sports drink recipe

Gary’s 4:1 Ratio Targeted Carb Sports Drink

This is a sports drink recipe I created for use during exercise.  It is made with a 4:1 Ratio of Carbs to Protein, as recommended in the books The Performance Zone and The Paleo Diet for Athletes .  This recipe is designed to give a custom mix of top-quality ingredients that cost much less than any commercial drink.  I recommend reading the above books for additional information on how much and when to consume this type of drink.  I recommend buying the ingredients for this mix at www.bodybuilding.com. 

If all ingredients are purchased from bodybuilding.com, the recipe below will cost about $0.65 per serving -  this is about 25-30% of the price per serving for a comparable commercial product (such as Hammer Nutrition Products ), and you can totally adjust the protein:carb mix any way you like, AND use higher-quality ingredients (no soy protein, etc.).  With this in mind, the serious athlete may find it is worth the effort to mix it at home!

In general, you will want to use it as follows:

• Begin taking the 4:1 ratio mix within 30 minutes of your scheduled workout
• Bring enough with you during exercise to consume about 25% of the calories you will burn during exercise
• Take more after exercise (preferably within 15 minutes of finishing), drinking about 50% of the calories you burned during exercise.
• All 3 steps above will result in a full pre-during-and post exercise recovery drink which will help meet your glucose needs during endurance exercise. 

I will go more into this issue in later posts – I will add here that I do not do any carb loading for exercise – I rely on this beverage, or a fruit-and-protein equivalent, for the purpose of raising my insulin levels and adding glucose to my blood as needed during exercise.  I do not agree with the general recommendations that just because you exercise, you should keep y our insulin levels high all day long with a high-carb diet.  With that said, here is the recipe:

Sports Drink Recipe 4:1 Mix

500 G (1/2 lb) Maltodextrin Powder
125 G (1/8lb) Vanilla Whey Protein
10 Scoops Endurolyte Powder (2g salt may be substituted)
50 G (2 oz) Glutamine Powder
3T (10 packets) Stevia Powder(for flavor – Maltodextrin is not sweet)

Instructions:  Recipe Makes 10 servings. 
1 serving =2/3cup (80g), mixed in 20 ozs of water= 240 cal
Measure with a kitchen scale, Mix together in a 1 gallon freezer bag.
You can adjust this serving size for your own flavor and strength preferences.
(notes: you can substitute 40% sugar for maltodextrin if you prefer(300G malto/200G sugar), if so you will not need Stevia powder. You can use different flavors of whey protein to make different flavored mixes)

 

Low Carb Energy Bars

Gary’s “Choconut Low Carb Manna” Low Carb Energy Bars 

The following recipe is one I created for the purpose of having an “everyday snack bar” that goes along with my low-carb diet, and replaces all those little snacks I normally eat in between meals that may result in inbalanced nutrition.  With these bars, I can keep easier track of my daily calories, AND have a convenient, tasty snack at hand. 

The recipe as designed below will make “1 cuisinart full” of mix, fit into a medium baking pan (8x8, 7x10, etc), and if cut into 12 bars, each will have about 340 calories, which will be 23% protein, 69% fat, and 8% carb.  I also have a Protein Bar Calculator I created in Excel for the recipe, which you can use to adjust the nutrition ratios to suit yourself, if you desire.  You can also adjust the amount of sweetener to suit your personal taste – I use 1oz stevia, and 1oz xylitol or other sugar substitute
(warning: too much low carb sweetener may cause gastro-intestinal distress) 

INGREDIENTS:

5 oz (140G) Dried Coconut
9 oz (252G) Roasted Mixed Nuts
(any nuts but peanuts are fine)
7 oz (196G) Whey Protein
1/3C (40G) Oat Bran or Flax Meal
8 Squares (112G) Unsweetened Chocolate
2 oz (56G) Low Carb Sweetener (Stevia, Xylitol, Sucralose, etc.) 

Liquid Ingredients:

1T vanilla
1/2t baking soda
Squirt of lemon juice
10oz water
(1 can coconut milk can also be used – if used, add 2 more servings whey protein/1 serving less coconut meal for the same nutrient ratio -- also, cook for 10' longer) 

Instructions:

(note: if you don’t own a kitchen scale, 1Cup=about 120G)

Turn on oven to pre-heat at 325 degrees (165C). Measure and add all solid ingredients to the cuisinart.  Turn it on, and leave running until all ingredients are crushed and well-mixed.  Add all liquid ingredients through the top of cuisinart while still running.  You may need to “pulse” it to get everything well-mixed. Add to well-oiled baking pan, and bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove, cool, cut, and enjoy! 

Beyond the Carb Hype: 2 Interesting Articles on Ketogenic Diets

I have come across 2 very interesting articles on ketogenic diets and exercise just in the last couple of days.

The first is an article titled "Ketogenic diets and physical performance" by Stephen D Phinney, which was an 8-week inpatient study with well-trained cyclists. The study has a great deal of information on the origins of the idea that a high-carb diet is necessary for athletic performance, and is highly recommended. It also explains the adaptation period needed for a low-carb, high-fat diet, an issue which is frequently overlooked in casual studies attempting to show performance problem associated with keto diets. It is very illuminating and inspiring in fact, except that he concludes that:

"Therapeutic use of ketogenic diets should not require constraint of most forms of physical labor or recreational activity, with the one caveat that anaerobic (ie, weight lifting or sprint) performance is limited by the low muscle glycogen levels induced by a ketogenic diet, and this would strongly discourage its use under most conditions of competitive athletics"

He limited the exercise during the study period to 70% of max heart rate, thus giving one the conclusion that low-carb diets are fine, as long as you do no high-intensity exercise. I will be exploring this conclusion in further depth in this blog. Thanks to Kent Altena for this article.


The 2nd article explains the mechanism of ketosis in the body, and is also very interesting in exploding the myth that carbs are necessary for exercise (or in general, for that matter). It is somewhat technical in nature, so you've been warned. I can't seem to find the original link, so here is my link.

How it all began for me...

I began running about 1 1/2 years ago, and training in earnest last July. I started out following the "white plan" in the Daniels' Running Formula -- at the beginning, I was not doing any high-intensity training, other than the "strides" prescribed in the white plan workouts.

Starting in September, I began to do more intense workouts, namely 3/4 mile and 1 mile repeats once or twice per week, as well as starting to do weekly runs of 1 hour or more. It was at this time that I started trying to find out what I needed to consume during training.

An initial peek around the internet didn't reveal much - most of the low-carb info out there is geared towards sedentary, overweight people who are trying to lose weight. This neatly dovetails with the preconceived notion that many athletes hold that this is the ONLY class of people for whom low-carb eating is appropriate, (if at all). Anyone who follows a low-carb diet will be familiar with this popular prejudice, as well as their own preconceived notions that anyone would have to overcome at some point in their low-carb journey.

I asked around on some forums, and was told that on the coolrunning forum, there were some runners who followed a low carb diet. So off I went, asking what they ate before and during runs. The answers were varied, and of course there were plenty of "flamers" happy to give me their 2 cents' worth on the value of low carb eating in general. It was then that the initial idea for this blog was born! I in turn will be giving you MY 2 cents worth on this timely topic...

I also bought the book The Paleo Diet for Athletes, which introduced me to the concept of "nutrient timing" -- namely, taking in carbs "strategically" before/during/after exercise, thus using them when you need them. The book itself recommends up to 50% carbs in the daily diet, but proscribes that they be in a pre-agrarian form (ie fruit). I personally think that this would be a difficult diet to follow full-time, BUT the chapter in this book on nutrition during the exercise period I found valuable, and have based my carb intake in these suggestions ever since. So the idea of "low carb outside of exercise, targeted nutrition during", was what I have been following since last fall. What exactly I use will be the subject of a future post.

There were a couple respondents on the cool running site that seemed to indicate that they did not take any extra carbs at all, even during a marathon, which I found remarkable. I always assumed you needed to eat quite a lot during a long endurance event, and downing tuna sandwiches or bottles of olive oil during an endurance event does not seem to be a possibility!! This appears to be a highly individual situation, and perhaps there is no "one size fits all" answer, but I will share what I am able to gather in future posts.

Welcome to the Low Carb Diet & Endurance Sport Blog

I am creating this blog to collect and spread helpful information for people like myself who are following controlled carb diets, but who also are avid endurance athletes. I have had a difficult time finding information on this important topic, so by creating this blog I will be both sharing my personal experience, and hopefully creating a resource for others who are looking for information on this topic.