This has pretty much been my experience with gatorade + sucrose. I can drink it as ‘fuel’, but it is too sweet. I did a ride when camping in Yosemite in 100 degree weather with no ice for the water, and drinking this stuff warm was definitely not ‘refreshing’ 
I still drank it, and I think it fueled me well for the ride. I find that this mix is working well for me - only downside is not great taste with all the sweetness. Luckily for now my cheapness is outweighing my desire for better flavor 
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Does anyone have an issue of doing this and being hungry on the bike (liquid only)? I have done the Gatorade + maltodextrin and Gatorade + table sugar up to 110g carbs per hour and still get hungry compared to when I eat 50-60g carbs and about 100 less calories per hour of solid food I dont feel hungry throughout my long rides
Hunger has totally disappeared for me since switching to liquid feeding and higher g/hr.
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It seems I can tolerate higher Carbs on the trainer but when in a race situation I get a fair amount of stomach bloat. Anyone else experience this?
I made my own 2:1 maltodextrin:fructose mix for about a year before stumbling across Last Mile Endurance products. I still mix my own a lot of the time, but at $2.50 for a 90g 2:1 dose of carbs (malto:fructose) the convenience is getting the better of my stinginess more frequently. It seems like they’ve found a spec of maltodextrin that dissolves pretty easily in cold tap water too. I used it in a 4.5 hour MTB race, taking in 90g per hour for the first 4 hours.
@velocoach It’s interesting you say that, because when I’ve done multi-hour events, even taking in 90g per hour, I do feel a little hungry, but even at the end I’m never feeling compelled to smash through any food I can get my hands on. The best description I have for how I’m feeling is that it’s like my stomach wants something solid, because it hasn’t had solid foods for hours, but I’m not feeling like I need food because I’m energy-deficient (hopefully that makes sense, I struggle to put my finger on how I’m feeling in the moment, or in hindsight).
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Yes. If hungry, increase to 120-150g/hr. Hunger will go away and performance will likely improve. Especially if you’re a sprinter.
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Yes. Stochastic nature of racing is harder on GI, than more steady state trainer work, or even interval trainer work. The more NP varies from AP, the more you can expect your GI to be easily unsettled.
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Made up a 1200cal bottle for my trainer rride this morning. 50:50 malto:fru sodium citrate and citric acid. Was able to finish it in 2:15
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I typically like sports drinks with a little flavoring. What are people adding when they are making their own?
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A little powdered gatorade
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Bulk Powders or My Protein flavour drops.
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I apologize if this was covered above, I looked for a while and didn’t see my question answered.
If you’re going for 1:1, why do glu + fru instead of good old sucrose? Is it a problem to cleave the disaccharide? Just seems cheaper, simpler and cleaner to fuel with organic cane sugar.
Thanks!
I’ve been using pineapple juice, maltodextrin and sea salt - is this less than optimal because it seems to work for me!
450ml of pineapple juice gives ~50g fructose
50g of maltodextrin gets that up to 100g of carbohydrates.
A bit if salt to replenish sodium and I’m away.
Any downsides to this that anyone can see?
*I also substitute in apple and mango juice or occasionally orange juice when I get pineapple fatigue…
As a note, the carbohydrate in pineapple juice (or any fruit juice) isn’t 100% fructose. See for example Pineapple juice nutritional profile that estimates it at 50/50 fructose and glucose. Specifically, 1:1:1.6 glucose:fructose:sucrose, but the sucrose is itself 50/50 fructose and glucose.
Assuming 50g of carbs in the pineapple juice, that would be 25g of fructose and 75g of glucose… which may be a bit overweighted toward glucose, but going by older estimates of what we can digest in an hour (60g of glucose and 30g of fructose) it’s not wildly out of whack and well within individual variation. If it’s working for you then that’s a better data point than what works “on average.”
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That’s really interesting, thanks. So I could potentially bump up the ratios by adding more fructose - potentially 450ml of pineapple juice, 50g of maltodextrin and then add 35g of fructose to get a 1:0.8 ratio with 135g carbs?
I’ll try adding more fructose slowly and see how I get on!
My first reaction, if you’re happy with 100g of carbs and this mix, is to not fix what isn’t broken. You may have been working from incorrect information in deciding what to put in your bottle, but the real test is whether it’s working for you, not the theoretical underpinnings. 60g of fructose is a lot; I know some people have got along just fine with that kind of intake, but I know some people have gastric discomfort at those levels, too. Keep in mind that you thought were taking in a lot of fructose, but you really weren’t.
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Interesting video from GCN w/ Nigel Mitchell where he makes a bottle with 500g malto, 100g fructose, and 120g medium chain triglyceride powder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVN7iLCoyyc
I hadn’t heard of MCT before. I found this study where it was shown to increase mitochondrial density in mice by a substantial amount, but I know Dr Alex is always saying any fat intake during a workout slows carbohydrate uptake. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5805166/
Anyone have experience with MCT?
I suspect sucrose requires a more processing but I am just speculating here. Probably talking minuscule amounts, though. FYI I tend to use plain table sugar.