Yea you can see in my thread it’s easy to get confused. My simple go to is nothing more than Gatorade powder and table sugar. I’ll add in some sodium citrate if it’s going to be a sweaty and/or long ride.
So to answer your question for 80g carbs per hour I’d do 50g Gatorade and 30g sugar.
Not saying this is the perfect or ideal ratio but from what I gathered its close enough and has worked great for me.
Thanks. I’m not keen on buying Gatorade all the time , so I was looking for a more ‘bulk ingredient’ option.
In the past I did use Gatorade, but just found it annoying to keep buying it, and it obviously it’s more expensive.
I’m not completely against just using sugar and sodium, but I wanted to incorporate malto to bring down the sweetness, but wanted to know the ratio.
2:1 was popular (so it would be equal parts malto and table sugar)
1:1 is now becoming normal with higher intakes. So you’d have to also buy fructose if using malta
and now 1:.8 is starting to take off. 1:1 is close enough
For me. I just dump some sugar into a bottle until i reach my needs(usuallly 75g or 100g) sprinkle in some salt and hop on the trainer or head outside. When it gets hotter I’ll start actually measuring out sodium citrate.
@Dr_Alex_Harrison No im meaning outside training to match energy needs. Maybe carb amount matters less here and energy balance more. As long as you are fueling the work required.
Malto varies in weight so you need a scale to measure and then convert to teaspoons/tablespoons/cup measure.
Table sugar is easier:
For 80g total I believe the math for 40g table sugar and 40g maltodextrin works out like this:
So I would pull out the scale and then write it down. When filling the water bottle, I would pull the lid off 3 containers and use (probably) a 1/2 teaspoon measure for sodium citrate, and a tablespoon or 1/4 cup measure for the table sugar and malto. Once you figure out the measurements it would be a quick ~2 minutes to refill with 3 containers, put stuff away, and a strong bottle shake on the way to the bike.
Thanks!
Yeah, I’ve been filling my bottle half way with hot water, and then placing it on the scale, use the tare function, and then adding my sugar, malto and sodium citrate. quick and easy and accurate.
But, I’ve just been guessing with a 2:1 ratio of sugar : malto. So you’re suggesting 1:1 sugar / malto makes more sense?
Simple, but works for me too!
Sometimes I use brown sugar instead. No idea what it does for composition, but the mix tastes less sweet and better
Simplified:
Sugar is 1:1 glucose:fructose. Count malto as glucose.
Your drink should have:
BUT…all of this only makes difference if going higher than 60g per hour. 60g glucose/malto per hour should be no problem (in average/general).
So I’d just do 40g malto and 40g sugar = 60g glucose and 20g fructose. Which will be pretty sweet by itself. Using more sugar (less malto) might make the ratio „better“ but adds even more sweetness…and then there is this (which I cannot assess but got me thinking recently):
I’m really struggling to understand osmolarity in these high carb workout drinks. From what I found, even just 50g of fructose alone in a 24oz bottle gives an osmolarity of almost 400 mosmol/l. How is that not pulling fluid into the gut?
Joe
Well that’s just it, if you take in 120 cal/hr or whatever but it is just sitting in your gut pulling water for 3-4 hours then how is that better than whatever amount you can pound down isotonically (even though that probably isn’t a word lol).
I don’t want to share too much but 1200 cal of sugar over 3 hours and drinking to thirst has produced and exciting time or two in the bathroom after the ride.
What is the max calories/24 oz can you get in an isotonic solution anyway? How do you calculate that?
Joe
Could use 1-40g malto in your mix and probably be just fine. Sugar for the rest. (ie. 40-79g sugar)
what’s the recipe for this?
Joe
No way, it’s that easy to go isotonic??!! How are you calculating that??
Joe
Your idea of simple math is more like “dang it. I have to reach waaaaaaaaay back to the back of my brain’s memory bank to remember all this crap every time I need to crunch numbers like this”
Signed,
A guy with a
I can still do that simple math, from 40+ year old memories of HS and college chemistry
Signed,
A guy with BSEE and 3.0 gpa in college
I’m our pool guy and regularly titrate to check chlorine levels. Tbf the only math is multiplying the number of drops FAS-DPD reagent by 0.2. 
Trying to catch up here, are you guys saying that different sugar types have different osmalities (sp?)? What is a mosmol/l? Anyway you guys can break it down for those of us who barely made it out of high school? 
LOL, way back in the brain bucket…6.02 X 10???. But you gave me a nice start so thanks 
Joe
PS do we need to figure in sodium citrate (or whatever electrolyte we’re using) into osmolarity too? I’m guessing yes
Quick question;
For a 1hr vo2max workout - warmup, z2 with 3 x 5 mins at Z5 then cool-down, what’s the optimal way to have enough energy? Assuming a 90 min gap between the last food and workout is it:
A) eat normally and slightly into the anticipated daily calorie deficit albeit carb heavy throughout the day, no fuel on the bike or
B) eat normally to a daily net calorie measure, and use a gel/drink during the workout as immediate fuel?
That alone is not optimal from what’s recommended. It’s been suggested 3-4 hours after a meal.