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Comment by superobserver | Hacker News Reader

I've tried soylent for a week's worth. Unfortunately, my budget simply can't handle the load that this would cost me - even at a bulk order for one month. At half the current price, I'd be able to seriously consider it. Until then...

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I thought exactly the same. I have a family of 4, and Solyent would be significantly more expensive than what we already spend. And we eat very healthily.

Probably shouldn't feed Soylent to your kids--a lot of the nutritional needs are different depending on their age.

nutritional needs can also be very individual, in terms of things like total caloric intake, macronutrient requirements to 'feel optimal'

does soylent recommend a blanket amount of product to everyone per day, with no variation in individual metabolism?

or do the have some kind of induction period where they figure out your maintenance caloric intake and then give you enough soylent to satisfy your caloric needs?

There's only one formulation, but the Soylent team has stated that the total volume consumed per day should be based on individual needs (e.g. a petite 5' individual should be consuming less overall than a muscular 6' individual).

edit to add a source (many more are on the forums):

> Then, a bit before midnight, I got a pair of e-mails from two of the folks at Soylent, one from founder Rob Rhinehart and one from customer service vice president Julio Miles. "We encourage Soylent beta testers to decide how much Soylent they require in a day," he said. Rhinehart had a similar message. They both tell me that I don't have to actually eat the entire bag of Soylent.

From http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/ars-does-soylent-day-...

so they aren't really forthcoming about changing the total caloric intake, and you can't alter the macronutrient ratio because it's just one formula?

I don't understand this at all. How do you manage to feed each member of your family for less the $65 a week?

Probably by preparing meals at home.

Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to feed a member of your family for a month?

Here's one way to live on $1.70 per day if buying in bulk.

    lentil: 180	g
    rice: 180 g
    banana: 120 g
    olive oil: 20 g
    egg: 112 g
    milk: 99 g
    dry roasted peanuts: 50 g

    cost    : $1.70
    calories: 2000
    carbs   : 200 g
    fats    : 56 g
    protein : 175 g

with macronutirent ratio, calories from = fat:protein:carb = 25%:35%:40%

buying bananas, milk, and eggs in bulk doesn't sound like a great idea given their inherently short shelf life.

Anecdote: Two person household experimenting with meal plans (breakfast+dinner with leftovers for lunch) and our groceries cost about $400/mo. Personally, that number seems very high to me, but it could go down as we prioritize cost over following Recipes As Written. Cost was stable around $300/mo before, but with less varied meals.

Those two numbers translate into $50/person/week and $37.5/person/week.

I wanted to try out Soylent for a breakfast replacement, but was also turned off by the price. Edit: Also the delay! Wow, 4-5 months

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