Real food vs gels vs drink mix: what to use and when

What should you actually eat during a long ride or run: gels, a drink mix, or real food? All three deliver the carbohydrate your muscles need. The difference is how fast it hits, how it sits in your gut, and how much it costs. None of them is magic, and the dearest option is not automatically the best.

Here is how I think about it, and where I think the marketing has got ahead of the evidence.

What each one is actually good at

Drink mix is the workhorse. It delivers carbs and fluid together, it's easy to sip steadily, and it's the simplest way to hit a high hourly carb target without forcing food down. For long, hot efforts on the bike, a strong carb drink does most of the job. The catch is concentration: too strong and it sits in your gut and draws in water, so you need to get the mix right.

Gels are concentrated, portable and fast. They shine when intensity is high and you can't chew, the back end of a race, a hard climb, a 10k surge. The downside is they need water to clear properly, and a lot of people who get GI distress from gels are really getting it from taking them dry.

Real food comes into its own on long, lower-intensity efforts. A flapjack, a banana, a rice cake, a jam sandwich, all fuel you fine on a steady endurance ride or the early hours of an ultra. It's cheap, it's satisfying, and it gives your gut a break from sugary syrup. But it digests slower, so it's a poor choice when you're going hard or in the final stretch of a marathon.

Best forSpeedGut loadCostDrink mixSteady high-carb fuelling, hot daysFastLow if mixed rightCheap (DIY)GelsHigh intensity, late race, no chewingFastestNeeds waterExpensive brandedReal foodLong steady efforts, ultras, baseSlowHigh if intenseCheapest

In practice most experienced endurance athletes mix all three across a long day. Real food early, drink mix throughout, gels for the hard bits and the finish.

The science you actually need

The only number that really matters is total carbs an hour, and to get past about 60g an hour you need two sugars. Glucose uses one gut transporter; fructose uses another. Combine them and you absorb more at once. That's why modern products and good homemade mixes use a glucose:fructose blend, commonly around 2:1, with newer evidence favouring closer to 1:0.8 for the highest intake rates. Whether that carb arrives as a gel, a drink or a rice cake matters far less than hitting the dose.

Cheap DIY that works

This is where I get opinionated. Branded gels run roughly £1 to £2.50 each. A long ride or marathon can need five or six, and a training block can quietly cost you a hundred quid or more. You can replicate the active ingredients for pennies.

Homemade drink mix (per 500ml bottle, around 60g carbs):

• 45g maltodextrin

• 15g fructose (or use plain sugar, which is half glucose half fructose, as a simpler single-ingredient option)

• A pinch of salt

• A squeeze of lemon or a splash of squash for taste

Maltodextrin plus fructose lands you near that 3:1 to 1:0.8 glucose:fructose window depending on how you weigh it. Keep the concentration sensible, roughly 60-80g carbs per 500-750ml, so it clears your gut.

Homemade gel: brown rice syrup is close to pure glucose, honey and agave bring the fructose. Mix them, add a pinch of salt and a little water to loosen, and you've a paste that does the same job as a branded gel for a fraction of the price.

Table sugar deserves a mention because it's the cheapest dual-source carb there is. It's sucrose, glucose and fructose bonded together, almost exactly the ratio you want. Plain sugar in water with a pinch of salt is a perfectly good endurance drink, and it costs almost nothing.

What's overhyped

Branded "natural" energy chews at premium prices are mostly sugar with a story. Ketone drinks remain expensive and the performance evidence is thin. And any product promising a fuelling shortcut that skips gut training is selling you the wrong thing, because the bottleneck is your gut, not the wrapper.

FAQ

Are gels worse for my stomach than real food? Not inherently. Most gel GI trouble comes from taking them without water or going too concentrated. Take them with fluid and many people are fine.

Can I run a whole marathon on real food? You can fuel the early miles on it, but when you're going hard late on, your gut struggles to digest solids. Most marathoners switch to gels or drink for the back half.

Is homemade as good as branded? For the carbs, yes. You're paying brands for convenience, flavour and packaging, not for a secret ingredient. If you value grab-and-go simplicity, branded is fine. If you value your wallet, make your own.

In MOVE we tell you how many carbs an hour you need for a given session and sport. How you deliver them, gel, drink or a pocketful of flapjack, is up to you. Pick what your gut tolerates, hit the number, and don't pay more than you have to.