Buyer's guide to cycling energy products for T2 diabetics
Licmai.ahz
Posts: 2
I have yet to see any article written on the subject matter and would like to challenge you to do so. We t2'ers need to refuel but cannot with your 'normal' energy products - the sugars and carbs are beyond our health limits. Can you write an article to help us out?
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I have a friend who is a T2 and a very occasional cyclist.
He recently did a 500 mile trip through France, over 10 days with 7 stone of luggage!
He lived on cereal bars, bananas and water laced with orange juice. Apparently, his sugars were spot on, he felt fine throughout and lost 12lbs in the process.
i queried his diet and he defended by saying that the calories & sugar burned were replaced with carbs and energy giving foods that were again reburned. the drinking loads washed the system and kept things moving :shock:0 -
Have emailed high5 asking them pretty much the same thing.SIS website not very helpful, just says watch/count carbs and sugars!
A proper article would be excellent.0 -
I have spent a lot of time researching the data, actually, the data on SIS site is very good, though it is not easily accessible a single PDF/spreadsheet with all products would be good.
I believe the SIS GO Powders, either regular or electrolyte are best as they can be diluted to a concentration to suit your own sugar level requirements. Currently, I believe my sugar requirements are 20g per hour. Go standard is 47g for 50g sachet, so I would dilute this into 500ml bottle and consume 1/2 per hour. The Energy Bar Minis I would take before I start, depending on sugars would depend how much I ate. If they were 5mmol/l I would eat a whole 40g bar with 26g of carbs, if they were 9 or higher I would have nothing and a sliding scale in between.
I have come to the conclusion that the only thing to do is trial and error, though if I spot any obvious trends I will let you know. One thing I have found is a decent 60 min HIIT routine at the gym is naff all compared to proper riding!0 -
Licmai.ahz wrote:I have yet to see any article written on the subject matter and would like to challenge you to do so. We t2'ers need to refuel but cannot with your 'normal' energy products - the sugars and carbs are beyond our health limits. Can you write an article to help us out?
Simple thing is as follows for me: -
Don't use Gels, they will give you a massive sugar spike and wreck your riding.
Use Carb drinks
Use Shot Blocs they work well.
Don't eat Apple Tarts or anything sugary at Feed Stations, I learnt to my cost on the Wild Wales Last year.
Eat Bars and flap jacks and keep them going in regularly.
Don't have cake at cake stops, have a tea cake instead.
Hope that helps?0 -
Velonutter wrote:Licmai.ahz wrote:I have yet to see any article written on the subject matter and would like to challenge you to do so. We t2'ers need to refuel but cannot with your 'normal' energy products - the sugars and carbs are beyond our health limits. Can you write an article to help us out?
Simple thing is as follows for me: -
Don't use Gels, they will give you a massive sugar spike and wreck your riding.
Use Carb drinks
Use Shot Blocs they work well.
Don't eat Apple Tarts or anything sugary at Feed Stations, I learnt to my cost on the Wild Wales Last year.
Eat Bars and flap jacks and keep them going in regularly.
Don't have cake at cake stops, have a tea cake instead.
Hope that helps?
Hi re shot blocks, do they work better than lucozade tablets, any idea why? I keepa gel pack with me in case of hypo, but agree best avoided generally. What happened on wild wales if you dont mind me asking?0 -
@mikeburroughs Shot Blocs are brilliant, they taste good (especially the strawberry).
If you are on Insulin and are having hypos, then you need to adjust your units for the ride (Thankfully I no longer take injections, but was on 6 a day and a 1000 units).
If you are just taking the likes of Metformin, then you shouldn't ever have hypo's or your dosage is wrong.
What are you using the Lucozade tablets for? Are you using them like Dextrose Tabs for emergencies? If you are using them for energy, then don't use some proper food like I mentioned.
At the first feed station on the Wild Wales, they had pieces of Quiche and Mr Kipling Apple Tarts, everyone grabbed them and within 5 minutes I started to feel sick, 30 mins later I had to pull over as I was feeling that bad, was tempted to catch a taxi back, but as I knew what had happened, i.e. a very high sugar count, I figured that I could ride it off, thankfully my mates stayed with me and sure enough 12 miles later just in time for the next big climb I had recovered enough to climb it fine.
I now never ever have anything that sweet during a ride..0 -
I found the usual enrgy bars are good enough to not cause too much of a spike for me. I tested on a 60 miler with my glucose meter many times and my levels were pretty stable thoughout. I stay clear of gels but do use a little high 5 (I think) powder in my water0
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Velonutter wrote:@mikeburroughs Shot Blocs are brilliant, they taste good (especially the strawberry).
If you are on Insulin and are having hypos, then you need to adjust your units for the ride (Thankfully I no longer take injections, but was on 6 a day and a 1000 units).
If you are just taking the likes of Metformin, then you shouldn't ever have hypo's or your dosage is wrong.
What are you using the Lucozade tablets for? Are you using them like Dextrose Tabs for emergencies? If you are using them for energy, then don't use some proper food like I mentioned.
At the first feed station on the Wild Wales, they had pieces of Quiche and Mr Kipling Apple Tarts, everyone grabbed them and within 5 minutes I started to feel sick, 30 mins later I had to pull over as I was feeling that bad, was tempted to catch a taxi back, but as I knew what had happened, i.e. a very high sugar count, I figured that I could ride it off, thankfully my mates stayed with me and sure enough 12 miles later just in time for the next big climb I had recovered enough to climb it fine.
I now never ever have anything that sweet during a ride..
Purely on metformin now, was on byetta but weight loss and excercise mean I dont need it now. Just use them for emergencies, tbh out of laziness as they have long shelf life so have a pack in my camelback, one in the car etc. Used them when I was riding/testing as I could take sugars in small exact amounts to measure the changes/needs, but that was all. I dont think they are actually very good for a proper hypo incident, though since i've dropped the byetta, i've only had some lows, not hypos.
Will get some shot bloks next time i'm in Evans and give them a whirl too, thanks!0 -
Great Mike,
Yep I was on two injections a day of Byetta, quite amazing stuff, believe it or not but it is banned by WADA as a performance enhancing drug! :roll:
As you slowly come off and get your training/riding and food intake balance sorted it is virtually impossible to have a Hypo on Metformin, but I regularly get sugar spikes and they are horrible.
Good Luck.0 -
Velonutter wrote:Great Mike,
Yep I was on two injections a day of Byetta, quite amazing stuff, believe it or not but it is banned by WADA as a performance enhancing drug! :roll:
As you slowly come off and get your training/riding and food intake balance sorted it is virtually impossible to have a Hypo on Metformin, but I regularly get sugar spikes and they are horrible.
Good Luck.
It is amazing stuff, was reluctant to take it at first but so glad I did. Happy about going back on if/when condition deteriorates and needs it again.
I guess it could help a non diabetic carbo load, but imagine the side affects could be pretty dreadful.
Yes, sugar spikes are awful and i'm my own worst enemy. when I was on byetta I ate loads for breakfast and hit coed-y-brenin (I was worried about hypos and overdid it) legs like concrete, stonking headache, took over an hour to level out and i felt shattered at the end of it. I'm generally more careful with no byetta as I can't rely on it to level me out so quickly.
I find on training/riding days, sugars hover around 5/6 all day, but creep well into double figures on rest days, but I can train so much harder without the byetta.
Aim now is to reduce the metformin intake, have a stone to lose to reach bang on weight but i've not been that weight since I was 17!0 -
So this weekend I did the red route at sherwood again, was a complete mud pit, excellent fun, very hard work. Used SIS GO Energy powder as felt I could take it in bit by bit. I would say it worked, felt like I had rocket fuel much of the time though sugars did drop, though I only had a single sachet for the whole ride, which is 47g of carbs. Sugars started at 9.6mmol/l but dropped very quickly and each test was 6 or below, which suggests I need more. I now have some shot bloks so next weekend I will take one or two blocks to get going and now aim for 30g of carbs per hour. Its still half of the '1g of carbs per kilo of body weight per hour' i've seen quoted but want to work up gradually0
