Energy foods/drinks/etc - the good, the bad, the ugly

bratboy

That's the only way - gels and 8% carb drinks are probably the best/quickest legeal option, but it'll also depend on what you uhave previously eaten, whether you have taken enough water with the gel, and how hard you are going at the time.

alternatively hook your gels up intravenously to get the enrgy directly into the blood stream :shock:

sampras38

lost_in_thought wrote:

So, I am interested... My favourite energy food/drinks are Clif bars in Oatmeal, Raisin and Walnut, and High5 Citrus respectively. I've never found a recovery thing I've liked, solid or liquid.

What are yours? What have you tried that's really awful, and why?

I like the Clif bars because they're not chocolate-y and not overly sweet, and the HIgh5 because it's fruity, a little sharp, and not too sweet.

I've never tried a gel. I find the thought of them a little icky.

+1 on Clif bars and as others have said, I've tried them all and haven't had one I don't like. I'm also partial to the HoneyStinger bars. For recovery I tend to flit between making my own drinks and chocolate or strawberry Rego.

sampras38

lost_in_thought wrote:

So, I am interested... My favourite energy food/drinks are Clif bars in Oatmeal, Raisin and Walnut, and High5 Citrus respectively. I've never found a recovery thing I've liked, solid or liquid.

What are yours? What have you tried that's really awful, and why?

I like the Clif bars because they're not chocolate-y and not overly sweet, and the HIgh5 because it's fruity, a little sharp, and not too sweet.

I've never tried a gel. I find the thought of them a little icky.

Slightly delayed response but have you tried the vanilla rego recovery drink? I've recently tried it and it's actually quite nice. Been using the chocolate one for a while and fancied a change.

sampras38

MrChuck wrote:

SIS Go Electrolyte works for me (although the blackcurrant flavor is awful). Clif bars are my first choice but a couple of the Mule ones are good too.

I find gels do help when I need that bit extra but how much of that is in my mind I can't say. The Powerbar gels don't seem as bad as some of the others.

Also a fan of Mars Refuel for after. I only use this stuff for events though and I always find my stomach is in knots after a day of it. Yesterday I also had a Peperami in my pocket whcih was a nice change.

The only powebar gel I quite like is the vanilla flavour.

Quite nice actually..;-)

salsajake

I've now switched energy drinks to plain old maltodextrin powder from myprotein.co.uk. It tastes neither good nor bad, but is, to my surprise, but I guess the clue is in the name - malty - like one of the flavours in a nice ale, or like one of the flavours in ovaltine or malted drinks. Keeping meaning to add a pinch of salt to replace those lost but haven't remembered to yet.

My wife got some mars refuel in the latest shopping, haven't had it for a while - hallelujah, that stuff is great to swig the moment you step off the bike.

Paulie W

My own expereince is if I havent fuelled properly before a long ride then it doesnt really matter what I take on during the ride - energy drinks, gels, bananas, malt loaf, fig rolls, jaffa cakes - I'm still going to struggle.

lost_in_thought

So, Paulie, what do you consume before a ride, and how long before?

Mushroom and ricotta ravioli 10 minutes before departing = bad idea, BTW. :oops:

Paulie W

lost_in_thought wrote:

So, Paulie, what do you consume before a ride, and how long before?

Mushroom and ricotta ravioli 10 minutes before departing = bad idea, BTW. :oops:

Well depends on the ride - length, whether its a race, a fast ride, a pootle - but I often do the old fashioned carbo loading, pasta, brown rice vegetables thing (probably horribly outdated) the night before and then about 2-2.5 hours before the ride I'd eat a carb and fat based meal - porridge with fruit, peanut butter and banana sandwich (wholemeal bread obvioulsly!), that kind of thing.

I've done a few 12 and 24 hour MTB races using this regime and been fine remembering to 'top-up' at regular intervals of course.

Oh and the trusty banana 30 minutes before you're off just to give you that initial boost - particualrly useful if you are racing but also makes you feel stronger in the initial stages of a liesure ride when you can sometimes struggle.

gabriel959

It is not a good idea to start a journey when you ahve just eaten normal food as that will need proper digestion and you could end up throwing up (LiT?) or just having stomach ache.

Best thing is to leave an hour or even two before you start a ride after a big meal.

I really like the Cliff bars although I have heard that the Mule bars are even better so might have to give those a try.

Energy drinks - Torq or ZipVit do it for me.
Recovery - Isostar or ZipVit again.

crosstowncommuter

+1 on the Clif bars (choc chip - the blue ones I think). For a quick pick me up the Clif Shot Bloks with a good glug of water are a good short term boost for tired legs. CranRaz or Orange taste pretty good, but you gotta take them with water.

I'm not really convinced by the whole energy drink thing and like others tend to mix my own 50/50 water and pure fruit juice with a few pinches of salt - pineapple or orange juice tend to work best for me.

Night before or a good few hours before go for something with a lot of rice in it - I think I read somewhere that rice actually has a higher carb content than most pasta, although there is not much in it.

+1 on the fry up for recovery - and after a long ride it WILL taste like the best fry up you have ever had ;-)

Aidy

I don't do energy gunk for normal riding, sometimes if I'm racing. Haven't really tried any of the recovery fuel stuff.

I haven't found anything that's particularly tasty, or anything that's noticably better at delivering energy than anything else, and I think I've tried a fair selection. Normally go with some sort of isotonic drink, and then some sort of energy bar or gel.

For normal riding I'll just do chocolate bars of some description. Or jam sandwiches. Can't beat a jam sandwich.

Sidenote - Am I alone in choosing between brands of food by looking for which has the most calories?

salsajake

Aidy wrote:

Sidenote - Am I alone in choosing between brands of food by looking for which has the most calories?

No! Red on the calories 'traffic light' makes it a must buy. My wife was buying multipack crisps on offer on the online shopping and asked me what I wanted so I asked her to read out the calories per bag and carbs nutritional info for the options and proceeded to choose the highest.

Makes me smile when people in the office are on about cutting calories here and there and how bad carbs are - nonsense! You eat food for energy, therefore the more energy the better! If people just used their bodies a bit more, then problem solved.

rolf_f

sampras38 wrote:

Slightly delayed response but have you tried the vanilla rego recovery drink? I've recently tried it and it's actually quite nice. Been using the chocolate one for a while and fancied a change.

I've got that - I wouldn't really describe it as quite nice but then I haven't tried any others. I do have a freebie Zipfit chocolate which I am scared to try due to forum feedback!

Gel wise, not convinced that the High 5s do anything much. They aren't really very gely either - more like syrup. I am probably going to get a stock of Zipfit caffiene ones which are rather thick - quite like having several goes at them over an interval rather than eating the whole thing in one go (which is probably impossible with those anyway!). Might also get a stock of the SIS Smart1 caffiene gels - quite like those.

Also like the Zipfit chocolate orange energy bars - really quite nice!

roger_merriman

I gave the SIS drinks ago on my first sportive, not sure, well i didn't get a cramp in my legs though did in my foot,

not sure, well they taste better than warm water. the gels are simply wrong. not given the bars a go, more likely to stop for a coffee etc than take bars with me but the drinks where okay, did them make much differnce not sure, probably not i did my normal thing of very light breakfast etc, and then 50/60 miles.

simon_e

A mate tried the Zipvit caffeine gel just before a recent two-up time trial. He was really 'on it', and was buzzing for some time after. He ordered a box of 20 or so. Caffeine energy drinks (including a can of cola) will probably do something similar, but some people experience a real 'down' later - mood-wise as well as alertness and energy.

Someone else I know likes Torq bars and drinks. Her boyfriend now buys Zipvit choc-orange recovery bars to have for lunch and snacks because they're so tasty. They're like chocolate-coated cake bars, I can see what he means. I'm sure the supermarket own brands do similar things.

I really like Tropical Wholefoods fruit bars (which are fairtrade & organic) and raisins on a ride. Not tried many drinks, only a SiS PSP22 Organic sample (which I think worked but didn't taste particularly great) and a Zipvit energy sachet which just tasted of salt. Yeuch. Will add juice next time. Snickers and Cadbury's Fudge have been used to find my va-va-voom during a long ride. Flapjack is lovely and usually good value but oats are bit slow to digest on a hard bike ride. Other recommendations I've read: dried apricots, a pack of dates or Tesco/Sainsbury's chewy & crisp bars.

If you're after calories pure and simple then, according to today's Sun, you should get a Burger King chocolate shake - over 600 calories (equivalent to a portion of fish & chips) and 26 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Yikes! They discuss several other well-known products' calorie count in the article.

biondino

Very small portion of fish and chips

Zipvit choc orange recovery bars are delicious but not quite what I would choose to snack on - they're quite dense.

sampras38

I do like the Cliff bars and to an extent, the honeystingers, but have recently started making my own flapjacks to bring the cost down. Really don't know why I didn't do it sooner..;-)

Still use the Nuun tablets for hydration/electrolytes and Rego recovery drinks though.

Sewinman

I was looking at the calorie content of a Go gel v Cliff bar Peanut (bored on train). The Cliff bar had 3x as much calories per gram of weight.

Does that mean that the Cliff bar is 3x better, or is there more to it?

Paulie W

Sewinman wrote:

I was looking at the calorie content of a Go gel v Cliff bar Peanut (bored on train). The Cliff bar had 3x as much calories per gram of weight.

Does that mean that the Cliff bar is 3x better, or is there more to it?

3 x better at what?

Sewinman

Better at providing energy. Or does a gel work in a different way that makes up for the lower calorie values?

Basically, I was wondering why I should buy gels if they have less calories than cliff bars.

sampras38

Sewinman wrote:

Better at providing energy. Or does a gel work in a different way that makes up for the lower calorie values?

Basically, I was wondering why I should buy gels if they have less calories than cliff bars.

They're used for different purposes really, and perasonally I hardly use gels anymore. I'll occasionally have one towards the end of a ride if I've run out of energy and need a quick boost to get me home, but otherwise I don't tend to bother. They won't give you anywhere near the energy of a Clif bar. I used one the other week and I think it had something like 88 calories in it. That isn't really going to do too much..;-)

As for energy bars, I do quite like Cliff and Honeystingers, but they are quite expensive for what they are, and I've started making my own recently. basically Flapjacks laden with as much energy food as possible.

Paulie W

Sewinman wrote:

Better at providing energy. Or does a gel work in a different way that makes up for the lower calorie values?

Basically, I was wondering why I should buy gels if they have less calories than cliff bars.

It's about how the energy is 'delivered' a gel is either a top-up for your energy levels or is to get you out of a slump quickly. An 'energy bar' will normally take longer to work but will provide 'fule' for a longer period.

roger_merriman

Paulie W wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Better at providing energy. Or does a gel work in a different way that makes up for the lower calorie values?

Basically, I was wondering why I should buy gels if they have less calories than cliff bars.

It's about how the energy is 'delivered' a gel is either a top-up for your energy levels or is to get you out of a slump quickly. An 'energy bar' will normally take longer to work but will provide 'fule' for a longer period.

they are also revolting at least the gel's i've tryed.

sampras38

roger merriman wrote:

Paulie W wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

Better at providing energy. Or does a gel work in a different way that makes up for the lower calorie values?

Basically, I was wondering why I should buy gels if they have less calories than cliff bars.

It's about how the energy is 'delivered' a gel is either a top-up for your energy levels or is to get you out of a slump quickly. An 'energy bar' will normally take longer to work but will provide 'fule' for a longer period.

they are also revolting at least the gel's i've tryed.

The vanilla powerbar one's aren't too bad.

shoulder_of_orion

During the Giro d'Italia I saw Lance Armstrong take a can of coke from the team car. He downed it, then took a couple more and stuck them in his back pockets, they were the little cans like you get in a mini-bar. This was about 10-15km from the end of a flat stage that he had no hope of winning. I think he just wanted a quick energy boost.

None of this namby-pamby gel nonsense.

sampras38

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

During the Giro d'Italia I saw Lance Armstrong take a can of coke from the team car. He downed it, then took a couple more and stuck them in his back pockets, they were the little cans like you get in a mini-bar. This was about 10-15km from the end of a flat stage that he had no hope of winning. I think he just wanted a quick energy boost.

None of this namby-pamby gel nonsense.

I wonder what he'd use if he didn't have a car or other riders to pass them to him. Can't see him carrying around cans of coke can you, no matter how small..?..;-)

Paulie W

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

During the Giro d'Italia I saw Lance Armstrong take a can of coke from the team car. He downed it, then took a couple more and stuck them in his back pockets, they were the little cans like you get in a mini-bar. This was about 10-15km from the end of a flat stage that he had no hope of winning. I think he just wanted a quick energy boost.

None of this namby-pamby gel nonsense.

I wonder if they'd got rid of the 'fizz' for him?

shoulder_of_orion

sampras38 wrote:

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

During the Giro d'Italia I saw Lance Armstrong take a can of coke from the team car. He downed it, then took a couple more and stuck them in his back pockets, they were the little cans like you get in a mini-bar. This was about 10-15km from the end of a flat stage that he had no hope of winning. I think he just wanted a quick energy boost.

None of this namby-pamby gel nonsense.

I wonder what he'd use if he didn't have a car or other riders to pass them to him. Can't see him carrying around cans of coke can you, no matter how small..?..;-)

You don't have a team car when going out on rides? I never leave home without one, I need the team to check if my mouth is open or not when commuting....

No actually that is a very good point. But what's wrong with a snickers or other such calorific goodness? And you could always stop at a shop..?

salsajake

Sewinman wrote:

I was looking at the calorie content of a Go gel v Cliff bar Peanut (bored on train). The Cliff bar had 3x as much calories per gram of weight.

Does that mean that the Cliff bar is 3x better, or is there more to it?

to my simple mind it would be better to take the thing that gives the most calories but weighs the least. That said, if the one with more calories has lots of it through the fats, and the other has lots as carbs, then the one with carbs will give you a better boost. Personally I just shovel the calories in however they come and then burn them off as best I can, though I guess if you keep taking loads of fat it will just build up and make you heavier and less fit - all in moderation bar carbs I guess?

Rich158

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

sampras38 wrote:

Shoulder of Lamb wrote:

During the Giro d'Italia I saw Lance Armstrong take a can of coke from the team car. He downed it, then took a couple more and stuck them in his back pockets, they were the little cans like you get in a mini-bar. This was about 10-15km from the end of a flat stage that he had no hope of winning. I think he just wanted a quick energy boost.

None of this namby-pamby gel nonsense.

I wonder what he'd use if he didn't have a car or other riders to pass them to him. Can't see him carrying around cans of coke can you, no matter how small..?..;-)

You don't have a team car when going out on rides? I never leave home without one, I need the team to check if my mouth is open or not when commuting....

No actually that is a very good point. But what's wrong with a snickers or other such calorific goodness? And you could always stop at a shop..?

Nothing at all, a couple of mates swear by Snickers and jelly beans, and they compete in full length Ironman compsand it seems to work for them.