This may be a little complex but interesting nonetheless.
On today’s ride headed out on my normal breakfast but felt slow, tired, and zero energy. Had 1 Medjool date and 2 jelly babies 30 mins in and my whole body woke up and it was like a rocket had been applied to my legs.
I know i am fairly sensitive to sugar as have follower a lower-carb diet for a while (still 200g a day ish) but any ideas why this happens? It happened on occasions before too.
Some thoughts i had was obviously sugar affects the body more and is uptaken fast if you are more depleted so could be in a depleted state, it could be mental, i could just be very efficient at using simple sugars.
A little nut butter (I’ve used almond and peanut) in the dates with a dash of salt is a good on long days. They get a little messy if you use natural peanut butter because it runs. But that seems to lessen the steepness of the downside curve.
I am low carb and am normally under 50 net. I used to do all my rides fasted but the higher intensity and duration made it too difficult to maximize my workouts on ketones alone.
I tried gels and bars and they work wonders. Especially with the gels, 15 minutes after ingestion, I can definitely feel a nice kick but I have to keep taking it else I will get a sugar crash and it does not help my low carb diet and worst of all, 4 or 5 hours later, I am pretty much on the toilet.
For the past few months I’ve been using UCAN (https://ucan.co) and it works wonders! 1 scoop 30 minutes before the ride and 1 scoop after the warmup for higher intensity or long duration rides. Steady energy release, no GI issues and keeps me in ketosis.