Dreww10

As noted in a previous thread, I've found my body requires a considerable amount of electrolytes, primarily after my rides for recovery, but also in the hours leading up to a ride. Because of that, I need to find both an affordable and healthy fashion of getting large portions of it. In general I'm at about three servings minimum per day (one pre-ride and two large glasses immediately after).

The unfortunate reality is that Gatorade is seemingly impossible to beat for the price. At any of the big box retailers I can get a 4 lb. tub of Gatorade mix for about $9-10 and get almost 100 servings out of it. The problem is the sugar, which I'm more concerned in the near term about dental health than my gut, but I digress. I've tried Nuun and Gu drink tablets, which, to be perfectly honest, I don't think work as well as Gatorade does for recovery. While the big benefit of these and the reason I picked them up is that they don't contain sugar to rot my teeth, their cost per serving is in the neighborhood of 8-9x as much as Gatorade, and a scan through Amazon at the varous electrolyte tablets, mixes, and caplets suggests this this price-per-serving is pretty par for the course.

Is there anything out there I'm missing that can at least somewhat compete with Gatorade in regards to cost? At this point, if I could find something that was even 2, 3, 4x the cost of Gatorade, I'd buy it.

I know some will say to get it through food, and I don't disagree, but I find that I need to replenish electrolytes within ~10 minutes after a ride for recovery to happen, and often away from home, getting them in drink form is simply the only way.

redlude97

salt and lite salt if you actually need them, but what makes you think you need so much replacement?

Altimis

All you need is salt, add it.


That... overreacting I guess, you don't really need to replenish anything within 10 mins, its your eating habits that the problem now.

You prolly heavily sugar eater. Beware of sugar craving, its confused you with thirst.

RobotGuy

Here’s the cheapest way to do it. In my experience with marathon training, I felt the best when I focused on sodium and potassium (the obvious two) but magnesium and calcium are what really allowed my legs to recover quickly.

Na and K: Morton’s Light Salt (mix of sodium chloride and potassium chloride).

Mg: a dash of epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). Careful, it’s also an effective laxative if taken too much.

Ca: just eat a Tums or two (calcium chloride) before the event, no need to consume during.

Methods that work for me:

Drink mix: Mix in the right amount into water or juice (or watered down juice). Water takes a little to get used to; MgSO4 is pretty gross.

Homemade energy gel: mix in the salts with some honey... bam - super expensive energy gel at 1 / 1000000 the cost. Plus I’m a little sugar sensitive, so the honey’s slower blood sugar hit works for me... Gu would hit me so hard it would literally get me high for a few minutes... perhaps a good thing on mile 24?

tyrion

Probably the cheapest way would be to drink your own (or a friend's) sweat and urine.

Dreww10

Appetizing, but I'll pass.

Oso Polar

I'm using LyteShow. They sell it on Amazon in 1, 3 or 8 bottle bundles. 8 bottles = 320 servings = $100.
Mind you, this is *not* Gatorade or anything similar, it doesn't replenish carbohydrates, it has zero calories, it contains electrolytes (various salts) *only*.

Works great for me but I don't use it before or after the ride, I add it to drinking water (pure RO water) and drink *during* the ride instead of water. At recommended concentration it has a very weak lemony and salty taste (it has a bit of citric acid, I guess to mask a taste of salt).

79pmooney

Not the cheapest, but very good and won't break the bank: Vitalite by Gookinaid. No tricks or gimmicks, just the proper balance of electrolytes and glucose. At REI it is $18 for a package of 80 WB fills worth.

This stuff has changed names over the years, starting as E.R.G. and Gookinaid. They have struggled to keep a place in the sports drink market with no advertising budget but stuck around because they have a solid base of 3rd world relief agencies that use it for people with cholera and dysentery because it works so well.

Another plus - it tastes clean and stays down. (The exception to the "staying down" is when I take it when I have the flue and know everything is coming back up. What does stay down helps me a lot and what comes up tastes OK.)

Edit:I use Vitalylte as Oso Polar does - in my WBs instead of water. Often drink another bottle's worth after I get home.

Ben

canklecat

Propel (by Gatorade) powder is the cheapest I've found in single serving packets at about $3 per box of 10 packets.

No sugar in Propel but I wouldn't avoid sugar completely for best results -- studies indicate we may absorb water more efficiently with a little sugar. Traditional thirst quenchers for centuries -- posca, kombucha, switchel, haymaker's punch -- were usually made with a little honey or other sugar.

I prefer these single serving waterproof packets, including similar stuff from Emergen-C and DripDrop (the latter being the most expensive and concentrated). Easy to tuck into a small seat bag, jersey, sock, anywhere you have a little niche. The Mylar packets resist water and sweat, no worries about the stuff getting contaminated or sticky.

In winter and cool weather I use the cheaper Propel, although it has a slightly bitter aftertaste from the sucralose sweetener. Occasionally the local Walgreen's and Kroger discount the Emergen-C so I'll use it -- tastes much better than Propel. In brutally hot summer I've switched to DripDrop and always carry a packet in the seat bag.

If you want to add amino acids/BCAAs along with electrolytes, check out Body Fortress Amino Blast. Found some discounted last month, tried it on several rides. Tastes good, seems to help with recovery on harder rides. I've been pushing myself harder to recover fitness lost over the winter due to illness and stress. So I was willing to try supplements that I've usually avoided in the past, thinking they were superfluous to a good diet. But my diet wasn't all that good, as I discovered after tracking it for a few weeks over the winter.

luddite_68

I use NUUN with caffeine (you can also get it without caffeine). It is one tablet per serving, but I find it to be most effective to put 1/2 of a tablet in every bottle after trying one tablet in every other bottle. I paid $21 for 40 tablets on Amazon. That breaks down to $0.26 per serving... and it's the best electrolyte additive that i've found to use on 4+hr rides in this subtropical climate. Oh yea, it's only 10 cal per tablet.

12strings

I've made a mix of water, salt, and sugar for my bike bottles that works great, super cheap....just find a balance that tastes ok to you...it tastes surprisingly like Gatorade...

khyricat

OJ plus salt.. or salted nuts with some sugar.. I do justins nut butter packs in the sweetened flavors... potassium, protein, salt and sugar.. and calories from fat which is actually good.. but if I am walking/biking not running I tend to go for salted nuts and some fruit... if I need it- which is a lot less than most people think they do if they are well hydrated and eating a balanced diet. as an RD I find it interesting that most people who tell me they need those things when we talk about it need something different then they think and that can be covered with nutritional changes leading up to the event.

Dreww10

In addition to OJ (mentioned above), I've read you can essentially make your own sport drink, with salt, sugar, and some fruit juice. What kind of fruit juice are we talking about....something with fresh ingredients, or any old sugary fruit juice from the grocery store? Likewise, would OJ need to be some fresh'ish, non-preservative stuff? Just asking so I don't waste my time with the wrong product.

RobotGuy

The juice is just a source of sugar and to mask the salt flavor, so just pick your fave. Or just eliminate it, just about nobody really needs to replenish carbs while working out. That is unless you’re running 18 or more miles or riding perhaps 3+ hours.

Here’s the analysis I did for my own energy gel. I wanted a similar profile to the big name brands, so I compared a few of the ones I liked. I did this several years ago when I was running marathons but was unemployed so couldn’t justify spending $10 per race (and per long run) on a few packs of Gu. Got it down to $0.59 per gel pack (only used the gel for long runs and longer races where i needed the carbs) and $0.04 per serving for just electrolyte drink (which I used for the majority of training runs and shorter races where hitting the glycogen wall wasn’t a concern). Prices are current and based on Amazon.

So there ya have it, $0.02 per serving for electrolyte water... flavor as desired, plus a $0.02 tums tablet before the ride/race.

Lenkearney

interesting- how much did you use per liter/quart?

RobotGuy

I originally just did this to replace the crazy expensive gu, so at first I really never worried about adding it to water. Then I just figured if I’d use 3 gels in 18 miles, I should just put 3x the salt into a water bottle and just add enough sugar / iced tea mix / Gatorade mix / juice until it tasted ok. That was a bit much so I cut it down a bit from there.

antimonysarah

Salt, lite salt (I don't bother with trying to get any of the other electrolytes, I use equal amounts of those two), hibiscus tea (I also like it just for iced tea in the summer without the rest of the stuff, so I buy loose hibiscus tea in bulk), juice blend*, water. Generally one brews iced tea double-strength from hot tea and waters it down -- brew it double, mix with the other stuff, water it down and balance salts to taste, then write down what amount of each works best for you and repeat.

The hibiscus tea adds a nice fruit punch flavor and color without any nasty stuff. Any other herbal tea would also add flavor if you don't like hibiscus, pick something that will stand up to the salt. I'll note that I've never actually priced out doing this, and the tea might be the cost driver, but I love the flavor -- you can also look for flor de jamaica if you have latin american markets nearby, that's its spanish name.

* I specifically buy stuff that's about 50% juice 50% sugar water (no HFCS, real sugar) to have a blend of sugar types. Also, the non-all-real-juice stuff is usually cheaper. But any juice will do, again, pick a flavor you like.

Hondo Gravel

Powerade Zero 80 cents a quart at Walmart. In the hot summer I will mix regular Gatorade 50/50 with water and put it my hydration pack very cold.

RobotGuy

FWIW, a coworker used to play volleyball on the German National Team. Said they used to use pickle juice during events and beer after.

According to the interweb, here’s what you can expect to find in 3.5 oz (100 ml) of pickle juice:

Calcium: 1-5% of the RDI.
Sodium: 50-115% of the RDI.
Potassium: 3% of the RDI.
Magnesium: 3% of the RDI.
Probiotics: Up to 10,700 colony-forming units per 3.5 oz (100 ml)

Many pickles forgo the probiotics, plus that’s a ton of sodium, but I suppose you might find pickle juice that uses more potassium chloride and less sodium chloride? The world is full of possibilities after all.

Either way, the beer makes it all better.

miamijim

+1. Very inexpensive. Filtered water form the fridge and 1 packet. Buying in bulk on Amazon gets it down to 19 cents per 16.9oz.

caloso

Vet approved, comes with handy rope to hang it from your bars, available online or at your local feed store:

awesomeame

I have a medical condition which drains my body of electrolytes if I let it. Much worse with extended exercise. But I salt everything, sometimes even just eat salt, and pop a calcium/magnesium pill each morning. No problems, and my sodium counts always come back good. JMO but gatorade is the biggest ripoff unless you're an elite athlete.

Matt

bikebreak

My wife just got a human sized Himalayan pink salt grinder, it's great stuff, very salty
I use 3/4 water 1/4 Gatorade and a dash of salt on hot days

The Dead Sea salt from Israel is also high in Mg, they sell that for skin care

colombo357

I would just go to the beach.

DannoXYZ 

I've been racing motorbikes for past 3-yrs and i had no idea that it was more demanding than racing 1-2-P! I put in between 48-55 days/year at track with 1.5-3.0hrs per day. About 15-20 of those are shorter race days.

Now being zipped up in full-body leather/kangaroo suit in 90-110F heat tossing 350-lbs of metal and fuel around results in A LOT of sweating!!! I need approximately 6-8 ltr of water, 3000-calories and 2xRDI intake of electrolytes per day to break even. If you've looked at ingredients list for Gatorade, it's pitfully low on electro!ytes. I'd have to drink +50 ltrs per day!

As many have devised, mixing your own mix is answer. Initially i tried salt/No-salt for sodium, potassium, and chloride, but it wasn't enough. No matter amount (up to 3x RDI), I was still cramping. I also really needed calcium and magnesium as those are critical for intra-cellular water regulation and muscle function.

Through mixing trial & testing, I determined I needed 2x RDI mix of all electrolyte to break even for day at track. I could get away with less and no cramping, but just for one day, as I wouldn't be fully recovered and be worse off next day. And races are on Sunday.

As metioned, pills & capsules are too expensive per RDI and I needed twice that. I finalized on this mix as best value. Each scoop = 2x RDI or ~100 RDI total for an entire year's supply for $35.

I also get powdered Gatorade (no HFCS) or Cytomax for my calorie needs and mix in electrolytes,. Spread out 1-scoop between 6-8 ltr bottles as needed.

Since not every day at track is 90-110F and requires full 8 ltrs, 2.5-lb tub lasts me about 1.5-yrs. Total cost of Gatorade + electrolyte powders come to ~70 u$d/yr.