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Comment by peterhajas | Hacker News Reader

I've been eating Soylent twice a day for more than a year as my primary food source. I'm always interested in new variants (especially ones that cut down on cost) - this one seems interesting. Any chance that there's an Amazon shopping cart that someone can add to get all this stuff easily?

Also, I noticed that the Readme links to Rob Rhinehart's page (http://robrhinehart.com). Unfortunately, it looks like it's all been taken down. Anybody know why?

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Honest question: Do you not enjoy food? What do you think the benefits are?

I'm asking because I think I would be severely depressed on such a monotone diet. I love cooking and it gives me great joy to eat good food, or new kinds of food, or even the boring lunch restaurant type food if it's done reasonably well.

Lunch is also a nice social event. I'm skipping lunch sometimes (when I'm not that hungry) but I feel like I missing the social aspect then.

As someone who has struggled with weight for the majority of my life, food and hunger is a constant battle. Being able to just drink something to make the hunger go away without being worried about eating too much or making an impulse decision to buy something unhealthy saves a lot of stress, and makes it much easier to control your diet. While I don't know what OPs reasons are for drinking it, there are usually valid reasons behind it that aren't just hating food.

How much exercise are you doing?

I exercise every day. But the amount that I eat has always been more of an issue for me. It doesn't matter how much you exercise if you eat too much

Two or three scrambled egg with a goid amount of olive oil or coconut oil usually keep me full for longer stretches over the day without cravings.

That would be fine, but the amount of time that would take to prepare isn't something I would do in the morning. But being able to get a drink out of the fridge makes it much easier

Scrambled eggs literally take two minutes to make. Very similar to how long it takes to mix up some Soylent.

I suspect your real issue is that like most you wake up to an alarm so you're still mostly asleep during breakfast time. And until it's routine scrambling eggs requires higher cognitive function...

Indeed, scrambled egg are ready in no time. You can even scramble them in the evening and keep in the fridge until morning. If you have a stove with a timer you can just slosh them in the pan and eat without stirring after a couple of minutes.

I use Mealsquares instead of Soylent, but the same idea applies: it doesn't replace all meals (I only have one per day, about 400 kcal worth), but just the ones where I don't have time to make something proper. In that sense, it's strictly an improvement over what I was eating before in that situation, which was usually either going out to eat or raiding my fridge of whatever junk was handy.

If you use Soylent/Mealsquares only to replace "no-time meals", you're doing a lot better. Like you, I don't understand why someone would eat them exclusively;

You know, if you're not trying to live off of soylent, you could just pound a protein shake for a fraction of the cost, and if you get a decent brand like optimum, it tastes better too.

You were downvoted, but this is true, and you can add ground oats for carbs if you wish.

(Can't vouch for that brand, but some of the powdered ones I've tried taste almost 'nice' with milk, not as nice as those supermarket pre-made ones, which are typically lower in protein, higher cal, and more expensive).

The choice for me is pretty simple. No breakfast, or soylent. I'd rather be eating something than nothing.

If I have the chance to eat a real meal I take it, but there are also times where I literally can't.

Idk why it is suddenly in vogue to shit on people for being busy.

I don't know how busy you are, but my way of dealing with "no time to prepare breakfast" is to prepare it the previous evening. Of course this only works if you have the time to cook sometime during the day, but if you are making dinner anyway, simply adding more of everything isn't too time-consuming.

> Idk why it is suddenly in vogue to shit on people for being busy.

Maybe because the HN crowd is getting older or more burned out, and their values are changing?

I eat a Mediterranean breakfast, but I don't smoke so I just have a coffee ️

And a large glass of water. If I'm really low on energy I'll have a fruit.

I've heard all life that breakfast is the most important meal, but it turns out to be a marketing slogan, and it might actually be good with a long period without high blood sugar.

I usually bring the Soylent with me to lunch with my coworkers. It allows me to enjoy the social benefits while still having Soylent.

I do enjoy food (very much!), but find myself feeling tired or sluggish after a traditional breakfast or lunch. Soylent provides consistent energy throughout the day, and makes calorie tracking very easy (400 calories a bottle twice a day @ breakfast and lunch leaves me 1200 calories for dinner).

He cleaned it out some months ago. However, all the major posts are still on the wayback machine, see for a list:

https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent/comments/6dbw74/rob_rinehar...

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