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Energy bars & drinks for cycling

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
W

Wrighty

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
I am riding a 55k event in August and want to know what energy bars and drinks I can take during the ride to keep me hydrated and top up my carbs. (cycling sites recommend between 30-60 carbs per hour). Does anyone have any experience of this please.
 
Hi Wrighty. Good luck with the ride. 🙂 It depends what medication you're on for your diabetes and how active you are at the moment. For drinks I use the high5 zero tablets (or wiggle equivalent) in a bottle of water. These are zero carb but contain electrolytes to replace those lost. Yes, I've seen it mentioned but the 30-60g carbs per hour I think is overdoing it just a bit! I think pros may need that amount but not everyone else. How long are you expecting the ride to take? I find slower release carbs are better - malt loaf, cereal bars etc, but it depends how well you can tolerate these. There are a number of lower carb energy bars available - Carb Killa etc. I'm Type 1 so my requirements may be different from yours as I usually am depending on what my blood glucose levels are telling me and insulin and carb requirements.
 
Like Matt says..
Don't worry too much about 55km, take water and whatever you want to eat.. but you won't actually need to eat anything for this as long as you have your usual meals beforehand.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. I have type 2 diabetes metformin controlled. I am currently doing a year long personal challenge to cycle 2,018 miles in 2018 and raising money for Diabetes UK along the way. I am 161 days into the challenge and have cycled 870 miles to date. I am currently riding 6 days a week so very active. I have also gone low carb a couple of weeks ago which has seen a big rise in energy level but a bit concerned about carb intake for the 55k ride. I am expecting to take around 3.5 hours for the ride.
 
I guess it depends on how low you normally get after 3 hours of activity.. my guess would be that you would have enough reserves to do this and more. A little bit of food to feel good is not a bad thing but you will not be expending vast amounts of energy..there is very little need to go for sports nutrition for this. A bottle of plain water and something nice to eat will get you through no problem.
Then you can concentrate on enjoying the ride.. where will you be going??
 
How things have changed. You guys are probably too young to have been cycling in the late1960's when my husband did 12 hour cycle races and I used to hand up ice cream cones filled with thick gloopy rice pudding !!! Memories have come flooding back 😳
 
I would race for 12 hours to be as far away as possible from gloopy rice pudding..
Don't let my c**p spelling fool you.. I can do late sixties..just
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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