Sports Gels

[David B]

I would love to hear people’s experience with using sports gels as snacks etc. do they work, are there any adverse effects for long term (5-10 days straight ) use?  They’re light and athletes swear by them.

cheers

david

[Matthew / BPL]

I have a hard time eating them more than once a while. I have a couple friends that run ultras and do RtRtR hikes in the Big Ditch and they can’t do gels much either.

I’m skeptical that they make sense in terms of energy density for long hikes. You cannot get away from the reality that carbs and protein are 4cal/g and fat is 9cal/g. I get hungry for salty, fatty calories and repulsed by sweet stuff on hikes longer than overnight. YMMV, of course…

[Anonymous]

“I would love to hear people’s experience with using sports gels as snacks etc. do they work, are there any adverse effects for long term (5-10 days straight ) use? They’re light and athletes swear by them.”

I use the powdered equivalent as my only caloric intake while I’m on the move during the day, to support the efficient metabolism of body fat. It bypasses the digestive process and all the downsides of that when moving. I have done this successfully on trips up to 9 days so far. Depending on how much body fat you have and how many days you are out, there comes a point where you will run out of body fat and have to replace the calories it has been supplying with carried food, but beyond that I don’t see any downsides to the approach. If you do decide to give it a try use the powders to avoid carrying unnecessary weight due to the water already in gel packets.

[Matthew / BPL]

Whoa wait more on that please because I have some body fat. Are you saying some carbs while hiking will allow me to burn body fat as an energy source while hiking?

[Anonymous]

“Are you saying some carbs while hiking will allow me to burn body fat as an energy source while hiking?”

Yes. You will burn it in any case to some degree, but using a carb source will allow you to burn it much more efficiently. There have been several threads here that have gone into the process in quite a bit of detail.

[Matthew / BPL]

Somehow I’ve missed this line of thinking. Thanks for the heads up.

[Anonymous]

A pleasure.

[W I S N E R !]

For what it’s worth, I’ve got to vouch for Tom on this topic.  I’ve done quite a few multi-day trips with him and I’ve watched his diet strategy and calorie intake pretty closely.  He’s the real deal and has been refining his system of homemade powders, recovery drinks, etc. for a long time now.  I have to say I’ve been very inspired by it all and will likely be able to cut significant weight out of my food- and more importantly, greatly simplify my calorie needs on the trail- on future trips.  Tom, Greg, and a few others could write a hell of a primer on the topic.

[Matthew / BPL]

I’d happily read that primer.

Tom, I haven’t found any of the threads through search or by scrolling through the last ~2 years of conversations in the food forum. What am I looking for?

[David B]

I’m planning a thru hike in New Zealand next year 3000k and considering replacing the trail mix, museli snacks with gels/powders. The delemas for me is the nutritional values over the weight and pure energy values

[Anonymous]

“Tom, I haven’t found any of the threads through search or by scrolling through the last ~2 years of conversations in the food forum. What am I looking for?”

Quick answer is to search for maltodextrin and Krebs(as in Krebs Cycle). That will get you a fair number of hits. You will have to weed out some of them, which are too narrowly focused or not focused on what we are discussing here at all. When I have more time, I will get back to you in more detail. Also, many of the threads started back in 2007-2008 and petered out after we had beat the subject to death. Know also that many people here prefer to go into a state of ketosis to utilize body fat with little carbohydrate involved in the process. That is an entirely different approach that you might also want to investigate, but not one I favor for a variety of reasons. If it interests you, do a search on ketosis or ketone bodies.

[Sharon J.]

Make sure your digestive system can handle them. Last year when training for a marathon, I always felt nauseated by the third gel.

[John S.]

Nothing taken by mouth bypasses the digestive process. Every time you take in carbohydrates and once in the bloodstream, they will be used preferentially until used up since you will be in the “fed state” of carbohydrate metabolism.

[John Vance]

I don’t care for the gels as they become increasingly unappealing over time.  The powders I like and they promoted better hydration for me as well.  I lived in a state of ketosis for over year a number of years ago, using the ketosticks you pee on daily to monitor ketone levels.  I noted a decrease in energy, particularly during high intensity activities that lasted more than an hour or so.  I was able to backpack alright but running and cycling were seriously impacted.

Theoretically if you keep your output below 60% of your aerobic threshold, your body if fine in this state and I would agree for the most part.  I also noticed kind of a fuzzy minded state of mind from time to time that went away when I increased my carb intake and left ketosis.

I didn’t get very fancy with the powder.  I just purchased a bag of maltodextrin and mixed it with flavored drink packets.

[Anonymous]

“Nothing taken by mouth bypasses the digestive process.”

In the case of maltodextrin, perhaps it should be better expressed as going through the digestive process with minimal processing. How much digestive activity is required to break a glucose polymer chain down into its component glucose molecules, which are then ready for absorption into the bloodstream? Very little, it would seem, based on the relatively high GI of maltodextrin.

“Every time you take in carbohydrates and once in the bloodstream, they will be used preferentially until used up since you will be in the “fed state” of carbohydrate metabolism”.

John, I know you are a doc, but everything I have read to date indicates that carbs and fat are used in varying ratios that depend on the level of exertion and fitness of the subject. Both glucose, sourced from glycogen and blood glucose, and fat, sourced from intramuscular triglycerides and body fat stores, are utilized in combination, the ratio depending on the above variables Could you supply references to support your statement?

Edited for clarity.

[Anonymous]

@Matthew

Here is a link to the original thread that started me on this journey, back in 2006. It should be enough to get you grounded in the subject. Richard Nisley was, and doubtless still is, an invaluable source for information on the subject. Two other sources you might PM are Greg Gressel, who probably knows more about the subject as it applies to really long distance hiking than anybody on this site, and Shawn Bearden, a PhD in exercise physiology and an endurance athlete, who teaches at Idaho State University. Both have been generous in sharing their knowledge.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/4608/

[Anonymous]

“I didn’t get very fancy with the powder. I just purchased a bag of maltodextrin and mixed it with flavored drink packets.”

+1 I add a little whey protein for muscle sparing, but not sure that is necessary.
Simple and MUCH cheaper than Perpetuem or its commercial analogues.

[Roger Caffin]

experience with using sports gels as snacks etc.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Cheers

 

[Ito Jakuchu]

“I didn’t get very fancy with the powder. I just purchased a bag of maltodextrin and mixed it with flavored drink packets.”

“+1 I add a little whey protein for muscle sparing, but not sure that is necessary.
Simple and MUCH cheaper than Perpetuem or its commercial analogues.”

+2.

I found that when I go long and at high altitude and I can’t eat or drink anything like water or your sports drink of choice, I can still drink Green Tea with Maltodextrin.

I found this out running down Mount Fuji, with a storm coming in and my legs were all jelly and my stomach refusing anything else.

I don’t always do Malto though, I go through (longer) periods with just dry fruits for Carbs, and nuts for when I’m done.

 

 

[Matthew / BPL]

Thanks for the link, Tom.

[Anonymous]

“A fool and his money are soon parted.”

More quickly with sausage and cheese than with maltodextrin. ;0)

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