Energy Gels: What They Are, How They Work, and How to Choose the Right One Ep 145

Should you use gels during training and racing? Which ones are best? And why do some athletes swear by certain brands while others cannot stomach them?

In this episode of Find Your Edge, Coach Chris Newport and dietetic intern Emily Qiu break down the world of endurance gels.

We cover:

• what gels actually do
• why fueling during exercise matters
• differences between popular gel brands
• caffeine, sodium, and carb sources
• GI distress and taste preferences
• why you should never try a new gel on race day
• how to build a personalized fueling strategy

If you have ever felt overwhelmed by the nutrition wall at your local running store, this episode is for you.

Ready for a personalized fueling plan? Join our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp:
 https://www.theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp/

Ready to make a season's worth of progress in just one day? 

Join us for an Ultimate Training Day and receive personalized coaching, hands-on swim, bike, and run instruction, and actionable feedback you can use immediately. 

Plus, connect with an incredible community of athletes and coaches. Space is intentionally limited to ensure personalized attention, so register early at TheEnduranceEdge.com/camps 

Transcript

Welcome And Why Gels Matter

Coach Carlie 0:55

Alright, hey friends, welcome back to the Find Your Edge podcast. And today is a deep dive into everyone's favorite workout treat. And that being gels, so I am here with my trusty dietetic intern, Emily Q. So thanks again for preparing this presentation. And you know, nothing like a deep dive into gels. Would you agree? Of course. Um I feel like everyone has such different experiences with them. So I completely agree. And I think that that is uh a great segue into what the heck are gels? Should I have them? Should I not? So, Emily, jump in, give us the things. Why should we do a gel? What are they? And uh and take it from there.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

All right. Well, thanks for having me, Chris. Um, if you have been doing endurance sports for a while, you've probably seen, heard, or used gels before. They're pretty much little packets of quick carbs, quick energy that you're supposed to take, like either right before or during a like a long run or ride or just heart like long effort in general, usually over 90 minutes. And they can just be a

What Gels Are And When

SPEAKER_00 2:10

lot of people don't really like the sensation of eating while they run. So if if it's not like an ultra event or anything, a lot of people rely on these during their races.

Coach Carlie 2:20

Yeah, absolutely. Cool. So just like you said, it is a convenient source of quick energy. And like we were talking before we started, there's so many of these gels, which like kind of blows my mind because it's like, how many iterations of small amounts of sugar can you have? And clearly a lot. A lot, a lot. So you have a picture, and we don't have any connections to these brands. This is just for your education to so that you know that there are so many different things on the market. And in our fueling hydration boot camp, we have a massive list of all of them. We're up to almost 200 different products. And that's just, I feel like that's like barely scratching the surface. It's it's not, it's more than scratching the surface. But here there's edge, there's goo, there's morton, there's precision fuel. I don't even know what the other two, victis, maybe, and uh I'm gonna do Amex.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I hadn't heard of those two either when I put this picture on the case.

Coach Carlie 3:22

They're big in the cycling world, but you know, I in my head I say it to myself, but I don't actually say it out loud. So apologies if I just, you know, murdered the name of that. But uh honestly, it doesn't matter what you choose or if you choose these. So give us a little bit more info on these gels, Emily.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

All right. So one of my favorite things to tell people is to buy them in the single serve packets because a lot of times they're sold in bulk in like big boxes. And while that if you know what you like and want to save money that way, that's great. But especially if you're just you're new to gels or you're looking to expand your gel variety, you really want to just try them one at a time because it's

How To Shop And Sample

SPEAKER_00 4:06

not gonna be good if you buy a whole box and realize that that gel doesn't work for you. So a few ways you can do that is to go to uh thefeed.com again, not sponsored, but it's a great resource to try all kinds of different fueling sources. And your also your local running store can also provide a lot of these gels in the single cert. You can just buy them one at a time.

Coach Carlie 4:29

Yes. And shout out to our partners, Inside Out Sports. They are local and they're also online, and they've got a great selection of different items, as well as Bull City Running. I just think they have like the best nutrition wall and it's it's beautifully arranged in both of their stores. They're located in, they have two locations in Durham. You just walk in and I feel like I'm like walking into like the Mecca of gels. So highly recommend if you want to literally put your hands on something and you don't want to necessarily shop online, those are two good places to check out some gels.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah. I really love going to the running stores to try them out too, because then you can really get a feel for the size of the packet and like the cons you can feel the consistency of the gel a little bit, whether you prefer the thicker ones or the runnier ones. It just gives you more of a it's it's the same thing as like shopping for clothes in person versus online, you know?

Coach Carlie 5:27

Yeah, you can touch it, you can, you know, you can squish it, and then you can have a conversation with the folks behind the counter. And they're generally always like super passionate and they have an opinion on gels, and at the end of the day, that's what matters is so knowledgeable your opinion and you know, finding what works best for you. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Speaking of finding what works best for you, if if you're new to gels and trying a variety, it's really good to try them out in like your long runs and your workouts and just like simulating how it might affect you during a hard effort like a race. So that's like my one one of my biggest tips is to just experiment.

Coach Carlie 6:07

Yes, totally. And I do want to emphasize that just because you're an endurance athlete

Practice Fueling Before Race Day

Coach Carlie 6:13

or identify as one does not mean that you have to consume gels. They are surely a convenient package that is easily carried alongside with you in, you know, a shirt, a sports bra on the bike, however you're gonna actually physically carry it, it's a surely a convenient option for carbs. There are a million other ways that you can get carbohydrates, but this just happens to be, you know, a super easy way to do it. So you've got another tip here for us, Emily.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Oh yeah. I would say usually if you're doing some sort of race event, they're like if it's long enough, they're probably going to offer some gels on the course, usually in like the later miles. So if you can look up what kind of gels that they're going to offer. I know in races that I've done before, I'm a runner. So I I've done a lot of half marathons, a full marathon, and like they would usually offer goo, the that's the brand that they would offer at their aid stations. So a great way, if you don't know where to start, is to check what kind of gel your course offers and practice with that because in case you run into a bit of a sticky situation and you're later in the level of the case. I see what you did there. Uh-huh. If you if you run into any issues later in your race, then you can grab a gel from the aid station and you won't be worried because you've it's tried and true. You've done it before, you've practiced with it.

Coach Carlie 7:40

Yes, that's just or if you find you don't like it and you're gonna carry something yourself, then you know, that could also be.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

That's valuable info too.

Coach Carlie 7:49

Right. Absolutely. Because it again, just a reminder, at the end of the day, they're all pretty much iterations of the same thing. Right. So and we get deeper into like different types of carbohydrates and our fueling and hydration boot camp. So that's coming up soon. But we give you some examples. So, Emily, start off with probably the OG on the market, honestly. I don't know that for sure. I might be making that up. That might be fake news friends. But yeah, tell us about goo.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, so goo, everybody, this is probably the most recognizable gel, I'd say. I'm gonna go ahead and talk about like the primary like nutrition facts that we're interested in for each of these gels. You'll find that as we go through them all, they're very, very similar, at least when you break them down to the basics. But let's talk first about the goo. Like the on the left is their

GU Basics Plus Marketing Add-Ons

SPEAKER_00 8:41

like most basic common like form. I the just the regular energy gel. Yeah. In one little packet, there's 100 calories, 23 grams of carbs, a little bit of caffeine, a little bit of sodium, but not much, not really much of either.

Coach Carlie 8:55

And that's not necessarily the standard. This one's but that you chose specifically. This is the jet blackberry with caffeine, and it says it on the label. So that's true. If you don't want caffeine, then obviously choose the one that doesn't have caffeine on the label. But yeah, but you know, then you see what you're getting. It's it's 1.1 ounces by weight, right? So you know that it's one ounce, you guys. It's one ounce. It's not right. So like it's easy to yeah, to stick in a shorts pocket or put on your bike or whatever. But I like how Emily has broken it down here because again, at the end of the day, it's calories. And then some companies add in, like goo here, adds in some caffeine. And then you have another gel as a representation of how the variations exist.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah, so this one is is also from goo, but they call it their like Roctane Ultra Endurance energy gel. And from what I can see on the package, the only like real difference to the the one on the left is that it has a little bit more sodium. But again, in the in the grand scheme of things, if you're doing a long race, it's not like that much more sodium. That's that's really it. And it it boasts on the package some more um amino acids. But I put that note up there on the top of the slide that like extra amino acids aren't really necessarily helpful because when you're in that race, you're you're looking for carbs, you're looking for quick energy. Your body does not really prefer to burn protein for energy unless it like really needs to. So as long as you have that steady stream of carbs and your body is also utilizing fat stores for energy, the amino acids really don't matter here. So that could just be a marketing tactic.

Coach Carlie 10:42

Yes. So they they are branched chain amino acids, which are some of the few ones that can actually be used from the muscle. But is it gonna buy you that much additional energy? And also, no, it is more expensive. It is. If you care, but again, if you're like I only use rock taint, knock yourself out. Like I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, you know? So we can see that uh for the goo gels, the carb source they like to use is uh multidextrin and fructose primarily.

Coach Carlie 11:12

Cool, yeah. So there are all different types of sugar sources. We're not gonna go into deep into that in here, but we go deeper into that in their fueling and hydration boot camp. What is the purpose of each and how does it serve your performance? So for the purposes of this, let's get into another brand because so many people are like, oh, I don't know what maltodextrin is, and then fructose is also, you know, I'm scared of that, or I don't know what you guys are thinking, but we're here to educate. So some people are like, I want to go with a natural brand. So here we are. What do we have here, Emily?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Here we have honey stinger gels, and as you can see, the calorie and carb content very similar to the goose at baseline, but you can see here that the carb source they use instead is tapioca syrup and honey. So if those ingredients seem more readable

Honey Based Gels For Simplicity

SPEAKER_00 12:08

to you or just you know feel better for your GI tract, then you know, go for it.

Coach Carlie 12:15

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

And this is just uh like a basic version of the honey stinger versus the caffeinated version. Yes, for sure.

Coach Carlie 12:25

And I will have to say, because I've been fooled myself, is that if you can stomach a tablespoon of honey, you can stomach honey stinger energy gel. I mean, that's pretty much what you're doing, is just like a big spoonful of sugar. Right. Like Mary Poppins or something. Anyway, okay, so now we're gonna get into a quote-unquote newer verse. I mean, Morton's not that much newer on the market, but it is newer than something like goo. And they were sort of integral in releasing this hydro gel. But yeah, tell us about Morton.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yeah, I've actually never personally tried Morton because one thing you know is like it's so weird. That is what I've heard. The tech the texture can be a little off-putting and they're just really expensive. They're like five gel. Yeah, yeah. So definitely. I've never personally tried them, but one of one thing that they really like to advertise is that they're like easy on the stomach. There's so people who have trouble digesting maybe goose or just experience a lot

Maurten Hydrogel Texture And Stomach

SPEAKER_00 13:33

of GI distress with some other gels, a lot of them find success with mortin. And one reason for that you could maybe see is that their carb source is glucose and fructose. So, like really basic building blocks of, you know, carbs. So your body doesn't really monosaccharides. Yeah. You don't really have to do much to break them down at all.

Coach Carlie 13:53

I I've got some videos that I compiled last year when I was training for Xtera Worlds, and I went through this gel tasting, and uh, we compiled them all. So that's coming soon. To uh in fact, I'll probably put it with a blog on this one. And you can see me literally like no, I don't hide any facial expressions, but I try a gel, I try this for you, and it is a very unique consistency. So, but some people swear by it, and good on them. Again, if it works and people like it, and you know, great, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

And all right, so it's cool that they come in, it's cool that they come in this like bigger size too. If you need if you find that like the the small 100 calorie, like approximately 25 grams of carbs pack is not doing it for you, there's a big there's like a bigger one with just a little bit more. Yeah.

Coach Carlie 14:47

Yeah. And seeing that, you know, a good place to start is 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour if you've never fueled before. But if you are more mature in your fueling strategy, then you can get upwards of, you know, 90, sometimes 100, and you know, people are even pushing it beyond that, then yeah, the 25 gram is just gonna scratch the surface. So something to try with with bigger options. Okay, I love how you put this other brand in here because it is also unique. You got it, you got a couple of good ones in here. So what you got here?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Yeah, so the huma ones are also another gel that's advertised as having like more natural ingredients, you could say. As you can see, the carb source here is mostly like fruit pureees, brown rice syrup, juice concentrate. These all have all the Huma gels are like fruity flavored, if that means anything to you. I personally I use Huma's. I like them. I like the they're they're made of chia seeds, actually.

Huma Chia Texture And Sodium Talk

SPEAKER_00 15:45

So like they have a really unique texture, which I like. It might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Coach Carlie 15:51

Yes, not my cup of tea friends. I'm all for some chia seeds, but not while I'm exercising. So, but it works for Emily, so great, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah, and right here they have their like more basic version, I guess. And then uh the Huma Plus looks like it just has more sodium for electrolytes.

Coach Carlie 16:10

Yes, it says double electrolytes is what it touts on the container, what it touts on the package. And if you guys have heard me talk before, and if you've been part of our fueling hydration boot camp, you know that I'm kind of a stickler when it comes to electrolytes. It you know, sodium 240 versus 105, like that's that's not that big of a deal. But as we start getting into the bigger numbers and as you start getting into bigger events, then electrolytes are key that are aligned with your sweat. So I've seen all across the spectrum of folks who are like, I'm pushing my electrolytes so hardcore, and then they feel terrible. And then people on the other end who I they forget their electrolytes completely, but not knowing what your actual sweat content is, it's kind of like, well, I think it's good, you know. So it's kind of like a one shoe size fits all. That's not, you know, some people are wide, some people have longer feet, some people, you know, like some people have a smaller hill cup. It's the same thing with electrolytes. So with this kind of thing, probably gonna be safe and easy to take. But as you graduate to longer and longer distance events, as it gets hotter and hotter, I think it is important to understand your sodium needs. And then know. Do you want to buy the plus or do you need to just buy the regular?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Right, because the plus is always more expensive.

Coach Carlie 17:39

Yeah, but plus is always more expensive. Yeah. All right, you got another good option here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

So we have here the cyst gels. I've never used these. I think that stands for science in sport.

Coach Carlie 17:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Um, and the main sell with these ones is that at least the uh these two on the left or the one on all the way on the left here is they they say it's isotonic, which means that you don't have to, like most of these other gels, they recommend that you take water, a few sips of water with them. But sis says that you don't have to drink water with their isotonic gel. So if that factors into convenience for

SIS Isotonic Gels And Big Carbs

SPEAKER_00 18:15

you, then that's something to think about. Yeah.

Coach Carlie 18:18

And these and these are, you can see these are two ounces, two fluid ounces versus like the goo was one ounce. So you're at least getting an additional ounce, which is two tablespoons for anybody who wants to, you know, or like a shot of water, basically, that they have added to it. Which, if that's, you know, if you want to take your gel and you want to take your gel and you don't want to wait until an aid station, this might be the option for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah. And then the one in the middle just has more electrolytes, though it's not really that much. Like you can see that the this middle one has a hundred milligrams of sodium. That's like the plus electrolytes version, but like the basic Huma we just saw already had a hundred. So these things like read the labels if that's something you're you're you're concerned about because marketing can do a lot for you.

Coach Carlie 19:15

Yeah. And again, at the end of the day, I think of these as a convenient carbohydrate source. So you may not want the electrolytes or you may want the electrolytes. I also find it interesting that their carb source is is single. They have a single carb source. So just maltodextrin. We see more specifically that two sorts, the two sources of carbohydrates are better absorbed, particularly when it uh when you add in fructose, but it gets a little bit deeper into that. Like I said, we go deeper into that in our fueling nitration boot camp. But again, it's an option, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Right. And the one on the right, which is the their, it's called the beta fuel gel. This, as you can see from the numbers, it's just got about almost almost double the amount of calories and carbs from the other two. And this one does have that fructose to help absorb because it just has more carbs.

Coach Carlie 20:05

Yeah, yeah. So, and they show this one to 0.8 multixtrin to fructose ratio. Again, not to be covered here, but we go deeper into that in the fueling and hydration boot camp. Doesn't matter, does it not? Um, and the human body is complicated, Emily. It is so much so. And I know that you didn't consult me on this, but this happens to be this next one happens to be my, I'm air quoting here, favorite gel. Um, because I can't exactly say that gels are my favorite. Like, you know, if somebody's like, you want a brownie, I'd be like, yes, please. They would be like, you want a carbs fuel? No, I'm good. So please don't eat your gels for any reason other than during exercise for the love of all things only.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Right. I might have I've I've honestly I would prefer to eat candy at that point. Yes. I'm I have a huge sweet tooth, but yeah. And you know what? That's a great carb source.

Coach Carlie 21:06

And it can be great intra fueling.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Anyway, yeah.

Coach Carlie 21:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Okay, tell us about carbs, carbs fuel. So um, Chris, I think I know one of the like one of the reasons you like the carbs fuel is that they don't really taste like much. They're not like trying to be flavored. No, and they pack in a lot of carbs, like the name would suggest. These are bigger packets, they each have 200 calories and 50 grams of carbs, and that's pretty much double what all the other ones that we've looked at before had. So if you're sure

Carbs Fuel High-Carb Budget Option

SPEAKER_00 21:37

if you're packing in for a long race, these can be helpful. Yes.

Coach Carlie 21:41

And the other thing I like about these is they're much more affordable. Because gels can be expensive. So uh they they really hit the mark in terms of being affordable and being, you know, easy to carry. And yes, you're right. I generally don't like a lot of flavor in what I'm doing for exercise. So it meets the mark for me. And you can see by weight this that carbs tool, that 50 grams of carbs. Remember the 25, 24, 23 grams of carbs for a goo was I think 1.1 ounces. This is 1.86 ounces. So yes, they are bigger, is heavier. And then if you add in this, their their plus version, which is with 450 milligrams of sodium, now we're talking that's 2.68. So we've gone, we've gone up a little bit in terms of size.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Oh, that that caffeine on the right one is supposed to say 100, because that's the that's the caffeinated version. It should say 100 milligrams of caffeine.

Coach Carlie 22:43

Oh, yeah, you're right. Type of, it's okay. It's all good. Yeah, so 200 calories, 50 grams of carbs, 100 milligrams of caffeine. So 100 milligrams of caffeine is the equivalent of, you know, pretty good cup of coffee. Coffee. So know what you're getting into when it comes to caffeine. We also like to look at genetics and determine whether caffeine is a good source for you, is a good option for you in creating your personalized hydration plan. So again, something that we go deeper into in the fueling hydration boot camp. All right, so tell us the things. What do we got to wrap it all up?

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Just to cover some of what we went through today, we know that gels are portable sources of quick energy during long endurance events. You don't have to solely rely on them, but they are just an option that some people love, some people don't. No matter what type of fuel you you take with you, starting fueling early and fueling regularly during a race can really help prevent you that feeling of hitting the wall that people like to talk about. Um, because then

Fuel Early Avoid The Wall

SPEAKER_00 23:42

your body doesn't have to deplete its like stored energy in the form of glycogen as fast. So that's why we say that no matter what you use in a long race, you definitely want to be fueling during it.

Coach Carlie 23:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Yeah. As as you can see, there's a lot of brands and types. So you just try a bunch and see what works best for you.

Coach Carlie 24:05

Yeah. I I totally agree. And it's kind of making me giggle because you have on this slide here, you have the untapped, which I tried, which is right, is like mate, is like maple syrup. And I don't know what I was thinking on the label. I was like, oh, it's made, it's raspberry. So I was like thinking in my head it's gonna be more gel consistent. It was literal maple syrup, it was maple syrup in a container, and I had to down it, and I really wished I had pancakes at the time. And I was like, I don't know what I was thinking to think that this was anything other than maple syrup. So I don't know. I get I get fooled too. So you guys are gonna have to check out the video that I did of me trying all of these different gels and just giving my you know honest review on what worked for me and what I ended up landing on, which was of course the carbs fuel, and uh they're not paying me a cent for this. But at the end of the day, you guys gotta find what works best for you and the consistency. I just want to hammer that home, Emily, because if you take one little tiny sip of your gel in a race that you have never tried before and you're like, that's disgusting, then you have you're gonna dig yourself into a hole because you're like, I'm not gonna finish that, then defeats the purpose. Now you are putting yourself at risk of running out of juice.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, you don't you don't really want to try anything new on race day just in case. No. So really use those long runs to practice.

Coach Carlie 25:34

Yes. So if you need support putting together your personalized fueling and hydration plan, this is what we do in our fueling and hydration boot camp. We go through all of the different types of carbs, we go through all the different types of gels, products, sports drinks, and help you based on your specific sweat science to create a plan that works for you not only for one race, but for multiple races. And a little bonus coming

Boot Camp Plan And Beta App

Coach Carlie 25:59

up this season, we are in the process of developing an app. So anybody who is in this most recent or the next version of our fueling and hydration boot camp will get free access to our beta app. So you guys gotta come try it. It's gonna make everything so much easier. I promise it's gonna be amazing. And then you will be able to use the app to predict based on your data, how much hydration and fueling you're actually gonna need for your event. So it's gonna be really cool. So the enduranceedge.com forward slash fueling boot camp. Emily, this was so fun. I love talking about carbs. Me too, me too. There's gummy bears.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

This was this is a lot of fun to research for and just talk about because it's so it's so different for everybody. And I feel like everyone always has questions about it. And it's been quite a journey, I'm sure, for you, but also for me in like figuring out what gels work best in all the things.

Coach Carlie 26:56

So yes. Yes, absolutely. So fun. Cool. All right, Emily. Thanks, and we look forward to your next educational topic that you're gonna teach us about. Thanks, Chris. I'm looking forward to it too.