Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)
  • Making your own Energy Drinks
  • flange
    Free Member

    Inspired by this thread on Bikeradar, does anyone make their own energy drinks? I’m not talking about a cheeky G&T in the camelbac but something you can take out when you’re training that keeps you hydrated. I noticed on a fairly heavy turbo session last night that after about an hour I was starting to cramp up. I was sweating like a heathen so putting this down to lack of salt.

    On the power front, I’ve used lots of different ones (Zipvit, Torq,SIS) and have found them either a bit sickly regardless of concentration, taste horrible (SIS) or just get a bit fed up with flavours. I’m also not sure of the actual value of them, certainly with SIS I’m not starving when I get home but are they actually any good?

    Going of the ingredients in the Secret Mix drink, it all looks fairly basic stuff that I could buy from a supermarket or on line. I’m tempted to start experimenting but slightly cautious of having the chronic sh1ts whilst out on the bike, or worse (if there is anything worse).

    Any ideas?

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Mrs was watching the food clinic (laugh at fatties program) the other night, they did a stint on sports drinks that piqued my interest. Did a proper scientific test* using their own recipe. water, orange cordial, glucose, salt i think was about the ingredients.
    works too 75mins of aerobic activity then stress test, not much use for anything under 45mins activity

    *stopwatches, clip boards, everything!

    flange
    Free Member

    Hmmmm,

    I am tempted to give it a go. Depending on how much stuff I’m using, its more to do with understanding what I’m putting in my body. Say I’m training 6 days a week (which I am currently) and I’m doing at least a bottle if not two on each one of those training session, worst case thats 6 litres of the stuff a week. Which is a lot of ‘stuff’.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    myprotein.co.uk

    1 bag of maltodextrin
    1 bag of fructose (about half the weight of maltodextrin)

    Mix them in arround 2:1 ratio and its been shown to boost energy levels at much lower concentrations than just glucose/sucrose solutions, usefull if your trtying to lose weight.

    Flavour it with squash and find a concentration that works for you. They also do an electrolyte powder for the salts.

    I found it made a huge difference just having one big scoop in the camepack on longer rides, normaly I’m dead after about 3 hours, with energy drink I’m like the duracell bunny.

    Money off code MP200391

    flange
    Free Member

    Mega! Cheers for that, much appreciated

    LeeW
    Full Member

    I use exactly the same products as tinas, but I use a 3:1 ratio, it works justy fine for me. I use about 60-70g per litre in my camelback.

    I also add Elete water for electrolytes.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Try it with 2 bottles, one at the same concentration as you were making it with SIS etc, the other just water, that way you can sip form one/the other as and when you need it.

    MarkyG82
    Full Member

    usually carry water out on the trail. Then do a pint of blackcurrent with some extra salt and a pinch of sugar to calm the saltyness a bit. Really helps me recover.

    Interested in trying a proper home brew though.

    flange
    Free Member

    Just ordered Fructose, maltodextrin and an electrolyte power, should be with me by monday. Just need to get something to mask the taste now.

    TINAS – are you just using a decent sized scoop in a 750mm bottle chap?

    Cheers for the code as well, saved me nearly £1.50!

    D0NK
    Full Member

    usefull if your trtying to lose weight.

    I get the idea behind using it to keep going but why does it help with weightloss? more calories to burn before you get to the fat shirley?
    I guess you mean you can keep going longer potentially burning more fat (and yeah fat needs some sugar to burnit too doesn’t it?) but I reckon there’s a real danger of people consuming as many or close to the same as the calories they are burning during excercise.

    davesmate
    Free Member

    fill a standard water bottle with half water, half fresh fruit juice and a pinch of salt. Job done.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    I use a ‘large’ scoop, think it’s 75ml which tastes alright with orange squash in a litre bottle, can go more concentrated in winter when your not sweating and therefore not drinking as much but it does start to taste a bit like harribo, but in summer it gets a bit sickly (hence carying one bottle of water and one of energy drink on the road bike). On the MTB I put probably a scoop and a half in a 2.5ltr camelpack for all day rides and it’s barely noticeble.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    apple juice / water 1/3 – 2/3. + large pinch of salt in a litre. = a teasspoonful of table sugar.

    Palatable,isotonic (ish – erring on the side of hypotonic) contains al the needed minerals and a good mix of sugars

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    I get the idea behind using it to keep going but why does it help with weightloss? more calories to burn before you get to the fat shirley?

    The Fructose:Maltodextrin mix can be used at lower concentrations than just plain glucose/sucrose in water whicls giving you the same ‘energy’ (not calories, endurance). Thus if you were drinking 400calories an hour of glucose based drink you could cut down to 100calories of maltodextrin:fructose.

    bigbloke
    Free Member

    TINAS do you have a link to those products/site?

    flange
    Free Member

    I have tried the fruit juice/water/salt but I find I get ‘claggy mouth’ really quickly. To be fair I didn’t give it much of a try as at the time I had a big tub of Torq to get through

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Google myprotein.

    I do as Tinas does, except I don’t flavour it. An 800ml bottle will, for a big/hard ride, have 6 dessert spoons maltodextrine, 3 dessert spoons fructose.

    For electrolytes – when I use them (not always) – I;ve recently taken to the High5 Zero ones. I threw up on nuun and now can’t stomach them.

    Forge_Master
    Free Member

    I use 4:1 of maltodextrin to whey protein @ a concentration level of 8%.
    Sick some electrolyte in if it’s hot out.

    It works for me and it’s chip as chips.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    somethign about using fructose and maltodextrin as they go through different pathways in the gut (thus the mixture is absorbed quicker)
    https://guenergy.com/expertise/lab/sugar-in-endurance-sports

    Similar stuff:
    http://www.powerbar.com/psnn/pdf/3-Carbohydrate_blends.pdf

    Similar stuff again:
    http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/acatalog/info_300.html

    The using less carbohydrate for the same effect think I’m sure was covered in one of Matt’s fitenss articles in ST a year or two ago.

    Theres something in the first article about a lot of the energy not being absorbed during excercise if its under an hour, so maybe the faster absorbtion meant you could drink less carbs, still absorb the same ammount and get the same benifit.

    http://www.myprotein.co.uk
    Money off code MP200391

    Cheepest place I’ve found for stuff like this, it’s certainly cheeper than a carton or orange/apple juice every ride.

    That discount code up there is a referal thingy, so yes I do benifit from telling people to buy it, but not by much, and you’re welcome to buy it in nice designer packageing from Troq, SIS, PowerBar etc. I just did a bit of digging arround in the literature (theres some good links on the torq website), and mixed up my own using the ingredients bought in bulk.

    Macavity
    Free Member

    About 1:00:00 in

    stevomcd
    Free Member

    Half-and-half orange-juice and water plus a pinch of salt.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Do you really need them for short rides? I just take water unless it’s 3 hours +. Saves a fortune!

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I just take water unless it’s 3 hours +

    +1
    if it’s over 3 hours I take water and a pie

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Maybe it’s a placebo, but I definately have more energy after three hours with a scoop of it in my camelpack and the literature seems to recomend it for rides over an hour.

    flange
    Free Member

    I find I do, I’m sure you can condition yourself to not need a drink at all should you want to (some of the old boys on our club run will go out for 4 hours with one 500ml bottle and still have half left at the end). I find if I do this, I end up with a banging headache the day after, I normally bonk badly somewhere on the ride and frankly I need all the help I can get.

    I’ve ordered some dried fruit powder (HOW EXPENSIVE!) to flavour the drink rather than using squash. Hopefully should be here this weekend and I’ve got Monday off so I’m planning a big ride then. Will report back with my findings

    njee20
    Free Member

    I find if I do this, I end up with a banging headache the day after, I normally bonk badly somewhere on the ride and frankly I need all the help I can get.

    Not suggesting you don’t drink, that’s daft, just do you really need all the energy drink?

    I’ve ordered some dried fruit powder (HOW EXPENSIVE!) to flavour the drink rather than using squash

    So why not just use squash 😕

    legspin
    Free Member

    Water in Camelbak and a pack of jelly babies see me through most rides.

    footstomper
    Free Member

    Water in Camelbak and a pack of jelly babies see me through most rides.

    +1 use these on any events or long distant rides I do.

    I have tried various energy drinks with mixed results but all have one thing in conmen (yes spelt right) they cost a ruddy fortune. was listening to a report the other day regarding recovery drinks and the outcome was cheap drinking chocolate was just as good if not better at a fraction of the cost. 🙂

    rob-jackson
    Free Member

    legspin – Member

    Water in Camelbak and a pack of jelly babies see me through most rides.
    Posted 5 hours ago # Report-Post

    +1

    Mike_D
    Free Member

    I’ve been using pinch of salt/blob of honey/glug of orange juice/water, seems to work. Takes a fair bit of shaking to dissolve the honey 🙂

    BenHouldsworth
    Free Member
Viewing 31 posts - 1 through 31 (of 31 total)

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