Could this be the most stupid question about Energy Drinks?

Clockworkmark31

I am preparing myself for ridicule on this question.

Did a 20 mile ride earlier today, got back home and within 15 minutes I was back out of the door for another 12 miles (all off road) I still feel like I haven't spent any energy doing this. But Strava shows some very good PRs.

Normally I would only do one of the rides and feel fatigued.

The only difference today is that I tried the HIGH5 Xtreme sports nutrient that came free a month or so ago with with MBUK.

Here is the stupid question as I am trying so loose some weight. Whose energy was I consuming, mine or the sports drink? Reason for asking, even though it give me lots more energy, If my body is using that energy then surely I won't be "burning fat"?

Does that sound stupid? Or can you use them for extra energy and you still burn fat?

.blitz

Clockworkmark31 wrote:

The only difference today is that I tried the HIGH5 Xtreme sports nutrient

High caffeine content. Caffeine attaches itself to receptors in the nervous system, regulates energy release and subdues the sensations of fatigue. No nutritional content you were using your own reserves

tangled_metal

Reminds me of the time I got up early and drank 3 cups of strong coffee in rapid succession then posted my fastest time into work. I didn't even feel the ride in and thought I was just bimbling along. Could have gone a lot faster I think had I known. I think my drink was cheaper too!

poah

caffine increases adrenaline and if you take in glucose you don't exhaust your glycogen stores which will make a big difference to the way you feel. The issue is that you can get a come down from the stimulation.

CYCLESPORT1

Latest generation sports drink with 2:1 fructose
High caffeine content (300mg/Litre) plus magnesium
For attention, concentration and increased reaction time
Carbohydrates with electrolytes for maintaining endurance performance
Helps maintain hydration during exercise
Race proven
Light tasting and refreshing
With natural flavours. No artificial colours, preservatives or sweeteners

apreading

CYCLESPORT1 wrote:

Latest generation sports drink with 2:1 fructose
High caffeine content (300mg/Litre) plus magnesium
For attention, concentration and increased reaction time
Carbohydrates with electrolytes for maintaining endurance performance
Helps maintain hydration during exercise
Race proven
Light tasting and refreshing
With natural flavours. No artificial colours, preservatives or sweeteners

Surely that shouldnt be increased reaction time but in fact reduced reaction time, or improved reaction time? Not sure that I would want to increase mine!

The Rookie

The performance enhancing benefits of caffeine are well known and most sports have limits to allow people to live a normal life and still compete legally.

the effect is fairly transient, starting about 30 mins after taking (orally) and lasting for about 15-25 mins (read an in depth article once), best benefit would be for a sprint at the end of a longish ride from what I read, but it gives a small benefit in a number of scenarios.

njee20

Xtreme is a derivative of Source, which has fructose and glucose. If you normally don't take on any food on those rides then it's hardly a surprise that you performed better. The caffeine is a bit of a red herring in that respect.

Either way, you can't use 'the drink's' energy, it's all yours! If you start consuming loads of it without an increase in activity or other reduction in consumption you will get fat though.

Ferrals

I 'carbo-loaded' a fair bit more than normal before yesterdays race (fairly high carb meals, thurs eve, fri eve, Sat breakfast, lunch, dinner as well as my normal high carb sunday brekkie), I then had my normal in-race nutrition (energy bar half hour before, caffine gel 10 mins before and then three gels during the race). Normally after racing I am starving and have a protein bar directly after and a big bowl of pasta ASAP but yesterday I wasn't any more hungry than I'd be on a normal non-excerise day and just needed a sarnie. I found this really surprising and figured it was down to being at my maximum glycogen levels pre race. If anything I probably over gelled too as it was only a 1hr race.

Jim Lyon

Do be advised that drinking excess coffee (more than 3-4 cups a day ) is not good. A few years go there was a spike in the statistics of approx 30 year old women in America who suffered Osteoporosis @ a premature age
(i.e. osteoporosis only naturally occurs in old age ).
It seems that excess coffee causes you to "p*ss your bones out" - NOT recommended !

rockmonkeysc

Excess caffeine will make you poop more.

cooldad

Caffeine is the only thing between me and jail for mass murder.

Ferrals

Caffine is the reason I'm in jail for mass murder :shock:

Deker

Jim Lyon wrote:

Do be advised that drinking excess coffee (more than 3-4 cups a day ) is not good. A few years go there was a spike in the statistics of approx 30 year old women in America who suffered Osteoporosis @ a premature age
(i.e. osteoporosis only naturally occurs in old age ).
It seems that excess coffee causes you to "p*ss your bones out" - NOT recommended !

I work in IT so 3-4 cups is breakfast

On a serious note though I've never heard anything like that (I'm not saying it didn't happen), I took 200mg caffeine tablets 3 times per day for around 3 years when competing (bodybuilding), I think it may have had a lot to do with dieting that caused her problems

CYCLESPORT1

Do you drink de-caf then

Ferrals wrote:

Caffine is the reason I'm in jail for mass murder :shock:

Clockworkmark31

Thanks so far maybe not such a stupid question as I thought.

First time I have tried carbing before a ride, normally a coffee and a bacon butty serves me or a can of monster. But I always feel fatigued after, only water is drank on route.

Think I was confusing myself as to what energy I was using mine or the Xtreme (with Xtreme having 42g of carbs then the high caffeine) my way of thinking is that I would be using the energy from the product thus not using my reserves and not burning fat.

With the noticeable difference in my performance, Is there a way to use either this product or another one, once a week when I do a big ride to increase weight loss? Other than that I commute daily around 14 miles. But my rides are at the weekend.

I don't eat lots or binge eat, am fairly active but I have a one pack fuel tank that won't shift. Legs arms chest etc are all good, just the handles and the stomach. I'm not expecting to get super defined on a bike, but I would have thought its a good way to burn fat? And my weight has remained constant over 2 years don't gain more, but don't loose anything either.

Long winded question I know. But any pointers would be great.

poah

sugar is used as an energy source first as its easier for theody to metabolise plus sugar inhibits fatty acid metabolism. You are best not using an energy drink during exersise but use an isotonic drink or just water.

Ferrals

For fat burning you want (if I remember rightly) to be doing long rides at low intensity, what's termed base training. Although the main purpose of base training is to build endurance, I think I read somewhere it burns fat, when you up intensity you body can only use carbs as fuel for the reason POAH mentioned

The Rookie

Most 'energy drinks' are nothing of the sort or have very little 'energy' most just contain a pile of stimulants like caffeine and Taurine, if you want some energy you need calories, preferable in the form of complex carb's so you get a progressive release and not a big spike and crash which is only good for a relatively short duration excercise.

Ferrals

It depends what you mean by 'energy drink,' for the general term I agree, but its worth pointing out that sports energy drinks like the stuff from high5 are useful. I'd only use them (or gels) for high intensity rides though. Most of the time for a 3-4hr ride, its enough just to stop half way round and scoff a flapjack so long as you are eating properly around te ride

Out of interest, does anyone know the time taken from eating an energy type supplement like a gel to it actually being able to fuel your legs?

The Rookie

Sorry, to clarify I was using 'energy drink' for the 'fashionable' stuff like Monster, Rockstar, Red bull etc.

poah

The Rookie wrote:

Sorry, to clarify I was using 'energy drink' for the 'fashionable' stuff like Monster, Rockstar, Red bull etc.

o basicaly glucose and caffine - they are not healthy

Angus Young

Worth noting that there's caffeine and there's caffeine. I couldn't tell you what the difference is but if I drink regular (as opposed to decaffeinated) tea before I go to bed it keeps me awake and makes me quite agitated so I really have to avoid it. On the other hand I can drink two cans of Redbull before bed (which I often do) and sleep like a baby. Coffee is somewhere in-between. That order is all wrong so there's something going on there as far as the caffeine is concerned or, at least, in the way I absorb it.

Ferrals

Ferrals wrote:

Out of interest, does anyone know the time taken from eating an energy type supplement like a gel to it actually being able to fuel your legs?

tried to find out the answer and came across a couple of interesting articles about gels:
http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2012/01/16/all-you-need-to-know-about-energy-gels
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/dec/18/running-get-most-out-of-energy-gels-long-distance-runs

I'm not sure if running is harder exercise than an xco style event or not but they are suggesting 1 gel every 45 minutes for running rather than the 1 gel every 20 that high5 suggest. it also seems that during exersize gels for shorter variation events as the glucose gets into your blood stream but not into our muscles as glycogen.

The Rookie

Angus Young wrote:

Worth noting that there's caffeine and there's caffeine. I couldn't tell you what the difference is but if I drink regular (as opposed to decaffeinated) tea before I go to bed it keeps me awake and makes me quite agitated so I really have to avoid it. On the other hand I can drink two cans of Redbull before bed (which I often do) and sleep like a baby. Coffee is somewhere in-between. That order is all wrong so there's something going on there as far as the caffeine is concerned or, at least, in the way I absorb it.

I think there is something else in play there as RB has significantly more caffeine (and Taurine, another stimulant) than tea, a small red bull can is 250ml so that is 150mg of caffeine, a typical cup of tea is about the same size and therefore 50mg Caffeine, there is only one caffeine so it's something else, unless you have so much caffeine that a shortage makes you tired!

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/no ... colate-tea

Ouija

The Rookie wrote:

Most 'energy drinks' are nothing of the sort or have very little 'energy' most just contain a pile of stimulants like caffeine and Taurine, if you want some energy you need calories, preferable in the form of complex carb's so you get a progressive release and not a big spike and crash which is only good for a relatively short duration excercise.

Funnily enough, i was having this very same conversation with a work colleague the other week while we were unboxing some "Spartan" energy drinks for the day staff to put out on the shelves. I quipped immediately that it only had "300" calories (what i thought was a sly reference to the Zak Snyder Spartan movie of the same name) whereby my colleague inspected the can and said "it says it has zero calories, zero sugars, zero fat" (obviously didn't get the joke).

At which point i pointed out that it didn't actually have any "Energy" in it then and shouldn't be called an Energy Drink, much like RockStar, RedBull, Emerge and so on, since it was all stimulants to keep you awake and nothing to actually fuel your muscles.

My argument fell on deaf ears unfortunately as he still drinks at least four cans of the stuff every shift with the opinion that it makes him less tired and work harder "so it's gotta have energy in it" (while giving me a withering look only teenagers can manage that suggests they think your an old doddering idiot).

Angus Young

The Rookie wrote:

Angus Young wrote:

Worth noting that there's caffeine and there's caffeine. I couldn't tell you what the difference is but if I drink regular (as opposed to decaffeinated) tea before I go to bed it keeps me awake and makes me quite agitated so I really have to avoid it. On the other hand I can drink two cans of Redbull before bed (which I often do) and sleep like a baby. Coffee is somewhere in-between. That order is all wrong so there's something going on there as far as the caffeine is concerned or, at least, in the way I absorb it.

I think there is something else in play there as RB has significantly more caffeine (and Taurine, another stimulant) than tea, a small red bull can is 250ml so that is 150mg of caffeine, a typical cup of tea is about the same size and therefore 50mg Caffeine, there is only one caffeine so it's something else, unless you have so much caffeine that a shortage makes you tired!

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/no ... colate-tea

Yes, of course, there's only one kind of caffeine, so I doubt my issue is directly related to grams of caffeine consumed. It's odd, though, that tea winds me up and RB doesn't. And this is something that's developed over the last 5 year or so. As tea is not on the list of usual suspects when it comes to being wound up by caffeine (or whatever else it might be) it took me ages to figure out what we keeping me awake at night. Even went to the doctor and spent 24 hours with a heart monitor strapped to me as I was having palpitations. But once I'd figured it out there was no doubt, it's like flicking a switch on and off. Shame, as I do like a nice cup of tea!

EDIT: Why is f l i c k i n g on the list of banned words around here?

njee20

At which point i pointed out that it didn't actually have any "Energy" in it then and shouldn't be called an Energy Drink, much like RockStar, RedBull, Emerge and so on, since it was all stimulants to keep you awake and nothing to actually fuel your muscles.

Red Bull, Relentless, Mtn Dew, Rockstar do contain tonnes of sugar, and thus energy though... Except in their sugar free 'diet' variants.

poah

njee20 wrote:

Red Bull, Relentless, Mtn Dew, Rockstar do contain tonnes of sugar, and thus energy though... Except in their sugar free 'diet' variants.

depends on how you view energy:

1/ get up and go, stimulated

2/the biochemical view glucose into to ATP

njee20

Look at what I quoted. It was a response to someone saying those named brands contained no 'energy', ie kilojoules of the stuff the body can process. They do. Except in their diet variants. I'm not endorsing them as appropriate fuel for sustained exercise.

poah

njee20 wrote:

Look at what I quoted. It was a response to someone saying those named brands contained no 'energy', ie kilojoules of the stuff the body can process. They do. Except in their diet variants. I'm not endorsing them as appropriate fuel for sustained exercise.

sorry I'm high on painkillers