What is the reasoning behind zero calorie drinks?

[jefmcg]

I dropped a "zero" tablet into my water bottle today (I got it with a wiggle order; would have preferred Haribo). Two questions

1. Who would think that orange-cherry is a good flavour???
2. (more seriously) why replace sugar with sucralose?

Your body knows the difference sugar/glucose and artificial sweeteners "Studies using this method have reported that simply having carbohydrate in the mouth is associated with improvements in endurance performance. " http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21615187

If you are doing a workout long enough to need to replace electrolytes, surely you are going to need a little carbohydrate before the day is done, and that will apparently immediately improve performance, so why introduce something that is "is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose" (thanks wikipedia) into the mix?

 

[MattHB]

electrolyte replacement is the main aim, in some training you might want to replace salts and run yourself low on carbs..

and yeah, that flavour is

 

[black'n'yellow]

If you are doing a workout long enough to need to replace electrolytes, surely you are going to need a little carbohydrate before the day is done, and that will apparently immediately improve performance, so why introduce something that is "is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose" (thanks wikipedia) into the mix?

You should be able to ride for around two hours without needing additional carbs, assuming you follow a normal diet. It's quite possible you might need electrolytes within 30mins for high intensity efforts..

 

[Cubist]

Try mixing them with a little fruit and barley. The idea is to replace electrolytes whilst burning fat. If you add carbs you don't burn fat. If you don't want to burn fat then you don't need low carb drinks, you can drink sugared ones. Your choice.

 

[defy-one]

Havn't tried my wiggle tabs yet. I figure a bit of fruit juice in a full water bottle should be fine.

 

[Drago]

I'm a big sweaty type and do worry about loss of electrolytes, so i use the zero citrus tabs. At best they may play some small part in replacing the 'salts' and stuff that I sweat out, at worst they taste a bit more interesting than H2O. I keep an eye on ebay and buy bulk when the come up cheap.

 

[Arsen Gere]

If you are doing a workout long enough to need to replace electrolytes, surely you are going to need a little carbohydrate before the day is done, and that will apparently immediately improve performance, so why introduce something that is "is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose" (thanks wikipedia) into the mix?

FWIW I use the high 5 zero tablets a lot, not sure if they contain sucralose as I don't have microsope to read the content list. I split my carb intake from the eletrolytes and mix the drinks myself. Before 'A' races I usually try to go out and bonk, drive my carbs right down. The h50 tabs allow me to maintain a higher intensity and keep going longer carb free than plain water. I also use them post long rides in a recovery drink if I am dehydrated. For example I ran to work this morning, 11 miles, dehydrated, 1/2 tab in pint of water allows me to feel better for my working day.

 

[wheres_my_beard]

Mrs W_M_B is type 2 diabetic and has explained to me a while back about problems that can be caused by using artificial sweeteners for non diabetics. In a simple way, the body tastes "sweet" and expects sugars in the blood so releases Insulin, to cope with the new and needed sugars, but finds none, but works on what is left in the system, thus leading to much lower blood sugar, lack of energy and the potential for a crash.

So, sugar free "energy" drinks could make things worse in a tight spot. I think.

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

I use them in order to be able to control nutrition and hydration separately: I don't usually eat on any ride up to four hours. Even on longer rides, I don't need to eat and drink at the same rate.

Interesting to read what w_m_b wrote: worth looking into further...

 

[jdtate101]

The berry flavour is not bad, but I prefer the caffeine tab they do as it tastes like Redbull.

 

[Zofo]

The idea behind it is to "train low" and "race high"-ie you train when your glycogen stores are low -such as in the morning before you've eaten. This will train your body to burn fat instead of carbs-provided you train at a fairly low level of effort eg around 70-80% max heart rate. You should be ok going for around 2 hrs or so , but dont go any longer as you are likely to "bonk"-not good. Then come race day, sportive or time trial, you fuel up on as much carbohydrate as you can get in so you have maximum energy available, in a slimmer body--thats the theory anyway.

 

[black'n'yellow]

The idea behind it is to "train low" and "race high"-ie you train when your glycogen stores are low -such as in the morning before you've eaten. This will train your body to burn fat instead of carbs-provided you train at a fairly low level of effort eg around 70-80% max heart rate. You should be ok going for around 2 hrs or so , but dont go any longer as you are likely to "bonk"-not good. Then come race day, sportive or time trial, you fuel up on as much carbohydrate as you can get in so you have maximum energy available, in a slimmer body--thats the theory anyway.

Whose theory - yours?

I can't see the sense in trying to train when you don't have sufficient energy - all that will happen is that you end up not training as effectively as you could. In general, a properly-fuelled body should have enough glycogen for two hours worth of exercise. If your glycogen stores are low, you will not be able to train for anything like two hours - all that would happen then is that you would be too tired to train properly and end up not benefiting in the way that you should. 'Training' your body to 'burn fat' is a nonsense anyway - there is no 'fat burning' zone. Finally, you shouldn't need to 'fuel up' on race day - all you need is a decent, balanced diet in the days beforehand.

 

[Zofo]

Whose theory - yours?

'Training' your body to 'burn fat' is a nonsense anyway - there is no 'fat burning' zone.

Really?!--you some kind of expert then ....so the likes of Jo Freil, Chris Carmichael et. al plus the the sports scientists at Team Sky who helped Brad lose 7kg for the 2009 tour by getting him to train in the morning before he had eaten , are all wrong then ? Do your research first pal.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Really?!--you some kind of expert then ....so the likes of Jo Freil, Chris Carmichael et. al plus the the sports scientists at Team Sky who helped Brad lose 7kg for the 2009 tour by getting him to train in the morning before he had eaten , are all wrong then ? Do your research first pal.

ok - first things first. Wiggins was with Garmin in 09, not Sky. You make it sound as though he did all his training without eating. His 'pre-breakfast' rides might have been part of a larger dietary plan to encourage changes in metabolism - you are over-simplifying it and cherry-picking the bits you like the sound of - not really the sort of thing to recommend on a whim.

Finally - and I don't know why you think this is true, because it isn't - there is no 'fat burning' zone. You burn fat and carbs all the time - you are even burning both while you are reading this. Low-level exercise may burn fractionally more fat than carbs, but overall you just need to convert more calories than you consume.

Am I an expert? No. Do you sound like an expert? Ummmmmm No.

 

[Rob3rt]

The idea behind it is to "train low" and "race high"-ie you train when your glycogen stores are low -such as in the morning before you've eaten. This will train your body to burn fat instead of carbs-provided you train at a fairly low level of effort eg around 70-80% max heart rate. You should be ok going for around 2 hrs or so , but dont go any longer as you are likely to "bonk"-not good. Then come race day, sportive or time trial, you fuel up on as much carbohydrate as you can get in so you have maximum energy available, in a slimmer body--thats the theory anyway.

The purpose of such products is to replace fluid and electrolytes without taking in additional calories where they arent required. It is quite simple.

As for training before you have eaten, that would only burn more fat than carbs while you are running low on carbs having not eaten, it is common practice to do this to help with weight loss BUT it won't train the body to be selective in its fuel source at other times. When carbs are there, the body will use them, if they arent, it wont!