Nutritionist and sport drink mix question

[roadie gal]

Look into Infinit Nutrition. You can make up your own sports drink. You get to decide the amount of electrolytes, the composition of the carbs - fast vs slow metabolizing, whether or not you want protein, and the amount of flavor. They make it very easy to set up your mix and, if needed, they will discuss it with you by phone. I've used it for a couple of years and swear by it.
www.infinitnutrition.us.

Oops, I missed that someone else already mentioned this. It's worth saying again IMHO.

[OakLeaf]

I'm still looking for a drink mix that has non-dairy non-soy protein (can't really stomach "real food" on a long run). Why are hemp and rice protein powders so grainy? May try to add some to my "gel" next time, anyhow.

[ehirsch83]

Catrin,
Be careful with adding sports drinks to your workouts. If you are doing anything under an hour and a half- an electrolyte packet is all you need(emergen c is great). Otherwise, you will just be replacing the calories you just burned off.

[Catrin]

Look into Infinit Nutrition. You can make up your own sports drink. .... They make it very easy to set up your mix and, if needed, they will discuss it with you by phone. I've used it for a couple of years and swear by it.
www.infinitnutrition.us.

I will look into this, thanks to both of you who have mentioned it!

Catrin,
Be careful with adding sports drinks to your workouts. If you are doing anything under an hour and a half- an electrolyte packet is all you need(emergen c is great). Otherwise, you will just be replacing the calories you just burned off.

I've no choice but to do this - both doctors and nutritionist has strongly advised me to do this. I have a major hypoglycemia problem and my workouts are very intensive - I burn far more calories than are in the sports drinks... I must admit I feel MUCH better since starting to adding things to my water - and I eat properly.

I mix Sustained Energy with an electrolyte powder (Power bar's endurance to be exact). 2 scoops of each per bottle is a good 1 1/2 hour worth of liquid nutrition for me. I generally start with 2 bottles of this "brew", then switch one bottle to water later on down the line. I generally don't eat a lot of food and this does great for long rides. (And I mean long. ).

Thanks for your experience - I must admit that I find Sustained Energy interesting - and IMO the blander the better - when working out intensively I find that the less flavor in my water the better. I have always been like that. What doesn't seem very sweet to me when I am not working out suddenly becomes overly sweet when sweat is pouring off of my body... I have send an email to Hammer Nutrition to find out if I can get a sample of both of their "fuels" so I can taste them before purchasing.

Infinit is interesting as well, I think that I will just call them after I do some more research and discuss my needs with them

[maillotpois]

Thanks for your experience - I must admit that I find Sustained Energy interesting - and IMO the blander the better - when working out intensively I find that the less flavor in my water the better. I have always been like that. What doesn't seem very sweet to me when I am not working out suddenly becomes overly sweet when sweat is pouring off of my body... I have send an email to Hammer Nutrition to find out if I can get a sample of both of their "fuels" so I can taste them before purchasing.

Just remember as many have mentioned, SE doesn't have electrolytes and you need those. So add either some regular drink mix or use electrolyte capsules.

[Catrin]

Just remember as many have mentioned, SE doesn't have electrolytes and you need those. So add either some regular drink mix or use electrolyte capsules.

I will certainly do this. I am waiting to talk to the Infinit folks about their product. I just have to do some research, and probably email my nutritionist, to determine the best balance of carbs/protein/other things to fit my needs. I am trying the Cytomax for spinning, I want to compare it with the Gu Electrolyte Brew.

If I am just having a light session, or just a training session with no extra work then am going to stick with water.

I greatly appreciate everyone's input on this - it is greatly appreciated. I had noted on Hammer Nutrition's site the information about the "shelf-life" of the two fuels once mixed, but it helped hearing from those who use it that it really has such a short life-span before it starts "turning".

Eventually I will have to decide how best to carry this with me for long rides as I will, probably, be alone for most of them. It would be nice to meet a riding companion, but I won't stay home because of it My bike only has room for one bottle holder, there really is no room for another on down or seat tubes. If nothing else I can take a small backpack or something like that. That is a few months away though, so am not overly concerned about it right now (though it is in the back of my mind).

[arielmoon]

I'm still looking for a drink mix that has non-dairy non-soy protein (can't really stomach "real food" on a long run). Why are hemp and rice protein powders so grainy? May try to add some to my "gel" next time, anyhow.

Have you tried Pea Protein? I get mine from Vitamin shoppe. It's made by Olympia labs.

[OakLeaf]

Right now I haven't tried any protein supplements during a run. It's only recently I've been running long enough to feel like I need any.

I was just looking at this line that my natural food store started carrying but I'll be danged if I can remember the brand name. It looked like really high quality stuff anyway, a mix of chia and hemp and some other proteins.

I've used Perpetuem on long rides, just because they never give you enough protein at the snack stops, but I really don't like to use that much soy, especially unfermented isolated soy protein. Anyway, unlike running, I don't ride hard enough to mess with my digestion, it's just that over 50 miles or so, I need protein. I've been known to scarf an egg salad sandwich when a hot, hilly century went by a convenient store (and finished strong, despite all the ribbing I got for the sandwich )

[Catrin]

I have been using Gu Electrolyte Brew as an experiment - while I certainly felt better at the end of my spinning classes/intensive workouts my blood sugar spiked pretty high and the taste of the stuff is just too strong.

So.... while still trying to reach a living person at Infinit, I picked up some Cytomax that someone mentioned earlier in this thread. Much, much lighter taste, lower number of carbs as the Gu Brew (22 vs 25), my blood sugar didn't spike near as high. Looking at the ingredients it appears that the carbs are perhaps from different sources.

Interesting experiment, am looking forward to see how the Infinit works out later in the season. I see no need to add protein to my spinning/weight lifting sessions at this time.