ducati hyp

Hi, I have come up with a great combo to make a no sugar sports drink that works for ME..
I start with a scoop and a half of Carbo Gain = 100% Maltodextrin and for taste I add a Propel zero packet and mix with water and if it's a real hot day I use Smart Water for more electrolytes .
The maltodextrin is a complex carb that absorbs in your system fast (like sugar) , Propel zero uses all natural flavors and has vitamins and antioxidants, at this point it is a very cheaply made drink and on hot days using a electrolyte water adds about a buck for 33 oz..
It's more about putting less sugar in my body but keeping the energy that I need from a drink while riding. On long rides 60-100 miles I eat solid foods also. I have had no problem at all with this combo.... Hope this helps anybody who is looking to put less sugar in their bodies. It can add up when you ride 3-6 days a week...

gregf83 

That looks fine but I have two questions. What's wrong with sugar? It's really not much different than malto unless you just don't like the taste. Do you really need these extra calories for every ride? i.e. 3-6 times/wk.

ducati hyp

If you compare to a sugar sports drink they both have calories. A gatorade has 80 for 12 oz. so figure about 120 to a bottle , I use 50 grams of maltodextrin to a bottle and it has 190 and I dont know about you but I try to put 200-250 calories per n hour in my body and I'm in the camp that thinks complex carbs are better than simplex and each drink cost me 30 cent

gregf83 

For bike fuel there is no benefit to the 'complex' part of malto. It gets broken down very quickly, hence its high glycemic index. Unless I'm doing 4+ hr rides I don't worry about getting 200 Cals/hr. On a hard 3.5 hr group ride today I ate a clif bar and had good energy at the end.

Carbonfiberboy 

Malto is incorrectly labeled and sold as a "complex carb." It's glycemic index is usually given as 130, which is higher than that of sugar. There are reasons for using malto instead of sugar:

Higher glycemic index works better for biking.
It's not sweet. I can put 750 cal of it in a 24 oz. bottle and drink it up in 3 hours and want another one. Try that with sugar.

I use a 7:1 mix of malto and flavored whey protein. That's the perfect sports drink. I burn it at a rate of 2 cups of dry powder in 3 hours.
I take Endurolytes for electrolytes and find that works better than putting it in the liquid.

Machka 

A couple years ago I dropped all the sports drinks, and switched to plain, ordinary water on my rides. For me ... that's the perfect cycling drink.


And on long rides I'll stop at grocery stores or convenience stores along the way and get a cold coke, orange juice, iced tea or whatever I feel thirsty for.

sjvcycler

There is no proof that having malto while cycling helps performance. There is evidence that raising your GI before exercise helps, but none that supports having a high GI during exercise has any benefit. I also stick with tap water on rides shorter than 60 miles. For me, all the excess sugar turns to fat because I don't burn enough of it during the ride. If you are going to ride hard just eat correctly before and after. We are not all pro cyclists that need to eat every 15 minutes of riding, keep that in mind.

https://www.health.arizona.edu/health...cemicindex.htm
Those interested in exercise metabolism look at consumption of low vs. high GI foods before exercise to see if there is any effect on performance. The data from recent studies suggest that consumption of lower GI foods 30-60 minutes prior to exercise has the following effects:

• minimizes the hypoglycemia which occurs at the beginning of exercise
• increases the concentration of fatty acids in the blood
• increases fat oxidation thereby reducing reliance on carbohydrate as fuel

The idea is that these effects may enhance performance by perhaps prolonging the onset of fatigue during endurance exercise. Enhanced performance, however, has not been proven in these studies. The GI of carbohydrate is not as important during exercise because the insulin response is blunted during exercise. After exercise, it is actually beneficial to consume high GI foods to enhance muscle glycogen resynthesis, which relies on the presence of insulin.

TLDR Version: 30-60 minutes before consume low GI foods. During, if you are hungry eat. After eat high GI foods to replenish (Choco Milk etc)

Carbonfiberboy 

Uh, I guess I beg to differ.

Better yet, don't eat anything 30-60 minutes prior to exercise. That's why people have a blood sugar drop to start with. If they'd not do that, they'd not see that effect. Funny thing about studies by folks who don't know their subject. And of course you're going to see more fat oxidation if you don't have blood sugar to burn. You'll also see reduced performance. If you're going to do a long, hard ride, don't eat for 3 hours before - you'll go into steady-state as soon as you start eating high GI right from the start.

Max sustainable intake is about 250 cal/hr. If you aren't burning 250 calories or more per hour, then you don't need to eat that much. However many cyclists burn much more than that.

Looking at my records, I have a 400k ride during which my software said I burned 10,000 calories. Those are usually a little high, but this route climbed over 12,000 feet and I averaged about 16 mph saddle time, 13.5 mph ET. So 40 cal/mile, and therefore about 540-640 cal/hr may not be too far off. I ate 3000 calories of my malto mix and probably another 1000 calories of sandwiches and bars. If I eat about half my burn, I usually don't bonk. Less and I do. So I really try for that 250 cal./hr. on a long ride, say anything over 3 hours. I was a little short on this ride, but not too bad. I'm no speedster, just an ordinary guy who's figured out how to ride. Of course one can eat less on a shorter ride and make up the lost glycogen in later meals. You're going to replace the calories sometime, though. Better to eat them on the bike in my view than later when the slightest overconsumption will turn them into fat.

So what is it about malto that helps performance? Three things: it passes faster across the stomach wall than anything else I've ever tried. It has a higher GI than anything else you can put in your stomach. Perhaps most importantly, you can consume vast quantities of it without burning out your mouth. The fast transfer to the bloodstream means you can eat more of it without barfing. The high GI means that you can recover at the tops of climbs. It's really hard to eat on a climb. You don't see many riders doing much of that. So when you hit the top of the climb, you have to eat enough right then to make up for the time you spent climbing and not eating. Whatever you eat has to get into your bloodstream and fuel your muscles so that after a 10 or 20 minute descent you're fueled and ready to go again, up the next climb. Being able to eat it all day, or even for days means being able to stay fueled. One of the commonest complaints I hear from riders is not being able to find anything they can eat at the 250 cal/hr rate all day.

Just because you're not a supremely talented rider doesn't mean you have to ride slowly. You can learn to ride fast. There's just a lot to it. The cool thing about riding for many years is that one gets to try out pretty much every riding and nutritional theory there is. Some work, some don't.