I have had an issue in some past endurance events where after consuming 4-5 GU energy gels over a 3 hour period, my stomach locks up and I cannot consume anything else. I lose all feelings of hunger and feel a bit nauseous. I am not sure why this is. I do better consuming my calories / carbs through liquids, but gels are more convenient for running due to their compact size and light weight.
Am I getting this bad digestive reaction due to the sugar in the GU gels? If yes, is there a better brand of gels to use that have less sugar?
Maybe just try eating less. If I tried to put down a gel every 35-45 minutes Id have issues too especially at higher paces. Instead of looking for a gel with less sugar just spread out more
I’m also a fan of chomps over gel. Sport beans are great but it’s hard to eat enough of them
Try switching to blocks, bars, or solid food.
Also look a drink that is not so calorie dense- like Osmo. Osmonutrition.com
just to translate the *great *advice from above, what bootsie said is try switching to something that is very calorie dense like solid food and also look at a drink that is not calorie dense. the incredible advice you receive on ST never stops.
The solid food takes longer to break down so you do not get as big of a shot of sugar as with a gel.
If you have gut problems caused by gels you should consider what I suggest.
The solid food takes longer to break down so you do not get as big of a shot of sugar as with a gel.
If you have gut problems caused by gels you should consider what I suggest.
so you recommend using bloks which have more than twice as much sugar as the gu the op is currently using, so you do not get as big of a shot of sugar as with a gel.
They are pretty much all sugar- but 2 is 33 calories so around 8 grams of sugar?
A 100 calorie gel is 22-25 grams.
they are pretty much all sugar? yeah, riiiight.
ok, since we now have in black and what that mr/ms bootsie doesn’t haven’t clue what they’re talking about, let me recap for the op what bootsie has attempted to tell you so you can see how ridiculous their recommendation was…
the op says they’re having problems with gu.
bootsie suggests they should try bloks, because it may be that they’re getting too much sugar, which incidentally is nonsense, but let’s just pretend bootsie is right for argument’s sake.
i then point out that bloks actually have more sugar.
bootsie then *corrects *me, by saying you only take 2 bloks at a time and not the whole package.
2 bloks have about 8g of sugar and a whole packet of gu has about 5.
in summation, bootsie’s advice to help the op with his apparent over-consumption of sugar was to move from something with 5g of sugar to something with 8.
the moral of the story olddutchzoo, is that as you can see, you really have to sift through a lot of shit on the internet to find something accurate, so beware what you read.
bump to get his thread back on topic. i’m having the same issues. after 3 bottles of Carbopro, or 4 gels in a 3-4 hour period (with 20 oz water per hour) I’m stuck with a sour stomach and loose all appetite like the OP. any other advice for us?
Actually that was grams of carbs sugar is 3 for 2 blocks vs 12 for a clif shot
really, please stop as you’re just making things worse and now showing that you can’t even read a label.
for what it’s worth there are about 4g of sugar in each PIECE of shot bloks.
What is your suggestion for someone who has gut problems with gels?
no clue, but the apparent difference between you and i is i dont attempt to give advice on topics that i know little about.
I know plenty about it. I have had gut issues and they went away when I stopped eating gels.
I do see that Gu only claim 5 grams of sugar.
Do you think that is being a bit stingy since the caloric ingredients are maltodextrin and fructose? Are those not sugars?
I had all kinds of gut issues for a long time. I just switched to Generation UCAN (a super long starch molecule that doesn’t digest in your stomach, but in your intenstines). I down a packet 45 minutes before my workouts and then I only need one gel per hour and a 50% gatorage solution for thirst quenching. After 3 hours i do another packet of UCAN and things have really been going great. I did a 32 mile run on Saturday and a 20 miler today. I averaged about 133 cal/hr of gels in addition to the UCAN every 3 hours. NEVER had a single twinge of GI issues and felt really great overall (other than my quads hurting on the steep downhills). I am sold on the stuff. Its a bit pricy, but if I can feel this good after running for that long, its worth it to me.
Are you diluting your gels with 8oz of water each? If you do not, the cargohydrate concentration in your gut will shut down digestion and thats where you begin to feel like crap. Also there are a ton of different gels that use different types of sugars, its worth trying a few different brands, You may have an intolerance to Fructose, something that causes the symptoms you describe in folks sensitive to it.
I suggest you give the UCAN a try for a few weeks just to see if it helps you with your issues. I am also 100% paleo in my diet (except on race day, when I will eat what’s provided on the course) and from what I have been told by the nutritionist at UCAN, the high fat diet and preferential ketone burning that comes with adaptation to such a diet makes the UCAN work a whole lot better.