What do you use for electrolyte replacement? (Page 2)

Right.  Nuun has negligible calories...like 5 calories per liter or something like that.  Made for people who like to drink their electrolytes and eat their calories.   

I like this approach.  BUT, living in Texas (heat) and where I ride (country side - no places to stop for food/water), I need to plan carefully what to take with me.

I've had multiple rides of 50+ miles that ended in cramps.  I've had one this last weekend of 89 miles that ended with NO cramps. The combination of intensity + nutrition + hydration + electrolytes worked on that day.  But, I would be foolish to assume only one combination of the above works for me.  I'm trying to find the best & most cost effective combination.

If you are taking in some calories along the way, then probably not.  It's actually quite hard to actually bonk.  But it's easy to fatigue, especially when it's hot and humid.  Many people confuse the two.

Aside from those guys, it is a commonly accepted fact in sports physiology that cramps during excercise are NOT caused by electrolyte depletion during the excercise.  That is not anything new, these guys are just bringing it more to the forefront.

The science shows that whether you drink nothing, drink just water, or drink sports drinks that your body regulates the percentages of electrolytes in your blood stream and distributes them accordingly.  By loading up on electrolytes you are doing not much more than making yourself more thirsty because you will have forcefully upset the balance of your body chemistry.

The simplest explanation for cramps and performance drop offs is too fast of a pace/effort for the conditions you are in.  If you cramp a lot, you are going too hard for that day.

But everyone should do exactly what they feel is right for themselves.  To the best of my knowledge, having too much electrolytes isn't going to necessarily "hurt" you, your body will just rid of it as waste when it doesn't need it.

Another inifnt fan here!!!! Bets customer service ever.

E
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 My drink mix was custom made,  JUST FOR ME!!!!

This was after Infint1 sat down with me ( via telphone) look at my formula, asked questions, answered my questions and tweaked my formula.

To keep it more or less to the OP's question ...

1. In (very) long training sessions and races I do replace electrolytes, mainly because I have shown signs of hyponatremia towards the end of long efforts, which quickly resolve upon electrolyte consumption, and moreover, tend not to show up when I have been replacing them from the outset (note that such symptoms have emerged even I have eaten a reasonable pre-long-effort diet the week before and hydrated appropriately. Frankly, being fat doesn't help).

2. I use Gatorade Endurance, because it's the cheapest, has done me well, gets me some calories, and is the offering on most NAS courses. I don't seem to suffer negative effects from the sugar spiking that is said to occur when consuming HFCS products.

I am in the same boat.  If you read my race reports over the last few years for longer stuff, the common theme through all of them has been cramping late in the races.  I've tried EVERYTHING to make it not happen from a nutrition/hydration standpoint.  Nothing's ever worked.  But the common theme through most of them has also been harder pacing and effort.  The races where I haven't cramped?  My 2 BQ's, Eagleman last year and IMLP this year.  In all those situations I was either physically well prepared or purposefully kept the effort in check (the first BQ was a marathon specific training load designed to BQ, the second was at the tail end of my IMFL training, Eagleman was after training and running Boston and LP this year was just a smart pacing effort knowing that I was well down on training).

I've been trying to figure it out for years, and no matter how much fluid I took in, however many Endurolytes or gels I've taken, it hasn't made much difference.  What has?  Slowing down and racing within my training.  I had to look "outside" the box of common accepted formulae put out by the sports nutrition industry and the more I read, the more I'm convinced that fluids/electrolytes aren't the answer.

The funniest thing from those various articles is how at the Superbowl the members of the Giants were cramping left and right.  So what did they do??  Bring out bunches of bananas for the players to eat.  And right behind them during the whole game????  NFL's sponsor drink .... Gatorade ...... isn't that "designed" to keep an athelte hydrated and full of electrolytes?  Guess it didn't work, huh?  (And neither did the bananas).

Sorry Daremo, they may call themselves scientists, but that does not mean they are always right, or that their logic is always correct.

People should not get fat because their bodies know how much they should eat.

People should not get heat stroke, because their bodies know when to drink enough or get out of the heat.

People will naturally eat, drink and fuel electrlytes into their body during their first HIM, because their bodies KNOW what they need.

Yea right.

The "scientist" is claiming evolutionary common sense, for his reasoning.  I don't think that has been proven in a scientific study.  Plus there are too many foods availible now that were not available during the "evolution" of our bodies. (2000 calorie smoothies, 2000mg Sodium Super size French fry, 2000 calorie hamburgers, 1000 calorie cheesecakes, etc)

I am all for the scientific method, but the real problems come with the "scientists" as well as the untrained persons interpretation of the results.  Often the claimed conclusions do not follow from the studies results.

Sorry to get off topic.

I offered my method, and the reasoning behind it.  It works for me.  If you feel that it's inadequate, then go spend your money on a third party.  Machs nichts.  I have half a mind to start selling salt licks on race day.

Unless you had been fasting prior to the power bar & gatorade, that wasn't a bonk.  You simply suffered fatigue from an effort level that was too high for the race duration given your fitness at the time and the tough conditions of the day.  No amount of 'nutrition' (calories, electrolytes, fluids, etc.) will solve that for people.

I'm not here to defend their articles, but they do reference (including links) to the studies they are using, so even if they are not doing the specific research, it is not just bunk.

Everyone should always read and research what they are doing, especially what they are putting into their bodies.

You may choose to do things differently and have an approach that "works" for you.  I've been involved in some form of endurance sports for close to 20 years now (other than a 5 year hiatus while I got fat and lazy even though I still followed the sports).  I've seen and tried a lot of different things, and had many a product shoved down my throat from reps and companies that claim to be the greatest thing since sliced bread when I had my local amateur cycling team and worked in shops.  And yet the prevalance of excercise induced cramps, poor performance and GI issues are still extremely high, even at the mid to upper level of the sports.  If this has all been sorted out by the sports nutrition industry, why does everyone STILL have these problems???

Because the products usually don't do what they advertise ........