MALTODEXTRIN: amzn.to/3AKKYov ELECTROLYTE POWDER: amzn.to/3yFxCYB Easy way to save money and make sure you stay fueled on your rides, hikes, or whatever.
As a cyclist, I take in almost exclusively 120g of carbs an hour so I always just use sucrose. It truly astonishes me that people seem so wary of transferring over to homemade drinks with table sugar and maltodextrin. The other cyclists in my area act like I'm quirky for using sugar. You're doing the lord's work kind sir
The only issue (not a big one…) is that you are ingesting 1 type of sugar this way. May be better to mix sucrose, fructose, and glucose so you can get more rapid absorption of sugar. That why giving a diabetic a sip of soda and fruit juice will raise blood sugar faster, the differ sugars can be taken up more rapidly as they use different transporters.
Nice, I have been training with Xact sports chews a while now.. next weekend I have a half marathon race where I'm going to be running it in hopefully a sub 90 minute time. I'm bringing along a couple of those chews with me but they are very expensive.. Moving forward, I think I'm going to try your method since I quite often have a hydration vest when I'm training. Whether I'm cycling or running, I think I'm going to going your route if it tastes good and saves money
Can't be too careful @@mavallarino . We burn carbs even when we are warming up. You'd probably want to have about 3ml of energy drink with a microcarblet in the solution. I find that the bottles that hamsters have in their cages are ideal for this. Personally I'd take it at a rate of 1SPM (Sips Per Minute).
"a dash of salt" ... You might want to look into that further for long rides like the 100 miles ride (for an hour or two it'll probably be fine). Not only is there some need to replace lost sodium, but it also helps holding on to the fluids you take in.
Only ingredients i had were salt, sugar and orange concentrate. Tried it. Tastes like orange concentrate with weird aftertaste that lingers. I'm considering using Milo with extra sugar.
Very convenient not having to deal with all the empty gel packages during the ride. Does it work well for you on a morning ride with an empty stomach? Do you usually have a pre-ride meal before you go?
Thanks for the video! You did a good job demonstrating it. I have now been experimenting with making a hypertonic/concentrared mix in one bottle with 180 carbs. Since it's so acidic I think it might be bad for my teeth. Any thoughts on how to make the mix less acidic? Thanks!
Hi im not sure I understand your comment fully but I know that sugar is neither basic nor acidic, it is neutral, so just make sure you rinse your mouth sufficiently after taking the sugar.
Use pH test strips to see just how acidic it is and add baking soda till it's where you want it and it tastes OK. Baking soda will replace some of the table salt
Maltodextrin is a mixture of different lenghts of glucose chains (from 2 to about 20 glucose molecules per chain). The longer chains wont be ready to absorb as fast. So you get a slower, more continous absorption of glucose from the gut, if you use maltodextrin. For short, intense sessions using malto might not be as ideal.
That's a hypothesis that makes a lot of sense, and I believed it for awhile, too, but in practice there is no evidence that suggests this is true. "Due to the difference in digestion and absorption, when compared to glucose, it has often been suggested that low-DE MDs, as complex CHOs, will require more time for digestion and absorption, resulting in a lower glycemic response (Zhang and Hamaker, Citation2009). This suggestion, however, is a misconception and is not supported by any research data. In contrast, the enzymic digestion of MDs appears to take place at a high rate leading to an absorption rate not being different from absorption after ingestion of pure glucose, as reflected also by comparable post-ingestive insulin responses at rest and during exercise, as well as oxidation rates during exercise (Hawley et al., Citation1992; Wagenmakers et al., Citation1993; Jeukendrup, Citation2004)." -www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2014.940415
I'm 96kg, and can easily go for a 2h ride without needing to eat anything... probably because I'm not trying to win a race, but I don't cramp, I don't bonk even when going over threshold, and I don't lose power. I sweat profusely anyway, and living in Australia I do need to drink about 1 litre per hour of water in the summer, but that's it. If I do a 4h+ ride over threshold, I stop for a chocolate bar after 2, but I can't say I definitely needed it. I doubt I could say that if I were anywhere under 90kg though.
I still have to eat though right? Even for a metric century I need actual food? Or is it possible to mix in enough carbs that I won't get that hungry / bonk feeling?
No you don't need to eat, you can consume your carb requirements solely via liquids and not bonk and be just fine on the hunger scale. You can look up EF Energy's "Rocket Fuel" recipe for a more intricate mix that uses some MCT powders as well to get 2500 calories into one bottle. Solid foods may break up the monotony, but plenty of top world level riders fuel on liquids alone. Your body needs glucose, it doesn't care if its solid or liquid food. Also much easier to carry hundreds of grams of carbs in liquid form or in a homemade "Gel" in something like a GU Hydroflask where you can add say 150ml of Maple syrup or 200g of sugar with hot water and just suck on that leaving both your regular bottles for water or electrolytes.
I'll try this out. I'm thinking I'd like to try making it a syrup with a reusable squeeze bottle long term so that I can carry more water.. I do appreciate this video. Good place to start
I don't think maltodextrin is a good idea. I know it sounds controversial, but if you're looking for an idea glucose:fructose ratio, corn syrup will probably work better
A word of advice, do not use hot watter in your water bottles. You're going to ruin them and will become toxic. If you need to use hot watter to make the mixtures prepare it elsewhere and once is cool down put it in the watter bottle
This is an energy drink and not a gel... Your calculations are wrong too. The juice concentrate contains 10g fructose per 100ml. It's important to include this into your calculations, especially because it is the critical fructose. Because Sucrose is a composition of glucose and fructose it is a very slow carbohydrate source. The body first has to split the glucose from the fructose. Then glucose is digested in the small intestine while fructose is first transported to the liver where it slowly gets metabolized. Note that overloading the liver with fructose changes the chemical process and the liver will convert fructose to fat. The fat is stored directly in the liver leading to a fatty liver which triggers other serious diseases. You can have a fatty liver without being fat or obese. Apart from metabolic disorders your liver will get damaged (inflammations, cancer or failure), usually unnoticed for some time. That's why glucose or maltodextrin is so much faster and healthier. It goes directly into the blood stream. This makes me wonder why you add this slow and unhealthy cane sugar while you have nice Maltodextrin on your table. If you think you need fructose buy it pure and not bonded to glucose in the form of table sugar. Instead of using fructose you should train your guts to absorb higher amount of glucose per hour. Because fructose is that brutally slow, it is only useful in low intensity endurance exercises like a slow 3-4 hour ride. There is enough time to allow the fructose to kick in. However, it can take up to six hours until fructose is metabolized. Fructose is therefore not of any use in a high intensity exercising like high intensity intervals or crit racing. Your recommendation of 1g carbohydrates per kg body weight is also wrong. During exercise the metabolism works different and digestion is significantly slowed down. Science tells us that 40-60g per hour is the max rate at which carbohydrates (glycogen) can be metabolized (oxidation rate) - this is independent from a person's body weight and true for any human being. Following your recommendation would surprise many people with gaining weight by building up fat. Avoiding gain of fat makes a controlled carbohydrate intake mandatory (to meet the oxidation rate). For this reason you should portion your mixture properly instead of mixing one big bottle. The human body can only digest a maximum daily intake of 25g! fructose per day. And only if you are used to it. The exact amount varies from person to person. Some can't handle fructose at all (fructose malabsorption). Apart from long time damages to liver and intestine you will suffer from bloating and nausea. This makes sticking to a 2:1 ratio of glucose to fructose per hour harmful or useless at best. The overcharge of fructose will lead to gastrointestinal discomfort and a fatty liver and will mess up your microbiom. If you exercise regularly (therefore consuming these ratios very often) this will happen sooner than later. By the way, the 2:1 ratio is already out of date. Latest studies suggest 1:1 or even 1:0.8 of glucose:fructose. And don't add salt to your drink randomly. Too much is dangerous as it will lead to dehydration (hypernatremia to be precise) as the body will dilute the salty intake. if there is not enough water in the body (for example because you are sweating) you are putting your body into a life threatening state. Too less will lead to hyponatremia or dehydration. Maintaining a healthy electrolyte balance is essential to allow your body to perform at peak. Throwing in some random amount of salt like you did is dangerous! As a matter of fact, the correct amount of salt or sodium is more important than the correct amount of carbohydrates. Your implications are irresponsible in this regard. Maltodextrin should be Maltodextrin 19 (DE=19). Maltodextrin 19 will be ready after 7-15 minutes. Maltodextrin 12 about 30-50 minutes. Maltodextrin 6 >60 minutes. Your used product is maltodextrin 12. It will kick in after a relatively long time. Too long. And you have to be very careful with the carbohydrate concentrations too. What makes industrially produced sports drinks or gels special is that they follow latest science to maximize the efficiency of energy metabolism. This means, salt concentration (or osmolarity) is chosen to mimic the osmolarity of blood and cells. This prevents the drink from drawing water out of your cells in order to dilute the solution for digestion. This process would lead to dehydration although you drink. Many athletes died because of this issue. Electrolyte balance is essential for the body to work. Because we sweat it's also crucial to add electrolytes, at least sodium. The recommendation is between 400-1100 mg sodium per liter (depending on the type of sweater you are). This constraint alone limits how much you can mix into a single bottle of e.g. 500ml capacity. Now in order to help the body to digest the sugar you have to follow a particular range of osmolarity too. This is because if you don't use enough water (high osmolarity) the body will draw water from the cells in order to dilute the sugar. This too leads to dehydration although you drink. The recommended concentration is 4-6% carbohydrates in a solution. For example, you should only add 20-30g sugar into your 500 ml bottle. Otherwise it will be difficult to digest and you risk to get dehydrated. Given the fact that the body is already under stress and digestion is already slow when exercising hard, you should really follow those rules (dictated by your body's metabolism). Because Maltodextrin does not require much water in order to be broken down you can increase the concentration to 8-10%! If your body is used to digest carbohydrates under stress you can go for 12%. For example, add 40-50g (or 60g to meet 12%) Maltodextrin to 500 ml water. If you are well trained and use Maltodextrin as carbohydrate source you can go up to 16% but risking some gastrointestinal problems (symptoms are individual). 16% makes 80g in 500 ml water. That's why Maltodextrin is the preferred sugar source for sports nutrition. It's easier on your intestines. 40-60g per hour is the max rate at which carbohydrate (glucose) can be metabolized (oxidation rate) - this is independent from a person's body weight. Following your recommendation would surprise many people with gaining weight by building up fat. To ramp it up studies have proofed that using glucose : fructose in an 1:1 ratio (or using different carbohydrate sources that use different transport proteins in general) will allow the body to metabolize up to 120g per hour. Latest studies even suggest that in some individuals the rate can be as much as 140g per hour using multiple carbohydrate sources. Although this sounds great most human beings can't metabolize fructose properly. They are fructose intolerant. The average fructose metabolism rate is at 25g per day. That's not much. If you don't take in fructose regularly your body won't even reach 25g but maybe 10g or even less. This means the 120g/h rate and above only applies to a very few individuals. The discomfort introduced by fructose is too much and unacceptable if you are striving for max performance. If you experience bloating or flatulence better reduce or completely avoid fructose in your diet. Otherwise you will grow bad bacteria in your intestine which will negatively affect your immune system and overall health (mental and physical) and over time can even lead to cancer. And because fructose is only metabolized by the liver it commonly leads to a fatty liver. Additionally, the synthesizing of glycogen out of fructose is very slow, therefore making fructose an extremely slow acting carbohydrate source. *_>>> A perfect sports drink that is extremely cheap while absolutely equal (or even better/healthier) to any good well established commercial product you can buy is therefore: ~400mg sodium (1g salt or 1-1.5 tablets electrolyte) + 60g Maltodextrin (DE=19) + 500ml water. I recommend to buy electrolyte tablets e.g. from SIS. They are not too sweet and are properly composed of the five required electrolytes for the correct concentration (1 tablet per 500ml water). Adding this will take away the need to add salt yourself and in addition adds some taste to your energy drink. Just note that the sodium content in electrolyte tablets in general is at the lower end of the recommended intake (usually ~500mg per liter). If you are a heavy sweater you should add additionally 300-700 mg sodium to 1l water. There are plenty of sodium to salt converters.
So your first unedited comment says that his calculations are wrong as sucrose contains a small amount of fructose, even though it is literally made up of 50% of glucose and 50% of fructose. Now you gone into great details about how bad fructose is and then state that 2:1 ratio is outdated by recent studies showing a 1:1 or 1:0.8 ratio being more optimal. Do you realise that 1:1 or 1:0.8 ratio equates to a higher proportion of fructose than a 2:1. Literally every industry that produces energy drinks or gels uses fructose from the "latest science". Also the fatty liver caused by fructose is completely dependent on how active an individual is. Please reference some of your studies so we can see what control groups were used. Furthermore if you did some more research you would find there are many studies on the benefits of fructose is speeding up recovery as it replaces the depleted glycogen stores that we lose during training. Again this applies to active individuals who train regularly not inactive. The issues with fructose you mention are studies dones on inactive people. The issue with a glucose only drink is you're limited to 6g/m. If you want to increase this you will saturate your SGLT1 transporter protein and then you will get GI issues. This is the whole reason the industry uses fructose as once the SGLT1 is saturated, then the GLUT5 is used meaning we can surpass the 60g/hr.
@@douglasharris4703 _" Do you realise that 1:1 or 1:0.8 ratio equates to a higher proportion of fructose than a 2:1. "_ - Yes, my math is quite great. You have to know that studies are about the effect of glucose and fructose combinations on athletes. The studies conclude that a combination of glucose and fructose improves the performance of athletes that are able to sustain a high intensity exercise for at least 2.5 hrs.The studies are not about health. Almost all studies I've read mentioned in a disclaimer that a high fructose intake is known to have severe impact on health. There are no studies that suggest that top level athletes don't suffer from those effects. _" Do you realise that 1:1 or 1:0.8 ratio equates to a higher proportion of fructose than a 2:1. "_ That's not true. What you mean is issue of insulin insensitivity caused by ingesting high amounts of glucose. This insulin insensitivity will usually end up in diabetes type 2. Studies have found that highly trained athletes show enhanced insulin sensitivity. That's why a therapy of diabetes type 2 always includes exercise - to improve insulin sensitivity. Fatty liver is caused by the fact that the liver can only slowly metabolize fructose (to glucose, glycogen and lactate). Now when overcharging the liver with fructose, the liver will fall back to build up fat depots in the liver (nothing is wasted). Because the oxidation rate of fructose is that low, saturation of liver liver take place quite early. This oxidation process is independent of a persons weight or activity level. That's why a fatty liver is as common amongst skinny people and obese people. _"Furthermore if you did some more research you would find there are many studies on the benefits of fructose is speeding up recovery as it replaces the depleted glycogen stores that we lose during training. Again this applies to active individuals who train regularly not inactive. The issues with fructose you mention are studies dones on inactive people."_ As mentioned before, the goal of these studies is to show that fructose-glucose combinations, either in form of free glucose and free fructose or in the form of sucrose, has a positive effect on the performance of highly trained endurance athletes. Highly trained athletes is commonly referring to athletes that can sustain high intensity efforts for at least 2.5 hrs. Those studies do not investigate the health effect of high fructose ingestion. Studies I have read all mention that fructose ingested in high doses is proven to have negative effect on health. Most people on this planet are not able to metabolize the suggested fructose levels. The negative fructose effects are not related to insulin sensitivity and therefore not to active vs sedentary persons. The oxidation of fructose does not change based on exercise intensity like the oxidation of glucose does. _"The issue with a glucose only drink is you're limited to 6g/m. If you want to increase this you will saturate your SGLT1 transporter protein and then you will get GI issues. This is the whole reason the industry uses fructose as once the SGLT1 is saturated, then the GLUT5 is used meaning we can surpass the 60g/hr."_ Glucose oxidation rate is limited to 1g/min. Assumptions are made that this is related to the saturation of SGLT1 glucose transporters and the gastric emptying rate. Studies have proved that by bypassing the digestive system by infusing glucose, the oxidation rate was about 1.8g/min, thus identifying the digestion system as the bottleneck. Combining glucose with fructose, the oxidation rate improves because fructose uses different glucose transporter (GLUT5). Fructose also helps to avoid glucose induced gastric distress. Studies observed that the higher oxidation rate is also present post-exercise. However, the fact that fructose is difficult to digest (1 of 3 people suffer from fructose malabsorption and therefore can only metabolize 0-25g of fructose per day). Oxidation rates above 1.1g/min are only observed for highly trained athletes. The effect of boosting oxidation rates is limited to athletes that are able to sustain a high intensity effort for at least 2.5 hrs. The common athlete won't reach oxidation rates of 1.5g/min or more. The often advertised 2g/min are even rare under highly trained athletes (because of the problematic oxidation of fructose in most people). the world population
At the end of the day the industry doesn't sell tailored gels or drinks to everyone specific metabolic rates in a given environmental and workload condition. There are far to many variables which the studies do not even cover. Each product is formulated to what the studies show is the optimum. Which is ever evolving as more studies emerge. It seems you should have an issue with the entire energy performance industry tailoring their products from the "highly trained athletes" used in the studies who are then selling it the "world population", not a guy on RU-vid who is sharing a formula that works for him. By the way what defines a highly trained athlete exactly? Can you suggest an energy drink formulation for non-active people? Amateurs athlete? Elite? Professional? There is no one formulation which optimal for everyone and every sport/event.
@@mavallarino Agave syrup and honey are both created through their own refining process just like cane sugar has an extraction process. But theres nothing wrong with that. Why the hate for sugar cane?
BTW, I believe you have the ratios wrong. 1:2 Fructose:Glucose (you have it reversed). This is the optimal absorption rate for saccharides from all the articles I’ve read. It’s also what all the Gel/Gu recipes use.
Hello thanks for the comment. I believe you are mistaken, 2/3 of the mixture is sucrose (cane sugar), which is 50 percent glucose and 50% fructose, and the other third is malto (glucose), so it works out to roughly 2 to 1 glucose to fructose. But in the end it doesnt really matter just put some carbs in a bottle and go. Doesnt need to be overthought and to be honest for training I stopped using malto completely and just do sugar with a bit of juice.
I purposely don't want to eat any carbs for up to a 3 hr ride time. This helps me burn fat. At 3 hrs, I just eat a bar (200 Calories) and am good for another hr. Maybe 2 bars if there's some significant climbing. I drink a homemade electrolyte mixture of fresh squeezed lemon juice, pink sea salt, ground up egg shells to neutralize and add something other than sodium. I could add a dash of maple syrup if I plan to be especially >Z2. I avoid sugar as much as possible and want to train up my fat burning metabolism.
That's one of the most stupid things I've seen in a while. Only thing you doing here is stressing your body, lowering performance and sabotaging recovery.
