sstorkel

Glucose tablets are great for their intended job, which is to quickly boost your blood sugar back to a relatively normal level. They are not, however, designed to be a primary fuel during exercise.

If you're experiencing hypoglycemia during exercise, it's probably time to review the literature on "ExCarbs" or "exercise carbs". The idea is to calculate how much fuel you're likely to need for a given activity so you can: 1) eat appropriately, 2) lower your insulin levels prior to exercise, or 3) do both. According to the table I have handy, a 200lb person riding a bicycle at 14mph uses 105g of carbohydrates per hour. If you want to use glucose tablets as your primary source of fuel, you'll need to carry 26 of them, in addition to whatever you need to treat hypoglycemia. That's more food than I want to carry, or consume, so I use glucose tablets just to treat hypoglycemia. Fuel for exercise comes from other sources.

Hammer Gel, in contrast to many gels, is designed for endurance athletes so does last a long time. It won't boost your blood sugar quickly enough to help you recover from hypoglycemia but it will help to sustain you through the remainder of a ride. That's because it's mostly complex carbs, with only a small amount of sugar. As a diabetic athlete, I find Hammer Gel is one of the few products that works really well for me. If you've used sugar-laden gels in the past and been unhappy with them, Hammer Gel might be worth a look...