Increased mileage and recovery

[consularrider]

I think you need to follow the Hobbit meal plan.

[sethpo]

@Subby 85924 wrote:

That sounds like a decent amount of sugar. I would try to replace as much sugar as I could with good fats and protein. Almond butter and celery, whole natural almonds, hardboiled eggs, etc..

Yeah, I left out all the junk food I end up eating in the evenings. Cookies. Ice cream. Candy. Lots of crap basically.

I know I need to cut that out but I’m always so damn hungry in the evenings (plus I like my junk food and am not trying to lose weight ATM). I guess I just need to suck it up and think more about what I pack and/or go out and eat for lunch. More + healthier.

[Subby]

Yeah I am not even talking about losing weight. I eat a fucton of sugar in the evenings too. Just when I am at work, the more sugar I eat, the hungrier I seem to get and the more lethargic I seem to be on my rides home. If I eat a serving of almonds at 430pm, I am usually cranking home pretty well.

Sleep has a huge effect, too. Probably a whole other thread.

Please note that I am good at suggesting things, less good at doing them.

[Anonymous]

I keep oatmeal and/or peanut butter and bread at my desk in addition to whatever I bring for lunch. At least as important as what to me is when. For me personally, I need to eat something within about an hour of a ride so as not to be starving by the end of it, so a 5:30 commute would mean a snack of say a slice of bread w/ peanut butter between 4:30 and 5.

[dkel]

@Subby 85924 wrote:

That sounds like a decent amount of sugar. I would try to replace as much sugar as I could with good fats and protein. Almond butter and celery, whole natural almonds, hardboiled eggs, etc..

A while back I tried eating lots of protein and cutting down the carbs, and ended up completely zonked on my commute. When I added back in some carbs, I had much more energy for the ride. Balance is pretty important! Feeling tired while riding is the pits, and I’m not going back to that. I feel like I’m pretty haphazard about the nutrition thing, but I aim for things like trail mix and yogurt rather than slamming a bunch of chips and Oreos (even though chips and Oreos are my favorites…and donuts!).

[dkel]

@Subby 85937 wrote:

fucton

Heh!

[NicDiesel]

@sethpo 85935 wrote:

Yeah, I left out all the junk food I end up eating in the evenings. Cookies. Ice cream. Candy. Lots of crap basically.

I know I need to cut that out but I’m always so damn hungry in the evenings (plus I like my junk food and am not trying to lose weight ATM). I guess I just need to suck it up and think more about what I pack and/or go out and eat for lunch. More + healthier.

I’ve put weight back on this past winter due to injury so I’m back up to 380lbs and am slowly ramping back up to 100 miles a week. I go through what you’re going through every time I bike more than 12 miles at a time without drinking plenty of water and taking in at least 400 calories during the ride. I like apple cinnamon gels and try to eat one (~90 calories, all sugar) for every five miles I ride. When I get home from a really long ride I usually try to have another gel before I start cooking dinner so I’m not below empty when dinner is done and binge out on dinner and ice cream and chips and other crap.

One thing that I’ve found to be really helpful is that if I increase the amount of protein I take in at least three hours prior to riding (I work from home and ride at night) and have a solid dinner (complex carbs, high protein) after my ride I usually don’t binge out. Keeping your body fueled with protein and fiber, at least in my experience, keeps the late night binges under control.

[americancyclo]

@Subby 85924 wrote:

That sounds like a decent amount of sugar. I would try to replace as much sugar as I could with good fats and protein. Almond butter and celery, whole natural almonds, hardboiled eggs, etc. the more sugar I eat, the hungrier I seem to get and the more lethargic I seem to be on my rides home.

@acl 85938 wrote:

I keep oatmeal and/or peanut butter and bread at my desk in addition to whatever I bring for lunch. At least as important as what to me is when. For me personally, I need to eat something within about an hour of a ride so as not to be starving by the end of it, so a 5:30 commute would mean a snack of say a slice of bread w/ peanut butter between 4:30 and 5.

@dkel 85942 wrote:

A while back I tried eating lots of protein and cutting down the carbs, and ended up completely zonked on my commute. When I added back in some carbs, I had much more energy for the ride. Balance is pretty important! Feeling tired while riding is the pits, and I’m not going back to that. I feel like I’m pretty haphazard about the nutrition thing, but I aim for things like trail mix and yogurt rather than slamming a bunch of chips and Oreos (even though chips and Oreos are my favorites…and donuts!).

This is the third week of our new low-carb lifestyle. We haven’t bought any more bread, and only cooked rice once, when it used to be at least 3x a week.
Lots more cheese, avocado, organ meats and leafy greens. I try to eat more on ride days, and allow myself larger carb intake, but on the rest days, I try to keep to under 100g of carbs, which can be a challenge when you’re used to eating cookies and croissants all day.

It’s working out reasonably well so far, and my collared shirts aren’t as tight around the neck as they used to be.

Fridays coffee clubs are still fair game for carbs though.

[vern]

It was only this month that I started doing a complete back-and-forth commute each day (42.8 miles). Two weeks ago, in the middle of the afternoon, my right calf started cramping while I was sitting at my desk. That woke me up to the fact that I need to add more potassium, calcium and magnesium to my diet. In response I’ve added a cal/mag supplement, and am eating bananas and kale/spinach for potassium. So far, so good.

[dasgeh]

There’s been a lot of focus on research saying, basically, that not all calories are the same. Sugar is less helpful at getting usable energy to your body than fat. And fats are different too (plant v. animal v. processed). Personally, I feel best when I follow Michael Pollen’s general guideline of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It’s not perfect, but when I have a choice between X and Y, I try to go with the one closest to what came out of the ground. It helps that both me and the Mr. love to cook.

We do steel cut oats or eggs over salad for breakfast most days. Snacks at my desk are nuts, dried fruit or yogurt (gotta love Trader Joe’s). Lunch is leftovers from dinner. Dinner is plant-based but not strickly vegetarian — last night it was this delicious Forbidden Rice dish. I love me something sweet at the end of the day, but I usually am content with bread with almond butter (or normal butter) and honey, yogurt and honey (or those corner yogurt things), or fruit. Except for the days when I’m only content with ice cream .

I’m not a model of svelte, but I feel so much better — more awake during the days, faster on the bike, more able to keep up with the kids — when I eat well, that’s priority #1

[ShawnoftheDread]

I’m at Five Guys right now. Not sure what I’ll do for second lunch.

[KLizotte]

@sethpo 85918 wrote:

— Do you have tricks for eating enough during the day? My standard two yogurt cups w/ granola in the morning (10am) and lunch (1-2pm) and small afternoon snack just don’t seem to be getting it done and leave me hungry for my 5:30-6pm commute home (19 miles). Protein powder during the day? Should I just start bring in a big thing of pasta? Any other ideas?

Hahaha. I’d be hungry even *without* biking if that is all I ate before dinner.

Some suggestions for late afternoon snacks:

Apples with natural peanut butter (not that Skippy stuff)
Fill a pita pocket with hummus and veggies
A handful of nuts (e.g., roasted almonds) and some fruit (e.g., banana)
Bowl of cereal or oatmeal with fresh or dried fruit or nuts (muesli is very filling)
A veggie salad with egg, nuts, cheese, fruit, etc.
Kind brand granola bar(s)
Soup or chili
Pita or tortilla chips with salsa, avocado, and beans or tabbouleh
Whole grain crackers with cheese
Roasted pumpkin seeds (high in protein, zinc and magnesium)

Plenty more ideas here:

http://www.pinterest.com/ccasali/healthy-easy-lunches-snacks-for-work/

Try to eat an hour before you ride so your body has time to break it down into energy.

[vern]

@KLizotte 86013 wrote:

Hahaha. I’d be hungry even *without* biking if that is all I ate before dinner.

Some suggestions for late afternoon snacks:

Apples with natural peanut butter (not that Skippy stuff)
Fill a pita pocket with hummus and veggies
A handful of nuts (e.g., roasted almonds) and some fruit (e.g., banana)
Bowl of cereal or oatmeal with fresh or dried fruit or nuts (muesli is very filling)
A veggie salad with egg, nuts, cheese, fruit, etc.
Kind brand granola bar(s)
Soup or chili
Pita or tortilla chips with salsa, avocado, and beans or tabbouleh
Whole grain crackers with cheese
Roasted pumpkin seeds (high in protein, zinc and magnesium)

Plenty more ideas here:

http://www.pinterest.com/ccasali/healthy-easy-lunches-snacks-for-work/

Try to eat an hour before you ride so your body has time to break it down into energy.

Haha…you pretty much described about half of my diet. I just packed my food for tomorrow…rolled oats, walnuts and dried cherries (for the oatmeal), OJ, milk, hummus and tabbouleh with pita and falafel, various raw veggies, apple, banana, bag of nuts for an afternoon snack.

[dkel]

@KLizotte 86013 wrote:

A handful of nuts

Yep. That pretty much sums up this whole forum.

[PotomacCyclist]

I try to follow general guidelines instead of counting calories. I tried counting calories for one week, about a decade ago. It was educational but definitely too aggravating to do on a regular basis.

REGULAR NUTRITION (separate from pre/mid/post-ride nutrition):

– Whenever I eat anything, I try to include at least some protein and fiber. That will keep you feeling fuller than if you only ate refined sugar (which is not recommended in most situations).

– I drink water, not soda or fruit juice (which is almost as bad as soda is).

– I include unsaturated fats: nuts, olive oil, avocados (but not as much coldwater fish as I should have).

– For carbs, mostly complex carbs, not refined sugars.

There’s a lot of press about low-carb diets these days. It works for some, but maybe not as much for others. One comment I heard makes sense to me. Eat a balanced diet: lean protein, plenty of green vegetables and some other vegetables and fruit, fiber, fats (mostly unsaturated), water. Then for carbs, stick primarily to complex carbs (whole grains), not simple carbs (refined sugar, soda, white bread, pastries, pasta unless it’s whole grain). But for carbs, inactive people should probably eat a bit less carbs while an active person could eat a bit more.

***
You may also hear about being “fat-adapted”. This means that your body tends to rely on body fat for low and moderate-intensity activity, while a sugar-preferring person would burn more carbs. If you eat a lot of refined sugars, you are training your body to rely on those sugars for much of your energy. If you don’t burn all of the sugar, your body will convert it to body fat. (If you are at rest, then most or all of the sugar you eat will be converted to body fat, unless you have protein and fiber at the same meal. This is why one of the worst things you can do is to eat refined sugars by itself, on an empty stomach, while at rest.)

If you don’t eat as much refined sugar (and what you do eat is part of a balanced meal that include protein and fiber) and if you start building a strong aerobic endurance base without taking in a ton of gels or Gatorade, your body will start to become fat-adapted. It will start to rely on burning body fat for low-intensity workouts. This is why a sugar-based beginner can barely make it through 45 or 60 minutes without eating. They aren’t fit so they start burning glycogen (carbs stored in the muscles and liver) almost immediately; they don’t have as much glycogen reserves; they aren’t fat-adapted so they use up all the glycogen quickly.

For an experienced athlete who is fat-adapted, low-intensity exercise (such as easy bike rides) does not put a demand on glycogen. You will still be burning a small amount of glycogen, but for low-intensity activity, these athletes will be using primarily body fat as fuel. Every healthy adult has thousands (or is it tens of thousands?) of calories of body fat available for this low-intensity activity. They can do 2-hr. easy rides without eating anything and without feeling groggy. (They will still burn glycogen at higher intensities. But because of their training, they can ride faster than a beginner when riding at low intensity.)

***
I’ve read differing opinions about whether you need to eat breakfast. Sometimes I will go for a run or swim in the morning before eating. (However, I may not do that going forward, after experiencing a metabolic crash twice this past winter after training too hard and not eating enough. The last time it happened, I really had to take an entire month off from serious training, because everything got so fouled up. It wasn’t an injury. It was an overtraining and nutrition problem.)

When I don’t do anything strenuous, I find that if I wait for hours before eating, the first meal of the day seems to overload my system and make me very sleepy. So I try to eat something within an hour or two after waking up.

SPORTS NUTRITION

For longer rides, I try to have something to eat before. (“Long” is defined by the rider’s experience and fitness. One hour might be long for a beginner, but an advanced athlete might not think a 2-hr ride is long.) It also depends on the intensity and how much of an iron stomach you have. For easy rides, I can tolerate more food than otherwise, as long as it isn’t greasy or spicy or too sugary. For shorter intense rides or races (especially with running), I have to be more careful about how much I eat, and how soon before the ride or race. It’s an ongoing experiment. I can still eat a little more and sooner before bike rides than I can with running, because running jostles the stomach.

During rides? Because I’m taking a moderate approach to being aerobically fit (“fat-adapted”?), I try not to eat anything during medium-length rides or runs these days. When I first started out, I could feel my muscles burning after just 60-90 minutes, because I was burning through all the glycogen, and I might have been eating a more inflammatory diet overall (one that includes more sugar). But now I never feel that burning on moderate rides. I think I might stick to a 90-min. rule, but I’m not saying that everyone should follow the same rule: For rides about 90-min. or shorter, I won’t eat anything. I might bring some water but not always. For longer rides, I’ll bring some calories and see how I feel. If I’m going to do a longer ride with some intensity, it’s probably a better idea to have some mid-ride calories, but being sure not to upset my stomach by piling in too much.

Eat soon after longer or tougher rides, as mentioned earlier in the thread. Being fat-adapted helps with aerobic endurance, but there is also such a thing as taking it too far. (That’s what I did over the winter, twice.) If you get started with restoring glycogen supplies, then you might not feel as hungry later on. When I first started to do long runs five years ago, I would get incredibly ravenous. I would come back home and eat everything in sight. I wouldn’t stop eating for about an hour. That’s because I wasn’t as fit and I was low on glycogen. It could also be psychological. My body was not used to being glycogen-depleted so it interpreted that as starvation mode. That’s why it cranked up the hunger signals.

It’s much different now. I still have a moderate-sized meal soon after long rides or runs, but I don’t feel like the Tazmanian Devil in search of food. I eat what I should and then I feel OK. I don’t have that ravenous hunger any more. (Maybe I’m no longer a vampire?)

I think it’s part training, part diet, part experience and part psychological.

***
Another general rule I have is that I try to eat “clean” most of the time, but not ALL of the time. If I eat healthy about 85-90 percent of the time, then I should be fine (as a non-professional athlete). I don’t get worked up about a small dessert if the rest of the meal is healthy. If I eat healthy at home, then I don’t have to be as worried about being perfect at social occasions.

Kind of like the “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” comments in another thread. Some people give up on healthy eating because they aren’t perfect about it. So for them, it’s all or nothing. When I talk or chat about nutrition, someone will always bring up the silly comment that “you can’t eat healthy on a budget because organic vegetables at Whole Foods are so expensive!” Well, then don’t eat just organic vegetables from Whole Foods. Because they say those vegetables are too expensive, they will turn to potato chips and soda? It shouldn’t be that way. Eat healthy most of the time but let yourself have a small amount of indulgences too. As long as those indulgences don’t end up becoming the majority of your diet.

Granola bars are not perfect and they do contain some added sugar. But some bars have a modest amount of (plant) protein and fiber, which helps to slow down the absorption of the sugar. So it’s not quite the same thing as drinking a sugary soda by itself, on an empty stomach, while at rest. The bars are convenient to carry to work. While not perfect, they are better than what I see a lot of people eating/drinking in afternoons: large slices of chocolate cake, bags of potato chips, entire bags of Skittles, large sodas. I usually have a granola bar in the mid-afternoon, with water. (I do this partly because this seems to keep my stomach settled. I have a touchy stomach. Sometimes vegetables by themselves also cause issues, so I eat them as part of a balanced meal.)

[Author]

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