workout drinks

[jb85]

What should I eat/drink before during or after my workout. I'm doing 3 45 min sessions, 2 1 hour and 2 1.5 hour sesssions per week of mixed running and stairs. I'm only drinking water before and during my workout, and I have endurox after my workout. ANy good sites for this info. Thanks

[jon]

You really shouldn't need anything for the length of time you are working out unless your glycogen stores are already depleted. This can be caused by not eating enough during the day, and generally your liver stores are depleted overnight. Typically a supplement isn't needed unless you are working out for over 2 hours.

 

I've had good success with Cytomax before, during, and after. I'm trying Endurox right now that I bought on sale but to be honest I think it is junk for how much it costs. Endurox supposedly has this 4 to 1 formula with protein that increases glucagon levels. I've had serious problems digesting it at the suggested 2 scoops per 12 ounches, and their marketing crap claims that it has more calories then Cytomax but that is because your putting in twice as much! And it's twice as expensive!

[Courtenay]

I'd agree with Jon; I'd also like to sum up whatever "quality" information there was in the remaining 14 posts on this thread: about hydration, smelly urine (related to ketosis? asparagus?) I just last night was wondering myself about smelly urine following consumption of asparagus and found the following that might be of interest to some of you:

 

<<by Hannah Holmes: Why Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smelly (AskJeeves.com)

 

 

"This is of no practical importance," the urologist tells me. "It wasn't part of my training. It's something we contemplated over pizza and beer." When I admit that I have actually timed the arrival of the distinctive odor in my pee after eating asparagus (about 15 minutes), the good doctor suggests, facetiously, that my groundbreaking research might lead to a tenure-track position at a fine university.

 

It is a sadly neglected field. But I'm not the first to ask.

 

 

In 1891 a scientist named "Nencki" had so very little to do that he convinced four guys to eat seven kilograms of asparagus (that's about three and a half pounds each). He collected the pertinent pee, worked some medieval magic on it, and concluded that the smell was due to a metabolite called methanethiol.

 

So there you go. Nencki claimed that as your body metabolizes asparagus, it produces this smelly chemical, which your discriminating kidneys see fit to dump into the bladder.

 

This probably doesn't qualify as red-hot science, but it's warm enough to spark differing opinions.

 

In 1975 a chemist from California claimed in Science that gas chromatography had fingered a different culprit: S-Methyl Thioesters, to be precise. No methanethiol.

Then there's the 1980 reference in the British Medical Journal that simply refers to "metabolites." Another asparagus scholar favors "six sulfur-containing compounds."

 

I'm voting for methanethiol, partly because the guy who did the gas chromatography left no forwarding address, and partly because the methanethiol entry in my aging Merck Index of chemicals is so interesting.

 

Methanethiol is composed mostly of sulfur with a splash of hydrogen, plus some carbon, a brew famous for its effect in rotten eggs, cabbages and paper mills. Convincing, no? Merck also notes the asparagus connection and, most intriguing, warns that methanethiol may be a narcotic in high concentrations.

 

Now if you're scowling at your screen and muttering, "My pee doesn't smell like asparagus," first ask yourself if you eat asparagus.

 

Even if you do but lack the smell, you're still OK. In fact the fabulously funny book, The ReSearch Guide to Body Fluids (by Paul Spinrad, Juno Books, N.Y., 1994), says just 22 percent of survey respondents experience asparagus pee.

Early investigators thought genetics had divided the world into stinkers and nonstinkers. That was until 1980, when three researchers had the presence of mind to wave pee from the nonstinkers under the noses of the stinkers.

 

Lo and behold, the problem proved to be one not of producing the stinky pee but of being able to sniff it out.

 

If you've been deprived of this gift, don't give up hope. To increase the concentration of methanethiol molecules available to your snoot, you could either intentionally dehydrate yourself before you dine (this is unhealthful); or pee into a cup and sniff that. Or eat three and a half pounds of asparagus for lunch. >>

 

Finally, Iain added: 46% of 115 people produce the odor in a group of British citizens, while 100% of 103 people produced it in a group of French citizens.

 

The smell is the result of the breakdown of mercaptan in asparagus (the same compound found in skunks, onions, garlic, and rotten eggs). Only certain people have the enzyme to break down the substance.

 

Guess I should have started this as a new thread entitled "Asparagus Pee" as it has NOTHING to do with workout drinks but was the direction this thread was destined to head anyway...

 

[catbirdseat]

Methanthiol is the same thing as methyl mercaptan. It is a highly toxic compound and has an odor threshold of about 3 times lower than hydrogen sulfide, or "rotten egg smell". Methyl mercaptan is a major culprit in gum disease and a component in cigarette smoke.

 

Incidently, if you eat asparagus, urine isn't the only bodily fluid in which the odor turns up.

[dalius]

catbirdseat said:

Incidently, if you eat asparagus, urine isn't the only bodily fluid in which the odor turns up.

 

Oh really! Would you like to share your newfound secrets with the class, catbird?

[Ade]

catbirdseat said:

Incidently, if you eat asparagus, urine isn't the only bodily fluid in which the odor turns up.

 

I sooo did not need to know that. And I definitely don't want ANY more information.

 

Getting back to drinks...

 

Cytomax is usually available on discount at http://www.nashbar.com/. I've tried that and the Gu drink and prefer Cytomax, mainly because I like the taste. If you find them hard to digest then lowering the amount of powder you use will lower the % carb and help gastric emptying. I've not read anything that says this as any negative effects.

 

If you're going to be taking the power on trips to use as a drink while climbing then Gu isn't very good; the powder is pretty hard to dissolve in cold water without a lot of stirring.

[Attitude]

Performance Bike shop in Bellevue has Cytomax, Clif Shots, Gu (!!!) and other such products on sale right now.

[glassgowkiss]

any 12 year old single malt should do . in case of heavy activity 25 yeard old is your choice (spendy). for extreme use everclear.