[Wilshire]

I am a fan of eating, and my tastes are not healthy, but I'm also terribly lazy and cheap. I can see the draw for this, and I find it rather tempting (though terrifying).

But yes, Soylent, while hysterical (imo) is not a great name for someone seriously trying to sell something. Great for a joke, which does nothing to make this stuff seem viable.

[dragharrow]

Really? That reads rather sarcastically (imo), but if your serious then I'm curious.

Directed at me? If it is then yes, I'm serious. I'm just generally not a fan of eating.

I really do think eating is gross. Not in a compulsive way or anything. I don't actually get skeeved out eating or being around people who are eating but on an abstract kind of philosophical level it is gross. "Oh let me stick this in my face hole and grind it up. Yum."

That said, the fact that eating is aesthetically unappealing is the least of the reasons I don't want to do it. It is a little true but I'm probs emphasizing it because I think it is funny. Animal grossness isn't actually a hangup for me. I can clean stables or change a babies diaper without any problem. Sex is gross but I have no interest in replacing it with a supplement.

In reality, I like to feel like a car that you put fuel in. It puts me in the right mindset to take on the day lol. Like putting on a suit, it focuses and motivates me. When I eat soylent I make healthier choices in general. I'm more likely to go for a run, etc. Regular food is hard to manage. I'm likely to consume too many calories if I'm not careful to manage my urges. I want to stay lean and hot.

Dealing with things in a black and white way makes it simple. Managing food is hard. It's easier for me to just cut it out of my life altogether.

Some comments have, to me, seemingly ridiculous claims of this stuff making a drastic improvement on their health. I don't by this.

Yeah. There are plenty of people making ridiculous claims about its health benefits but that isn't surprising. Some people turn to worship as soon as they buy into something. It's the same thing as how some people who smoke weed become convinced that it is some kind of mystical panacea and preach that it will cure anything.

However, something that is marketed as a total food replacement and has been sold for some time now, I'd think it at least has no major negative side effects. Is that true?

What's your experience? How long have you been "eating" this stuff, and how much of your total nutrition intake comes directly from it?

Only two months so far. I'd estimate that about two thirds of my nutritional intake comes soylent.

As far as I can tell, I'm healthier. I have better control of my caloric intake and I don't eat junk food. I feel good when I consume it. Your hunger goes away completely and you feel well nourished but not overfed. I get good long lasting energy from it. I haven't noticed any ill effects.

What I really want to know WHY on earth would they call this Soylent, given the connotation it has in pop culture? I know I'm  being paranoid but that alone freaks me out about it.

But yes, Soylent, while hysterical (imo) is not a great name for someone seriously trying to sell something. Great for a joke, which does nothing to make this stuff seem viable.

It hasn't seemed to hamper their sales. I haven't done any research into it but my guess is that they are doing well. It takes like four months to get your first shipment because according to them they are having to seriously ramp up production. They privilege established customers though. Once you receive your first shipment they will fill your orders in like a week.

I think the soylent name is directed at people like me. Nerds who are dissonance emphasizing. It certainly appeals to me.

[SilentRoamer]

Yeah Bolivar.

On the "what is it made out of" page they have a clever little ditty beneath it:

"Hint: It's not people"..... creepy

[Wilshire]

Yup dragharrow, all my questions were directed at you.

Thanks for the share. This makes me want to more seriously consider having this stuff around for those days when I'm too lazy to make something decent and end up eating a bag of chips for dinner lol.

I'll probably ping you again in a few months to see if you exploded or something. I should probably poke around on their forums too, but I find it easier to be less skeptical here than other places.

[dragharrow]

Thanks for the share. This makes me want to more seriously consider having this stuff around for those days when I'm too lazy to make something decent and end up eating a bag of chips for dinner lol.

No problem

Also I don't think I said this but I think they've done a good job with the taste. It smells like chocolate chip pancakes kind of and I'm trying to think of how to describe the taste specifically. I don't know, it sort of just tastes like pure nourishment in a good way. Like, I'm not trying to argue that it's intrinsically healthy. I'm sure a really well balanced, no junk food, solid food diet would be healthier. But your body can definitely tell how nutrient rich it is and you get like a positive conditioned response.

I'll probably ping you again in a few months to see if you exploded or something. I should probably poke around on their forums too, but I find it easier to be less skeptical here than other places.

sounds good.

I feel that. I've been on their forums a couple times tops.

[Wilshire]

Been messing with it. Trying to utilize it to control my caloric intake somewhat. Its easier when I know exactly how many calories I'm consuming.

Tastes like watered down pancake batter. Doesn't bother me, though my wife hates it. Throw a banana in there or some chocolate syrup and it tastes like a smoothie. Certainly tastes better somehow when its cold, but after consuming a serving once a day for a week or two I've found no real reason to add anything to it.

I mix it with a single serve blender. We got a Ninja blender that came with single serve smoothie cups, so you mix it right in the cup. Simplifies things slightly as you don't have to prepare it the day before and spend a a minute or two shaking the mixing vessel. I also have a scale and I weight out the 85 grams.

The 400 calorie servings go a long way. Considering two pop-tarts have 400 calories, I certainly feel more full with the Soylent for a longer period of time. I have on in the morning for breakfast - might add one for lunch too because I'm lazy.

[H]

Oh, I thought that stuff came in bottles.

It's actually just a powder?

[Wilshire]

Oh, I thought that stuff came in bottles.

It's actually just a powder?

Comes ins several forms now. The original, and cheapest, version is the powder.

Also comes in liquid (aka Soylent 2.0), which I believe is flavored to be more pallet able. It certainly tastes better than the mixed powder and I think its got more sugar but don't quote me on that.

It also comes in a mixed form with coffee (aka Coffiest). Haven't tried it. I'm not so lazy as to not be able to both brew coffee and make a solyent beverage in the morning.

And then there is a 'snack bar' type deal, which had a rocky start as it caused so digestive issues with people, but its still on the market so I presume they fixed that - i have not tried this either.

If i wasn't a cheap bastard I'd probably buy the Soylent 2.0 rather than the powered (I think the current recipe is Soylent 1.7) as its easier and tastes better... But since its too pricey I'll just mix it myself, thanks.

[H]

Comes ins several forms now. The original, and cheapest, version is the powder.

Ah, I hadn't seen that.  The bottles are pretty expensive.  My wife gets a powdered "protein" shake thing to supplement her intake, because it's thought for her to meet her "required" amount with the usual foods.  She looked at their breakdown of what Soylent has and it's not really all that bad, seemed like only a relatively "modest" amount of sugar, even if it is a bit high on carbs overall.

I'm pretty OK with what  I usually have for breakfast and I cook dinner nearly every night, but lunch is a mish-mosh of leftovers or whatever and trying to get it heated up at work is a pain.  Might need to look at options to fill in lunch easily.

[Wilshire]

Lunch works.

Direction say to make with room temp water, shake it, let it sit till its chilled. This method works pretty well, you end up with a pretty smooth shake if it sits overnight.

It ends up being a bit 'clumpy' even when using a protein shaker with a steel ball if you don't let it sit for some time. Which is why went to single-serve blender portions, but its really not necessary if you aren't overly sensitive about it.

It says consume within 2 days once mixed, so you can prep the night before. The direction indicate preparing an entire bag/pitcher (pitcher provided for free with first order) at once, each one makes 5x 400 calorie 'meals', each 'meal' is ~16oz as prepared I think. If you're doing 1 a day for lunch,  doing the whole bag might be a bit much - easy enough to do half I suppose. Helps to have a scale - a decent kitchen scale will run you $15 - if you aren't doing the whole bag at once.

[Wilshire]

Update since June last year I guess, so 8 months?

Been doing 1x 400 calorie 'meal' between the hours of 6am and 4pm. I usually eat something small when I get home from work, or simply make dinner. For convenience we do a meal delivery - we cook it, but the ingredients are shipped. Love it.

Anyway, back to Soylent. I have noticed nothing usual at all in regard to my physical health. No magical change in eyesight, or anything else that some have noted elsewhere.
My goal was to lose weight by stringently controlling caloric intake during the day when its easiest to control (at work, there isn't a bunch of food laying around).  I drink about 12-16oz of coffee with cream and sugar throughout the day. I drink about 1/4 to 1/3 of my daily soylent right after I make it. With sipping coffee, I normally get hungry around 12 or 1pm and grab it from the work fridge. I sip on it throughout the rest of the day.

Still using single serve blender shakes. 85grams of soylent, fill rest with water, blend for like 10 seconds, transfer to shake. Rinse blender accoutrements.  Whole thing takes a minute or two. I throw in 3 icecubes to chill it before I take my breafast swig.

I don't add anything too it. Flavorings added too many calories, and after trying a couple they didn't seem worth the trouble. Though, if we've got fruit laying around, sometimes I'll throw some blueberries in there, but not often.

I estimate, given a 400 calorie shake and 100- 200 calories of coffee, I probably consume about 500-600 calories from when I wake up until I get home. I stop counting after that because I'm lazy. Dinner is probably about 800. Given my base basil metabolic rate, I figured this gave me maybe 400 - 800 calories to play with for snacking and I'd still be losing weight.

I've lost about 25 pounds so far - from 220 down to 195. Have I mentioned I'm lazy? For a guy that doesn't exercise, I'm pretty pleased with these results, considering I'm also saving money (only costs something like $3.50/day since I'm splitting one Soylent meal between breakfast and lunch) and it only takes about 5 minutes total to prepare, clean, and consume each 'meal'.

Other than weight loss, I haven't noticed anything particularly noteworthy. It still tastes like bland pancake batter, and is better chilled. I don't think I'd really recommend it to anyone unless they had some particular goal in mind like me. Its not very good - though not bad - and I've taken to referring to it as 'nutritive goo' whenever I talk about it with the wife.

[mostly.harmless]

Thanks for the update Wilshire. Interesting to read!

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