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Sports nutrition ingredients: a DIY fueling reference

Eight ingredients commonly used in DIY endurance fueling. Composition, sweetness vs. sucrose, and osmolarity per gram. Use these to mix your own isotonic or hypertonic sports drink — the calculator handles concentration. Each row links to its sources in the Sources section below.

How accurate is this?

Each row carries an accuracy badge. Exact means the value follows from molecular structure or a defined reference — sucrose's 50/50 glucose:fructose, calculated osmolarities, etc. — so there's no meaningful variance.

±5%, ±10%, and ±15% mark typical values — averages from cited sources with the variance you should expect for that ingredient. Honey is the widest (floral source) at ±15%; vendor-pinned things like maltodextrin (DE grade) sit at ±5%. Apply the band to composition fields (glucose/fructose/other); sweetness and osmolarity for natural products inherit it because they're derived from the same averaged profile.

Ingredient ⇅	Carbs ⇅	Glucose ⇅	Fructose ⇅	Other ⇅	Sweetness ⇅	mOsm/g ⇅	Sources
Table sugar (sucrose) Exact table-sugar	100 %	50 %	50 %	0 %	1.00	2.92	3 ↓
Maltodextrin (DE 10-15) ±5% maltodextrin	100 %	100 %	0 %	0 %	0.05	0.50	3 ↓
Dextrose (glucose monohydrate) Exact dextrose	100 %	100 %	0 %	0 %	0.74	5.55	3 ↓
Pure fructose powder Exact fructose	100 %	0 %	100 %	0 %	1.73	5.55	4 ↓
Honey ±15% honey	82 %	38 %	46 %	16 %	1.10	5.10	3 ↓
Agave syrup ±10% agave-syrup	76 %	10 %	85 %	5 %	1.40	5.20	2 ↓
Maple syrup (Grade A) ±10% maple-syrup	67 %	6 %	6 %	88 %	1.00	3.40	2 ↓
Brown rice syrup ±10% rice-syrup	75 %	3 %	0 %	97 %	0.50	1.80	3 ↓

Note — Carbs column is % of product weight (e.g. honey is ~82% carbs, the rest is water). Glucose / Fructose / Other are % of the carb mass and should sum to ~100%. Tap any column header to sort. The Other column is hidden on narrow screens to save space.

Osmolarity (mOsm/g) is calculated per gram of carb dissolved in one liter of water. Lower values let you mix higher-concentration drinks before they upset GI tolerance.

References

Sources & notes

Composition values come from USDA FoodData Central and the cited sports-nutrition literature. Where values vary by manufacturer or provenance, this is flagged below.