f4rrest

I use the same for rides over 3 hours, otherwise just plain water.

Half scoop Gatorade + 1 scoop maltodexterin works great and is really cheap.

atjurhs

i'm thinking i will go with powdered gatorade, with powdered maltodextrin both from amazon for fairly cheap

Abe_Froman

You obviously werent paying attention. I specifically stated I mix maltodextrin with gatorade in order to have enough calories. I have 300 calories per 16oz bottle.

And of course life isnt about saving a few bucks. But high sports nutrion drinks, to me at least, is akin to paying $15 for a pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'm fairly certain I can tackle that without overly taxing myself...

fietsbob

Coffee , it's early.. next ... brekkie..

noodle soup

Hammer Fizz

Mango and Grapefruit are my favorites.

Seattle Forrest

After a ride where I sweat a lot - which is another way of saying summer - I can drink as much water as I want and not be any less thirsty. They I don't sleep because I have to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes, the bladder buster. If I put Nuun tabs on the water, I'm not thirsty any more after a few glasses. Milk and Gatorade work too, but those have calories.

Abe_Froman

Do you guys have summer there? I thought it was like 50F and rainy the whole year...

motosonic

I second this.
I use Nuun Sport for normal training. When I go on long rides I use Nuun Endurance as well.

Nothing beats this stuff

GrainBrain

I checked out the product labels in the pantry last night. A lot of the "amino acids" and minerals/vitamins listed in the Hammer stuff is also found in the hemp protein powder, almost all infact. So now I'm at $10 for Malto + $15 for Protein powder + $$? for electrolytes, Hmm. Sounds like I need to experiment in a few months when I get low.

I'm a superstitious guy though, and the fancy products worked really, really well.

Hammer included some nice literature, which stated you can over drink just water during exercise, recommending no more then 28oz/hr. That's what I was doing wrong and the electrolytes were a game changer. They also said if you have a high sodium diet you'll need more electrolytes during activity, so I'm trying to cut down on daily salt intake now.

I stay firm in that Gatorade is just plain sugar, and refined sugar is the devil.

Seattle Forrest

If anybody is thinking of moving here, no. It rains 12 days a week, you'd hate it.

But if we're talking about Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator, yeah. It hit into the high 80s a couple weeks ago, and when it's been 50F every day for a month, that's kind of a shock. In the summer we get days over 100F now. Usually not so many, go E and they get months over 100F.

Abe_Froman

If that is what you believe, then you should probably stay away from the Hammer stuff, gels, and anything with maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is the definition of refined, and is generally as high, or higher than simple table sugar (sucrose) on the glycemic index, which is glucose and fructose bound together. Maltodextrin is varying length chains of pure glucose. Food for thought.

https://www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide...weeteners.html

I should add that sure, if youre working a desk job, slamming maltodextrin or sugar is a pretty poor diet. But on the bike, the whole POINT (the calorie portion anyway) is to counteract sugar/glycogen depletion. You do this with high glycemic foods (aka sugar).

Abe_Froman

The reason you cant drink an infinite amount of water is hyponatremia. You're essentially diluting the salt content of your body with pure water. A few liters isnt going to make a difference. Multiple gallons, and you might start feeling pretty funny. I've had it...you get kinda weak, and feel almost dehydrated, which of course makes it even worse.

MoAlpha

Yup. Seizures, brain swelling, coma, and death are slow, too.

Abe_Froman

There is always that

KraneXL

Too much plain water is not good. I've been there. You don't just get weak in the knees, its a pretty miserable head feeling too.

MoAlpha

Okay, now that we're getting all anecdotal, I actually think I have a visual phenomenon, which happens when I'm a little sodium depleted or over hydrated. It's a phosphene-like sense of light or sparkles, which pulsates slowly in and out from the periphery.

What? Never had that? I'm too focused on my internal goings on? Okay.

Abe_Froman

Well this is a bit of a semantic argument...but there is no such thing as being overhydrated. If you're overhydrated...you pee. Hyponatremia is specifically caused by lack of table salt (sodium) in the body.

MoAlpha

Not quite.

You can be hyponatremic with increased or decreased intravascular volume. Dehydration is often accompanied by hyponatremia and salt has to be replaced along with water.

In water intoxication, one is acutely hyponatremic and in a hypervolemic state (too much volume). In water intoxicated athletes, the situation is worsened by obligatory salt losses through the skin. You can drink far faster than you can form urine and the kidney is incapable of removing all sodium from the urine, even in the face of extreme hyponatremia, so a little sodium is lost even in the effort to remove water.

The mechanism of acute hyponatremia/water intoxication is osmolar. That is, serum and extracellular fluid osmolarity, which is largely created by Na and CL, is reduced and water follows the osmolar gradient into cells, which swell and malfunction as a result. The central nervous system takes the big hit there. There is only one common way to get into that particular state, which is by drinking too much water relative to salt, call it what you will. The clinical world calls it water intoxication and regards hyponatremia as part of the syndrome and its mechanism.

A related issue is water repletion after chronic dehydration, where cells essentially create higher internal osmolarity to retain water in order to function. A big dose of water in that state can kill.

Other than athletes, situations where one sees water intoxication are psych patients with schizophrenia and OCD, who occasionally drink themselves to death, and people trying to cheat on drug tests by diluting their urine.

DaveSSS 

Accelerade up to the halfway point, then water. I mix it light, only 130 calories. Trying to lose weight.

Clipped_in

Me too.

cthenn

edit, n/m I decided not to be a d**k

Seattle Forrest

So how do I make something at home that replaces not just table salt but also magnesium and potassium in something close to the ratio your losing them, and tastes acceptable? I guess it's easy enough to get potassium, but most people don't get enough magnesium right?

I like money. A penny saved is a penny earned.

GrainBrain

That's how the pros fuel for a 200k on Zwift.

Abe_Froman

Well powdered gatorade has both salt and potassium. They have an endurance formula that has significantly more of both, and is still pretty cheap.

I'll claim ignorance on magnesium. I'm not sure what, if any, short term detrimental effects there might be from low magnesium in the system, and how quickly you use it. I am fairly certain that it's level of importance is below that of both sodium and potassium. Sodium is the biggie.

MoAlpha

My semi-informed take is that you don't need to put the Mg or the K in a drink, since there are body stores of those elements, which can be repleted by diet except in rare cases of Mg deficiency. Na, by contrast, is not really stored and needs to be replaced in real time during prolonged exercise.

I think you're right that subtle Mg deficiency may be common in industrialized societies, but it's easy to eat foods that contain it. I practically live on legumes, nuts, dark chocolate and leafy greens.