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Are isotonic gels really isotonic?
Bman
Posts: 442
in General Chat
Hi all, while at he TCR show on Sat, I got chatting to the dextro energy rep (while trying out the tasters of course), and I asked if their gels were isotonic like the SIS go gels I currently use. He said that was all a marketing ploy and you actually cant get an isotonic gel, and that the "isotonic" ones are just watered down and would only provide up to 15min energy opposed to the 45 from a normal gel. Of course he would say this while trying to sell me his stuff though. But it got me thinking..
The reason I switched from the powerbar gels was that they were really thick and just tasted like they needed water to wash down, whereas the SIS ones dont. But it is worrying if they aren't giving a kick for as long as I though they were.
Any thoughts on the matter would be great.
The reason I switched from the powerbar gels was that they were really thick and just tasted like they needed water to wash down, whereas the SIS ones dont. But it is worrying if they aren't giving a kick for as long as I though they were.
Any thoughts on the matter would be great.
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Isotonic sports drinks etc contain similar sugar and salt concentrations to that in the human body. As the concentrations are similar this enables the valuable nutrients (in this case predominantly glucose) to be absorbed through osmosis more quickly into the human body. In order to get the right concentration of 15g of glucose per 250ml this automatically makes this a liquid since thats a lot of liquid to dissolve the sugar in.
In terms of gels, these are predominantly glucose syrup (85%+) so serve the purpose of packing in as much glucose as possible in a small sachet. This obviously acts as a good source of fuel but due to the massively high concentration of glucose this cannot be isotonic and absorbed as quickly. Unless of couse - as conehead says, you've figured out a way round it!
It always made me wonder about gels... I would need to drink the right amount of water after eating one, which as conehead says is hard to do. That's why I use sports drinks that I mix up beforehand, so I can do the measuring in my kitchen rather than when I'm caning up a hill.
However, I know from painful experience that I cannot get enough energy from Lucozade alone, so how do you balance it all up? Do more complex foods or gels/solids require less water?
Put it another way.. How do you carry a useable 500 calories (say) of food + drink on your bike?
My first instinct was "he's talking crap and you cant just put isotonic on something if it isnt". damn salesman and his pitch! Well i stil didnt buy anything. Got their freebies in the goodiebag anyway!
cheers!
I'd rather eat roadkill
I've managed to get it badly wrong in the past, so curious to know how many cals others eat on the bike and in what form.
Two bottles of Gatorade (about 120 cals/bottle) + 3 Powerbar Gels (110 cals/gel) = 550 calories/hour, SO providing you can maintain that throughput, then you shouldn;t go into too much of a calorie defecit
Apparently, last session I averaged 258 watts over 1 hour, which is almost certainly more than I am capable of. Even so, this would be 258*3600=930kj, or around 220 calories, but the machine said 1050 cals.
Now, while I don't care about actual power output, so long as the number goes up as the months go by, it does make me wonder how much I should be eating.
Oh bloody hell, I'm confused.
Fig Rolls = about 60 cals each and 12.2g carbs -
Don't know if thats good bad or what but I seem to manage on that -
Ohh and quite often a few slices of the black stuff .... mmmmm
Think I'll head over to the BCTTT forum... there's some bloke there who reckons he knows about food. Mainly Krispy Kreme donuts, I believe...