier than most things I will eat out of convenience.
Yeah that's the main reason I haven't tried it (yet). I'm curious why you think it's a terrible idea though. Isn't one of their goals to make it cheaper/easier to eat healthy than to eat fast food? They're definitely not at that point yet, but that seems like a reasonable goal. I wouldn't want to replace all of my meals with it either (for lack of long term research and "utter joylessness"), but there's plenty of use-cases that involve replacing some meals with it.My vote would be "utter joylessness"
Soylent: 21 meals, 85 bucks = $4.05/meal Metagenics Ultrameal Whey: 14 meals, 42 bucks = $3/meal Just to pick one out of the sky, really - my wife does lots of meal replacement shit for her clients and this is the one I'll often have for breakfast 'cuz it's filling and actually damn good Soylent nutrition facts: Ultrameal nutrition facts: not in handy graphic format The highlights: Soylent lists itself as a meal replacement for maintenance, while Ultrameal lists itself as a meal replacement for weight loss. Right off the bat, Soylent clocks in at 670 calories per serving while Ultrameal comes in at 140. So that's 1500 calories you'll need to find elsewhere if you're going with the Ultrameal but hey - you've got $3 a day to do it. Soylent: - Has double the sodium (bad) - Has double the potassium (good) - Has double the protein (good) - Has the same Vit A - Has 1/3rd the Vit C - Has double the iron - Has double the Vitamin D - Has less than half of every other nutrient except Manganese So from a nutrition standpoint, you get more minerals with the UltraMeal but less protein and carbs. But from an economic standpoint, you have enough money left over for a Luna bar, a banana and three Snickers which pretty much brings you up to par. Here's the thing: Most people going for "meal replacements" aren't aiming for tastelessness. Soylent is basically doing the same thing every nutraceutical on the planet has been doing lo these many decades, only without any of that "flavor pandering" necessary to get someone who isn't interested in self-torture to bite. Soylent is marginally better than Carnation Instant Breakast but not by much. Pour a quarter cup of palm oil into your breakfast shake and you'll push it up over your calories. Or, fuck. Add peanut butter. Put another way: 3 Metagenics shakes + one Cold Stone Creamery PB&C shake = less money than Soylent, more calories, and a shit ton more flavor. Their entire sales slogan seems to be "do you hate eating? Well here's some food that hates you back!" and I just don't think it's a growth strategy.
You could. Or you could, you know, eat like a normal person. With any garden-variety calorie-counter app, you can track your nutrition and calories with remarkable accuracy. I've done it for years, although I'm taking a break this week.
I'm not worried about calories, it's almost all about convenience. I am happy to eat like a normal person once a day, but aside from that, I want to minimize shopping, prep, consumption, and clean up time, and maximize nutritional value. Soylent does this reasonably well. I'm going to look into creating a bar. If I can create one month's worth (20 servings) of lunches in a couple of hours, it would probably be worth it. I'll post.
Once more, with feeling: there's a lot of these out there. I had only to go as far as my pantry to find a Pro Bar "Meal replacement bars" are hardly uncommon, and there's plenty of discussion about them. The thing about Soylent is it was created by a man who, for reasons I don't fully understand, hates food. He wanted a way to never have to taste it again. Okay, good on ya, mate... but it's not like finding things to eat that are quick, easy and full of nutrition is that tough. I mean, the original powerbar is like 20 years old now. Sure - cook sumpin' but at the same time, there are plenty of choices out there.
Probar looks good, but it seems I'll have to eat the occasional multivitamin too: Also, no cholesterol, and not enough sodium. Granted, I haven't done extensive research, but every replacement that I have encountered seems to come up short when compared to Soylent. Soylent can't avoid its joylessness because it tries to put it all in there. When I was a kid, we used to mix all of the pop at a party together, root beer, coke, sprite, ginger ale, red pop. It always tasted terrible. Considering that Soylent is attempting the same, it's a wonder it is even palatable. Yes, I am that fucking ill-motivated when it comes to food. PowerBars are basically candy now.
It's also a little under your calorie count, if that's what you're shooting for. Tell you what: I'll make you a deal. The goal is what? 600 calories, 33% of RDA, under $4? My wife's on a business trip right now, but gimme a week or so and I'll find you a selection of berzerkitreats within your parameters. I may even throw them in a box and send them your way. Put a couple servings of Soylent in it and send it back 'cuz I'll admit I'm morbidly curious. Powerbars are candy but when you're looking for "carbs" and "low volume" you're gonna get sugars. Delicious, delicious sugars. Here's my breakfast: So which is crazier: a meal replacement bar with sugar in it or killing off your microflora so you don't poop? I'm goin' with the poop. ;-)
You've got a deal. PM me when you need an address. Killing off your gut microflora is insane. But to be fair, that was the antibiotic he took. IMHO Rhinehart does it for control issues, and I believe that many diets are largely about that. For me, it's attempting to be lazy and health conscious at the same time. I'm totally open to alternatives.
Well the point is that you can eat this every day and survive. I mean, that's where the engineering comes in. I bet mk's just talking about the boredom. However, Soylent is just a bit too expensive for me right now. kb below: 4$ a meal. I top that every week, just shopping intelligently. Sure I eat a lot of oatmeal, but...
Might be worth noting that it's $4/meal at its most expensive. Depending on how many bags you order and whether you get a renewing subscription, it works all the way down to $3/meal. mk also mentioned that each packet made enough for 4 meals for him, rather than the three that these calculations are based on. $3/meal is still easy to beat, but a bit better.