Gag me!! Anyone using Maurten gels?

[jimoots]

Originally Posted by kppolich

I'm strongly on the side of eating real food unless you are a sponsored athlete or racing where you need quick calories for performance reasons. Never felt better since I stopped with the gels and drink mixes and took care of my daily nutrition macros first.

The physics of consuming 60-100g of sugar in an hour through real food is quite difficult if you're doing more than an hour.

E.g. you get 60g of sugar from 100g of dates. Or 10g of sugar from 100g of banana. So on and so forth. Lot of food to carry.

But more to the point. What even is 'real food'?

At the end of the day a gel is sugar mixed up with some liquid and a flavouring, sometimes a little bit of salt. Seriously, take a look at any gel packet ingredients. Incredibly simple stuff. The high tech packaging makes us think its some future food or something. The margin must be insane.

I'm planning on experimenting making my own gels with a soft flask thingy. Sugar, water, salt. If it works I might buy some malto to try and get the malto/fructose ratio closer to optimum than standard sugar.

The appeal is that you don't have to tear gels open mid race... and when you stuff it back in your pocket with a tiny little bit left it doesn't leak all over you.

[Clean39T]

Maple syrup in a Gu squeeze pouch with a pinch of salt and squeeze of lemon if you’re fancy does the trick too.. and much less waste. Costco Organic Maple Syrup is quite tasty.

But I don’t mind the Maureen. Reminds me of tapioca pudding.

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by jimoots

The physics of consuming 60-100g of sugar in an hour through real food is quite difficult if you're doing more than an hour.

E.g. you get 60g of sugar from 100g of dates. Or 10g of sugar from 100g of banana. So on and so forth. Lot of food to carry.

But more to the point. What even is 'real food'?

At the end of the day a gel is sugar mixed up with some liquid and a flavouring, sometimes a little bit of salt. Seriously, take a look at any gel packet ingredients. Incredibly simple stuff. The high tech packaging makes us think its some future food or something. The margin must be insane.

I'm planning on experimenting making my own gels with a soft flask thingy. Sugar, water, salt. If it works I might buy some malto to try and get the malto/fructose ratio closer to optimum than standard sugar.

The appeal is that you don't have to tear gels open mid race... and when you stuff it back in your pocket with a tiny little bit left it doesn't leak all over you.

Have a look at Dr Alex Harrison's YT channel. You might find something interesting in what he promotes for fueling. He posts a lot over in the Slowtwitch forum.

He's a proponent of using table sugar and sodium citrate to formulate your own energy drink.


https://www.youtube.com/@SaturdayPro...dration/videos

[oldguy00]

If you like untapped and want to save a ton of money, buy a re-usable flask like the one below, and a jug of pure maple syrup from costco. Fill. Holds about 5 'gels' worth. Add a little salt if you like.

https://hammernutrition.ca/products/gel-flask

[dustyrider]

I like the idea of a refillable flask for maple syrup and honey, since I do feel like the packaging is wasteful and try to limit my consumption of it because of that. Thanks for the suggestion. Now the only hard part will be to limit the amount I consume!

[Kyle h]

Originally Posted by jimoots

The physics of consuming 60-100g of sugar in an hour through real food is quite difficult if you're doing more than an hour.

E.g. you get 60g of sugar from 100g of dates. Or 10g of sugar from 100g of banana. So on and so forth. Lot of food to carry.

But more to the point. What even is 'real food'?

At the end of the day a gel is sugar mixed up with some liquid and a flavouring, sometimes a little bit of salt. Seriously, take a look at any gel packet ingredients. Incredibly simple stuff. The high tech packaging makes us think its some future food or something. The margin must be insane.

I'm planning on experimenting making my own gels with a soft flask thingy. Sugar, water, salt. If it works I might buy some malto to try and get the malto/fructose ratio closer to optimum than standard sugar.

The appeal is that you don't have to tear gels open mid race... and when you stuff it back in your pocket with a tiny little bit left it doesn't leak all over you.

I agree. I ride with some people who are like “real food only!” As they pull out their pb&j sandwich which is made with white bread and equally proceeded PB and jelly.

[dsjackson]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

I follow some online running people who seem to like the Maurten gels. Picked up a couple at the LRS (local running shop) and took a couple out on a running workout this afternoon.

OMG

I've never had a gel with a texture like this before. It feels like you need to chew the stuff, I almost gagged and threw up with the completely foreign mouth feel. I got one down because I knew I needed the nutrition or the remainder of my workout would not go well, but they are definitely weird to me!

The good news is my belly seemed fine with them once I got it down.

Anyone use and like these? Are all the gels the same in that regard?

Filed under: unpleasant surprises today!

Best gels I’ve ever used. Consume them regularly. Most expensive habit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[commonguy001]

Originally Posted by dsjackson

Most expensive habit.

I love them, they work great, they don't fit my budget for every day energy needs on the bike.

Also agree that the mouth feel is strange at first, I usually just shoot and swallow. The "Solid" bars are one of my favorites as well. Also cost prohibitive. Both are relegated to events only for me.

[flying]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

If you like untapped and want to save a ton of money, buy a re-usable flask like the one below, and a jug of pure maple syrup from costco. Fill. Holds about 5 'gels' worth. Add a little salt if you like.

https://hammernutrition.ca/products/gel-flask

My wife & I use those for coffee

No coffee shops or stores on our rides. Two Flasks holds one Aeropress so works out perfectly

[Spaceman Spiff]

Last year, when I was training for IM, I noticed that the on-course gels were going to be Maurten. So I bought some to try out beforehand. I'm sure glad I did! That first gel was strange. But I liked that they weren't very sweet and that I didn't have to drink a lot of water while consuming them.

The caffeinated gels have 100 mg of caffeine. For someone who doesn't regularly consume caffeine, yowsa!

They're so expensive I didn't train with them.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by jimoots

The physics of consuming 60-100g of sugar in an hour through real food is quite difficult if you're doing more than an hour.

E.g. you get 60g of sugar from 100g of dates. Or 10g of sugar from 100g of banana. So on and so forth. Lot of food to carry.

But more to the point. What even is 'real food'?

At the end of the day a gel is sugar mixed up with some liquid and a flavouring, sometimes a little bit of salt. Seriously, take a look at any gel packet ingredients. Incredibly simple stuff. The high tech packaging makes us think its some future food or something. The margin must be insane.

I'm planning on experimenting making my own gels with a soft flask thingy. Sugar, water, salt. If it works I might buy some malto to try and get the malto/fructose ratio closer to optimum than standard sugar.

The appeal is that you don't have to tear gels open mid race... and when you stuff it back in your pocket with a tiny little bit left it doesn't leak all over you.

As above, you can get carbohydrates from a variety of foods - fruits, breads, pasta, etc. the idea of gels is that they are a dense form of carbohydrates - they are basically sugars and starches mixed with a little bit of liquid. However, your body's speed of absorption of carbohydrates into the blood stream varies with the types of sugars and starches (the so-called Glycemic index), and also the ratio of carbohydrate/liquid. Muerten claims to have found a mixture that allows more rapid absorption of carbohydrates (and with minimal stomach upset) compared to other carbohydrate sources.

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

As above, you can get carbohydrates from a variety of foods - fruits, breads, pasta, etc. the idea of gels is that they are a dense form of carbohydrates - they are basically sugars and starches mixed with a little bit of liquid. However, your body's speed of absorption of carbohydrates into the blood stream varies with the types of sugars and starches (the so-called Glycemic index), and also the ratio of carbohydrate/liquid. Muerten claims to have found a mixture that allows more rapid absorption of carbohydrates (and with minimal stomach upset) compared to other carbohydrate sources.

And, interestingly, it also seems to vary with height, because taller people generally have longer intestines, so there's more surface area to absorb nutrients.

[cgolvin]

I had a similar reaction the gels, then again not really fond of any brand of those, prefer gummies. The hydration stuff was ok, with the additional benefit of some upper body workout since you have to shake it like a mofo to get it to dissolve.

[Spdntrxi]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

I had a similar reaction the gels, then again not really fond of any brand of those, prefer gummies. The hydration stuff was ok, with the additional benefit of some upper body workout since you have to shake it like a mofo to get it to dissolve.

yes my not in a hurry procedure involves warm water.

[Likes2ridefar]

Never been a fan of gels of any brand and stopped trying them once i discovered honey stinger waffles. They are flat so it’s easy to take many in a pocket or bag. I will supplement with a sugary drink (usually skratch lemon-lime) for intense endurance activities or just the waffles plus water for less intense or duration.

When racing I would open each packet across the top for easy access. I can sustain myself on just them for any single day endurance event I’ve done.