[zhemao]

I really don't understand Soylent. Do people really hate eating so much? Eating is one of the greatest joys of human existence. I understand that people have other things to do, but are you really so busy you can't sit down to enjoy a good meal?

[jack-r-abbit]

One thing that you will hear repeated often (including in this comment) is that you can still enjoy eating a good meal. But not many people eat a good meal for every meal. There are many many things that people enjoy doing but do not want to do 3 times a day, every day. So if a glass of Soylent (or one of the other commercial products available today) in the morning helps me resist the office doughnuts, that is a positive. That is not to say that I can't end my day with a nice meal out with my family.

[tankbot]

It's not that people hate eating, not at all, it's just inconvenient in many ways. Something like Soylent solves the problem of convenience and allows a person to take in nutrients while remaining productive.

It's not for every meal. You'll still want to go have dinner with friends or family, but during the day it would be nice to chug a glass of this and keep working; hands clean.

[derekp7]

So this is different than Slimfast -- how? From what I understand, Slimfast is pretty close to a meal replacement. Or is this intended to be in the same category?

[guizzy]

Slimfast and other similar meal replacements (like Ensure) are not really balanced for normal, active people. They're meant for people who want to diet or are unable to eat solid food.

[DanBC]

> [...] meal replacements (like Ensure) are not really balanced for normal, active people. They're meant for people who [...] are unable to eat solid food.

Ensure (etc) are aimed at medical uses. That's because most people find the idea of liquid feeds weird.

But if you want to live on liquid food there's nothing to stop you using Ensure, even if you're a fit healthy active person.

[breadbox]

This is missing the point so far it's almost a non sequitur. Reading, talking with friends, playing computer games. I enjoy these all at least as much as I enjoy eating. But I still wouldn't want to be required to do any one of them every single day for the rest of my life. It's nice to have options.

[zachalexander]

This. (OP here.)

I love food. But I hate being forced to partake of it 3x/day.

[Slimbo]

Meal replacement shakes can be useful when you're trying to control your calories while still getting what you need. Particularly good when per iodising your training, so you might still need measured amounts of protein and carbs but you're trying to lose fat after building muscle. Very easy to measure out 1,500 calories worth of powder a day vs guessing calorific content of food.

Having said that, I don't get why the current geek love for Soylent when there's really no shortage of meal replacement shakes out there that seem to do the same job but cheaper. I also love actually eating food, so would only use a shake for a short term goal.

[zachalexander]

Because I would rather (a) make my own soylent or (b) buy some from an open-source distro like Rob's than (c) buy some from a cheesy corporation like whoever makes Ensure.

[IvyMike]

I agree with you.

But before you get too far down this rabbit hole, consider that people's eating habits occupy the same emotional space as religion and politics.

In other words, it is possible but unlikely that you'll be able to argue someone out of their position on any of the three topics.

[adregan]

It seems as though the time it takes to engineer Soylent could be used to cook and freeze a bunch of food.

[zachalexander]

Engineer? Yes. It's been a huge timesink for me personally this past few months. But I find it intrinsically interesting, so I haven't minded.

In the long-run, I think it will save me time, and more importantly, improve the quality of my time. To the extent that I'm trading time spent standing in line at a food truck on lunch break in SOMA for time spent researching nutrition, I think that's a good trade.