What's your favorite intra/post carb supplement and why?

[EpicSlaughter]

I have Intra M.D. and Afterglow, but I received a few Glycofuse samples with a supplement order and loved the pump I got using them during my workout. I am considering purchasing a carb supplement and was hoping to get some suggestions to start making comparisons. Whats your favorite and why do you like it? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or guidance.

 

[grinnell27]

Oats, banana and protein powder. Cheap, easy and works great. Used this recipe for years. You can use a pre-made product but I always feel real foods are best.

 

[grinnell27]

Also rice krispie squares are good intra haha

 

[The Express 42]

Recovery Factor by Granite Supplements. Or basically any solid BCAA/EAA formula with 30g cyclic dextrin

 

[MARK_]

I like Cytocarb II and Glyco Infusion by ALR Industries. I usually add them to my bcaa's and feel they help my strength and endurance while training

 

[MARK_]

Iforce Nutrition makes a great intra/post workout supplement as well: Finish Line. I would add my carb supplements to that as well

 

[jtmass]

Oats, banana and protein powder. Cheap, easy and works great. Used this recipe for years. You can use a pre-made product but I always feel real foods are best.

^^^^ add peanut butter, half litre milk is my post workout shake couple days a week

 

[EpicSlaughter]

Recovery Factor by Granite Supplements. Or basically any solid BCAA/EAA formula with 30g cyclic dextrin

This formula looks legit... I like that it contains both Cyclic Dextrin and Disaccharides along with the EAA/BCAA along with a few pump ingredients. Since it's made by John Meadows' brand, its not surprising that's it's almost like an evolved version of the Intra M.D.

 

[AntM1564]

For intra, I love the new PowerMax XT. We reformulated it and it has a combination of Whey (6g) + Leucine (3g/5g) which out performs 25g of straight whey. So your getting better benefits then 25g protein with the increased digestion and assimilation of Di/Tri peptides that out perform intact whole proteins.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284442

Doses/combinations:
-25g Whey Protein (3g leucine)
-6.25g Whey Protein (0.75g leucine)
-6.25g Whey Protein (added leucine to 3g)
-6.25g Whey Protein (added leucine to 5g)
-6.25g Whey Protein (added leucine to 5g; from added BCAAs instead of just added leucine)

Interestingly, Phospho-mTOR was increased at 1.5 hours in the Whey 25g, Whey 6.25 (3g l) and Whey 6.25 (5gl), but not in the Whey 6.25g or Whey (3g l; BCAAs). The study, along with others, have shown that a suboptimal protein dose (6.25g whey) supplemented with leucine (3g total) can stimulate postprandial MPS rates equivalent to that of 25g whey (with 3g leucine total).

The discussion of the study said this:


There's also another study that showed increasing the leucine content of EAAs (from 1.87g to 3.5g) taken intra-workout increased post-workout muscle protein synthesis by 33% compared relative to the lower leucine content:
Leucine-enriched essential amino acid supplementation during moderate steady state exercise enhances postexercise muscle protein synthesis
There's also a study showing that a combination of 6g EAAs and ~40g carbs taken intra-workout was able to improve strength and fat-free mass by more than EAAs or carbs alone, with no significant difference in fat (all groups lost fat):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16456674
There's also some interesting research on Whey Protein Hydroslate (WPH):


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2761917/
This makes the pairing of carbs with WPH (over BCAAs) particularly interesting, and, referring back to the low-dose whey + lecuine study, it seems very possible that you can get away with a lower dose of WPH with added leucine to 3-5g total.

With that in mind, I like either 6-10g EAAs with leucine content added to total 3-5g, or ~6g WPH with leucine content added to 3-5g total, plus ~40g carbs (I typically go with Gatorade powder since it's very affordable and can be used to flavor bulk ingredients) intra-workout.

With the above reserach in mind, I do not think that drinking only BCAAs intra-workout is ideal, as you also want EAAs, and 3-5g leucine of course. Also, it appears that sometimes you don't want a ton of BCAAs, just a lot of leucine and a "sufficient" amount of the other BCAAs and EAAs. The WPH provides these EAAs and BCAAs (along with some leucine of course), and the additional leucine brings the total leucine content into that ideal 3-5g range.

If you want carbs in your intra, you could add any product from your favorite company or simply gatorade powder.

Post workout, no supplements from me, unless I have proats. I always go with whole food sources post workout.