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DIY endurance fueling ingredient

Table sugar (sucrose)

Table sugar is the cheapest and most accessible DIY fueling ingredient — pure sucrose, a disaccharide that the gut splits into a 50/50 glucose–fructose mix on the way in.

What it is, and how to use it

Table sugar is the workhorse of homemade endurance fueling. Chemically it is sucrose: one glucose unit and one fructose unit bonded together. The small intestine cleaves the bond rapidly and absorbs the two simple sugars separately, so for the bloodstream a gram of sucrose looks identical to half a gram of glucose plus half a gram of fructose.

That 50/50 split is close to the 1:0.8 glucose-to-fructose ratio Hearris et al. recommend at intake rates above 90 g/h, which is why table sugar can carry a high-rate fueling plan almost on its own. At 60–90 g/h you'll want to nudge the ratio back toward 2:1 by adding maltodextrin or dextrose alongside.

Cost is the headline feature: roughly €1–2/kg in German supermarkets, the price floor against which every commercial gel is measured. Practical caveats: sweetness rises sharply above ~10% w/v and many athletes report flavour fatigue past 14% w/v — pair with low-sweetness maltodextrin if you need a strong concentrate. Osmolarity is moderate (~2.92 mOsm/g of carb); stay below 14% w/v in main sip bottles for isotonic comfort. Dissolves easily in warm water; clumps in cold, so add to half a bottle of warm water first, then top up cold.

Composition

Total carbs
100 % by weight
Glucose
50 % of carb mass
Fructose
50 % of carb mass
Other carbs
0 % of carb mass
Sweetness factor
1.00 × sucrose
Osmolarity
2.92 mOsm / g carb

Exact values — derived from chemistry, not a producer average.

Try this ingredient in the DIY endurance fueling calculator.

Sources & citations

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