Soylent 2.0 based diet - 90 lb weight loss goal

MaryMurrah
MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone

I'll be using this thread to document my Soylent journey! My overall weight loss goal is 90lbs. Please add me as a friend on MFP! I love talking to new people and encouraging friends along the way. I'll use this thread to post my thoughts daily but I do updates on my personal timeline 2x-3x / day.



Day 1: Saturday 3/11/17 - #SelfCareSaturday
I ordered a shipment of Soylent for an extremely low price and received 120 bottles Friday night. I feel so bad for the delivery person. I tried a bottle last night for dinner and I love it. Side note: I might want to carry a small toothbrush with me to deal with this fuzzy white tongue business. I need a tongue scraper anyway.

This is 40 days worth of meals, based on a 1200 calorie diet. I've been hovering at 1500 cal for a while and I want to use Soylent to bring myself down those extra calories. I'm not sure I'll get forty 100% Soylent days but I'm going to choose Soylent for as many meals for the next month or so.

I will be buying women's multivitamins to maintain my iron levels and make sure I'm keeping up with all around vitamins. I think I might try to eat celery and drink Soylent when taking vitamins- if you have success with this or know more please let me know. I might be paranoid about vitamins in my stomach without heavy food similar to taking an antibiotic on an empty stomach. I'm not currently on any medication but I don't want to ruin my stomach with vitamins.

#SelfCareSaturday is my weekly reminder to take care of myself. I'm about to take a shower and head to therapy. My therapist and I are working on some serious trauma and I'm really proud of the work I'm doing. It's really hard and it hurts a lot. But I have therapy goals and I hope you'll all get to see that progress too.
Normally on #SelfCareSaturdays I'll head to therapy and then go to Trader Joe's. I have a lot of issues but my self-medicating has spawned into ugly habits surrounding food and money. I spent a lot of money on food and for the past 2 years purchased lunch every day at work. I'm broke and in debt and know exactly what my problem is. So I had been trying to address my lunch problem by going to the grocery store right after therapy. I'm not too hungry after therapy, and my mind is centered on my goals. I'll buy a small cart of groceries for the week and sometimes walk home from the store. This had been successful for a while because I was spending a lot at Trader Joe's and didn't have the funds to spend on lunch. I was able to put away $20 after groceries and didn't spend on lunch, but I was still spending a lot on food. Now that my pantry is established with spices and bulk ingredients, I'm not spending money at the grocery store on the right items. I haven't been organizing recipes or meals. I'm using this Soylent diet to re-prioritize my relationship with food.

Today's food diary/food plan:
I started drinking my breakfast 2.0 at about 9am and finished at 10:15. I've been full since my first sip and plan to have lunch 2.0 at 1pm. I'll be drinking tons of water today too.
I am working an event tonight featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo at 6pm so I'll be on my feet. I'll probably have dinner at 5:30-6:15 and that will be another 2.0.

I won't pack a 2.0 as a snack because i want to make myself come home and decide to eat instead of just eating as a response to boredom during/after my shift. I should be home by 10pm.

Anyone else drinking Soylent/alternative meal replacements? Post a reply!

Have thoughts on my plans? I'm all ears!

Feel free to add me on MFP so we can cheer each other on! :)

«13

Replies

  • GettingFit5551
    GettingFit5551 Posts: 110 Member
    edited March 2017
    I don't know anything about Soylent, but am interested in your journey. I don't know your story either, but seems that money spent on food at Traders Joe's for your meals would not be a waste of money. But purchasing 120 bottles of Soylent has got to be expensive!

    I wish you the best on your journey!
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    OP what are your current stats (height, weight)?

    Do you exercise?

    You said you wanted to lose 90 lbs and were at a calorie target of 1500 - how long were you at that calorie target? Were you logging the foods you eat, accurately, ideally using a food scale? Did you lose weight? At what rate?

    Do you enjoy food? Cooking?
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
    Some thoughts -

    1. I don't know what soylent is but I'm gathering it's a meal replacement shake. I'm probably one of the rare people that actually likes to drink their calories but I choose not to because I tend to drink too many when I do that. I could see using shakes as a method of changing a habit but wouldn't recommend it long term. It really is true that you need to lose weight in a sustainable way and drinking your calories for the rest of your life won't likely be sustainable. So maybe once you get through this first bit of shakes you might consider transitioning to cooking and eating regular meals so the rest of your weight loss can be spent learning portion control. Just a thought....

    2. I have found that overeating and overspending often go hand in hand. You might seriously consider reading the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It's an excellent method of getting out of debt. You may find that the principles he teaches actually go hand in hand with your weight loss. We found every one of his principles to be spot on and I have found it very helpful for both finances and food endeavors.

    3. Congratulations on seeing your need for therapy and getting it. Until you deal with the trauma that led to overeating and weight gain, keeping weight off (and even losing) would be difficult. While the method I used is different, I can tell you the rewards are worth it. And yes! It is HARD work. Keep at it, and don't give up. My practitioner said to me one time that it is really very few people who choose to face trauma head on and grow from it. Our innate desire is to avoid pain. So facing things head on is no small task. Good for you!

    4. Finally, you might also consider using the book The Beck Diet Solution on your weight loss journey. She teaches cognitive behavioral therapy as a means of both losing and maintaining weight loss. It is strictly behavioral therapy. It's been an excellent tool for me along the way and I can't recommend it highly enough. When I first started MFP I saw someone recommend it to another person and it is one of the best pieces of advice I've read on here.

    Best wishes to you on your journey. But please, definitely consider your soylent shakes as temporary. Your success will be much greater with just regular food.
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited March 2017
    ronjsteele1 wrote: »
    Some thoughts -

    1. I don't know what soylent is but I'm gathering it's a meal replacement shake. I'm probably one of the rare people that actually likes to drink their calories but I choose not to because I tend to drink too many when I do that. I could see using shakes as a method of changing a habit but wouldn't recommend it long term. It really is true that you need to lose weight in a sustainable way and drinking your calories for the rest of your life won't likely be sustainable. So maybe once you get through this first bit of shakes you might consider transitioning to cooking and eating regular meals so the rest of your weight loss can be spent learning portion control. Just a thought....

    2. I have found that overeating and overspending often go hand in hand. You might seriously consider reading the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It's an excellent method of getting out of debt. You may find that the principles he teaches actually go hand in hand with your weight loss. We found every one of his principles to be spot on and I have found it very helpful for both finances and food endeavors.

    3. Congratulations on seeing your need for therapy and getting it. Until you deal with the trauma that led to overeating and weight gain, keeping weight off (and even losing) would be difficult. While the method I used is different, I can tell you the rewards are worth it. And yes! It is HARD work. Keep at it, and don't give up. My practitioner said to me one time that it is really very few people who choose to face trauma head on and grow from it. Our innate desire is to avoid pain. So facing things head on is no small task. Good for you!

    4. Finally, you might also consider using the book The Beck Diet Solution on your weight loss journey. She teaches cognitive behavioral therapy as a means of both losing and maintaining weight loss. It is strictly behavioral therapy. It's been an excellent tool for me along the way and I can't recommend it highly enough. When I first started MFP I saw someone recommend it to another person and it is one of the best pieces of advice I've read on here.

    Best wishes to you on your journey. But please, definitely consider your soylent shakes as temporary. Your success will be much greater with just regular food.

    Look it up-pretty nasty stuff. I love how its long shelf life and no need for refrigeration is promoted as a good thing (shudder).

    eta: it sounds like OP is only going to be doing the drinks. No veggies, no fruit, no real food at all.
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
    crzycatlady1 wrote: »

    Look it up-pretty nasty stuff. I love how its long shelf life and no need for refrigeration is promoted as a good thing (shudder).

    :s I don't do anything soy and I'm assuming by it's name it's soy based. I have found most meal replacement shakes to be abysmal in nutrients and ingredients. If I'm going to drink my calories I'm going to make my own protein shakes. They just taste so much better and I can control what goes into them. I'm more of a whole foodie person anyways. That said, I still like drinking my calories so I just stay away from caloric drinks (even homemade) unless I'm sick or have a specific need for one. It's just way too easy for me to overshoot my calories. I know most people aren't like that though.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Keep us updated with how you feel physically. Idk much about soylet drinks, but I'm fairly sure the end result will be a liquidation.
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    tracyh12341 wrote: »
    I don't know anything about Soylent, but am interested in your journey. I don't know your story either, but seems that money spent on food at Traders Joe's for your meals would not be a waste of money. But purchasing 120 bottles of Soylent has got to be expensive!

    I wish you the best on your journey!

    The Trader Joe's thing has shown me how I'm not great at budgeting and planning for 1 person. It was easy to establish a pantry but I'm finding myself wasting perishable items because I'm not able to eat all of the food before it goes bad. A bag of kale doesn't go bad for 5 days but by day 3 I'm sick of having it for every meal. If I don't put it in every meal, I can't finish it by the time it goes bad.

    I was able to get 120 bottles for $75. Not a Soylent plug but due to another person finding they're unable to drink due to taste.
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    ronjsteele1 wrote: »
    Some thoughts -

    1. I don't know what soylent is but I'm gathering it's a meal replacement shake. I'm probably one of the rare people that actually likes to drink their calories but I choose not to because I tend to drink too many when I do that. I could see using shakes as a method of changing a habit but wouldn't recommend it long term. It really is true that you need to lose weight in a sustainable way and drinking your calories for the rest of your life won't likely be sustainable. So maybe once you get through this first bit of shakes you might consider transitioning to cooking and eating regular meals so the rest of your weight loss can be spent learning portion control. Just a thought....

    2. I have found that overeating and overspending often go hand in hand. You might seriously consider reading the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It's an excellent method of getting out of debt. You may find that the principles he teaches actually go hand in hand with your weight loss. We found every one of his principles to be spot on and I have found it very helpful for both finances and food endeavors.

    3. Congratulations on seeing your need for therapy and getting it. Until you deal with the trauma that led to overeating and weight gain, keeping weight off (and even losing) would be difficult. While the method I used is different, I can tell you the rewards are worth it. And yes! It is HARD work. Keep at it, and don't give up. My practitioner said to me one time that it is really very few people who choose to face trauma head on and grow from it. Our innate desire is to avoid pain. So facing things head on is no small task. Good for you!

    4. Finally, you might also consider using the book The Beck Diet Solution on your weight loss journey. She teaches cognitive behavioral therapy as a means of both losing and maintaining weight loss. It is strictly behavioral therapy. It's been an excellent tool for me along the way and I can't recommend it highly enough. When I first started MFP I saw someone recommend it to another person and it is one of the best pieces of advice I've read on here.

    Best wishes to you on your journey. But please, definitely consider your soylent shakes as temporary. Your success will be much greater with just regular food.

    Look it up-pretty nasty stuff. I love how its long shelf life and no need for refrigeration is promoted as a good thing (shudder).

    eta: it sounds like OP is only going to be doing the drinks. No veggies, no fruit, no real food at all.

    I'm definitely not trying to go 100% 24/7 Soylent. For me, I'm using this first day to see how I feel physically. I really enjoy carrots, nuts, apples, kale, spinach, and chicken. I want to use Soylent to reprioritize my relationship with food.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I wouldn't do it but I'm curious how this turns out. Could you blog it and post a link here? Self care Saturdays sound cool. You like to live large, don't you?
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    OP what are your current stats (height, weight)?

    Do you exercise?

    You said you wanted to lose 90 lbs and were at a calorie target of 1500 - how long were you at that calorie target? Were you logging the foods you eat, accurately, ideally using a food scale? Did you lose weight? At what rate?

    Do you enjoy food? Cooking?

    My exercise is light- 25 minutes on a treadmill to start each gym visit. I alternate by f/u with 20 minutes on a stair master and 20 minutes on a resistance bike. Alternate days I'm focusing on my arms, back, and core with a strength regime on an app.
    I do start my mornings with light stretching/ unfocused yoga. Planning to attend morning classes to kick this into gear.

    Prior to logging, I was actively restricting my diet (cut out soda and obvious junk food). Since logging, I've been hovering at 1500 calorie target for a month and was losing 1.2/1.5 per week, and I'm not really physically feeling tested. I've gone through periods of rapid weight loss before (working 4 jobs for 6months lost 30 lbs, gained back by being sedentary and overeating) so I'm familiar with what my body feels like when we're actively losing weight.

    I'm 5'3" and 198lbs. My 90 lb goal is an overreach and my true ideal weight may be 120 lbs.

    As far as accurately logging food I have been using a small food scale for breakfast, and had been relying on 'healthy' pre made meals with barcodes. For dinner it has been a combination of scaled homemade recipes and barcode scanning.

    I do enjoy cooking and I'm fairly good at it. My issue had been purchasing portions for meats and greens. I'm fairly good at eating loose hard veggies like carrots peppers onions before they expire but I'm frustrated with meal prepping some foods over the others. I'm aiming to prioritize one meal per day and use Soylent instead of buying a barcode meal. At least with Soylent I'm not over eating and my macros aren't out of control. Knowing that laziness is part of my problem, I'm using Soylent's bland flavor to encourage me to value real food more.
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    crzycatlady1 wrote: »
    BonnieDundee78 wrote: »
    Um, ok. If this makes you happy, then good luck to you. Personally, I'd rather choose food and develop the habits that will help me maintain my loss in the long term. But I'll watch with interest to see how you get on.

    This.

    I wish you the best of luck OP, but it seems like you're just setting yourself to fail in the long term, by not learning now, during your weight loss phase, how to actually maintain your loss long term. Weight loss means nothing, if you can't maintain the loss. How is your plan setting you up to be successful for the next 20, 30, 40, 50+ years?

    I'm using a tool to crack my dependency on overeating/overspending as a form of 'self-medicating' which went unchecked as it became a bad habit. I'm using MFP community to record check my progress with this tool and not as a crutch.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    It's interesting you have turned to this when you were losing at a perfectly good and reasonable rate. And now it would appear you are going to lose at an unhealthy weight by drastically cutting calories, particularly if you don't log and eat back any exercise calories.
  • MomReborn
    MomReborn Posts: 145 Member
    edited March 2017
    I must voice my agreement with others who have said you need a sustainable, long term solution. However, I'd like to add that along with overspending, you may want to look at overthinking. Adding a specialty diet product may be over-complicating a weight loss/health gain journey, regardless if you feel it is a tool to help you out. If you want to reprioritize your relationship with food, then use real food. Products such as these are simply another money grab, and are not very sustainable in the long term.

    Vendors of these products often leave their users very little option in terms of an exit strategy. If you've purchased the product aftermarket, you are a prime target for them when you visit their website for more information. You are "warm" to receiving the information since you've been able to try the product at a discount. A further tactic would be a discounted subscription, or coupons for "new" and "better" products, exclusively for you. These approaches help reel in those vulnerable to overspending. They are helping you save, right? Not really.

    You may find the tool is something you become hopelessly dependent upon if you can't fit in regular food because the company's ordering or payment policies suddenly change in their favor (experience from a former representative of similar product). I find this especially true with aggressive ARO (auto-reorder) products such as these.

    If you are really enamored with the idea of paying a subscription for food delivery, there are better and healthier solutions. Off the top of my head, I know of Blue Apron and HelloFresh. Both have individual portions for healthy meals delivered to your home. No need to worry about wasting anything, and you can order in advance. It may be a good option in the future.

    I have anxiety and depression. I also used to be active on the eating disorder spectrum. I had to learn what my food triggers were. When I joined MFP back in December, I simply logged everything the first couple of weeks, just to see what I was eating, when I was eating it, and why I was eating it. It wasn't until the third week or so that I had enough data to perform a good self-analysis. Then I was able to move forward with staying within/under a calorie goal through eating and proper exercise. It's been a slow process, but well worth the effort. I have found it more effective than my past attempts to completely restrict foods or try to gauge the "good" or "bad" of it or myself based on it.

    Good luck to you, and I do hope you are successful in your journey! <3

    [post edited by MFP moderators]
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Most unfortunate product name ever.
  • crooked_left_hook
    crooked_left_hook Posts: 364 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    Most unfortunate product name ever.

    I LOVE Hello Fresh. The calories were a little high for me while I am trying to cut, but I still got it once a month for some variety. Once I go into maintenance the calories are perfect, and the food is great, so I will go back to weekly deliveries. Hello Fresh actually helped me learn to cook, broadened my pallet in regards to veggies, and I've built up a really good base of healthy recipes from them as well, both meat based and vegetarian. And the cost is the same as what I would spend on groceries for the same meals. I highly recommend them.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    I cook for two so I hear you about trying to eat up foods before they go bad. For meal planning consider stocking your freezer with some veggies and fruits. I buy a roast of some kind every other week and the leftovers make many many meals afterwards.

    I just cooked a roast pork loin a week ago, also thickening the juices in to a gravy, and it is still feeding us; reheated, shredded, in sandwiches and on rice.
  • Hoshiko
    Hoshiko Posts: 179 Member
    edited March 2017
    I know this will make me sound like an ad, and you're getting a lot of criticism here, but soylent is one of the few meal replacement products out there with a good scientifically researched background. I know a lot of engineer/nerdy types who use it as a meal replacement because they often forget to eat and have terrible diets, and it works for them.

    I do also know one person who used it as a weight-loss tool, but they didn't replace every meal, just lunch. It worked, but mostly because it curbed her snacking instinct while at work. Sounds like you're doing this more as a way to save money and break bad habits, and I guess it could also be successful in that way. I mean, worse case scenario you end up using it once a day or so and go back to planning healthy meals.

    Anyway, I wish you luck and am interested to see how you get along. Also realize that 1200 is a bit low, so you might want to consider adding a 4th shake to get in all of your nutrients, because it's not designed to be a weight-loss product and the macros/vitamins are calibrated for ~1600 calories minimum.

    EDITED to add: I just saw you're not going 100% soylent, so that's good. In that case I think this could be a good tool for you, and I wish you luck!
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    MaryMurrah wrote: »
    tracyh12341 wrote: »
    I don't know anything about Soylent, but am interested in your journey. I don't know your story either, but seems that money spent on food at Traders Joe's for your meals would not be a waste of money. But purchasing 120 bottles of Soylent has got to be expensive!

    I wish you the best on your journey!

    The Trader Joe's thing has shown me how I'm not great at budgeting and planning for 1 person. It was easy to establish a pantry but I'm finding myself wasting perishable items because I'm not able to eat all of the food before it goes bad. A bag of kale doesn't go bad for 5 days but by day 3 I'm sick of having it for every meal. If I don't put it in every meal, I can't finish it by the time it goes bad.

    This is why I buy frozen food, and some canned like tuna and beans. I occasionally buy whole fruit or something I can prepare at once, usually on a weekend. I pack frozen veggies and protein in a pyrex and the microwave it at work.
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    MaryMurrah wrote: »
    tracyh12341 wrote: »
    I don't know anything about Soylent, but am interested in your journey. I don't know your story either, but seems that money spent on food at Traders Joe's for your meals would not be a waste of money. But purchasing 120 bottles of Soylent has got to be expensive!

    I wish you the best on your journey!

    The Trader Joe's thing has shown me how I'm not great at budgeting and planning for 1 person. It was easy to establish a pantry but I'm finding myself wasting perishable items because I'm not able to eat all of the food before it goes bad. A bag of kale doesn't go bad for 5 days but by day 3 I'm sick of having it for every meal. If I don't put it in every meal, I can't finish it by the time it goes bad.

    I was able to get 120 bottles for $75. Not a Soylent plug but due to another person finding they're unable to drink due to taste.

    I'm a little confused at how you get bored of eating the same foods like Kale meal after meal but are going to try Soylent for a majority of your nourishment?

    That's exactly the point. Day 1 concluded with another 2.0 for dinner. I didn't get home until 11:30 and was feeling peckish like I wanted to eat something. I don't think I was actually hungry. It was late and I didn't want to cook and wake up my roommates and I was tempted to order a pizza. I sat for a while and realized I wasn't actually hungry at all, just wanted to chew something. I did some jaw exercises while doing my nightly wind-down yoga and fell asleep pretty quickly.
  • MaryMurrah
    MaryMurrah Posts: 15 Member
    Day 2: 3/12/17 #SundayFunday

    I feel really good after waking up. I'm gonna hit the gym today for some cardio and upper body work. #SundayFunday usually involves watching SNL, sports recaps or games later in the day, maybe a movie. A lot of sedentary stuff. I'm gonna shower and get ra day for the gym while watching SNL and then I'll probably watch my sports stuff at the gym.

    After day 1 of only Soylent I feel pretty great. My bowl movement was normal and my urine was total healthy. I read somewhere that I should increase my water intake so I crushed it yesterday with like 80-92 ounces. I picked up some iron supplements and I'm going to buy some benefiber and the women's vitamin tomorrow. I'm glad I visited my primary for a physical about a month ago because I have some baseline blood work.

    I'm going to prep lunch for Monday today. And then Monday I'll make dinner and split that with lunch the next day. I'm thinking about my usual sweet potato quinoa black bean chili. I have 10 minute Farro as well. Let me know your favorite grains!
    Feel free to add me on MFP!!
  • karahm78
    karahm78 Posts: 505 Member
    You keep referring back to wasting perishables.... have you considered one of the meal delivery services where they send you everything you need to prep, like Blue Apron or Plated? I have never used these but it would seem like a fit for you, just enough meat/produce to prep the meals for dinner and have leftovers for lunch?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    My favorite grains: Wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories