Low Calorie Powerade - harmful in cycling?

[DTSMA68]

I have noticed that Powerade is advertising a new drink that has fewer calories than Gatorade. I'm trying to get leaner and was thinking about switching to it. I'm at about 19% body fat and want to get down to about 10-12% body fat.

I ride about 4 times a week. During the week, I ride moderatly 1-2 hours a day. On the weekends, I ride 3-4 hours a day with a 24-30mph group.

Do you think it will do more harm to switch to the low cal drink?

[supcom]

Diet Powerade. For people who sweat profusely while watching golf on TeeVee.

[chrisesposito]

If you are riding at high intensity (and your weekend rides certainly appear to qualify), you can't get the energy you need to sustain this effort from either fat or protein metabolism. Without food, muscle glycogen stores are fairly well depleted between 1 and 2 hours into the ride. At this point, I'd be worrying about bonking.

Controlling diet off the bike sounds like a better long-term strategy than reducing calorie intake when you really need it. It certainly worked better for me - I was where you were about a year ago, and am now where you want to be - I just had my body fat measured after XC ski racing all winter followed by 6 months of road riding and several triathlons, and it's now down to 10%.

[kf5nd]

A well-fed person has about 2.5 hours of fuel in them, then they are done. So it would be fine to take lo-cal powerade on your 1-2 hour rides during the week, but then go to a more caloric drink for the weekend ride.

Plain water is just fine for up to about an hour, then you start to need to replace calories and electrolytes if you want to continue.

[DannoXYZ]

yeah, better to watch what you eat while off the bike and cut total calorie intake while increasing calories burnt on the ride. Wouldn't worry about the sports drink too much, it won't make that much of a difference.... but it can hurt you if you don't drink enough.

[keep on crank'n]

I don't know the calories in sprots drinks and their effect on body fat but at age 73 I just rode the 462 miles from Asheville NC to Welmington. During the trip I drank more Gatoraid than I knew existed. After a week of riding I weighed 8lbs more than when I started. Scales at Wilmington YMCA and at home. Over the next several days my body made it apparent that it was water retention and after six days of hitting the bath room ever hour or so I weighed 1 lb less than when I started.

Is water retention a common problem with sports drinks? I am not diabetic.

Keep-on-crankin'

[DannoXYZ]

Hmmm... could be water-retention from the electrolytes? Did you drink any normal water along with all that Gatoraid? Be careful, you may blow up! ;) How much did that cop that died drink? Something like 6-gallons of water or something??? :eek: