I’m finally joining the homebrew drink mix club! However, I’m not sure what ratio to mix malto and fructose. Should I…
A.) Use a 2:1 ratio as has been preached on here in the past
or
B.) Use a 1:0.8 ratio as Beta Fuel and Maurten now employ
Thanks!
Somebody else will come along and add to the conversation, but here is my basic understanding.
You can do maltodextrin up to 60g/hour, and here is the key thing - it gets used immediately (or almost) by working muscles.
Then sports science came along and looked at fructose. Fructose is mostly taken up by the liver and converted. It takes a while. You can add up to about 60g/hour of fructose.
So if you are going for 120g/hour, then 60g of each is close to your 1:0.8 ratio.
Just to add, I think it really depends what you are fueling for as well…that is, how long the event will be. A short event or workout you can be fine with malto at 60g/hr. Adding fructose would help more after >90min, or to train your gut for over 60g/hr intake.
So, essentially, any fructose I take in on a short ride wouldn’t even be burned?
Wouldn’t 60g of each be 1:1?
For high intensity workouts that are 60 or 75mins I use 60g maltodextrine and 30g fructose in a 950ml bottle.
For Z2 stuff I used to lean toward just malto as I wasn’t going over 60g per hour but I’ve now switched that up a little. For Z2 I’ll do something like 45:15. The reason being it doesn’t hurt to use two transport systems at once to give a more even burn of sugars across the hours. 2 if your like me and need a fair bit of sodium a little fructose will cut it back. Note. I’m referring to rides over several hours. Anything under 90 min and I’m doing 40-50g of malto. Maybe throw in a banana.
Harder efforts I’ll do 1:0.5 and build to 1:0.8 for long hard efforts or races. The reason I don’t always go to the 1:0.8 ratio is mostly preference. For one I don’t like how sweet fructose is. And two fructose is significantly more expensive than malto.
For reference I ride about 15 hours a week. So that’s about 1000g of carbs a week. Give or take. It adds up.
1:0.8 is the same as 5:4, which is close to 1:1.
At least relative to the 2:1 ratio I typically use:
I dunno. Just want people to start with the basics. Maltodextrin pretty much is available immediately to working muscles. Fructose pretty much has to be processed by the liver before being available to working muscles.
Someone correct me if I got that wrong.
I have the big CarboGain container and pre-mix a 2:1 ratio in it. I then just measure out scoops depending on what i need for the ride I do. 1 cup = 60g. 1.5 cups = 90g. Takes the guesswork out of it. 2:1 works for me, so I don’t see the point in raising the cost to go to 1:0.8. It’s already expensive enough.
this is what I do, and I think it works well, and its way cheaper than buying fructose.
Pour 66 grams of plain granulated sugar in my bottle.
Add 34 grams of maltodextrin.
Add electrolytes/flavor of choice.
pretty much a 2:1 glucose to fructose ratio.
paging @Dr_Alex_Harrison 
60g Gatorade powder
30g maltodextrin or dextrose (because I have it)
Table salt as required.
1-1.5 bottles per hour depending on the effort and temp.
But really, drink as much of whatever ratio you can stomach. We can argue all day but #maginalgains isn’t super relevant for most of us.
Try the Alacrity Fuel app from @Dr_Alex_Harrison. It’s really helpful.
I use the 1:0.8 ratio at the moment. I really like it: it is not overly sweet and is quite cost effective. I decided upon that ratio, because I want to use one energy mix for all circumstances.
… experiment and see/feel how you perform on the different ratios.
Do a series of sessions on one ratio say for a week, and swap out for the other ratio for the next week of sessions, hopefully the sessions are similar week to week. Record how you performed during the sessions, and how you felt afterwards/recoverd to perform for the next session.
I myself have settled on the 1:08 ratio.
For reference
60g is 33g/27g malto/fructose
70 = 38/31
80 = 44/36
90 = 50/40
100 = 56/44
I also use 1300mg/L sodium citrate and 150mg potassium chloride per bidon. If I were to use table salt it would be (guessing here) two thirds of my sodium citrate number.
I have been playing around with a home mix for a while now to see what works and where my limits are. I have engineered (cut to size) my ratio spoons for ease of making bottle mixes as one would do if one was using a Brand bought mix. I do not make a barrel mix and scoop from it, unsure how well the various ingredients will have mixed in a larger quantity.
Fuelling is not a one size fits all but some lines can be drawn in the sand from which to work away from, in either direction. As in 60g Maltodextrin/hour is the maximum limit for an individual. My knowledge is limited, @Dr_Alex_Harrison is a good reference point though.
Experiment with ratios and the quantity.
Not sure if it is worthwhile to suggest doing a sweat test, and if you have the means, a sodium composition test, but this is detracting from your OP.
Sorry if I’m late to the party, but this feels like it may come in handy to you! Give it a read and download the sheet to play with if you’d like. Cheers!
For what it’s worth, I’ve had good luck with 53/42/2.5/2.5 Maltodextrin/fructose/citric acid/baking soda mix. I’ll take 450g Maltodextrin, 400g fructose, 25g each citric acid and baking soda, and mix it all up in a (well covered) stand mixer. For a little flavor I like True Lemon (or lime or orange) citrus flavor packets. Nothing earth shattering, but want to add that mixing a few pounds at a time and storing in a big oxo is super convenient… I’d never measure it out a bottle at a time.
I use the same mix when I feel the need for a recovery shake. Use 50g mix with 1 scoop whey protein, 2 tablespoons cocoa and 12 oz milk and combine with an immersion blender.
One other thing to keep in mind is this mix works out to about 16g/25ml volume, don’t make the mistake I did for a while that volume=mass 
It’s been renamed to “Saturday,” and Alacrity Endurance has been renamed (and is being rebranded) to Saturday Morning LLC, because who doesn’t love Saturday Morning training sessions and big races, or using Saturday to prep for Sunday’s big race.
Glad the app is helpful for you. We’re working hard on it! (understatement alert)
Personally I’ve been doing 1:1 with good luck, and usually 5g of sodium citrate powder (1,000 mg sodium) per hour when I’m sweating hard.
A light workout I’ll usually back off on the fructose to make it less sweet, but hard / longer workouts I’ll scale up to 60g malto / 60 g fruc / 5 g sodium citrate per hour, but if it’s just one hour it might be 30/30/5 - depends on overall volume.
I’ll probably just switch to table sugar to keep it easier (and cheaper) though which is 1:1 malto/fruc anyways.
