How long for sugar to be absorbed into the blood?
- Thread starter Maz
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Ghost Donkey
Guest
It depends on the individual thing you are consuming and you current effort level. As a general rule liquids digest faster than foods. Twenty minutes seems to be a common one for gels. You sometimes see triathletes in olympic distance races on TV necking a gel around this amount of time before the run starts to ensure digestion before the run kicks in. Apparently your stomach slows digestion the higher the effort level due to the fluids required and other reasons. I've read this from several different sources although I'm not in a position to say whether this is true or not. You bets bet would be the manufacturer themselves. There was a nasty crash in the womens Hyde Park triathlon a few years a go where one lady came unstuck trying to take a gel on the bike in a packed group and took out a few other riders :-s
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Don't use simple sugars. Quick hit followed by a quick down ! You need a mix of carbs. 15/20 minutes.
oliglynn
Über Member
- Location
- Oxfordshire
As soon as I eat something sugary whilst out on a ride I seem to get an instant boost... I assume this is purely psychological!
Arsen Gere
Guru
- Location
- North East, UK
A mixture of carb types empty faster, so glucose and fructose rather than anyone single carb, (plenty of references around to this).
Different times though for different sugars, 2 mins to get down then glucose types 1 min, maltose 5 mins, sucrose 7 mins. In cycling fitness I read around 7 mins as a guide.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-04/1114114022.Gb.r.html
Different times though for different sugars, 2 mins to get down then glucose types 1 min, maltose 5 mins, sucrose 7 mins. In cycling fitness I read around 7 mins as a guide.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-04/1114114022.Gb.r.html
YahudaMoon
Über Member
I was bonking once on a 230km audax. Even though I knew the route and had done it many times before I got it completly wrong in the food department and had nothing to eat
En route while bonking and totally out of energy I found a Pink Lady apple on the road in the middle of nowhere, looked like someone had tossed it out of a car window. I cleaned it up and consumed it then went on to do another 50km with no problems till I found a shop with food.
It felt like a instant hit of energy
En route while bonking and totally out of energy I found a Pink Lady apple on the road in the middle of nowhere, looked like someone had tossed it out of a car window. I cleaned it up and consumed it then went on to do another 50km with no problems till I found a shop with food.
It felt like a instant hit of energy
But glucose stimulates an insulin response that quickly mops up the glucose in your blood hence only a brief hit. Complex sugars like maltose don't
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
A simple sugar like honey, sugar cubes or glucose tabs will get in to your system fairly quickly but will be a temporary fix. If you bonk you should use a simple sugar to raise you blood/sugar level as quickly as possible (hypoglycaemia can damage the brain) but follow this within 30 minutes with a snack containing protein and a complex carb. When sugars are part of a balanced meal that has fat and protein in sensible proportions this will slow the absorption of the sugar.
Arsen Gere
Guru
- Location
- North East, UK
Slightly off topic and apologies to the op, but some folks might find this interesting.
Here is a meta study on the subject from 2010 for those of you who like to dig in to this stuff.
http://www.crn2.com.br/pdf/artigos/artigos1287661146.pdf
A lot of these studies are confused by their objectives, some are how long can you ride a bike before you are exhausted and some are how well did you do a 25 mile (40k) timetrial. Both are measures of endurance performance. So when you read "endurance performance" and look at the results they may differ.
Note that the insulin response of trained men is different to that of sedentary ones and it suggests women respond the same regardless of fitness. The fitter you are the smaller the insulin response you are to likely have from eating glucose.
My summary of this is if you want to do a faster tt or race, eat carbs and mix them up. A study of people doing an ironman showed the more you can eat the faster you go.
If you're just out to enjoy yourself, eat what you like and don't worry too much about it. IMHO the importance of what to eat is over done by magazines and marketing to sell specialised products to a large audience .
Here is a meta study on the subject from 2010 for those of you who like to dig in to this stuff.
http://www.crn2.com.br/pdf/artigos/artigos1287661146.pdf
A lot of these studies are confused by their objectives, some are how long can you ride a bike before you are exhausted and some are how well did you do a 25 mile (40k) timetrial. Both are measures of endurance performance. So when you read "endurance performance" and look at the results they may differ.
Note that the insulin response of trained men is different to that of sedentary ones and it suggests women respond the same regardless of fitness. The fitter you are the smaller the insulin response you are to likely have from eating glucose.
My summary of this is if you want to do a faster tt or race, eat carbs and mix them up. A study of people doing an ironman showed the more you can eat the faster you go.
If you're just out to enjoy yourself, eat what you like and don't worry too much about it. IMHO the importance of what to eat is over done by magazines and marketing to sell specialised products to a large audience .
Similar threads
