I gave up eating solid food at lunch and here’s what happened
Over the last year, I’ve been drinking Soylent every weekday for lunch
You can listen to this post, narrated by Shubham Datta on Soundcloud below.
Background
Just about a year ago after the Labour Day long weekend, I started a new job at SurePath Capital Partners. Like starting a new school year, I viewed this as a new start — not just professionally, but personally. I wanted to be healthier and “eat” better. You could call it a new quarter’s resolution, I suppose.
The first attempt at eating better, I stopped buying lunch and opted to pack it instead.
Call it a first world problem — but packing lunch is a pain!
I started packing salads because they were healthy, easy to pack, and required minimal meal prep. Needless to say, this lasted for all of September and I was looking for a better way.
I wanted something that was:
- Convenient — quick and easy to make
- Healthy — fast food is convenient but not healthy
- Affordable — buying lunch every day adds up ($200/month)
Simply put, I wanted to make the most of my lunch without having to spend time thinking about what to eat everyday.
Enter Soylent
I had first heard about Soylent, in early 2015 when they raised $20M from Andreessen Horowitz. I revisited the site, checked out some reviews online and decided to place my first order!
Thinking back to my requirements:
- Convenient — just mix the powder with water, can’t get any easier (actually, it can! Just keep reading!)
- Healthy — each serving contained 20% of your daily nutritional requirements
- Affordable — each meal is less than $3!
Soylent 1.5
I started with the powder version (currently Soylent 1.6), which came with a measuring scoop and bottle to get the Soylent powder and water mixture just right. I left a pouch at work and would make the mixture for lunch every day. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get the consistency right and would find that there would be clumps of powder that didn’t quite dissolve. The vibrant Soylent community was raving about Soylent 2.0 — the pre-made Soylent mixture that came in ready to drink bottles.
After finishing my package of Soylent 1.5 powder, I took the plunge with Soylent 2.0 and ordered my first 24 bottles. (Bonus points on convenience — just grab a bottle and drink! Easy!)
Over 200 bottles of Soylent 2.0 later, lunch has never been the same.
You weirdo!
Whenever I tell anyone that I drink Soylent, I’m usually greeted with a set of questions and reactions. (It’s probably similar to the thoughts and reactions going through your head, if you’ve read this far!). Below are most common questions I’ve received over the past year. Every time my responses are identical — and so I wanted a place to jot them down.
“Uhh…what’s Soylent?”
Soylent is a balanced meal replacement where each bottle contains 20% of your daily nutritional value. Unlike Slimfast, Ensure or other similar products, the purpose of Soylent is NOT to help you lose weight or prevent hunger cravings. It’s simply an alternative to eating a well-balanced meal.
“How does it taste?”
Everyone, without fail will ask this. It’s understandable — if something bills itself as a meal replacement, it’s got to have some sort of taste. This is the question I struggle with answering every single time. To me, Soylent is a neutral tasting beverage that has its own unique taste — 200 bottles in, it just tastes like Soylent. It’s like if someone asked you to describe “how does water taste?”
The closest comparison I’ve come up with is the milk that is left in the cereal bowl after you’ve finished a bowl of Cheerios. The consistency is is bit thicker than milk and its not as sweet as Honey Nut Cheerios. This usually helps people develop an expectation how Soylent tastes — I still maintain that Soylent tastes like Soylent (but to each their own).
“Does it come in different flavours?”
Soylent 2.0 only comes in one “flavour” — its a neutral tasting drink. There are many people who have Soylent Recipes. I’ve never tried any of them, but I suppose you could add some flavour with those recipes. I’m a bit of a Soylent purist and drink it directly out of the bottle.
Soylent does make a Coffee flavoured drink called Coffiest. Yes, I’ve tried this and you can definitely taste the coffee flavour.
“Does it fill you up?”
It is argued that in order for someone to feel full, regardless of what they’re eating, it can take 15–20 minutes after you’ve eaten for the full feeling to kick in. It’s the concept of satiety and it’s explained here. Each bottle contains 400 calories which is slightly less than the average calorie intake suggested per meal based on this — but calories and feeling full are not correlated.
During my early days of Soylent, I would pace out the consumption of the full bottle over 20 minutes. Nowadays, this doesn’t bother me and I’ll usually finish a bottle within 5 minutes and still feel full. I do keep a well stocked drawer of desk snacks which I tend to dig into in the afternoon (say around 3:30PM).
“Don’t you get tired of it?” / “Don’t you miss real food?”
As I mentioned off the top, Soylent is my solution to food on weekdays for lunch only. I’m still eating regular food for breakfast, dinner and for snacking purposes — also Soylent free on weekends.
Personally for me, when it comes to choice and food — I’m easily overwhelmed!
Let me explain. Prior to Soylent, I would spend 15–20 minutes leading up to lunch each day, thinking about what I should have for lunch that day. This doesn’t even include the time it takes to wait in line, order and get your food. And if you made the wrong choice that day, it can mess up the rest of your day. The same applies if you’re packing lunch — you have to think about what to bring for lunch, and then pack it, etc.
With Soylent, I know exactly what I’m having for lunch — there’s no sense of a “disappointing lunch” or “oh my god, I ate so much I need to take a nap now” — just like the taste of Soylent, my lunches are neutral and I know exactly what I’m getting every time I pop open a bottle.
“What about when you have lunch with someone — do you bring your Soylent?”
No — (unless the person I’m meeting is also a Soylent drinker!). For group gatherings, team lunches or when meeting someone for lunch, I’ll go with the flow and “eat normal food”.
“Would you ever consider a Soylent only diet?”
This isn’t something I’ve tried yet, but admittedly this would be something that would be hard for me to do.
“Do you feel healthier?”
Not sure if this is a placebo effect or not, but ever since starting Soylent, I’ve become a lot more conscious about my food consumption habits and more aware of my daily calorie intake.
For the record, I enjoy eating! However, during weekday lunches I make the conscious tradeoff between taste and convenience.
Sure — Soylent doesn’t taste like a gourmet sandwich, but it’s definitely much more convenient! And yes there are other “normal food” options that are convenient, but it isn’t a well-balanced meal the way Soylent is.
This is why I’ve spent the last year consuming Soylent for lunch on weekdays.
Soylent isn’t for everyone, but for me it’s been a game changer!
Got specific questions? Give me a shout on Twitter: @Shubham. If you feel adventurous about trying Soylent, use this link and you can get your first 12 bottles for 50% off.
(Full disclosure: I don’t gain anything from this referral link, but anyone ordering for the first time will get 50% off their first 12 bottles. Soylent didn’t pay me to write this post — it is something I wanted to document personally!)
Shubham Datta is passionate about technology, startups, sports, and investing. He is an Associate at SurePath Capital Partners, where he helps fund, grow and exit startups. He has a B.Math from the University of Waterloo and is a CPA by training. You can find out more at www.about.me/ShubhamDatta.
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