Sport is Gatorade really all it's cracked up to be?

Sport Fitness
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triplec223

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We've all seen the commercials where Gatorade brags that they test their product in a laboratory on athletes, engineer it to perfection, "athletes lose more than just water when they sweat," blah blah blah. But does it really replenish the glucose supply that your body craves after a workout?

You can look at the ingredients and its a LOT of sugar.
Straight from the label:
Water, Sucrose Syrup, Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Citric Acid, (specific flavors, Natural Lemon and Lime flavors off this particular bottle), Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, and Ester gum.

An 8 fl. oz. serving size has:
50 calories
0g Fat
110 mg Sodium
30 mg Potassium
14g carbs (all from sugar)
0g protein

To me, this seems like glorified sugar water. I know your body needs a certain form of sugar after a workout (glucose) and if you don't give it any, it breaks down muscle tissue to get it (or so I've learned on these forums). There is glucose in Gatorade, but it's definitely not the main ingredient. So what I'm asking is, does Gatorade really give you all of what you need after a workout?
 
Christopher Mohr had a study from this year or last year where chocolate milk outperformed Gatordade after I believe it was endurance training. I'll see if I can find where it was.
 
abear said:
Christopher Mohr had a study from this year or last year where chocolate milk outperformed Gatordade after I believe it was endurance training. I'll see if I can find where it was.
Click to expand...

I remember you posting that, it was a good read.

IMO I just stick with water, if you're doing something like a marathon their are other forms of glucose that will benefit you more. And are made specifically for long endurance events.
 
yeah, if you're running a marathon or triathalon, then gatorade does have advantages over water. esp. the powdered gatorade.

but there are better things out there, and if you're just doing basic cardio and weight training, then gatorade isn't necessary. you won't sweat enough to require that much sugar or electrolyte replenishment.
 
and this experiement focused on distance running (13 miles), not weight lifting, but said it could draw some conclusions for both.
 
That's it. You got to it before I did :(

Unfortunately, they're not going to look at things exactly as WE would need them to. We can only take results like that and try to fit them into what we're trying to accomplish. :)
 
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