If you're getting gut issues, intestine problems or bad stomachs on long races, this could be down to the main ingredient and carb type of your energy gel.

Have you thought about the carb types used in energy gels? Their main energy giving ingredient could be the cause and by changing the carb type and energy gel you could potentially fix your stomach problems.

At Outdoor Food Club we have over 1000 outdoor and sports foods in our smart database and food discovery tool. In this case, we use the database to show all energy gels on the market today.

Here we have divided and grouped most energy gels available on the market in to their carb types so that it is easier for you to choose an energy gel which should help keep gut issues at bay.

If you're training for a specific endurance event, such as a marathon, ultra-marathon or cycle sportive or even an obstacle race that will take more than an hour, you're going to want to have a nutrition plan as well as a training plan.

We've had this happen to ourselve's and seen others fall victim to gut issues and cramping stomachs and being unable to eat food during a race and it has made them drop out and at best slowed them to a walk.

In the months training before the event you should be getting used to the types of food and drink you will be consuming on the race day, or at least working out what will work for you.

But what if you're getting gut issues and digestion problems whilst running or cycling long distances?

With that question in mind, it's important that you find out as early as you can what main ingredient is in the gel you are using, so that you can change to a different type energy gel and fuel well before race day.

To fix this issue, we will be looking in to the carb types and ingredients used in most energy gel companies and grouping them together so that if you have a gut issue or stomach problem on a recent marathon then you can change to a different group of energy gels to find something that works for you.

Some energy gels may use multiple carb types, it's important that if you are switching between brands of energy gels that you check this out first. You may be fine with one carb type but then if you try another gel that has multiple carb types in it and one of them is an ingredient that you don't do well with, this too will ruin a race.

To get around this and to help distinguish which gels use what carbs, we have added a column to each energy gel suggestion table below in their carb groups so that you can see if the energy gel is using multiple carbs and this can help you avoid carbs that you're stomach and gut is struggling with and choose others which you have never tried before.

How To Find Out If An Energy Gel Gives You Gut Issues

You need to be training and running longer distances and for a longer span of time so that the gels you consume are actually required to fuel your run and being absorbed, we recommend taking a gel just before your first hour of running ends, at about 40-50 minutes and then every 15-20 minutes there after depending on the size and minutes of energy or carbs the gel has.

If you are testing which gels work, do not consume anything else, other than water for the second hour of running and see if you can get in to the third hour of running with no stomach issues off of just gels that you are testing.

If you can run 2-3 hours or more off of just gels and water (don't forget the electrolytes), then you should be good to mix in other foods that you are also used to on race day.

We don't recommend just gels for race day, mixing it up with other more substantial foods, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and the odd home favorite like a warm pie or soups (especially in colder races) are our go-to's and that works for us on longer ultra-marathon distance runs.

What Types of Energy Gels and Ingredients They Use

Below we have created a chart to show which carb types and sugars are used most throughout the energy gels in the database. This is a good indicator of what energy types energy gels use and are available on the market today.