Endurance Sports
I'm so glad I a post-bypass associate of mine directed me here. For the past 3 years, I've been working on my own trying to figure out endurance nutrition. Along the way, I've had a lot of failures, and some moderate successes. Everything's a learning experience, even the failures. Maybe especially the failures.
My otherwise excellent nutritionist and medical support team had never encountered a post-WLS patient who started endurance sports, so were unable to really help me. Their advice basically consisted of 'try not to drink and eat within an hour of each other', which I basically had to completely disregard since I have to drink every 15 minutes or so, and have to somehow get something to eat along the way.
For me, I simply have not found a way to eat carbs without backing them up with protein. If it's simple carbs, I dump. If it's complex carbs, I either don't get the nutrition I need out of them quickly enough, or they include enough fiber that THAT becomes an issue.
There are three basic things you need to take in during endurance activities: Hydration (to replace what your body sweats out), electrolytes (to replace what you sweat out), and fuel. Some products solve two issues; some address all three. I usually try to keep something with me (on the bike, at least) that'll address each one individually, to avoid over-consuming something I don't need.
For hydration, I've used sugar-free sports drinks - actually, I buy individually-packaged powder sports drinks (usually store-brand) because I can easily bring enough of the packets along to last a full day's ride. Be careful, though. Many sports tab drinks are effervescent (i.e. fizzy), and carbonation or other bubbly stuff is BAD for me (and maybe for you).
For electrolytes, I take electrolyte tabs as needed (the store-brand sports drink powders have some electrolytes, but not enough).
For the first two years, I was just a cyclist. My major success was a supported back-to-back centuries (one per day). My second was a 200k (~125mi) unsupported ride with some local randonneurs - a type of ultra-long-distance cyclist. The extra 25 miles may not sound like much, but the real challenge was finding stuff to eat at convenience stores and gas stations along the way.In the past year, I've added running to my weekly activities, and am currently training for my first 1/2 Mara. I'm finding what I can eat while cycling I can't eat while running, so I've had to ditch my current fuel on-the-bike food source for something that I can digest easier.
Right now, I've been experimenting with a powdered sports drink that has a 4-to-1 carb-to-protein mix. This is working. Actually, it's working well enough that I can use that exclusively in my bottles on my rides AND my runs. Just did my longest run ever this morning - a bit over 8 miles - with 1 1/2 servings of the mix in my bottles, and I didn't bonk or hit the wall.
It may help that I'm using a run-walk-run training program. That may be increasing my fat-to-carb burn ratio, though that's just speculation on my part.
Next up: the makers of my sports drink powder has started making gels that have the same 4-to-1 carb/protein ratio. I feel that if those work, I can manage supported races where it's impractical for me to carry powder to mix with water along the way. I'll be trying that next week on my 10-mile training run.
Just thought I'd share for the next person who finds this thread. As others have said, however... what works for me may not work for you. This is just another thing you might try on your personal quest to solve the post-WLS/Endurance Sports Nutrition dilemma.
Note to Moderator: I've intentionally not mentioned the names of any product or training program in the body of my post. Please delete this paragraph and optionally the ones below at your discretion.
The electrolyte tabs I use are Endurolytes by Hammer Nutrition.
The sports drink I use is Accelerade, by Pacific Health Labs. The gels I'll be trying next week are called Accel Gels by the same company.
The training program I'm using is Galloway, which teaches/preaches a run-walk-run method, with your run/walk interval lengths based on your expected race pace.
