I’m using Plenny Shakes as dinner for almost a year now and I love it. I would really like to start doing it every day and after a while also change my lunch and breakfast to it. That would mean all my meals are Plenny shakes and I wonder if that is a good idea. My biggest point of concern is that I would be only ‘eating’ fluids. Can my stomach handle that? What about my jaw, won’t it get ‘lazy’? And my teeth, can they do without chewing?
Is there someone who can give me some advice on this?
The only real problem that I am aware of is indeed your jaw not having anything to chew will lose muscle mass… as that is what it is, a muscle. Don’t use it, you lose it. So you would, after a while, possibly struggle to actually chew proper food when you decide to eat it (like eating out). My advice if you decide to go all Jimmy Joy would be to eat the occasional bar or Plenny Pot, but if those don’t appeal to you…
Also, I’d say there’s a decent chance you’d simply miss chewing food if you did this. Some variety is always a good thing
The rest of the issues I wouldn’t worry about… Your teeth would probably wear out less (assuming you didn’t add sugars to your drinks and such), and your stomach is perfectly fine… if your digestive tract has adjusted to the one shake a day, it can handle more, although I still wouldn’t make that step in one day.
Hey @LLLotje you can replace more meals a day with the Plenny Shakes. Your stomach and overall digestion will not be affected, but as @KoenSmits mentioned, if you will only drink Plenny Shakes, your jaw muscles may become weak if you do not plan to eat anything afterwards. If our bars or pots aren’t your thing, how about an apple or a carrot in between meals? As an alternative, bubble gum might be used. We would love to know how your journey goes!
At least for Huel some people seem to be able to “chew” it, at least they claim that in the forum.
Maybe this would be also possible with JJ shakes…if the powder is mixed with very little water or something else than water.
Does anyone here have experience with that? Who has made it to “chew” shakes?
I’ve been living off 100% Plenny Shake Active for 4 years now, with the following exceptions:
I have the occasional night out with friends/gf, which happens once or twice a month - booze and junk food are the main courses ;
3 weeks a year I come back home for my holidays (I live abroad) and I eat regular food then as well.
I get checked quite frequently for other unrelated issues and so far, my blood tests have all been ok and doctors do not complain (they wonder how I’m able to do it, but that’s a different story).
The only things I do add/supplement with are:
Protein powder, even though Plenny Shake Active has more proteins, I need to supplement a bit to reach the daily amount without exceeding the daily calories amount;
Just a tiny bit of psyllium husk, as I had stomach pain/issues in the beginning that went away with that;
Chewing gums, exactly for the jaw problem that was mentioned.
Thanks for all your reactions!
Awesome that you do this for a couple of years now, Frank! Thanks for the tips you have.
Do you have (stomach)trouble when you suddenly eat regular food again during the holidays or when you go back to fluids after?
I’ve been doing exactly that in 2016 and 2017 for about 1.5 year. Nowadays just for breakfast and in between snacks. For variety, spice up the chocolate with some cacao and the banana / strawberry version with some (frozen) fruit. This gives more texture and the frozen fruit makes makes the shake thicker, mix it up in a blender (cheap blender will do just fine) and enjoy your meal. Tip: stick to the mentioned number of scoops because otherwise you will bloat (like me )
I still, occasionally switch to a plenny only diet when traveling for business and don’t want to waste any time in restaurants.
To be honest, I do have a little bit of issues when eating regular food again during the holidays; however, I have noticed the following (which might or might not make sense from a scientific point of view, I’m in no way a nutrition expert so this is just what I have personally observed):
paying attention to chew food properly helps, in a way it makes the food I’m ingesting more similar to what I’m used to eat (and I think this is a good advice anyway when eating solid food, digestion begins in the mouth by chewing);
paying attention to what I eat also is important - I’m originally from Italy, we do have a lot of good food there but it’s not always necessarily the healthiest/easiest to digest (pretty sure some other italian will come yelling at me at this point, but oh well). Carbs and sugar heavy meals are the most difficult and the ones I have the most troubles with, so I have to prefer vegetables and lean proteins over those (once again, I think this is just good advice overall anyway);
this is possibly even more pure speculation, but I also think that my body (maybe gut bacteria?) have now become very used to the plant-based meals of JJ Active, maybe also the probiotics in it, so meat is now a little bit more troublesome to eat as well.
Overall, I think that when your body gets used to something, there’s always gonna be a transition period and some issues when things are changed - weirdly enough though, I have never experienced any problem at all coming back to the liquid diet after the holidays, but to be fair, it might also be that 1/2 weeks (I go back 2 weeks in the summer, 1 in the winter - hence the 3 weeks number I mentioned previously, in case you’re wondering ) are not enough for the gut bacteria to change so drastically to have an effect on that.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Frank. As you mentioned, meals high in carbs or sugars may be difficult to digest or cause discomfort, this could be due to a lack of fiber, and the microbiota may go crazy with the amount of sugar that we consume on holidays, especially if we are visiting family and the cheat day becomes cheat season haha, resulting in bloatedness.
Diet and lifestyle have a significant impact on gut microbiota, which has far-reaching implications for a range of health-related issues. It is still unclear to what extent the composition of the gut microbiota is influenced by the diet type but it is known that the amount of fiber, sugar, and also alcohol will provoke a noticeable effect. And you are right, the body will take time to adjust to different diets, especially if they are prolonged for many days.
you can replace more meals a day with the Plenny Shakes. Your stomach and overall digestion will not be affected, but as 
;
with some cacao and the banana / strawberry version with some (frozen) fruit. This gives more texture and the frozen fruit makes makes the shake thicker, mix it up in a blender (cheap blender will do just fine) and enjoy your meal. Tip: stick to the mentioned number of scoops because otherwise you will bloat (like me 
)
) are not enough for the gut bacteria to change so drastically to have an effect on that.