By my quick analysis:
Nuun (best price I saw was $6/10 or $0.60 each)
Nuun Sport has 300 mg Sodium, 150 mg Potassium, 25 mg Magnesium, and 13 mg Calcium
Fasting Salts on Amazon (US delivery) - $29 for 400g, or $0.11 per 1.5 g serving
1.5g fasting salts has 385 mg Sodium, 187 mg Potassium, 22 mg Magnesium, no Calcium
Sodium Citrate is the only electrolyte I think you really need.
If I did the math right, that works out to US$0.52/bottle. Not bad!
Thanks! I managed to get an order in for a couple of boxes. A little longer delivery time to Canada, but still a great deal.
I went down the Bulk Powders route (as linked above) & got the maltodextrin, fructose, electrolyte powder and Liquiflav. Mixed the powders together (roughly 50/25/1 ratio) & use a scoop per bottle.
All works well but I really don’t get on with the Liquiflav (raspberry). It’s too sickly sweet and not a particularly nice flavour anyway.
My favourite flavours in other powders/tablets is berry. Any suggestions for equivalent flavouring powder or drops? (and I’m not going to put Nuun tabs in 
)
I tried to be overly sophisticated at first. Now I just use squash (cordial). Probably like 1p per serving and 20 different flavour options at the supermarket. Personal favourites are apple and lime for mixing with maltodextrin.
Good idea. Will try some squashes.
I have the raspberry Liquiflav as well but find it is the fructose that delivers the overly sweet taste in the drink… for lower intensity rides, I drop the fructose and reduce the dose of flavouring and do not find it too sweet.
I think that someone has already mentioned it but squash or cordial are a good replacement for the flavouring… I use double strength apple & blackcurrent or lemon.
Yes, I’m sure the fructose is part of the issue.
Since posting yesterday I’ve experimented on replacing the Liquiflav with some elderflower cordial I had knocking about (as suggested). It’s really nice!
Does this formulation make it isotonic? How much water do you add, 500ml?
DIY Sports Drink Tonicity Calculator – PowerPacing.Run use this to figure out osmolarity
Here is an example of isontic with 500ML
| Water | 16.9 |
|---|---|
| Carbs (Fructose) | 15 |
| Carbs (Maltodextrin) | 45 |
| Sodium | 350 |
| Lemon Crystals | 2 |
Here is my go to for my 24 oz bottles
| Nutrition Per Hour | Serving Size | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | 24 | US fluid oz | 709.7 |
| Carbs (Fructose) | 25 | g | 25.0 |
| Carbs (Maltodextrin) | 50 | g | 53.6 |
| Sodium | 350 | mg | 1.5 |
| Lemon Crystals | 2 | packets | 1.6 |
| Maltodextrin DE | 10 | ||
| Osmolarity (mOsmol/L) | 277 | Isotonic (275-295) |
No idea on osmolality. Guess I need to do a little research…
I typically mix with 20oz (590 ml) of water.
Does the amount of water impact your calculation? If so, you have about 3/4 cup of sugar there, so you’re not actually getting 24oz of water.
Yes the amount of water is used to create Isotonic. Everything is just weighed on a scale to make.
So you’re saying you use more than one bottle to get to the 24 oz per hour that you listed above, right? I’m just trying to clarify that you can’t get 24 oz of water in a 24 oz bottle if you have all those other things, so either your recipe is off or you’re using more than one bottle to get there.
I am mostly a mtb’r and race only mtb and little gravel and almost always wear a pack. So most of what I mix are in camelpacks. The mixes I take when training are usually more based on calories and I refill water bottles on the road with water only. The mixes dissolve so don’t think you are going to have problems with liquid displacement.
Added 120g per 750ml bottle
Just to be sure, that’s 120g of carb in 750ml bottle, right?
Seems like an awful lot. But maybe your intake was spread out to more than an hour?
I just got my Bulk shipment today and did a 2:1 mix (60g total) in a 750ml bottle. Consumed in one hour and felt super nice.
Best
Thanks for the link, this is cool!
Here’s my isotonic recipe using Gatorade / CarboGain mix and US measurements:
18oz water
2/3 scoop Gatorade mix
1/3 cup Maltodextrin
Mixed in bulk in a drink pitcher:
1 gal water
1 1/3 cup Gatorade powder
2 1/3 cup Maltodextrin
Is the sugar in orange juice all fructose? How about soft drinks…are they all fructose too?
Correct. 120g of carbs in a 750ml bottle. I tend to drink c. 500ml of fluids per hour. A 750ml bottle lasts 90 minutes, which provides me with 80g carbs per hour. The whole idea of going down the 2:1 malto-fructo route is to increase the amount of carbs per hour you ingest from the standard 60g per hour. On the podcast Jonathon regularly relates how he ingests 100-110g carbs of carbs per hour. Even on workouts he says he consumes lots of carbs to train and maintain his gut’s capacity to ingest a lot of carbs.
