cost effective power gel's?

stevek

as long as the taste is not horribe anyone know of cost effectivew places to buy it? I found a place with some almost expired for 12.99 for a 24 pack. hell I doubt the stuff can go bad (G)
my system is so slow that it takes two hours ofr it to give me energy 3 hours for fruit. so it helps out in the morning as I only have two hours between eating and riding.

dhk

Don't know of any bargains. IMO, there aren't any cost-effective power gels for home use. This stuff is just concentrated sugar solution, packaged in a convenient form for racers. If you're at home in the morning, you could eat sugar by the spoonful in coffee, take jelly or jam out of the jar, or drink pancake syrup, for a lot less money than these little packets cost, even on sale.

However, not sure why you'd need to do this hours before a ride, unless you have some metabolic problems with blood insulin response. If so, your body may not be storing glycogen properly in the muscles and liver, so that your fuel tank is always low.

It's your health of course, but you may want to talk to your doctor about a glucose tolerance test to check out your blood sugar and insulin response. I had low blood sugar issues about 15 years ago that diet and exercise have corrected.

stevek

it is a bit weird. but fat takes even longer about 6 hours to get energy from it. may be that my metabolism is dirt slow. I found I can’t loose weight without exercise. I am allergic to grains so my only carbs are fruit or beans or the energy drinks for the most part.

2LAP

Hay Steve, have you tried starchy vegtables for carbs yet (potato, yams, etc.)?

In the main part, I agree with dhk, but am realy interested to hear of your solution and cheap source of energy foods?

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stevek

have thought of those. but the problem is I don't have time oi get the energy from them in the morning and it's too long after lunch. I have lunch aroudn 11 or 12 and I am starving then. today I had a pint of spud salad and some salami about 1/4# and I had my two banana's at 3 and I was starving by 4 I just did not have time to go get more food and my ride was a huffer puffer because I did not enough energy. I think I would need only about 3 hours for the starchy veggies. but thats hard to do.
I hate eating sometiimes. it is mroe work and now with the 3 hours before a ride deal it is even more work.

dhk

Steve, I'm not a doctor, and only write from my experience with blood sugar issues. But if you eat high-starch at lunch (a pint of potato salad) then two sugary bananas at 3, that's a load of hi-glycemic carbs you're already eating. When you say you're hungry at 4, I'll bet your blood sugar is way down. Do you ever get a cold nose, or feel lightheaded when you are "very hungry"?

You probably need to eat the high fat salami to slow the insulin response, but that stuff is of course giving you a a load of unneeded calories.

I know advice is cheap, but as I mentioned earlier, you should ask your doctor about a simple glucose tolerance test. He may recommend a low-glycemic diet plan which will get everything under control so that you can eat a normal 3 meals a day and not worry about energy.

If your blood sugar isn't under control, you won't be successful at bike riding or weight loss....and may be risking your health.

stevek

the potato salad was a oddball thing. Usualy lunch is etiehr a high fat lunch meant and cheese or meat and veggies. I don't get hungery on that.
been playing around with eating. no grains makes it hard to eat carbs and I don't eat enough fat to burn as energy.

2LAP

What, and you don't have any body fat to burn?

I didn't want this thread to end up like the last one we communicated in, but your response to eating and the comments you post are so far from normal I actualy think there may be something wrong with you (or just seriously wrong with your diet). What does your family, friends and cycling friends say about your situation (it might just be you come across badly on this forum)?

I'm still with dhk, go and see a nutritionalist or a doctor.

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stevek

For breakfast I have a couple of banana’s and some orange juice. I was eating some beans too. Now I am trying some protein drink and power gel that is at about 8am I ride 10 miles to work at about 10am. By 11 or 12 I am pretty hungry. Lunch can be ¼# of some kind of meat and ¼# of cheese or it can be stir fried meat and veggies (no rice) or it can be some meat and veggies or some bean salad and meat and cheese) it varies quite a bit. Then at 3 I eat a couple pieces of fruit and power gel for the ride home 10 miles at 6pm. I am pretty hungry when I get home and I usually eat some meat or salad or beans and meat or whatever I can think of. I can’t eat too much at dinner as I have acid reflux.
if I don’t eat too much junk on weekends I loose about 1# a week right now I am at about 237 down from 260 before I started to ride.
I found once I stopped eating grain I don’t get sick anymore. And when I get sick it is because I ate grain a couple three times in a week.
I can’t really eat enough fat to go all low carb. But it’s hard to eat enough carbs to have energy all of the time.
Timing of my eating seems to be critical to have enough energy to ride at a decent pace for me. Plus the more energy I have the less my asthma acts up. Or maybe the asthma affects my energy (not real sure on that)
I have found the more fat I have for lunch the more energy I have. Though it seems like meat and cheese does better then say salad dressing of some type.
It’s hard to know sometimes as I can eat the same things but my energy level may be a bit different. Usually if it is low I am huffy and puffing the first part of the ride but it settles down about ½ way through.
But so far I have found roughly it takes about 3 hours to get energy from fruit and the hammer gel. About 6 hours for the fat
Before I was exercising I could eat less and be full for far longer. Sometimes for 6 hours at a time. It was hard to eat enough food.
It has always been that way I think unless I work my body pretty hard I don’t loose any weight. Once I start working I can eat a fair amount and still loose.
My blood levels were good last time I checked when I was eating more fat and far less carbs.
But my doc would not be much help in the eating part. And without much insurance I can’t go that route.
So I have to work it out myself. It does not help that eating is a chore and I don’t cook much anymore. I need a built in cook (G)
Think spreading out lunch a bit may help as it is 7 hours between meals.

stevek

Come to think of it my stomach has always been a problem since I was 11 or so. Some little hernia I can’t think of the name of (seems to run in the family) heartburn and acid reflux. A lot of times I feel hungry when feel and full when hungry. I remember when I used to eat cereal and a big bowl of it would leave me hungry in a couple of hours. But I also would have heartburn as I was eating it. I got into a raw food kick for about 1.5 months and felt the best I ever felt. All raw veggies and fruit and nuts. Though I had salad dressing on big salads. I had so much energy and felt fantastic. I leaned what foods made me feel good and what made me feel bad. Grains would make me tired.
I also found all of my stomach problems went away. But it also got all of my cavities going and I am still paying on that (G) and I was eating less and less food because I was too lazy to prepare much. I shifted into 1 meal a day and a few snacks. Then shifted into low carb. But I found I had sore muscles unless I ate several pieces of fruit a day. Putting some carbs back in has helped.
But now with all of the exercise has made me need more energy to burn. Working out the timing and what to eat has been fun.
I found I can’t have any food really in my stomach when I go to bed. Or atleast not the wrong ones. But still I go to bed hungry quite a bit. I have had food come back up 6 and sometimes 8 hours after I ate it. So digestion is pretty slow with me.
Meats and chesses fruits and veggies and nuts don’t cause many problems. Grains cause me a lot of heartburn and now allergy problems. I thought beans were problem but it was just the bread I ate with them.
I think I need to spread things out more in my eating.

stevek

well after some playing around I found a good quality protien powder gives me more energy then the power Gel's do. my rides are far better now taking the extra protien.