If this has been asked before, sorry in advance. I see a lot of people watering down Gatorade and was wondering if this is good

Does this affect what the drink does for your body ie: helping replace electrolytes ?

I must admit, it is kinda sweet for me but I want to make sure I am getting all the benefits from using it.

Any imput would be great

I use roughly 1/2-2/3 strength but then I add a serving of lite salt. The lite salt adds the sodium and Potasium that Gatorade lacks.

I have to cut it by at least 2/3 because I have a very sensitive tummy and get indigestion easy. Your body will absorb the water quicker than the sugar so it makes sense to water it down!

Lite salt?
Does that have K in it? Is that regular table salt? I've been following a recipe some one posted somewhere else(?) that I really like: In a water bottle pour some orange juce about 1/3 to 1/2 and then the rest w/ water and add salt. The only thing I thought was missing was the K and perhaps some protien.

Orange juice has lots of K.

No protein though...

Dan

the point of gatorade is electrolyte replacement. when you're sweating, you're losing alot more water than you are electrolytes... so it really is no big deal to dilute the gatorade. i have gone for 3 hour, 45 mile rides with just water.

which leads me to the question.... do you use gatorade exclusively to drink when you ride? that's a bad idea... cuz basically you will be dehydrating your body (same reason why drinking salt water will eventually kill you)

I ride with one water bottle all water, and another water bottle with either a diluted orange juice+salt or diluted powerade+salt mixture.

So should I stop buying Gatrorade and just use water?

I like to use powerade. If you don't mind the expenses I would keep using it. Water doesnt provide EVERYTHING you need.

I only use my salt mix concoction when I am doing a hard group ride otherwise just 1/2-2/3 strength mix with water is fine.

1/2 fruit punch Gatorade 1/2 water. mmmmm....

True, water doesn't provide everything you need, but save for being in a race or doing a really long ride (40+ miles), you can replace your electrolytes when you get home by just eating a nice salty meal, and having some bananas.

I'm against using gatorate and energy bars in training, because they in a sense "spoil" your body by supplying it with quick easy fuel, which put less demand on your body to efficiently store and use glycogen.

Feeding your body every time it gets hungry doesn't give your body a chance to become more efficient at storing blood sugar as glycogen... just like riding easy all the time doesn't give your muscles a chance to become more efficient at generating power at the cranks....

if i may....if you have a 16oz gatorade, and dilute it 50/50 with water in 2 16 oz water bottles, then you ultimately are ingesting the one gatorade + water. i see people with one gatorade and one water bottle. does it matter if it is done this way or 1/2 gatorade and water in each bottle? <that's a retorical question>

also, it is a fallicy that we are 70-80% water. we are 70-80% saline (salt water)

i love deliriou5 like a brother, but i think his reasoning for not using gatorade or other replacement products is fatally flawed. think of our bodies as a salt water (saline) fish tank. if every time there is evaporation from the tank you pour in plain water, the water can turn more and more to the plain water side instead of salt water side.

our bodies are machines. we run on saline, vitamins/minerals, blood/plasma , muscle. depriving our 'machines' of vital nutrition, even if it is for a short time doesn't 'teach' it anything. its like hitting a dog with a rolled up newspaper for peeing on the carpet 2 hours ago. it doesn't make sense.

the vital 2 hour window doesn't just apply for glycogen. electolytes need replacing rapidly also. now, some people sweat (glow) more than others. if you have a big engine, you will increase the liklihood of overheating your engine <it does get hot in greensboro, right?>

look at the carton of orange juice. o.j. diluted 1/2 with water is great. V8 juice is great. finish your rides with energy.please don't deprive your body of electolytes.

they did a study and found that over 60% of all emergency room admissions are either dehydrated or have large electrolyte imbalances.

now i don't have any info on the length of your rides. you may not need to be so diligent about replacing K+ and Na+, but generally speaking you are not harming yourself.

Thanks for the love, RiPHRaPH

our bodies are machines.... fish tanks are not. our bodies have a way of getting rid of too much salt and too much water. our kidneys ususally do a great job of keeping our salt concentrations right where they need to be, by excreting too much salt or too much water into your bladder. if you're drinking water that is too salty, it can overwhelm your kidneys' capacity to get rid of the salt, and your body becomes hypertonic, let that go long enough and it will lead to kidney failure and ultimately, death. add to that an activity that is ALREADY dehydrating like cycling, and you've got a dangerous combination. moral of the story? DON'T drink ONLY gatorade when you're cycling.

however, if your body is starting to run out of electrolytes, and you're drinking only water, it will start dumping all that water you're drinking in your bladder, in order to try to keep your blood salt concentrations up. that's why sometimes you can drink tons and tons of water, and still feel grossly dehydrated.

so yes, it's a good idea to replace electrolytes... but my point RiPHRaPH, is that we should become better listeners to our bodies... I know for myself when I need that bottle of gatorade... and I know for myself that I'm just fine with plain water for rides under 2 hrs.

sports drinks aside, i still stand by my assertion that cyclists should stay away from energy bars and gels except for long rides and races.

oh yeah... and don't buy the crap that you NEED to use sports drinks to get the perfect balance of electrolytes and water.... your body can sort out its salt concentrations itself! besides, everyone sweats at different rates, so that means each person has a different "optimum" ratio of water to salt that they need to take in.

so if I carried 2 bottles, one water and the other Gatorade, when will I know when to drink which?
I have been stepping up my rides to 2-3 hrs a day (and it will start to get hot here, soon) :-}

I just draw from whichever water bottle I feel I need -- if I'm just feeling a little thirsty I'll go for straight water -- energy wise I'll pull from the powerade bottle. At the end of rides I always drink lotsa water, and a serving of powerade.

Anyone here use Accellerade? I got a tin free at a LBS and really like it. I use about half concentration.

I actually use half water and half orange juice. Seems to work well for me. ANyone else do this?

Yes I also prefer powerade over gatarade on HOT and sweaty days, gaterade has a more salt base taste where as powerade has a more sweeter taste,and better for rehydration.

I like to keep things natural.

For me, it's water only as liquid. I also complete my diet with fruits, vegetables, and sometimes nuts, hiker's mix, etc. and good meals at due time.

Water only is OK for short rides, slow rides, and rides on cool days. But, if you are attempting to train your body to operate at higher levels, depriving yourself of carbohydrates and electrolytes does not make sense. You are just making it that much harder to train at a high level. If this theory had any merit, one would expect elite cyclists to do this in their training...they don't.

Using water alone on hot and/or humid days can also cause another problem, called hyponatremia (a lack of sodium in the blood). A good friend of mine (an experienced cyclist) learned this lesson the hard way. He spent a day riding in the heat and humidity of Missouri. Throughout the day he ate well and drank lots of water...but, only water. By the end of the day, he felt very bad (weak, uncoordinated, etc.). He ended up in the emergency room where he was given an IV with saline. My friend had had plenty of water throughout the day, but because he only drank water his electrolytes became depleted. You cannot "train" your body to create more salt.

I've heard that Gatorade is a bit short in both sodium and potassium, but they forumulated it so that people would actually drink it instead of making it "optimal". If they added enough sodium and potassium, it would probably taste "too salty" to most people.

Are you sure your lite salt contains sodium? I use Morton Lite Salt, and it is straight Potassium Chloride, with no sodium content.

Here's a recipe for homemade sports drink that I got from the roadbikerider.com web site. You can experiment with the ingredients to see what works best for you.

"You won't believe how close this sports drink recipe is to a commercial product. It has 110 mg of sodium and 38 mg of potassium per 8-oz. serving. Cost is only about 30 cents per half gallon. Compare that to $3 for Gatorade! You can adjust the sweetness to taste. -- John R.

► 1 packet any flavor of unsweetened Kool-Aid or similar product for making 2 quarts
► 8 tablespoons sugar
► 3/8 teaspoon of salt
► 1/8 teaspoon salt substitute that contains potassium chloride
► 2 quarts of water"

Yup! from the label here's the 411 for Morton Lite Salt
Serving size 1/4 tsp
Cal 0g
Sodium 290mg
Potassium 340mg
Carb 0g
protein 0g
Iodine 40% USDA