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

All right. 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'm here with my trusty dietetic intern, Emily Q. So thanks again for preparing this presentation. And, uh, 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 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. 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 hard, like, long effort in general, usually over 90 minutes. And they can just be— a lot of people don't really like the sensation of eating while they run, so if it's not like an ultra event or anything, a lot of people rely on these during their races.

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 so that you know that there are so many different things on the market. And in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp, 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 not, it's more than scratching the surface. But here there's Edge, there's Gu, there's Morton, there's Precision Fuel. I don't even know what the other two, Victus maybe, and I'm gonna— Amex.

I hadn't heard of those two either when I put this picture up.

They're big in the cycling world, but you know, 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 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. 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 not going to 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 you're also— your local running store can also provide a lot of these gels in the single serve. You can just buy them one at a time.

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 to check out some gels.

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— 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 the same thing as like shopping for clothes in person versus online, you know?

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, 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 of my biggest tips is to just experiment.

Yes, totally. And I do want to emphasize that just because you're an endurance athlete 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 yeah, you've got another tip here for us, Emily.

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 Gu, the, um, that's the brand that they would offer at their aid stations. Yeah. 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 in your later— in the later—

see what you did there—

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.

Yes. Or if you find you don't like it and you're going to carry something yourself, then you know, that could also be—

Hey, that's valuable info too.

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 in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. 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.

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 like most basic common like form, 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.

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—

oh, 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 1 ounce, you guys. It's 1 ounce. It's not, 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.

Yeah, so this one is, is also from Gu, but they call it their like Rocktane 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 boasts on the package some more 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.

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 Roctane, knock yourself out. Like, I'm here for it.

Yeah. You know, so we can see that, uh, for the Gu gels, the carb source they like to use is maltodextrin and fructose primarily. Yes.

Cool. Yeah. So there are all different types of sugar sources. We're not going to go deep into that in here, but we go deeper into that in their Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. 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 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?

Here we have Honey Stinger gels, and as you can see, the calorie and carb content very similar to the Goos 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 to you or just, you know, feel better for your GI tract, then, you know, go for it.

There you go. Yeah.

And this is just like a basic version of the Honey Stinger versus the caffeinated version.

Yes, for sure. 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— 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 hydrogel. But yeah, tell us about Morton.

Yeah, I've actually never personally tried Morton because One thing to note is that—

It's so weird.

That is what I've heard. The texture can be a little off-putting and they're just really expensive. They're like $5 a gel.

They are very expensive. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

I've never personally tried them, but one thing that they really like to advertise is that they're like easy on the stomach. So people who have trouble digesting maybe goos or just experience a lot of GI distress with some other gels, a lot of them find success with Morton. 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 build—

monosaccharides. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You don't, you don't really have to do much to break 'em down at all.

I, I've got some videos that I compiled last year when I was training for XTERRA 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.

All right, so 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 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.

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 the, yeah, the 25 gram is just going to 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?

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 purees, 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 Humas. I like them. I like the— they're, they're made of chia seeds actually, so like they have a really unique texture, which I like. It might not be everyone's cup of tea.

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

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

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 and Hydration Bootcamp, 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 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 heel 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?

Right, because the plus is always more expensive.

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

So we have here the SIS gels. I've never used these. I think that stands for Science in Sport.

Yeah.

Um, And the main sell with these ones is that at least the, 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, 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 you, then that's something to think about.

Yeah. And these are, you can see these are 2 ounces, 2 fluid ounces versus like the goo was 1 ounce. So you're at least getting an additional ounce, which is 2 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 when you want to take your gel and you don't want to wait until an aid station. This might be the option for you.

Yeah. And then the one in the middle just has more electrolytes, though it's not really that much. Like, you can see that this middle one has 100 milligrams of sodium. That's like the plus electrolytes version. But like the basic Huma we just saw already had 100. 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. 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 single. They have a single carb source. So just maltodextrin. We see more specifically that two sorts of, two sources of carbohydrates are better absorbed, particularly when it And 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 Nutrition Bootcamp, but again, it's an option, right?

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.

Yes, carbs. Yeah, yeah. So, and they show this 1 to 0.8 maltodextrin 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 holy, right?

I might just— I've honestly, I would prefer to eat candy at that point. Yes, I'm a huge sweet tooth.

But yeah, and you know what, that's a great carb source and it can be great intra-fueling anyway.

Yes.

Okay. Tell us about 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 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— yeah, if you're packing in for a long race, these can be helpful.

Yes. And the other thing I like about these is they're much more affordable because gels can be expensive. So 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 to Go, that 50 grams of carbs— remember the 25, 24, 23 grams of carbs for a goo is 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.

Oh, 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.

Oh yeah, you're right. Typo. It's okay, it's all good. Yeah, so 200 calories, 50 grams of carbs, 100 milligrams of caffeine. So 100 milligrams caffeine is the equivalent of you know, pretty good cup of 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 and Hydration Bootcamp. All right, so tell us the things. What do we got to wrap it all up?

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

Yep. Yeah.

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

Yeah. I, I totally agree. And it's kind of making me giggle cuz you have on this slide here, you have the Untapped, which I tried, which is like maple syrup. And I don't know what I was thinking on the label. I was like, oh, it's raspberry. So I was like thinking in my head it's going to be more gel consistency. 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 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 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 in 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.

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.

Yes. So if you need support putting together your personalized fueling and hydration plan, this is what we do in our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp. 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 up this season, we are in the process of developing an app. So anybody who is in this most recent, uh, or the next version of our Fueling and Hydration Bootcamp 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 going to need for your event. So it's going to be really cool. So theenduranceedge.com/fuelingbootcamp. Emily, this was so fun. I love talking about carbs.

Me too. Me too.

Here's some gummy bears.

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 and all the things.

So yes, yes, absolutely. So fun. Cool. All right, Emily, thanks. And we look forward to your next educational topic that you're going to teach us about.

Thanks, Chris. I'm looking forward to it too.