I’m trying out a meal replacement so I can keep up my calorie intake while working, since I’ve been forgetting to eat while working and my partner says I get cranky (true). I feel like it actually makes me more hungry, but I just started. I’d really rather just have a meal, but don’t like working past my designated work hours. Anyone got tips on optimizing the whole meal replacement thing?
Depends on your goals. For me, I'm trying to keep my carb intake to below 20g/day. Which is REALLY hard. There is a meal replacement drink called Sated that is nutritionally balanced, as well as being extremely low carb. I find that eating something crunchy/salty along with it, will make me feel full and ... sated ... for many hours. So I'll have a piece of celery, or a "meat stick" (I get landjager from my butcher), or a carrot along with the drink. Also, drink the drink slowly over about 15-20 minutes. Take little sips. That works very well for me, to keep my calories down (CICO) and my carbs down (Keto).
Thanks for the link! It looks like an interesting alternative to the oat-based product I'm using right now. Any idea why the crunchy/salty side helps? I've definitely munched celery before to feel full. Your response also has me thinking I should be really intentional about taking my time with the drink, so I'll definitely give that a try too!
I think the crunchy/salty thing is just the animal brain. Things that go crunch tend to be more calorie-laden, so I expect the animal brain learned to associate crunch with "nutritional value". The nutrient-rich marrow is inside the bones, and leaves have little caloric benefit... so "crunchy = keeps me alive/makes me full". (Maybe. Not a biologist.) Americans are so programmed to eat fast... and that is not good. You can easily overeat if you just jam food into your pie hole. But if you take time with it, the body begins working on the first bites, and processing the food right away. Then you reach satiation earlier; aka, before you eat more than you need to. The biggest thing for me on Keto is that my portion size has dropped to hummingbird levels... and I'm a 230lb dude. But by eating slow, I take in far fewer calories, but don't feel hungry or cheated.
A quick healthy lunch could be pieces of fruit, some crackers with cheese or nut butter, and mixed nuts. Takes minutes to make and with no funky junk inside (unless you love velveeta). Pair it with slices of cured meat and you'll be full with basically no cooking.
I do love velveeta, but I'm trying to make sure I get all my vitamins and such. Sounds great, though I live in a tiny apartment with limited space, so my thought was that a meal replacement might hit the sweet spot of being not terrible for me and compact. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it further!
I've been using Huel for like 6 months now and I find that twice a day is my max for meal replacements before I start really wanting real food, but I imagine that's different for everyone. Sounds like your max might be 0 meal replacements :/ The one thing I can recommend if you're trying to balance real food and replacement is something like Huel Hot & Savoury, which is almost like a chili instead of just a smoothie. I find it's a pretty decent middle ground for "quick and nutritionally complete but still feels like real food". There are some days that I just have 3 smoothies and 1-2 bowls of Hot & Savoury.
I've actually been trying Huel out! To clarify, when I wrote, "makes me more hungry", that was a poor wording. I meant to say (as you also noted) that after Huel for 2 meals, I find that I am really looking forward to eating actual food (most likely) psychosomatically. In a weird twist of fate, my cousin sent me some hulled hemp seeds, which I've started added to Huel before blending together. This seems to work better! Maybe I'll give the hot and savory a try. Glad it's not just me who feels like eating real food after 2 meals of Huel!