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I usually add a pinch of gatorade powder to vitalyte, to add a bit of sweetness.

Powdered Gatoraid here also. I mix it up fairly weak, and don't take water on my rides. But then again this is Orlando where you will sweat at 7:00am in December.

paging 10 Wheels...paging 10 Wheels...please meet your party at the "Does anyone still use Gatorade?" thread.

I also do the G2. I like it because it does not have all of the extra sugar that normal Gatorade/Powerade/whatever has in it.

I only use it when I'm far from home and out of whatever was in my bottles to start with.

+1 I also buy the powder mix and dilute it. I find Gatorade at full strength to be too strong/sugary.

I use gatorade powder I think the mix is 4 scoops/gal and I will generally do 3/gal. Today's ride it was 80F and 98% humidity at 7:00a. I routinely loose 2lbs of water(sweat) per hour riding in the summer and the gatorade seems to work for me.

On unsupported Ultras I pretty much have to drink Gatorade. I'm a light packer when it comes to my unsupported Ultras. I don't like to carry enough powder drink mix for 375 miles:p

At next weekend's Grand Tour 400 miler I have no idea what liquid nutrition they will provide. I've become less selective over the years. Gatorade used to give me heartburn. Now I enjoy a Coke and a smile at the controls and have no issues:thumb:

I buy it by the 6-gallon powdered can. Mix it up, and fill my 3l Camelbak and hit the road. I'm partial to the fruit punch flavored Gatorade.

Come on down to Tampa Bay, I think we've got ya beat. ;-)

I'll be riding over to Tampa in a couple of weeks for the 4th, and I'll have my 3l Camelbak as well as a couple of extra bottles of water and Gatorade. The bottles will start out frozen, but of course being that this is Florida it won't be too long before they thaw. But buried in one of my pannier bags with my clothes they'll still be cold.

Anyone ever tried Powerade Zero? Thats what I use. It has 0 calories but has sodium and potassium. My rides during the week usually never go over 1.5 hours and on the weekends(longer rides) I'll carry some gels/goo for sustenance. I'm trying to lose weight though... that's why I'm doing the 0 calorie thing.

Whenever I do use Gatorade I'll cut it with water and usually get the lower calorie G2. Regular Gatorade is just to sweet by itself!

another vote for nuun tabs here. i love the lemon/lime. no sweetness...just the way i like it.
it's easy to carry a few extra tablets along for refills on long rides too.

Another powdered Gatorade user. Avoid the bottled stuff: it's full of HFCS. The powdered version uses sucrose, I believe.

I recently bought a huge can of powder that's for 9 gallons or so. If I drink it at home it tastes good around full strength (but full strength is still too sweet)...about 1.5-1.75 scoops where two are "required." I water it down even more for rides, and only bother with it for rides in the two hour range.

When I'm doing a ride where I bring Gatorade, I want/need the calories. That Zero stuff is just for the posers who drink Gatorade on the couch watching TV.

If you really want to lose weight, just eat normally for most of the day (and certainly during rides) and skip or really scrimp on dinner. Cut your portion in half, or just skip it if you feel you can. You don't need those calories at night. I've lost almost 30lbs over the last two years doing this.

I ride with Gatorade just because it kind of works and I don't want to mess with all that "advanced" stuff yet if I can avoid it. I use the powdered stuff, and lemon-lime works best because the taste is the least strong of the original flavors. When I stop at a store on a ride, I buy either the blue or purple because those are my favorite colors.

I use a 50/50 mix of water and Gatorade which is pretty much G2 without actually paying the same price for watered down Gatorade. So you can make twice as much.

I use the Poweraid Zero too. I normally just use water because most of my rides are less than 2 hours, but sometimes I use the Zero. I also am trying to loose weight, and figure that I'm riding to burn calories, not to drink them.

:lol:

I recently discovered that bottled Gatorade has a short shelf-life. The customer-service agent at the manufacturer confirmed this: only 2 to 3 days once opened, even if refrigerated. (She thoughtfully sent me discount coupons for more.) I had put a 3/4-empty bike bottle into the refrigerator, and when I went to top it up the next day I found "organic matter" swimming in it and in the store-bottle too. But when it's fresh I think it's better than water.

My point exactly. Cut calories anywhere you can. I could do just water but it's easier to stay hydrated when there's a little bit of flavor there to help out. I usually fill up both bottles with ice and pour the zero on top it.

I don't trust anything with "Zero" in the name.

But regular Gatorade (mixed 50/50 as most suggest) does the job on longer rides. (Under two hours, yeah, you're fine with just water. Maybe pack something salty/sweet in your jersey in case you feel a little sluggish.)

[disclaimer: i didnt mean to make this post so long, but it happened. a lot of this is based on expereicne gained when training and testing out in colorado springs years ago working for la sportiva as a climber. i mention glucose a lot. keep in mind that glucose is what your body uses to produce energy, and your body can only store so much of it. being overweight does not mean you have more of it to burn. any diabetic can confirm that in order to maintain optimal energy it is important to maintain your glucose levels as much as possible. hence, eat on the bike, the fat will burn off during recovery....but read below for info on sports drinks...]

gatorade is fine stuff, cheap and effective (there isn't much science to it, it's basicaly water, high fructose corn syrup and salt).

coca-cola is essentially the same thing, except instead of minerals (i.e. primarily salt) you have caffene and carbonated water. it also works quite nicely, but keep in mind it has a higher concentration of sugar to fluid ounce of water so you may want to dilute it as per your stomach requires.

in a pinch you can combine orange juice, water and a very little bit (1/16th tsp or 100mg) of salt to create an effective bottled drink as well. a benefit to orange juice is that it has more of the minerals (expect for salt) that you are burning than gatorade. it also has a more simple sugar compound (pure fructose) that can be absorbed more quickly by the body. this absorbtion factor allows you to take in more sugar per fluid oz of water, which is good when you are trying to keep up your calorie intake on the bike.

"advanced" sport drink powders like those offered by FRS and Hammer Nutrition are nothing to be feared. they replace high fructose corn syrup with long chain malodextrin which is basically pure glucose (glucose is what all sugars including fructose and sucrose are broken down into by the body to produce ATP which then gives you energy). this glucose is basically micronized (or pre-broken down) sugar. this provides three major benefits: 1) it can be absorbed faster; 2) it can be absorbed in a higher concentration (more calories per fluid oz); and 3) the micronization process helps to yield additional amino acids which help with your metabolism's efficiency (maintain nitrates, protiens and more effieient burning of glucose). On top of all this these advanced drinks are also fortified with all sorts of vitimans and minerals well beyond what you get from gatorade.

what does all this mean? is this good stuff or just expensive pee?

well when deciding if you believe whether or not the body can absorb malodextrin more easily than high fructose corn syrup in a real world scenerio and whether all the extra hoopla is hype consider your stomach. most athletes i know will cut their gatorade with water for easier absorbtion during exercise. typically they pack around 100 calories of gatorade into a water bottle. when using an advanced substance the same athletes are able to pack more calories (150-200) into the same bottle and maintain the same drinking comfort. when on a long competitive group ride or race this can mean more calories with the same weight and more energy gained from the same bottle when using the advanced stuff. irregardless of the potential benefits of the other minerals and vitimins the advanced stuff can make up for a lack of ability to grab a gel in a long intense crit or hard group ride.

but why do you need to worry about getting glocose in a short event? even if the effort is under 2 hours, a good athlete knows that maintaining glucose levels in today's training is critical for optimizing the next day's training. if you deplete your glucose levels one day your next day's training will suffer. when glucose levels are depleted your body will break down your stored protiens, which your body will need to recover and does your muscles all harm and no good.

whether you are looking to lose fat or become more fit, your objective is to build muscle. you don't accomplish that by depriving your body the basic protiens needed to keep strong.

no matter how hard you work, if you always try to keep up with your hydration and glucose levels you will recover faster. when you recover faster you can train with more intensity more frequently. when you train with more intensity more frequently, your fitness improves. this serves the Cat 2 cyclist looking for more speed and the recreational cyclist looking to lose weight.

Just riding on the coattails of what TrippleB wrote... in my experience changing what (and how and why) you eat following the suggestions of someone like Mark Pollan or Mark Bittman will do more for weight loss than avoiding calories during excerise (Bittman's Food Matters is a great place to start for inspiration and recipes).

I have limited $$$ to spend on cycling, so I favor Gatorade over those fancy drinks myself. I did some calculations, and I pay about 11-17 cents per bottle while the current trend brands usually come in at $1-2 per bottle!

It works just fine in my opinion, although I carry gel and sometimes electrolyte capsules on really long rides (70 miles or more). I make it a little weak and generally carry 1 bottle with Gatorade and 1 with plain water for rides longer than 1.5 hours. My local grocery store also sells these individual pouches of it that I carry on really long rides so I can just find tap water and drop a packet in (much cleaner than ziploc bags).

I buy the powder gatorade and mix it to my liking (weaker then the directions) and love it. Been doing it this way for several years, it works for me.