Last Updated on September, 2024
Meal replacement shakes provide essential nutrients and help you develop a healthier lifestyle. A quality meal replacement shake will help you lose weight, provide essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, support your gut health, and much more.
Speaking of quality, two of the best meal replacement products are Huel and Ample meal replacements. They’re two of the biggest names in the business, and with good reason. That’s why Huel vs Ample is a considerable debate among those looking for a good meal replacement shake.
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Huel vs Ample Meal Replacement Shakes: A Comparison
Ample
Ample started as a smaller company in San Francisco, USA. They’ve been growing bigger and bigger ever since, gathering up thousands upon thousands of loyal customers since then.
They promise to offer tasty and nutritious meal replacements to help people as a brand.
If you’ve worked with Ample before, you know that they live up to this promise.
If you keep reading, you’ll get to learn exactly how their meal replacement shakes have helped them become one of the top competitors in the game.
Back to more details about Ample itself, it was founded by Connor Young back in 2015. Despite being a more recent company in the business, it’s already become one of the most trustable and popular ones. Their products have a huge role to play in why that’s so.
Read this page for our full review on Ample.
Huel
Huel is based in the UK and has made its way worldwide thanks to its many great products. Their Huel powder is readily available in the US, and you can easily find their meal replacement shakes around the States as well.
Like Ample, they started back in 2015 too. Despite that, they’re already quite famous for their meal replacement and protein shakes. In addition, they’re trendy for being a plant-based brand that offers products such as a vegan shake.
Not only is Huel great for a vegan diet, but it’s also exceptional for most people in general. All their ingredients are healthy, and their products are nutritious.
They’ve earned their rising popularity, and you can learn more about what makes their products so good by reading below.
See this page for best huel alternatives.
Differences in Nutritional Value
Ample
Ample comes in three variations, which offer varying nutrition. First, we’ll consider their most popular variant, Ample Original.
It’s available in a 400 calorie container that holds 27 grams of whey protein (The brand also offers Ample V, which is vegan and contains pea protein).
There are only 21 grams of fat inside of the shake too. You’ll also be able to get 25g carbs, including 4g sugar and 10g fiber.
If you’re on a ketogenic diet and want something with even less fat and carbs and more protein, there’s Ample K which is perfect for a keto diet.
Consumers will also get healthy fats, essential vitamins, minerals, and much more. The only downside is that Ample is a little lacking in terms of overall micronutrients. So while there are many probiotics inside, you won’t find much iron, sodium, and other things of the sort.
Huel
Huel offers many different products, but we’ll consider their most popular one like Ample.
Their ready-to-drink shakes contain 400 calories in every bottle and have 20 grams of vegan protein. In addition, there’s less than 5 grams of sugar and only 19g fat.
One good thing about these shakes is that they’re high in fiber, featuring 7 grams. However, in total, there are 41 grams of carbohydrates.
This can be a little high for those on a low-carb diet. As for micronutrients and other essential benefits, there’s nothing to worry about there.
You’ll find 27 essential vitamins and minerals in these ready-to-drink meal replacement shakes. There are also lots of essential fatty acids. Huel’s shakes weren’t that good before. But, after changing the formula, they’ve started offering a nutritionally complete meal that most love.
Differences in Ingredients
Ample
One of the main reasons Ample has become so popular is the ingredients in its formula. They provide soy-free and gluten-free meal replacement shakes, including lots of probiotics, antioxidants, and micronutrients from various natural food ingredients.
It’s also non-GMO, and there are no artificial sweeteners or artificial flavors. Ample meal shakes usually feature whey protein which is excellent for weight loss and muscle gain. But, there’s also a vegan alternative, Ample V. This features pea protein and brown rice protein instead.
There are many different fats sources in their products that differ depending on the specific variation. Regardless of the variation, though, all the ingredients in Ample shakes are natural and healthy.
The only difference is that Ample O’s ingredients are better suited for the general public while Ample V’s and K’s are better suited for vegans and ketogenic dieters.
Related: Ample vs Soylent
Huel
As mentioned earlier, Huel focuses on providing vegan products, so nearly all of their ingredients are plant-based. You’ll find pea protein. There are also various sources of high-quality fats and many sources of vitamins and minerals too.
These meal replacements contain lots of healthy fats, omega-3s, and omega-6s. Unlike Ample, it does include sucralose, which is an artificial ingredient. There aren’t any unnecessary preservatives or chemicals, though, meaning you don’t have to worry about negative effects.
A Huel shake usually includes oats, brown rice, and MCT powder. These different ingredients give their shakes a very wide range of macronutrients and micronutrients that are exceptional for the body in various ways.
Differences in Taste and Texture
Ample
Taste is arguably the aspect where Ample is far and beyond other options.
While trying out all of their different variations, we had a great time thanks to these meal replacement shakes’ unique flavors and texture.
Ample O, V, and K all share a sweet taste. You’ll find them available in three flavors, which include berry, vanilla, and chocolate.
While the lack of many flavors is disappointing, each one has a delicious creamy texture that we thoroughly enjoyed.
Huel
Since there are so many different products that Huel offers in terms of meal replacements, there are also so many different flavors.
For example, their ready-to-drink meal replacement shake alone comes in 5 flavors. These include iced coffee caramel, vanilla, salted caramel, strawberry shortcake, and cinnamon roll.
Out of these, we enjoyed the strawberry shortcake and vanilla flavor for just how sweet and delicious they were. On the other hand, salted caramel also tastes excellent.
It’s a better option for those that don’t want something as sweet as the other flavors.
Huel isn’t anything exceptional, but it is still tasty in its own right. Unfortunately, its texture is what might let it down in some cases. That’s because it’s pretty gritty and sometimes chalky, much like a protein shake.
Differences in Pricing
Ample
One of the main reasons some people tend to avoid Ample is its price. These meal replacement shakes are some of the most expensive in the market. For those not familiar, Ample meals are available in 3 packaging types.
These include 400 calorie packaging as well as 600 calorie and powder canisters. The 400 calorie pack is available at $90.00 ($7.50 a meal), while the 600 calorie pack is $108.00 ($9.00 a meal). The less convenient but affordable powder is $79.00($5.27 a meal).
These are very high prices compared to any Huel product. They’re a little more affordable if you get a subscription on the official Ample website, as you get a 15% discount. But, it’s still quite expensive, and you’ll have to set up a big-budget aside to purchase Ample shakes regularly.
Huel
For all that it is and all that it offers, Huel isn’t badly priced at all, especially when you compare it to Ample. This is because many different products come at different prices. For example, the version 1.0 and 2.0 RTD shakes are $60.56($4.68 a bottle).
However, the meal replacement powder bags are $75.00 for the standard one and $85.00 for the gluten-free version. While this is still quite expensive compared to some other meal replacements, it’s much cheaper than Ample.
Like Ample, Huel also offers discounts on their official website. For example, you can get a subscription that’ll get you 10% off on all of their products. This gives them an even bigger edge over Ample in terms of affordability.
How Filling Are They?
When trying them both out for this comparison, we found both Huel and Ample adequately filling. As a meal replacement shake, both are pretty similar in how long they keep you full. That’s because they have identical caloric intake and protein intake.
There are also a lot of fibers in both of them, which help your gut and slow down digestion. So Huel and Ample will both be able to keep you full for up to 4-5 hours after drinking a bottle. That’s very decent for a meal replacement shake and one of the main reasons we loved both.
Pros and Cons of Ample
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Cons
Pros and Cons of Huel
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Cons
Which is Better for You?
If you can’t tell by now, we enjoyed both Huel and Ample shakes while trying them out. There are many things that both excel at, and it’s why they’re two of the leading names in the meal replacement shake business. But, unfortunately, that’s why Huel vs Ample has no clear winner.
Both are great shakes that use high-quality ingredients, provide optimal nutrition, and help with weight loss goals. So, it’s up to you and your personal needs to decide which one is better.
In our opinion, Ample is a healthier and more delicious option which offers lots of benefits, both big and small. But, Huel is a more affordable option that provides better nutrition. There are pros and cons to them both, and you can look at them to decide which one suits you more.
Conclusion
All the things we’ve shared about Huel vs Ample are from our experience with the two brands and their shakes. Both are great, but our pick would be Ample because of their healthy blend of ingredients and lack of artificial additives.
Which one you choose is entirely up to you! Based on what we’ve shared in our comparison, carefully figure out your own needs and choose accordingly. Once you do that, we’re sure you’ll be satisfied with whichever one you pick.
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