pros and cons of gels/bars vs real food

mariamartinez

Hi, can anyone comment on whether there is any benefit of supplements vs real food on long rides? I am getting stomach problems with some gels, bars are ok, but small high calories sweets and fruits seems best. Thinking about it, I am not sure I can see any advantage of gels/bars/powders etc over an actual old fashioned food equivalent?

ugo.santalucia

Gels are for racing, not for long rides. I suggest you move away from sugary snacks. For long rides, I stop at the local mini-market and go for egg sandwiches

InconveniencedBadger

I think you should eat whatever you feel works for you while you're riding. Personally, I'm not keen on gels (mostly because they are absolutely revolting!) - I prefer bars which also normally give you energy over a more sustained period, while gels give just quick bursts of energy as they are rapidly digested. I do find though that gels can be handy towards the very end of a long ride as like I said, they are very quickly digested and can give you that last burst of energy to get to the end. They can be like the red mushrooms on Mario Kart!

meanredspider

InconveniencedBadger wrote:

I I do find though that gels can be handy towards the very end of a long ride as like I said, they are very quickly digested and can give you that last burst of energy to get to the end. They can be like the red mushrooms on Mario Kart!

Spot on! With nearly 160km in my legs having dragged the 85kg of my sorry ass up 6500m, a gel was what got me to the end. I’d burned around 8000kCals (IIRC) and had tried to eat real food as much as possible - but there’s only so much your stomach can handle.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

Spot on! With nearly 160km in my legs having dragged the 85kg of my sorry ass up 6500m,

Is this the tale of the Alpe D'Husez again? :roll:

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Jelly Babies say hi.;)

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cougie

Please tell me you keep your gel wrappers for disposal in a bin ?

Fwiw I've never used gels outside of races. I find cake and coffee the best fuel.

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Spot on! With nearly 160km in my legs having dragged the 85kg of my sorry ass up 6500m,

Is this the tale of the Alpe D'Husez again? :roll:

Err - no, it’s a tale of “pros and cons of gel/bars vs real food” ^^^^^^^^ :roll:

bobmcstuff

I usually have soreen and bananas for any normal ride. Usually stick a gel in just in case but 9 times out of 10 it comes back with me.

I did a 300km ride last weekend and I did have some gels towards the end, I find in longer rides stuffing soreen gets to be quite a lot of bulk and I want something a bit less filling. Also sometimes you might want caffeine, which probably means a caffeine gel (could have it in the bottle but I don't like having caffeine all the time. Or you could have a cafe stop!).

cougie

meanredspider wrote:

Spot on! With nearly 160km in my legs having dragged the 85kg of my sorry ass up 6500m, a gel was what got me to the end. I’d burned around 8000kCals (IIRC) and had tried to eat real food as much as possible - but there’s only so much your stomach can handle.

Not sure your computer is calculating that right. If you run a mile you burn about 100 calories give or take. So that's the equivalent of an 80 mile run ? Cycling is usually about 1/4 or 1/5 of the calories per mile compared to running.

ugo.santalucia

cougie wrote:

Not sure your computer is calculating that right. If you run a mile you burn about 100 calories give or take. So that's the equivalent of an 80 mile run ? Cycling is usually about 1/4 or 1/5 of the calories per mile compared to running.

Oh no... you unleashed the tale of the Alpe D'Husez again...

sloppyschleckonds

Never understood leisure riders downing large quantities of gels or bars
Soreen and a banana should suffice. Or maybe 3 small cooked potatoes
Maybe a caffeine tab for the last hour if you need a boost

meanredspider

cougie wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Spot on! With nearly 160km in my legs having dragged the 85kg of my sorry ass up 6500m, a gel was what got me to the end. I’d burned around 8000kCals (IIRC) and had tried to eat real food as much as possible - but there’s only so much your stomach can handle.

Not sure your computer is calculating that right. If you run a mile you burn about 100 calories give or take. So that's the equivalent of an 80 mile run ? Cycling is usually about 1/4 or 1/5 of the calories per mile compared to running.

It’s from a power meter. Correct number is 7350kCals. 12 hours @ 600kCals per hour - pretty much spot-on.

OnTheRopes

If your ride is long then some energy powder in your bottle helps, I only use water up to 40 - 50 miles unless it is a hard ride or race and then I will use powder.
A gel in the back pocket is a decent insurance on a long or hard ride in case of hitting the wall but otherwise i would use a banana cut in half for 2 small snacks, also Fig Roll biscuits are a great and easy from of slow release energy or a cereal bar or two perhaps.

surfercyclist

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Never understood leisure riders downing large quantities of gels or bars
Soreen and a banana should suffice. Or maybe 3 small cooked potatoes
Maybe a caffeine tab for the last hour if you need a boost

Potatoes on a ride, deary me.

photonic69

All my gels went out of date.
Food is good. Cake stop halfway round. Sometimes have toast and marmite instead of cake. Always black americano.
Often have one bidon with sugar/salt/juice mix and one plain water. Useful energy boost and sucrose is easier on the guy than high density glucose gels etc. Also jelly babies and a flapjack. Good for 80 miles.

pblakeney

SurferCyclist wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Never understood leisure riders downing large quantities of gels or bars
Soreen and a banana should suffice. Or maybe 3 small cooked potatoes
Maybe a caffeine tab for the last hour if you need a boost

Potatoes on a ride, deary me.

I did a 100 mile ride yesterday. Had a 3 course lunch half way round.
I did 2 x 50 mile rides.

norvernrob

Half a banana and a gel, or a piece of flapjack and a couple of gels are all I’ve used for rides whilst I’ve been in the Alps for 3 of the last 4 weeks. There’s no way I’m stopping on a climb so something easy to shove down has been handy. I had 1 piece of flapjack and one gel for the 90km Telegraphe/Galibier then back to Bourg yesterday.

I did 3 full 750ml bottles in though, one with an electrolyte tablet and the others plain water.

surfercyclist

PBlakeney wrote:

SurferCyclist wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Never understood leisure riders downing large quantities of gels or bars
Soreen and a banana should suffice. Or maybe 3 small cooked potatoes
Maybe a caffeine tab for the last hour if you need a boost

Potatoes on a ride, deary me.

I did a 100 mile ride yesterday. Had a 3 course lunch half way round.
I did 2 x 50 mile rides.

Fair enough but the thought of taking potatoes to fuel you during a ride just does not appeal! Bananas, flapjacks, energy bars, sandwiches even but a few cooked spuds? Nah.

figbat

Nutrigrain bars for me mostly; slip easily into a jersey pocket, are easy to eat and swallow and taste ok. Handfuls of whatever’s on offer at any feed stations if on a sportive. Gel for a last push if getting low.

The gastrointestinal effects of gels are widely reported; food tends not to do that unless you are either ill or eating something you are not accustomed to (or are intolerant to). The other thing about food is that it is familiar - you have a more innate sense of how much to eat and what it gives you.

sloppyschleckonds

Figs are good also, bats not so

alex222

Soreen and bananas most the time for me too. Odd gel when I’ve done long alpine rides.
Used to take fig rolls until I ate them on some long climbs in the heat and they dried out my mouth too much. Haven’t gone near them since.

bobmcstuff

figbat wrote:

The gastrointestinal effects of gels are widely reported; food tends not to do that

Yeah try eating 10 bananas and see what happens to your guts

mamil314

Do you wrap bits of soreen individually? I once wrapped fig rolls in foil but struggled to get to them since I cannot ride hands free.

mrb123

mamil314 wrote:

Do you wrap bits of soreen individually? I once wrapped fig rolls in foil but struggled to get to them since I cannot ride hands free.

Get the mini ones. The packets are pretty easy to open on the move. Or just take them out of the packets before you put them into your pocket, they don't come to any harm.

davebradswmb

SurferCyclist wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

SurferCyclist wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Never understood leisure riders downing large quantities of gels or bars
Soreen and a banana should suffice. Or maybe 3 small cooked potatoes
Maybe a caffeine tab for the last hour if you need a boost

Potatoes on a ride, deary me.

I did a 100 mile ride yesterday. Had a 3 course lunch half way round.
I did 2 x 50 mile rides.

Fair enough but the thought of taking potatoes to fuel you during a ride just does not appeal! Bananas, flapjacks, energy bars, sandwiches even but a few cooked spuds? Nah.

I've done a couple of Sportives where potatoes were available at least one of the feed stops and they were much appreciated. I'm not sure about carrying them round though, but I only carry food for emergency back-up and usually return with the cereal bars and gels untouched.

bobmcstuff

MrB123 wrote:

mamil314 wrote:

Do you wrap bits of soreen individually? I once wrapped fig rolls in foil but struggled to get to them since I cannot ride hands free.

Get the mini ones. The packets are pretty easy to open on the move. Or just take them out of the packets before you put them into your pocket, they don't come to any harm.

Yep, soreen lunchbox loaves all the way. The packets are designed for easy opening, there's an indent at one end.

They also have a few different flavours these days.

slowbike

Oh no! Different people prefer to eat different things on a long ride - shock horror!!

Gels - the Pro's and racers do Gels - but do we see what they eat earlier on during the race? Or what do they eat during their rest days? Gels are great for getting a little boost of energy, personally I can't stand them and prefer to take dextroes tablets (they're not sticky either). For medium length rides I've moved onto fig rolls - just in a little bag - 1 for every 10 miles and a couple spare.
Having done RL100 on 2 energy drink bottles a few years ago I've decided to avoid those now - I tend to stick to squash or hydro tablets (because they're nice and not too sweet to drink).

Nice thought on the small potatoes - may give that a go. There's a lot to be said about eating "normally" whilst riding - I certainly wouldn't suggest eating anything new on a longer ride - and you do need to mix it up a bit - just the fig rolls get a bit boring after a while.

Carrying that emergency gel - or equivalent - could be a good idea - especially if you know you're pushing your limits - it may be just enough to get you to the finish....

meanredspider

There are some great rice cake recipes about (and I don’t mean those horrible dry things) made from risotto rice. The ones they taught us to make in the Amsterdam RCC were apple and cinnamon - quick to make and last a while. We were even taught (though I’ve forgotten) the “pro” way to wrap them so they’re easy to eat on the bike. We were also taught a tray bake thing with dates and other good stuff.

stueys

It depends what you're doing. A nice club ride (low to medium intensity) then real food (flap jacks, banana, rice cakes, etc, etc) are all great. If you're cranking along at high intensity then its a lot harder to chew food and gels have their place. On my weekly club ride (60-70 miles) I'll tend to have an energy drink (with electrolyte) and a flap jack. I'll have a caffeine gel in my back pocket for an emergency pick me up if I'm flagging.

Most sports nutrition is a great marketing success and not really required.

bobmcstuff

Slowbike wrote:

Oh no! Different people prefer to eat different things on a long ride - shock horror!!

Gels - the Pro's and racers do Gels - but do we see what they eat earlier on during the race? Or what do they eat during their rest days? Gels are great for getting a little boost of energy, personally I can't stand them and prefer to take dextroes tablets (they're not sticky either). For medium length rides I've moved onto fig rolls - just in a little bag - 1 for every 10 miles and a couple spare.
Having done RL100 on 2 energy drink bottles a few years ago I've decided to avoid those now - I tend to stick to squash or hydro tablets (because they're nice and not too sweet to drink).

Carrying that emergency gel - or equivalent - could be a good idea - especially if you know you're pushing your limits - it may be just enough to get you to the finish....

Apparently, most pros eat "real" food (rice cakes etc) earlier in the stages and move over to gels as the intensity picks up.

There's a lot of stuff out there on what riders eat outside of races - if you're interested there's a documentary on Amazon Prime called "Eat race win" where they follow the Orica Scott chef through the 2017 Tour.