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At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot
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I'm eyeing Waco 70.3 this fall as my first triathlon (few springs planned this summer), and have been coming to the realization that I need a nutrition and hydration plan that is more complex than "stop at this rest stop for food and drink a bottle of water an hour". When I ride 1-4 hours, I'm normally taking a Gu every 45-60 minutes along with drinking a bottle of Cytomax or water every hour. Sometimes I'll pack a PB & honey sandwich. Note that I live in Southeast TX where it gets nice and toasty during the summer. This seems to have served me well enough, but I no doubt believe I'm NOT hydrating enough or taking in the proper amount of calories etc.

I've read and read and read about mixing your own sports drink using Gatorade, sugar, salt/sodium citrate, and God knows what else, but I'm having a really hard time making sense of how to even put these concoctions together and drink them at a rate that won't leave me either passed out on the side of the road from dehydration or doubled over in pain from stomach cramps. I'm also not a fan of JUST taking in nutrition via liquid. I honestly don't mind Gu's, and enjoy a PB sandwich or stroopwafel to wake up the taste buds. But, for the life of me I just can't find a simple straight forward recipe for A) mixing a cost-effective sports drink at home, and B) making sure it works with the calories I'm taking in from other sources. Seriously, something as simple as "24oz. of water, a scoop of this, 1 tsp of that, and a tablet of this pill" would be great, if it can be distilled down to something that simple. Otherwise I guess I'll have to get smarter? But any help is really appreciated by this hydration idiot!
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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this has been discussed a lot in many threads. in short (using standard measuring units):
1/3 cup of maltodextrin (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
1/6 - 1/3 cup of fructose (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
one tsp of sodium (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Mix in standard water bottle and you got all you need for an hour.
You can play with the ratios and concentration, add flavor and/or caffeine, consume more or less than a bottle depending on how much you sweat.

this is super simple to do, takes 30 seconds to prepare a bottle
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [kerikstri] [ In reply to ]
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I don't mean to be dense, but exactly how much gatorade powder, sugar, and sodium citrate in a bottle?
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Consider separating your nutrition and hydration. Just water in the bottles, and gels/chews/waffles/etc. for calories.

This is the most flexible solution, since hot days will require more hydration but not more nutrition. It's also easy to stop and refill bottles with water during a longer ride, but more of a hassle to mix up caloric drinks. My method is to carry all the calories I'll need, and cage 2 bottles that I refill ~75-90min. so I'm getting ~1L/hr.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [dgutstadt] [ In reply to ]
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dgutstadt wrote:
this has been discussed a lot in many threads. in short (using standard measuring units):
1/3 cup of maltodextrin (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
1/6 - 1/3 cup of fructose (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
one tsp of sodium (for example: https://www.amazon.com/...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Mix in standard water bottle and you got all you need for an hour.
You can play with the ratios and concentration, add flavor and/or caffeine, consume more or less than a bottle depending on how much you sweat.

this is super simple to do, takes 30 seconds to prepare a bottle

Ah, this is very helpful! This is simple enough for an idiot like me to start with, thank you.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Dr. Alex usually chimes in on these since he’s a wiz, but the gist of it is just use plain table sugar and salt to make your drinks. You realllly dont need the fancy stuff, it gets expensive fast. I normally do 60g cane sugar per hour, and you can increase it based on intensity and stomach tolerance

Strava
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [RossJ] [ In reply to ]
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RossJ wrote:
Dr. Alex usually chimes in on these since he’s a wiz, but the gist of it is just use plain table sugar and salt to make your drinks. You realllly dont need the fancy stuff, it gets expensive fast. I normally do 60g cane sugar per hour, and you can increase it based on intensity and stomach tolerance

I have read some of his posts but get confused quickly when the discussion turns to concentration of calories per liter, and everything goes over my head, and I can't figure out just how much of each ingredient is going into each bottle. Hopefully he can chime in, he seems incredible knowledgeable on the topic.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Get used to drinking whatever they are serving on the bike and run courses.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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He is a bit of a science geek, so i do get it gets confusing after a bit. All you need to know is a tablespoon of cane sugar is about 15g. Put a few scoops into your water bottle, maybe a pinch of salt, and shake. Squeeze a lemon in there or add fruit juice for flavor. Easy

Strava
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [RossJ] [ In reply to ]
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RossJ wrote:
He is a bit of a science geek, so i do get it gets confusing after a bit. All you need to know is a tablespoon of cane sugar is about 15g. Put a few scoops into your water bottle, maybe a pinch of salt, and shake. Squeeze a lemon in there or add fruit juice for flavor. Easy

Ah, so really it's just 2-3 T sugar, 1/2 to 1 tsp sodium citrate (this is just salt?), a maybe scoop of Gatorade powder for flavor (if you want), and shake? This sounds very simple and cheap, I like that.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Th4ddy wrote:
RossJ wrote:
He is a bit of a science geek, so i do get it gets confusing after a bit. All you need to know is a tablespoon of cane sugar is about 15g. Put a few scoops into your water bottle, maybe a pinch of salt, and shake. Squeeze a lemon in there or add fruit juice for flavor. Easy


Ah, so really it's just 2-3 T sugar, 1/2 to 1 tsp sodium citrate (this is just salt?), a maybe scoop of Gatorade powder for flavor (if you want), and shake? This sounds very simple and cheap, I like that.

Pretty much it. Sodium citrate is just 'salt' without the salty taste. You can go up to 4-6 T sugar if you want and that bottle should last you an hour

That's what i do, normally 3-4 T sugar, though i just use table salt (a pinch between my thumb and pointer finger or maybe 2-3 pinches on a hot day) in a regular water bottle (500-750ml) and squeeze a lemon in for some flavor

Strava
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah so Dr. Harrison would be the pro for this (the poster in links I sent above). But so far I've done:

-40g gatorade
-80g sugar
-15g sodium citrate
-750ml water

And consume about a bottle per hour or so.

He's experimented up to 150g of carbs I think, but you will need to experiment with that for your own gut. The idea is about 2:1 sugar:gatorade.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Th4ddy wrote:


I don't mean to be dense, but exactly how much gatorade powder, sugar, and sodium citrate in a bottle?


Table of Intra-workout Carb Needs Per Hour of Training


Sweat Rates

Electrolyte Content of Sweat

Roughly 500-1500mg sodium per liter is great. Closer to 1500mg if sweating a lot. Closer to 500-1000mg if barely sweating.

FYI: Sodium Citrate has about 1000mg sodium per tsp. Table salt is about 2000mg sodium per tsp.
Also FYI: Sugar β‰… 200g per cup.

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [kerikstri] [ In reply to ]
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kerikstri wrote:
Yeah so Dr. Harrison would be the pro for this (the poster in links I sent above). But so far I've done:

-40g gatorade
-80g sugar
-15g sodium citrate
-750ml water

And consume about a bottle per hour or so.

He's experimented up to 150g of carbs I think, but you will need to experiment with that for your own gut. The idea is about 2:1 sugar:gatorade.

Or 6:1 sugar:Gatorade. Or 10:1! I just use Gatorade for taste :)

Also for ease, I just measure with measuring spoons/cups, rather than scale. Accuracy matters little.

And yep up to 150g/hr is great if you can stomach it.

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Th4ddy wrote:
RossJ wrote:
Dr. Alex usually chimes in on these since he’s a wiz, but the gist of it is just use plain table sugar and salt to make your drinks. You realllly dont need the fancy stuff, it gets expensive fast. I normally do 60g cane sugar per hour, and you can increase it based on intensity and stomach tolerance
I have read some of his posts but get confused quickly when the discussion turns to concentration of calories per liter, and everything goes over my head, and I can't figure out just how much of each ingredient is going into each bottle. Hopefully he can chime in, he seems incredible knowledgeable on the topic.
Example 3-hr ride with 120g/hr carbs, and 1000-1200mg/hr sodium.
Bottle 1:
  • Fill half full with water, then add...
  • 1.5 cups sugar (~300g carbs)
  • 1 large scoop Gatorade (~60g carbs)
  • 1 Tbsp Sodium Citrate (~1000mg sodium)
  • Shake vigorously
  • Then fill remainder with water and shake again.
Bottle 2 & 3:
Can get away with less water on cool days or easier rides. If doing less water, cut back on sodium so as not to exceed 1500-1800mg/L consumed. Rule of thumb: 1 tsp sodium citrate in front bottle, per bottle of fluid onboard.

Can also get away with using table salt for cool days where water and sodium consumption needs won't be as high.

Mount for spare bottle:
Additional Universal Bottle Mount

I'll often load one 1-L Zefal bottle with up to 600-700g carbs and basically "drink" from it like it's a giant gel. Shake often. Add water when possible. Riding no-handed is handy skill.

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
Last edited by: DrAlexHarrison: Feb 11, 21 21:46
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Th4ddy wrote:
RossJ wrote:
He is a bit of a science geek, so i do get it gets confusing after a bit. All you need to know is a tablespoon of cane sugar is about 15g. Put a few scoops into your water bottle, maybe a pinch of salt, and shake. Squeeze a lemon in there or add fruit juice for flavor. Easy


Ah, so really it's just 2-3 T sugar, 1/2 to 1 tsp sodium citrate (this is just salt?), a maybe scoop of Gatorade powder for flavor (if you want), and shake? This sounds very simple and cheap, I like that.


Using sodium citrate in place of table salt allows your gut to tolerate more sodium consumption during training. Sodium citrate has 3 sodium molecules for every 1 citrate molecule. Sodium chloride has 1 sodium molecule for every 1 chloride molecule. That means that for the same amount of sodium consumption, there will be a greater number of molecules ingested, if using table salt, rather than sodium citrate. Osmolarity is the number of molecules per unit volume of solution. Our gastrointestinal tracts are sensitive to very high osmolarity solutions. During normal daily living, consumption of very high osmolar solutions (lots of molecules per liter) causes a laxative effect 20-60 minutes after consumption. During exercise, it causes gut cramping, THEN a laxative effect. My personal experience with this can be described as "not fun!"

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [DrAlexHarrison] [ In reply to ]
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DrAlexHarrison wrote:
Th4ddy wrote:
RossJ wrote:
Dr. Alex usually chimes in on these since he’s a wiz, but the gist of it is just use plain table sugar and salt to make your drinks. You realllly dont need the fancy stuff, it gets expensive fast. I normally do 60g cane sugar per hour, and you can increase it based on intensity and stomach tolerance

I have read some of his posts but get confused quickly when the discussion turns to concentration of calories per liter, and everything goes over my head, and I can't figure out just how much of each ingredient is going into each bottle. Hopefully he can chime in, he seems incredible knowledgeable on the topic.

Example 3-hr ride with 120g/hr carbs, and 1000-1200mg/hr sodium.
Bottle 1:
  • Fill half full with water, then add...
  • 1.5 cups sugar (~300g carbs)
  • 1 large scoop Gatorade (~60g carbs)
  • 1 Tbsp Sodium Citrate (~1000mg sodium)
  • Shake vigorously
  • Then fill remainder with water and shake again.
Bottle 2 & 3:
Can get away with less water on cool days or easier rides. If doing less water, cut back on sodium so as not to exceed 1500-1800mg/L consumed. Rule of thumb: 1 tsp sodium citrate in front bottle, per bottle of fluid onboard.

Can also get away with using table salt for cool days where water and sodium consumption needs won't be as high.

Mount for spare bottle:
Additional Universal Bottle Mount

I'll often load one 1-L Zefal bottle with up to 600-700g carbs and basically "drink" from it like it's a giant gel. Shake often. Add water when possible. Riding no-handed is handy skill.

Thank you for the information! And wow, that seems like a TON of sugar, but I imagine you're sipping from that bottle like it's a gel and chasing it down from your other water bottles. I like the idea of starting smaller and dialing up to make sure I can tolerate the cards.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [kerikstri] [ In reply to ]
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kerikstri wrote:
Yeah so Dr. Harrison would be the pro for this (the poster in links I sent above). But so far I've done:

-40g gatorade
-80g sugar
-15g sodium citrate
-750ml water

And consume about a bottle per hour or so.

He's experimented up to 150g of carbs I think, but you will need to experiment with that for your own gut. The idea is about 2:1 sugar:gatorade.

So from what I can figure out by looking at the labels for Gatorade powder and bog standard granulated sugar, 40g of Gatorade is ~155 calories (90 cal per 23g serving size ). 80g of Sugar is another 300 calories (30 cal per 8g serving size). So if my math works out correctly you're putting ~455 calories into each bottle of 750ml. And for carbs, 40g of Gatorage should have ~ 40 carbs (22g carbs per 23g serving size). 80g of Sugar should have 80g of carbs (8g carbs per 8g serving size). That totals up to ~120 carbs.

So, for your recipe above, that's ~455 calories and ~120 carbs, which seems to be a reasonable starting point that shouldn't result in gut explosion?
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Yup that math checks out! And that would be bottles per hour on the bike.

You should feel like you have much more energy throughout your rides and be less hungry throughout the day afterwards too.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [kerikstri] [ In reply to ]
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Great, this is an excellent starting point. And since I do like to eat on my rides I imagine it's easy enough to just bring one or two bottles that are simply water, and eat my nutrition while taking in that bottle of water.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Th4ddy wrote:
Great, this is an excellent starting point. And since I do like to eat on my rides I imagine it's easy enough to just bring one or two bottles that are simply water, and eat my nutrition while taking in that bottle of water.
Desire to eat may be reduced by fueling well with 100-120g/hr via carb solution. Hopefully!

I personally do not think about calories at ALL. Just carbs. Reason: I'm not going to touch anything else while exercising. No protein. No fat. No fiber. All those reduce ability to meet carb and fluid needs, especially at higher intensities.

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [DrAlexHarrison] [ In reply to ]
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Correction! FYI: Sodium Citrate has about 1000mg sodium per tsp. Table salt is about 2000mg sodium per tsp.

There was a typo above. TEAspoon. Not tablespoon.

I hope I've typed this correctly in other threads, but if you're reading this.... I've intended to refer to teaspoons only with regard to all things sodium.

If you have been doing TABLEspoons, I'd like to hear your story and the maximum rates of consumption you've achieved without GI distress plz & thx!

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
Last edited by: DrAlexHarrison: Apr 20, 21 16:18
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [DrAlexHarrison] [ In reply to ]
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DrAlexHarrison wrote:
Correction! FYI: Sodium Citrate has about 1000mg sodium per tsp. Table salt is about 2000mg sodium per tsp.

There was a typo above. TEAspoon. Not tablespoon.

I hope I've typed this correctly in other threads, but if you're reading this.... I've intended to refer to teaspoons only with regard to all things sodium.

If you have been doing TABLEspoons, I'd like to hear your story and the maximum rates of consumption you've achieved without GI distress plz & thx!

I'm glad I didn't blindly follow this advice. I initially started with a teaspoon and never ventured beyond that! I'll be doing a nice real world test next weekend with a 103mi. ride planned. I'll have at least two bottles loaded up with ~100 g carbs to see how my stomach does.
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Re: At-Home Hydration/Nutrition for an idiot [Th4ddy] [ In reply to ]
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Pays to be a skeptic!

I bet you can go higher on carbs if you hydrate well. Regardless, enjoy the ride!

Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
πŸ“± Check out our app β†’ Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube β†’ Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub
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