Joys of (Soy)lent

This week I went through a life change, one most will probably call me a bit nuts for. I decided to go full time with Soylent. Just to be clear, by full time I mean I’m eating it daily, but it’s not all I’m eating during the day. I eat Soylent for breakfast and lunch, but I still sit down and have dinner with my family. I do this for a number of reasons that I won’t go into, but lets just say full time Soylent isn’t an option for me at this time.

My first day was on Wednesday, and it was quite the shift from my normal day. I’m not one to normally eat during the day, especially at work, so having food during the day was different. Different in a good way though. I felt like I had more energy to complete tasks. I’m not sure it was a measurable difference in my productivity, but this is something I should have done a long time ago. I didn’t receive any strange looks like I expected to, and things were fine, surprisingly.

I finished up about 32 ounces of the pitcher, which I had mixed the night before, which I highly recommend. This works out to be about 1000 kcal or so. I’m a pretty big guy and going with about a 500 kcal deficit and planning on about 1000 calories from dinner alone, which probably isn’t that far from accurate considering what I usually have for dinner.

I should note, though, that I didn’t switch to Soylent because I wanted to lose weight, I just figured I might as well cut the calories during the day and quit snacking at night, might be a nice side effect. Soylent was to get me eating during the day again, and not snacking all night to “make up” for the missed calories, which I would do and then some.

For my life, this seems like a good fit so far, and I’m going to order more, for sure. I started with a small batch just to make sure it was what I wanted. the tl;dr for this is it exactly what I was looking for. Now the review!

Taste

When it comes to taste, it is honestly pretty bland. The description of sweet oatmeal or pancake batter are pretty close. So far I haven’t noticed any grittyness which was one of the things I was worried about. It goes down pretty similar to a milk shake, just don’t expect it to taste like one! As I said the taste is pretty bland, but my taste buds have become accustom already to this, and while I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, it’s satisfying to the point where I’m going to keep going.

Texture

As I said above, the texture isn’t anywhere near as gritty as expected, but there is a bit. It is very much like a milkshake, which is good. The one thing I can recommend is letting it sit over night in the fridge before consuming. this has worked out really well so far, and I’m honestly not willing to try it any other way at this time. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it amirite?

Portability

For moving the Soylent around, I’m using a Nalgene wide mouth bottle. This holds exactly what I need for during the day. I was bringing the pitcher back and forth to work, but I found that it doesn’t quite seal all the way, so that wasn’t the greatest idea. It worked, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you can avoid it.

Thoughts So Far

For now, this will be my fuel for the day. I’m going to write up another post for next Tuesday to give my thoughts on having been on Soylent for a week, and to see if I feel anything is missing. I’ve thought about at least adding a protein powder, but we’ll see. For now though, things will stay just pure Soylent.

Full Disclosure

I did not receive any money or discount or anything else for that matter for writing this.

Also, I am taking a fish oil suppliment, but I may stop, as I don’t think I need it anymore, but only time will tell.

Stay Tuned!