UKC

Any runners out there used this as a meal replacement?

Looking for a (short term) convenient way of controlling calorie intake and hopefully shifting some weight for next years races.

Any side effects? Any cheaper alternatives that folk would recommend?

You should look out for the hour Dave Gorman spent on Huel. The Modern life is goodish prog on Dave

It's made from people.

People at work use it, no problems. No side effects that they've told me about anyway!

Was going to get some myself, not to control calories but to ensure I get enough post-exercise without eating cheese and bread all the time

I used it for a few weeks for the same reason, consuming nothing but huel 3 times per day.  The only side effect for me was that after a few days, it gave me a good supply of farts that smelled strongly of rotten egg.

I still use it from time to time, but only as a handy meal when I'm pressed for time.  Used in this way, I have noticed no side effects.

No, but advertisements for it pop up on my Facebook feed all the time so I think I must be their target market! 

Used it quite a lot for lunches in the summer when time is tight and it's hard to get decent calories in during the day. It's good for calorie control and I lost about a stone pretty painlessly over about 6-9 months. It's about 150 calories per scoop and i usually make it with two scoops and a flavour. You can flavour it with anything but the Huel flavourings are nice and easy. I had it plain for a while but once you've had it flavoured it's hard to go back. It's quite high in protein and it's good for gaining weight as well.

Any drastic change in diet will upset your bowels and that's not exclusive to Huel. If you start by using it to replace one meal and then build up from there your body will get used to it more gradually. Journalists have a habit of trying something like Huel and jumping into it for a couple of days replacing everything they eat and then denouncing it as their bowels can't take it. If you do any crash diet like that your body will take time to get used to getting it's energy from a different source of food.

It doesn't fill you up in the same way as a solid meal does but you get used to it and it satiates your appetite. Very few people use it to replace all their meals. I'm not sure about a cheaper alternative, I think the recipe and ingredients are all published so if you wished you could make your own but I doubt you'd save that much.