Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV • Hacker News Board

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#621

Post by vidarh » Fri, May 05, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

brandonmenc wrote: post #472

cptskippy wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm 6'5" and ~220lbs, every calorie calculator I've tried recommends 2400+ calories a day to maintain body weight with a sedentary lifestyle. At the time I tried this experiment I was running close to 30 miles a week and spending 2+ hours a week rock climbing.

Not trying to attack here - I'm seriously trying to help - but you must have been consuming calories you weren't aware of. For example, in my own experience counting calories, oil is always the killer - it's so calorie dense and sneaks into everything when you're cooking. You need 2400 calories a day to maintain weight, were supposedly consuming 2000, and were (off the cuff) burning close to 1000 a day from running a…

> You need 2400 calories a day to maintain weight

No, his sources estimates 2400 calories a day. You're right to question if he's consumed more, but taking his claims at face value, they match my own experience and many, many anecdotes I've seen over the year to indicate that advice of maintenance levels around that range are way too high for most people.

> and were (off the cuff) burning close to 1000 a day from running and other activity.

I very much doubt that. My own off the cuff estimate is ~500 calories a day for that activity.

> There's no way you'd gain weight at 220 lbs effectively consuming 1000 calories a day. I've lost weight eating more than that at 180 lbs body weight.

More like 1500 by my account, possibly more depending on the intensity of his exercise. And if you assume lack of substantial muscle-weight in that, it matches pretty well with my own experience from before I started lifting weights - I had diets where I had to drop to around 1200/day before it made a noticeable difference.

Once I started adding muscle, I could get away with more, but not a lot more.

I don't doubt your numbers, but to me they'r why we shouldn't listen to estimates, but measure, as activity level (all day long, not just during exercise) and body composition makes the error margin on estimates of metabolic rate crazily high.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#622

Post by mathw » Fri, May 05, 2017, 1:52 PM UTC

ljk wrote: post #462

endorphone wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soylent gets a lot of hype, and invariably the hype follows a predictable pattern- "Geez, you don't eat only Soylent! It's just an occasional meal replacement!" "Okay, then how is it interesting when there are dozens of competing products in the meal replacement category?" "Because those aren't a full dietary replacement. You can't live on only Ensure (insert many other products here)." "Okay....but you just said..."…

> I don't get Soylent. Not only is food one of the greatest luxuries in life -- one of the greatest rewards totally agree with this. soylent feels too much like... dog food for humans

Something I always wanted!

I love cooking, I love eating, but cooking well takes time, effort, ingredients, shopping trips, storage, inventory management. I can do all that, but when you get right down to it replacing some of my diet with Huel (a British product in the same niche as Soylent, although the composition is substantially different) just makes my life easier. It's tasty enough, it keeps me going, I can be confident that it's giving me a balanced meal, and on a busy day it's saving me a pile of money too.

Then when I do have time, I cook something ridiculously delicious.

For me, this category is about convenience, and it serves it very well.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#623

Post by mathw » Fri, May 05, 2017, 1:57 PM UTC

ohstopitu wrote: post #112

johnfn wrote: post #5

Soylent gets a lot of hate (I'm looking forward to skipping out on this thread before the inevitable negative comments from people who assume that Soylent consumers will eat nothing but Soylent for the rest of their lives), but to me, it's solved a large problem in my life: what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal. It can happen every now and then when I'm rushing around, and so…

What's wrong with those microwavable stuff (like noodles, and others)? I mean it's not healthy, but if it's once in a while, it's cheaper and imo tastes better!

> I mean it's not healthy

And that's precisely why people turn to Soylent and its competitors, because they are attempting to be healthy, balanced sources of nutrition. A bowl of instant ramen might be tasty but it's not going to get you much in the way of protein or vitamins.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#624

Post by bigchewy » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:20 PM UTC

irq11 wrote: post #485

fghvbnvbnfe wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. That single pouch is a significant problem when you generate several a day. They are intended to be used for meal prep, which involves hot water. They're fairly heavy and large, and you have to carry them out with you. You can save a significant amount of weight when packaging your own food by using smaller, lesser weight bags with a separate reusable insulator. Remember, we're talking about people that will pay…

Last time I checked, Soylent comes in packages, and requires water to eat. So sure, you can combine your nutrient goo powder into a single sack, and thereby save a tiny fraction of the weight of the food (and water) itself. But you're splitting hairs. I picked a mountain house pouch-based product at random on amazon, and the packaging weight was .06oz on a gross of 5oz, or 1.2%. Which is, of course, nothing. I have h…

what you are saying is that you don't know any hikers that care significantly about weight.

I can also state that the majority of people I know care so much about weight that they would never carry mountain house type food around.

If we both extend our friends to the general public, we have a clash. Or, maybe, there are different types of people in the world, some of whom think that Soylent is a great alternative for many of the situations they find themselves in.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#625

Post by lioeters » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:27 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #588

I just completed the Everest Base Camp trek with my wife - I used Soylent (version 1.4) for the hike. So I basically subsisted on Soylent for 2 weeks of hiking/climbing up to 5,500 metres above sea level. I did 1 packet per day (2000 calories), supplemented with some snack food on the trail (dried nuts and fruit, Stinger-brand honey waffles, muesli bars etc.). Motivation was firstly as an experiment (to see how I wou…

That was a great review of the product, demonstrating real-world use case and benefits. It was fascinating to read, even though I have no personal interest in Soylent at all as a meal replacement (happily married to a wonderful cook), I will remember your story next time we go hiking and I'm complaining of the weight of all the food I'm carrying.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#626

Post by ConfucianNardin » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #275

Latty wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think many people approach Soylent as a way to solve some of their problems, but people should realize it won't be and can't be. You are saying your case (and that of your friend's) apply to everyone. I've lost a lot of weight using Huel (a similar product made in the UK), because it makes calorie tracking incredibly easy and allows me to avoid thinking about food except when I specifically choose to eat somethin…

Ohhh, I thought I had to give up on these things since I moved away from the US. But now I remember that Europe has a lot of these as well. Have you tried other things than Huel? I might be tempted to give it a try.

Tried MANA[1], Joylent[2] and Jake[3] back when I started.

Out of the those 3, MANA was clearly superior. The main reason was better texture. Taste was also a factor. Both of Joylent and Jake had a really distinct taste (most likely) caused by sweetener they used, which was really unpleasant.

In fact, I never managed to finish Joylent/Jake because I just couldn't get myself to drink them. On the other hand, I still use MANA for ~7 meals a week to this day.

Someone I know also tried Huel[4], but their verdict was "would not recommend".

[1]: https://drink-mana.com/ [2]: https://www.jimmyjoy.com/ [3]: https://jakefood.com/ [4]: https://huel.com/

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#627

Post by aaxe » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:50 PM UTC

bunderbunder wrote: post #611

johnfn wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest, I take my data from examine.com, which does a survey of the literature and backs me up on this (sorry, on mobile so I'm not going to pull out the URL, but google finds it easily). It specifically says spirulina is one of the few "superfoods" that is in fact good for you. Unless you've done a similar review of the literature and have comparable credentials, I'm probably not going to trust you on this one…

Not interested in getting into an Internet argument over credentialism, but I will say that I did some looking at examine.com's treatment on spirulina, and found it to be less than compelling. It still commits the same fundamental mistake made by any other popular sources that covers supplements: it doesn't really give study quality adequate attention. Instead, it just accepts all published findings as probably being…

Examine.com absolutely gives study quality, impact factor, etc consideration.

Perhaps your superficial look was the problem.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#628

Post by lambdadmitry » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:56 PM UTC

leshow wrote: post #421

metamet wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still exist. Eat locally from farmers. All my beef is grass fed (which have higher omega 3's), for example. And if you can't because of where you live, there's a good chance neither could your grandparents had if they lived there as well.

Or you could take an omega-3 supplement and eat normal beef. There isn't much evidence to show that grass-fed beef has any measurable effect on health.

However, there is strong evidence that any type of beef may cause cancer.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#629

Post by ethan_g » Fri, May 05, 2017, 3:01 PM UTC

rubber_duck wrote: post #402

eikenberry wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed a major benefit of Soylent... convenience. It is pre-made, pre-bottled and ready to drink. For some at least, time is worth more than the money saved.

Soylent has 20% of calories from protein - good luck with that if you do any physical activity. The stuff I mentioned can be bought in 5kg bags which will last you a month at least - depending on how much meals you're replacing - if it's all then you'll probably go trough more - you can pre-mix a week worth in a standard plastic container and shake in like two minutes. The major time difference is going to be in figu…

>Soylent has 20% of calories from protein - good luck with that if you do any physical activity.

20% calories from protein is fine. Even for a strength athlete, if you are trying to gain muscle mass, 20kcal/lb and 1g protein/lb is a reasonable set of macros, which indeed is 20% calories from protein. A lot of bodybuilders will go up to 25% or even 30% from protein, but that's on the high end and certainly not something that would make sense for non-strength athletes.

Re: Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV

#630

Post by saturdaysaint » Fri, May 05, 2017, 3:12 PM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #104

johnfn wrote: post #5

Soylent gets a lot of hate (I'm looking forward to skipping out on this thread before the inevitable negative comments from people who assume that Soylent consumers will eat nothing but Soylent for the rest of their lives), but to me, it's solved a large problem in my life: what to eat when I'm hungry but I don't have enough time to prepare a full meal. It can happen every now and then when I'm rushing around, and so…

Soylent gets a lot of hype, and invariably the hype follows a predictable pattern- "Geez, you don't eat only Soylent! It's just an occasional meal replacement!" "Okay, then how is it interesting when there are dozens of competing products in the meal replacement category?" "Because those aren't a full dietary replacement. You can't live on only Ensure (insert many other products here)." "Okay....but you just said..."…

I get a lot more pleasure out of shopping, meal prepping and cooking without the pressure of having to scramble for crappy food if I get busy when I'm low on food. There have been many times where I'd normally be sheepishly eating Wendy's where instead I'll head straight to the supermarket with a Soylent in my car's cupholder. On a similar note, I love cooking breakfast for myself and my wife, and if anything occasionally being able to take a break for a day or two has sustained my enthusiasm.

So Soylent and real food hardly need to be enemies.