providencebikes

Does anyone think using pedialyte to rehydrate is good bad or doesnt matter ...????

Garfield Cat

Compared to what?

Skipjacks

It's expensive and tastes like watered down death. It's just an electrolyte solution with added sugar and salt. (The salt keeps the fluids in your body. It's very important.)

Per the Pedialyte website there's not danger for adults to drink it.
https://pedialyte.com/pedialyte-facts

Keep in mind that Pedialyte is designs to replace sugars and salts lost due to excessive diarrhea. Normal sweating doesn't lower those levels as much. So Pedialyte is probably overkill.

Water does a hell of a job too. Has the added bonus of being cheap. Might need some food to go with it to keep blood sugars and body salt elevated though. And it only comes in the one bland flavor.

WizardOfBoz

A banana and water. Worked for Gino Bartali.

If you are having cramps and stuff, pre-hydrate. Have your Doc check your vitamin D level.

If you have the flu and can't keep anything down, pedialyte may be helpful. But as Skipjacks says, it's expensive and doesn't taste so great. Better, better tasting, and cheaper options abound.

JonathanGennick 

Gatorade or Powerade, maybe. There are also various, cycling-specific powders.

I normally stay with tap water so that I don't have to worry about mold in my water bottles.

Cuyuna

Tap water. Dress it up with some ice cubes according to preference.

TimothyH

Pedialyte is expensive.

Forget about pre-made drinks or powders.

NUUN or Gu tabs are the way to go. Very convenient, no mess. Bring one in a ziplock bag and if you can find water then you can make sports drink.

DMC707

Ive used it quite successfully in triple digit weather at the motocross track. I usually cut it with water 50/50 so it doesnt upset my stomach

jefnvk

No, I don't. Nor do I think it is a good hangover cure.

Why would you use a formula made for young children, unless you were a young child? Plenty of adult products on the market.

sdmc530

I will second the NUUN tabs, I like them a lot. Go anyplace easy to store and carry. Certain flavors are pretty good, some are very bad. Price is reasonable and they work! I use them for every ride. If you mix it NUUN says it stays good for days so you never waist product.



Get them on amazon by the box for cheap

luddite_68

I ride in a climate where I sweat profusely. Even on 4 hr rides, I put NUUN in every other bottle. It has not failed me.

gettingold

Doubt it is good for you when you are dehydrated. Maybe after a lot of water to replenish your precious bodily fluids.

base2 

I second (3rd or 4th) the NUUN. I always carry 2 bottles on the bike. One is nutrient, the other plain water. I alternate between the 2.

For the nutrient bottle, I make a 24 oz bottle of Gatorade from the powder, 1.5 NUUN tabs and 4 oz of honey.

The honey takes up 2 sugar uptake channels for immediate fuel while the malto-dextrine and other sugars from the Gatorade are split up and broken down to useable sugars (glucose). Those sugars then come online around the honey is done being used. The NUUN tabs add to the optimally formulated Gatorade minerals in the same proportions.

Since you are alternating with plain water everything remains in balance and you can have effectivly more than 2 bottles worth of hydration/nutrition on the bike.

YMMV: It's what I've found works for me.

Also: I drink a full 16 oz glass of Low Sodium V8 vegetable juice after every ride. 50% RDA of Potassium and only 100 calories. No more night cramps.

Cuyuna

What is the proposed value of rehydration with Nuun, Pedialyte, or Gatorade compared to, say, tap water? There's no good peer-reviewed data to support the value of electrolyte repletion.

pdlamb

It's great for dehydration, such as after a long summer ride. I don't know that I'd use it all the time, but for what it is and what it does, it's fine.

Tastes like sh1t, though.

base2 

Calcium, magnesium are hard to come by as far as electrolytes are concerned, but both are absolutely necessary for cellular metabolism and transmission of signal among nerves. I had an imbalance one time and for a few weeks I had exceedingly low performance, and became a dizzy, forgetful very fatigued scatter-brain. Magnesium, Calcium, and Iron supplement fixed it within a few days & within a week or 2 I was at 100%. So from first hand experience I will vouch for the merit of electrolytes being maintained at a reasonably proper level.

That being said: the ones I was low on were the ones you won't find in a drink.

Proper hydration accounts for much of your physical performance.

As to how much minerals you need to replace what you sweat out? I guess that depends on how vigorous the activity, how long you are doing it and what you already have when you start.

Most people would be just fine without anything. But a 5 hour century in August isn't what most people do either, and that is where the value comes from.

Skipjacks

Your body needs sugar and salt to work properly.

Water has neither of those things.

Pedialyte is made to replenish those things when you have massive explosive diarhea when your body is getting rid of everything inside.

You don't deplete yourself like that from normal sweating. You do expel salt (hence the white lines at the edge of the sweat on your shirt and hat and stuff) and you do burn sugar as part of normal exercise. But under normal conditions you aren't completely depleting your body of salt and sugar to the point where you need something like Pedialyte.

Under normal conditions, water and food will give you all the replenishment you need. And I don't mean a heavy salty cheeseburger with a side of pixie sticks. A normal granola bar has salt and sugar in it to replenish loss from sweat and exercise. (How often you need one depends on how much you're sweating). Normal tap water will replenish your fluid levels so your body works properly to process the food and regulate core temperature, thin your blood, etc.

Doesn't even have to be a granola bar. Cookies, pop tarts, a bowl of noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chicken parmasean, whatever....it's all got more than enough sugars and salts to replenish the body.

Pedialyte comes in handy when you've still got the trots and have no appetite to eat real food to get nutrients the normal way. For normal exercise, it's overkill.

(I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. If anyone's got better info, by all means....but this is the general idea)

indyfabz

I drink water to rehydrate. If I need electrolytes and/or carbs, I will ingest them as well.

Cuyuna

Sorry, my question was actually rhetorical. There's no good peer-reviewed data that supports the value of electrolyte replacement during exercise. Little or no value to Nuun, pedialyte, etc over tap water and a granola bar for carbohydrate. OTOH, those "electrolyte drinks" don't do any harm, so if it makes people feel better...well, the mind is a powerful thing.

Skipjacks

Thats' what I said.

Water and food do the job. Pedialyte is overkill.

Fastfingaz

Op might work at the hospital and can get it for free,,,,,

Metieval

but not white sugar

sugar is bad.
sugar depletes the body of B-Vitamins, Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc and manganese.
Sugar raises CO2 in the blood
sugar causes an increased insulin production by the pancreas (zinc manganese)
sugar required fluids to digest it.

Men have survived for thousands of years without sugar drinks.
the sugar a body requires is the sugars a body makes, not the sugars someone ingest.

Skipjacks

Right, which you get through normal food.

In an earlier post I said 'sugar' doesn't mean 'pixie sticks'. Eat like a normal person, not like Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka, and you'll get the natural sugars and salts your body needs.

Iride01 

Electrolyte replacement is not really necessary IMO, for rides less than a couple hours in length. Certainly less so in the winter if you aren't sweating too. I've ridden many miles in 98 plus degree weather with just water.

If you are competing with the other cyclist on your MUP and need that extra edge to get you up the hill, then maybe some electrolyte with some carbs will give you that little extra.

More is not necessarily better. Since I went low salt diet just before starting to cycle seriously, I can't tolerate drinks with lots of electrolytes. IE SALT. They make my stomach cramp. For long rides I'm happy with a 60/40 mixture of CranGrape juice and water or same ratio of Orange juice and water. There are already electroltytes in them. If you want more add salt, lite salt, or something that the marketeers have made you feel is better.

Metieval

yes,

and normal, means food of yesteryear, not today's menu of normal?