You know, I've really got to get healthy this
year. Between all the energy drinks, spicy wings and absurd amounts of Sprite, Food Theory
has practically forced me to have to go and hit the gym. But here's the secret for you. Exercise
kind of sucks. If only there was some other way. Ah yes, sour candy. Clearly, that is the
thing that'll solve all my exercise woes. Hello Internet! Welcome to Food Theory. The
channel that proves leaving a sour taste in your mouth can be a good thing. Today, we're taking
a closer look at one of TikTok's latest trends: eating candy at the gym. Yep. You heard that
one right. Using candy to fuel your workouts. I mean, I would think that most people go to the
gym to work OFF the candy that they've eaten. But no, apparently not. According to bunches
of people online, a handful of sweets is the secret way that they're able to get more out
of their exercise. While it's hard to pinpoint exactly where the trend started. It's certainly
going strong, nearing a billion views on TikTok. And that sounds pretty great to me. Usually I go
to the gym wanting to be like Hemsworth, but then I leave ending up feeling Hems-worthless. So
do I need to load up on some snickers before starting my squats? Not so fast. Notice that what
they're calling out here isn't just any candy, but specifically sour candy. Which then begs the
question, is there some sort of sour secret here? Is there any merit to the online workout
advice coming from a bunch of sour patch pumpers? I find it really hard to believe that
any candy, sour or otherwise, is going to be the X Factor helping me to get more out of my gym
time. But again, if it's true, it's an excuse to eat more candy, so why not test it out?
So today we're putting our bodies to the test. Can eating candy actually help your cardio? Will
a Sour Patch Kid promote more positive pumping? Pucker up, buttercup. Today we're hitting the gym.
Before we start sweating it out to the oldies, it's important that we first understand what
exactly working out is doing in our bodies. That way, we can see whether there is any scientific
merit for our sour candy to stand on here. When we eat, we consume calories. We
all know this. Right there, front and center on every nutrition label. And when we're
exercising, we are burning away those calories. We're using them up. So what exactly are calories?
Well, calories are basically just energy. They're what make the machine that is your body run. But
if you eat more calories than you end up using, your body starts storing that extra energy as fat.
And there's one persistent issue with that. You see, once it's stored as fat, burning the energy
actually becomes a very inefficient process for our bodies. Suddenly, that energy becomes the
last thing that our body wants to use up. Instead, our body tends to default to the faster, easier,
more efficient fuel source of glucose. Glucose is a carbohydrate. It's the responsible
four door hybrid sedan that gives your body great mileage because it's much easier
for our bodies to process glucose for energy. It's also easy to store any excess glucose
in your liver and muscle cells in the form of glycogen which your body can then dip into
quickly whenever the need arises. Fat meanwhile, is just harder for the body to use. When it's
forced to dig into the fat reserves that fat must first be broken down and converted into
ketones through a process known as ketosis. If that word sounds vaguely familiar to you, it might
be because you've heard of the keto diet. Anyway, ketosis requires a lot more work for your body,
so our bodies are wired to store fat but burn carbs. Especially when you're talking about
intense workouts. So what happens when you're doing this intense exercise and suddenly you've
depleted all your glucose and glycogen reserves? Well, that is the experience of hitting a
wall. Suddenly you feel much more tired, sluggish, and you just want to call it quits.
What's really happening there is that your body is switching gears as it moves away from burning
carbs and instead starts using that inefficient fat. That said, plenty of people going to the
gym want to avoid that dip in performance, which is where pre-workout supplements come in.
Pre-workouts, which are typically in the form of a powder that you mix into your water, are
meant to increase your athletic performance via a healthy mix of caffeine for energy amino
acids to help decrease fatigue and nitric oxide to increase blood flow. Now, the jury is
still out on whether all those ingredients work as intended. One thing that we know for sure
is that pre-workouts contain a lot of sugar, giving the body some extra glucose to
help it fight off that performance wall. So if a sugary pre-workout powder can help your
exercise, why not a sugary sour candy? The idea with sour candy is that it's a low fat, low
protein, high carb snack that provides you a short burst of glucose that can help push
through that workout wall. There's also quite a bit of research to back up candies being
used as an energy booster, which is why you might catch long distance runners or endurance
athletes munching on gummies pre and mid-race. Research suggests that about 15 to 20 grams of
sugar 30 to 60 minutes before your workout is the right amount for your body to get an adequate
boost. But then why are we talking about sour candy in particular? Sure, it's delicious. And
it's definitely more affordable than those pricey pre-workout supplements. But is there something
else that's catapulting sour candy specifically to the forefront of the online fitness community?
Maybe. When we put sour flavoring in our mouth, it releases the neurotransmitter serotonin, also
known as the happy hormone. Serotonin does a lot of good stuff across our bodies.
It helps with learning and memory, while also helping to regulate body temperature,
sleep and hunger. So the idea here is that happy hormone plus sugary energy equals better
workout. Or at least that's the working theory. The working Food Theory, which means that it's
now time for us to test it out. Over the course of a week, Steph and I, along with some other
members of Team Theorist, did three days of workouts with a day of rest in between. So our
soreness didn't become a factor. We made sure to keep the workouts consistent in both style and
time each day in order to limit as many variables as possible. For her workouts, Steph hopped on
the old stationary bike for some quick cardio. I took the athlete powder before this.
So I’m definitely an athlete right now. While I endeavor to engage in
the most grueling of workouts, RingFit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch. Nothing says serious workout quite like downward
dogging your way through a horde of attacking yoga mats. Cue the relevant embarrassing clip
that I have no doubt Stephanie captured. Ooh, looking good. Look at
those buns! Buns to the sun. Great. For the first day, we performed a normal
workout without any sort of supplement. For day two, we used a traditional powdered
pre-workout, specifically Forbes Health's number one pick for 2023: Pre-Kaged. Kaged spelled
with a K so you know they mean it. Also can I just say at this point that the names of these things
are so stupid. I mean, we went with Pre-Kaged, but some of our other top contenders were WRECKED
and METH LAB. Who named these things? I like that they clearly want gym bros to take these things
seriously with their serious names. But Jocko Go Whoop Ass-ault. I feel like I'm in some sort
of parody account. Is this an Onion article? And then finally, for day
three, we eat some sour candy. *Steph sour noises*
Oh, they're very sour. Lots of sour candy. Yeehaw ride ‘em cowboy. Oh boy, mistakes were made In order to get the 15 to 20 grams of sugar that
were recommended for the best effect of our sour candies, we took eight pieces of Warheads Extreme,
which probably hurt more than the actual workout. I thought that maybe the flavors would combine, to be tasty together. Oh no. This is a mishmash
of flavors that no one wants. Ooh I feel it in my teeth. It’s like an X-ray is being taken of
my teeth right now. Shooting right through. So after gathering the data, what were
the results? Well, first and foremost, it's important to get the elephant in the
gym out of the way. Traditional pre-workout was the best across the board for all of us.
It ultimately did a great job of giving the energy boost to get us going and keep us at that
energized state for the duration of the workout. According to all of our fitness trackers, we
burned more calories at a higher rate with the pre-workout and stayed in that peak heart rate
zone for the majority of the time that we were exercising. The only downside that I felt was
the sheer amount of liquid sloshing around in my stomach. Because they make you drink 16 ounces of
water infused with the stuff a half hour before you start jumping around. On the sour candy days
we experienced a noticeable boost at the start of the workout and found that our heart rate spiked
even higher. Despite the overwhelming sourness that we had to endure. We felt good and we had
strong starts. Makes sense considering that the sour candy is delivering you a quick and easily
digestible spike in glucose. Unfortunately, we all hit that wall towards the middle and end of our
workout, which our heart rates clearly reflected. I felt okay to begin with. But my energy declined
real fast. Even though I started probably the strongest I’ve started of any of the days, this
one was definitely the fastest, like, down swing. And our performance was also affected by things
that we didn't see coming, like stitches. It was actually pretty uncomfortable, I got a side
stitch. Which I don’t get very often. Usually I get them swimming or something else like that. But
not usually when I can, like, breathe all I want Overall, the sour candy did work
at first, but the crash came hard, much harder than either of the other two days.
And as a result, it didn't do us any favors the longer that we exercised. And considering
what we had to go through when we ate them… Oh Boy. Ohhh Boy. Ohhhhhhhhhh Boy.
I think you get the picture It's not something that I'd want
to be doing on a regular basis. Even worse, though, are the calories. To get to
the recommended 15 grams of sugar we ate eight Warheads. That is nearly 100 calories. You know
how many calories were burned during our workouts? Nearly 100 calories, basically, we just netted
even. On the other hand, you had Pre-Kaged! Sorry, it's hard to fight the urge to not say that like
some sort of wrestler. Pre-Kaged contained one fifth of the calories for the exact same punch.
It also had those amino acids, vitamins, and the equivalent of three cups of coffee and
caffeine and two Red Bull cans worth of taurine, which, you know, might be why we were able
to sail through our exercises so easily. How healthy is that for you on a regular basis?
Probably not great. But you know, for our purposes today, it gave us the best workout.
In the end, it looks like sour candy is the sucker in this match up. But there is something
else at work here to consider. Giving yourself a pre-workout treat could actually motivate
you to exercise even more by associating an unpleasant experience like dragging yourself
to the gym with the pleasant experience of chowing down on some sour candy. For those of
you who don't know, this is called classical conditioning, a learning process discovered
by Russian experimenter Ivan Pavlov. Wherein two stimuli are repeatedly paired
together until the response for one is innately associated with the other, meaning
that by repeatedly having the fun, happy, yummy experience of eating sour candy before your
workout, you eventually associate working out with fun and happiness, something that traditional
pre-workout isn't going to be hitting for most of us. Couple that with the serotonin that gets
released when you eat these things and suddenly you're going to find yourself having a great
time at the gym if you stay consistent with it. So while sour candy may not be the best
pre-workout, that doesn't mean that you should completely write it off. There are
benefits that go beyond mere biological and instead tap into the psychological.
So go forth all your mega slime lickers, go forth with teary eyes and scrunched
up faces and get those gains. As always, my friends, remember, it's just a
theory. A FOOD THEORY! Bon appetit. And hey, did you know that our sponsor for today's
video is AG1? Let me tell you this job often has me eating and drinking things that leave me
feeling a bit sour. Sometimes it's hard to get the nutrients I need between chowing down on sour
candy and chugging Diet Coke, which is why I also choose to drink AG1 as part of my morning routine.
AG1 is a daily nutritional supplement that supports whole body health. It is jam packed with
micronutrients and high quality ingredients that support the brain. The gut and even your
immune system. Not only does it provide me with focus and energy all day, but it also has
probiotics to support gut health. And oh boy, is that important. There are full days in
my life where large amounts of warheads and toxic waste are the main thing on the menu.
I don't even want to think about how I'd feel after all those workouts that we did for
this episode without the magnesium in AG1 to help with all the muscle soreness. But I know
that you just saw me stuff my cheeks with candy like a demented chipmunk, but when I'm not being
put through grueling experiments, I don't like playing around with the quality of ingredients
in the things that I eat and drink. Which is why I love that AG1 sources the best and highest
quality ingredients that it can find. It's even NSF certified for sports. Now I know that I'm no
pro athlete, and after watching this video, you do too. But if AG1 meets the gold standard for actual
pro athletes who have to adhere to strict rules regarding supplements and nutritional products.
Then hey, it is more than good enough for me. Hey guys, welcome to GTNotLive where I'm starting
off my day filming a lot of these things back to back. But not before I film this, which is my
daily AG1 right here. This is my pre GTlive routine here. First thing in the morning. Got to
get my nutrition in. So here we go. Shake it up. Chug away. Like a lightly grassy cotton candy.
I don't know what to compare it to, but it's pleasant. My day's mineral requirements are done.
My gut is healthier. My body is more nutrient filled, which will hopefully counteract whatever
horrors we have to film for Food Theory later today. Done! Thank you, AG1 for sponsoring my
nutrition. Because Lord knows Food Theory isn’t. Head on over to DrinkAG1.com/foodtheorist
to get started on your order. Or you know, click the link at the top line of the
description. And then to sweeten that deal AG1 is going to give all theorists a
free one year supply of AG Vitamin D3 and K2 and five AG1 travel packs with your first
purchase, so you can always drink on the go. Thank you again to AG1 for sponsoring
today's video and my continued health after videos like these. And as always,
my friends, I will see you next week.
