Sports Drinks/What Fluid

ckelly10

Great info...and I always thought sticking to water as apposed to buying stuff like Gatorade was better for me. Also nice comment about dehydration...I usually only really have a proper drink when I feel thirsty otherwise I just push on - will not be doing this in the future.

concorde

Going to look into making my own isotonic drinks as filling the water bladder with lucozade I def find better than just taking water with me.

Original post is a bit incorrect mind, the sodium in a drink does not promote water uptake in the body. if there's higher sodiun in the drink than in the body the water will move out of the body, not what we want. Hence, be careful on the salt you put in if you make your own isotonic drinks!

joolsabel

I've just started cycling again after 30 years and I'm losing weight and currently 17 stones. I live in hilly LAncashire and I did my first 24 miler last week and even though I completed it and felt brilliant, I was absolutely b****xed afterwards. Nearly passed out in supermarket later on.

I realise now that I should have taken some energy bars and electrolyte solution so the next ride I did I had an energy bar after about half and hour and drank some high 5 2:1 and once again completed the ride but was b*****xed afterwards. I am burning around 1800kcals and aim to eat around 1600-1800 a day on my diet. I use endomondo & myfitpal to track my food and I still had 1200 kcal's available at the end of the day which I did not eat.

This is probably a stupid question, but do I need to eat more energy bars / drink more carb fluid during the ride? Am on the hairy dieters diet. Very hilly where I live which is great for training. Dont want to be a racing snake just fit enough to complete a long charity cycle ride this year.

Any advice on nutrition greatly received!

Jools

YeehaaMcgee

Ditch the energy bars and carb drinks, they're just not needed on a ride that short. Build up your fitness instead, by building up to that distance. After a while, you'll cover that kind of distance without even thinking about it.

mmacavity

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&l ... &q&f=false

mmacavity

Robert Lustig talking about sugar.
Gatorade gets a mention at about 1:00:00 in (the 5 to 10 minutes before it is also informative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

neilus

Interesting...i make my own juice/water/salt drink and definitely feel my stamina hugely improved over just water. But now ill be more night time mtbing, and sweating a fraction compared to a hot summers day...which is serious amounts!
So my question is; will the salt serve any purpose when not losing huge amounts of h20 via sweating? can i leave it out? Odd, i used an aromatic salt and it went kinda well with the apple juice!
Cheers

allmountainventure

A few people have told me that you cant absorb more than 0.5 - 0.75L fluids per hour. Anything else just sits in your stomach.
True or false?

redjeepǃ

Current recommendation is to drink to thirst, which will probably keep you under the 0.75l / hour space.

poah

in a recently blind study athletes did no better with fancy isotonic drinks than they did with water. over hydration was a big killer of performance though.

flywheel88

I always thought that water was the best rehydrater. After all, we did not have sports drinks for most of our species existence.

ednino

Redjeep! wrote:

Current recommendation is to drink to thirst, which will probably keep you under the 0.75l / hour space.

My sweat test results showed that i lost 600ml of sweat in an hour of hard cardio on the turbo

So when im out on the bike i try to drink 1x 500ml bottle per hour. Drink before you get thirsty because when your thirsty the damage has already been done & its hard to get it back. Same with food. Eat before your hungry

Stalin

ednino wrote:

Redjeep! wrote:

Current recommendation is to drink to thirst, which will probably keep you under the 0.75l / hour space.

My sweat test results showed that i lost 600ml of sweat in an hour of hard cardio on the turbo

So when im out on the bike i try to drink 1x 500ml bottle per hour. Drink before you get thirsty because when your thirsty the damage has already been done & its hard to get it back. Same with food. Eat before your hungry

Read Waterlogged by Dr Tim Noakes.

Stalin

The Northern Monkey wrote:

OK guys, i'm currently studying for a degree in Nutrition and Sports Science and figured that some of the stuff i've been learning might be put to some good use if i shared it....so here goes

OK there are 3 main types of drink that people associate with sport. They are:-
Hypotonic Drinks
Hypertonic drinks.
Isotonic Drinks.

There are some fundamental differences between all 3, and the only one that is actually classified as a "sports drinks" is the isotonic version.

Hypotonic Drinks :-
Contain approx. 2-4% carbohydrate, and are less concentrated than body fluids. This means that they are a low energy source but provide fluid at a greater rate that just water. They usually contain sodium with promotes water uptake in the body.
This type of drink is usually beneficial in hot climates or in low physical activities.
Examples: Volvic touch of water, Active O2

Hypertonic Drinks :-
Contain 8%+ carbohydrate and are more concentrated than body fluids. They are a high energy source but provide fluid at a lower rate than water.
These drinks are usually carbonated and contain caffeine, both of which are disadvantageous to athletes. Caffeine = dehydration, carbonation = gas/heavy stomach.
Examples: Kick, Red Bull

Isotonic Drinks :- The Sports Drink...(Before, During and After Sport!)
This type of drink contains 4-8% carbohydrate and also contains soduim and electrolytes and so can do 2 things at once.
It will replace fluid at a greater rate than water as it is at the same concentration as body fluid, and also has sodium to promote water uptake. The electrolytes that are lost in sweat are also replaced.
This drink also has enough carbohydrate in it to give an energy boost, and contains no caffeine and isn't carbonated.
Examples: Lucozade sport, Powerade RTD, High 5 Isotonic, Sis Go Electrolyte, Gatorade and Isostar.

Water????
Water is a good thirst quencher but not a good rehydrator.
Athletes that drink water, loose more through sweat and urine than they can drink.
It has no carbs for energy or electrolytes to stimulate fluid uptake.

How Much?
This is really down to the athlete themselves, but here is a little guide...

Before:- always start in a well hydrated state, having replaces any losses from the day before. A 500ml isotonic drink 2 hours before exercise is advised to promote hydration and to prime the stomace for water uptake.

During:- main aim is to make your intake = losses.
If the exercise is over 1hr it is recomended to have a carbohydrate containing drink of approx 200-300ml every 10-20 mins. As you can guess, the higher the intensity, the more fluid you will need and everybody is different.

After :- Try and replace fluid lossed by 150%. This is hard to calculate, but i would reccomend trying to drink 200-300ml isotonic drink every 20-30 mins untill your pee turns clear (a good indicator of being hydrated)!

One Final Thing
THIRST IS A POOR SIGN OF DEHYDRATION!!
If you feel thirsty you have already lost 2% of your body weight due to water loss!!

I hope this will help at least some people, as staying hydrated will help keep your performace top notch!!

Cheers,
Ben

Your advice about water is wrong. Your comment about thirst being a poor sign of dehydration is complete rubbish. Your post is nothing but an advert for sports drink companies. If this is what students are being taught these days god help the human race.

Read Tim Noakes waterlogged.

tenchguru

Hip flask with a little sloe gin for the cold frosy days

njee20

Mmm, as you've resurrected the thread I'm intrigued now:

Read Tim Noakes waterlogged.

I doubt we'll get Stalin out of hiding, but can you tell us some of the salient points, as I'm not going to bother reading it? Presumably it's that athletes drink too much and that water is all anyone needs? I don't subscribe to the "drink as much as you can before you're thirsty" school of thought, as that's daft, but I'd be interested to know the general gist, rather than you just repeating that we should read it.

mattyfez

I find 300-500ml per hour more than adequate unless it's a roasting day or I'm really pushing myself.

500ml isotonic per half hour sounds mad, your teeth would drop out from all the sugar!

I generally take water and some squash if I fancy sugar.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, I also take a selection of cheese and meat sandwiches with onion and tomato on wholemeal bread for food.

If I'm going out for an hour or less I'll just take 500ml water and no food.

The Rookie

njee20 wrote:

Mmm, as you've resurrected the thread I'm intrigued now:

Read Tim Noakes waterlogged.

I doubt we'll get Stalin out of hiding, but can you tell us some of the salient points, as I'm not going to bother reading it?

http://www.humankinetics.com/products/a ... aterlogged is a summary some more here http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitnes ... water.aspx

I read a longer article, a Dr who was a runner and who was doing a longish run (at least half marathon length) and 'drank ahead of the thirst' and ended up in near collapse due to over hydration.

What I will say is that I am a sweaty so and so when excercising, if I drink just water I end up with cramps, if I drink something vaguely 'isotonic' I do not.

mmacavity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFlV-Rn1yw

mmacavity

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/athletes-suffer-tooth-decay-due-to-sugar-in-sports-drinks-1.2180364

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11970016/Premier-League-footballers-plagued-by-rotting-teeth-UCL-finds.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sports-drinks-rot-your-teeth-1274492.html

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/which-foods-and-drinks-containing-sugar-cause-tooth-decay.aspx?CategoryID=74&SubCategoryID=741

Nellyspania

Some interesting comment here.

FWIW I prefer plain water for most of my rides but for the harder paced group rides of about 2 hours that I sometimes do I make up my own 'sports drink' just to keep myself topped up with carbs.

I use pure glucose powder at 7% of weight in water.

If you want a cheap source of glucose powder, go to your local Wilkinsons homebrew section - brewing sugar is sold there (100% glucose) for about 2 quid a kilo!

Tashman

I agree with the comments on if you're thirsty it's too late - especially in exercise conditions.
The best hydration solution i've tried is similar to the World Health Org ideal from years back - A litre of water with a teaspoon of sugar and a small pinch of salt - I add a squirt of lemon too for taste. This allows your body to absorb electrolytes and maintain it's balance. This is essentially what the basis of the isotonic drinks is but won't cost you £2.50 per 300ml or whatever ludicrous charge they apply now

EthelynBall

I prefer Isotonic Drinks rather
John Ferreira http://www.srilankafreedomparty.org

FishFish

You don't get tooth decay from energy drinks. You get it because you do not brush teeth and go to the dentist. People who drink alcohol in quantity imibe far higher quantities of sugar than energy drinkers.

hypster

I've come late to this thread and haven't read it all but I'm sorry to say I have to agree with Stalin. A lot of the advice given by the OP is sadly well out of date especially about just drinking plain water. The pro peloton exist on mainly plain water, in conditions that most social cyclists never experience, and they don't seem to do too bad.

I'm quite happy if people want to put some sort of flavouring in their bottles because they don't like plain water but in actual fact, electrolyte replenishment on a ride is not at all necessary.

As others have said read "Waterlogged" by Tim Noakes or any of the several articles summerising its central message on the web. There are also several YouTube video interviews with Tim Noakes as well.

kmcd21

Innocent - coconut water diluted down in a camelbak hard to beat !

poah

FishFish wrote:

You don't get tooth decay from energy drinks. You get it because you do not brush teeth and go to the dentist. People who drink alcohol in quantity imibe far higher quantities of sugar than energy drinkers.

tooth decay comes from acid which is present in energy drinks and a by product of bacteria fermenting the sugars.

Lydia-Hines

Water will do just fine if you ate a good meal a few hours before the ride. If you go with a not so good meal in your system you may want to take a sports drink and maybe a banana as well. That's how I do it anyway.

javanman123

Also looking at my options as far as the drinks than water, trying to make the best decision, and stay away from drinks with too many added sugars. thanks for the info

durianrider

I use water and sugar. Sugar is about 50/50 glucose fructose which is perfect ratio for glycogen restoration and preservation.

Sugar is about 1-3$ a kg and I try and get organic cos its only a bit more and good to support the organic farmers where possible.

All my gf's over the years become gun cyclists on the sugar water mix combined with a high carb low fat vegan diet. They lean right up and power it hard because their glycogen reserves are always full each day. Never ever depleted and I never let them train fasted because it just slows down thyroid and recovery. Also creates a very hangry gf later in the day haha.