Cycling food

[ourclarioncall]

What are y’all eating n drinking before /during/after cycling. Let’s say you knew your going to be out for a few hours

Any foods you have found really fuel you up and give you energy ? Or not?

Over the years I have experimented with eating and fasting .

The most energy I think I have ever felt was when I started eating extra large salads from morrisons supermarket salad bar.

My “power salads” had 6 eggs, spicy chicken pasta, onion bajis, and just about every type of veg available , carrots, lettuce, tomatoes , coleslaw, peppers , onions, you get the idea

I couldn’t manage it all in one go, so I would eat it over 2 meals. I can’t remember now. But that season of eating habits definitely stood out.

I hear runners like their pasta

[energyman]

Absolutly anything that's edible & has calories !

[ourclarioncall]

I do enjoy finishing a long ride with a takeaway, preferably Indian food ! I’m not really going 30 miles for a bike ride, it’s just to work up an appetite for chicken korma and all the trimmings 😄😄

[JohnR]

I try to keep an eye on my waistline and, until I've got rid of the extra inch added during the winter, I don't stoke up with fuel before a ride but might treat myself to a slice of cake afterwards as the objective is to have burnt off more calories than I have consumed. (Normal practice will be dispensed with during the LEJOG). Pasta is reckoned to be good fuel - fairly quick and easy to digest but a 30 mile ride doesn't justify a special meal. Salads, in my opinion, should be low calorie foods but the ready-made salads can be covered with calories (eg mayonnaise).

People sell expensive energy bars but I'm not convinced they are much better than cheap cereal bars (I always carry some in case of unforeseen emergencies). Perhaps more important if there's the risk of copious sweating are the electrolyte tablets as too much electrolyte loss can be very unpleasant or worse.

If you want to get scientific then get a cycle computer plus a heart rate monitor to get a better estimate of calories burnt (my Garmin Edge reckons I'm using about 50% more calories if I leave the HRM at home). Then try to compare that estimate with the average daily calories consumed.

[John Saxby]

Much longer discussion, but here's a good recipe for home-made energy bars.  This comes from a cyclist in BC, and I've customized it over the years.  (My notes are yellow-highlighted.)

Cheers,  John

[ourclarioncall]

When I used to commute to work I would notice some days I felt so tired and sluggish, no energy to cycle , which made it more of a chore than a pleasure

I don’t know if it’s me, but sometimes it doesn’t matter what I eat , I don’t really feel any more energetic , if I’m in a state as described above .

I think sleep has a MASSIVE effect on things , and not getting enough rest. In the bodybuilding world they talk about overtraining having a detrimental effect. I think there something to be said for the recommend 3 workouts a week with rest days in between, especially as you get older. I’m persuaded  it doesn’t matter how strict you are with calories and healthy eating , lack of sleep or broken sleep can have a negative impact on fat loss. Another interesting point that was made by a power lifter /bodybuilder was he reckons the metabolism is dynamic . So it’s not always as simple as
Calories in v calories out. The metabolism is dynamic and is going to speed up /slow down and adjust to whatever amount of food is given to it. This seems reasonable to me and makes Sense. Bit of a tangent there ! Earlier this year I was eating good and attempted to be a little over my advised calorie needs . My goal was to eat a bit more than i need aswell as for it to be beneficial to the body. If I could consistently gain weight by eating the same foods for the same amounts each week then I would drop it by say 250 calories . Until I finally figure out what I need to maintain my weight and find out what I actually need . Then I could drop it again 250 to try and induce a very slow fat loss of half a pound a week or less. I can’t even remember what happened to that experiment but I must have got sidetracked . I may need to re-visit it again. Part of this was that I want to build a bit of muscle through lifting weights before I get too old and then start losing muscle mass when I’m old (worse for women)

I remember reading about a guy who could perform a massive feat of strength , but he needed a significant number of weeks I think it was before he completely recovered and could repeat the same feat of strength again. If he tried too early he could not repeat it .

But yeah, food. It’s great , especially after a hard days Graft pedalling into the evening

[ourclarioncall]

Eggs , oats , and avacados are some of the best protein /carbs /fats on the planet

I think it would benefit most people to eat multiple eggs every day. It really is a superfood

Oats are supposed to give you steady energy through the day (slow carbs)instead quick fixes like Tins of coke that spike your insulin etc.

But I find slow carbs are not enough for me , I need some fast carbs , some jam, maple syrup , fruit aswell. Or stuff like breads /pasta /rice.

The body can live off  sugars or fat . When your water fasting your body changes fuel sources . It’s like a petrol car being able to run on diesel . Fat is a great fuel , it just burns like a candle . There’s an amazing story of a Scottish guy that was medically fasted for over a year I think it was .body fat just burns steady like a candle during the fast

[steve216c]

I watched a recent report on the iPlayer (sorry cannot remember what the title was) about fitness hi-protein and hi energy food and drinks and if necessary when doing sport. It might have been part of the 'truth about' series- but not 100% certain.

Some of the take outs I recall from several such documentaries watched in the past months are:

1) cheese, milk, eggs generally provide more than enough protein for your body. The added price of 'dedicated' bars gives little to no benefit except financially to the sellers
2) there is a tendency to overestimate the calories one burns doing sport, and to over compensate in the reward snack that often follows physical activity. Result- a lot of fitter but still overweight people who cannot understand why despite high activity levels they cannot shift the weight.

Let me give an example. 45 minutes of aerobics for a man of my weight/age burns around 276 calories. So I reward myself with a Magnum almond ice cream 316 calories. And despite being more sporty than sedentary I added  40 calories to my daily intake. Some workouts might burn less calories and other rewards may have more. But as long as the reward is more calories than the activity, if you goal is not just to get fitter, but to lose a few pounds, then you need to avoid consuming more calories than you burn.

My tip is to eat a balanced diet and NOT to reward yourself with extra 'energy' foods which only give you a quick fix but that are proven to offer little benefit over traditional foods and snacks.
On a tour- slow release foods will keep you going and feeling fuller longer. Fresh fruit for snacks (think 60-100 calories for a banana or apple) is about the same calories of a mini-Mars bar. The former will keep you feeling fuller than the latter. And let's face it. Who can only eat one mini Mars bar when there are so many in the bag?

[PH]

I keep playing with it as different things and ideas take my fancy, but time and again I come back to jam and peanut butter sandwiches on decent white bread, sugars, carbs, protein, in approximately the right mix for cycling.  Add beans on toast at the first cafe stop and a piece of cake at the second, and that's a 300km Audax taken care of except the pint of decent ale at the end as the perfect recovery drink.

[ourclarioncall]

A pint of full fat milk for a recovery drink after a workout works wonders

I stopped drinking cows milk a long time back as we suspected it contributed to a weaker immune system and we think we caught less colds /flus. But not sure

My fav just now is oat milk. We use almond aswell. Tried soya but not a great fan

I returned back to cows milk and remembered how satisfying it is and how much I love it . Much more than fizzy drink.

In the bodybuilding world there is a beginners diet called GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) to quickly gain muscle mass

Eggs and milk. Eggs are for creating life and milk helps feed and nurture that life into maturity.

My last diet I ran with (slightly bodybuilding orientated but would work for everyone) I was eating 6 eggs a day, oats/granola , Greek yoghurt(great protein source and easy to digest or mix with smoothies), a big salad which must include spinach for my varicose veins. Just plain simple fillljmg health satisfying foods that fill me up and make me forget and have no interest in anything sugary.

[ourclarioncall]

PH

I was just have jam sandwiches and then peanut butter sandwiches recently haha. Never mixed them together . First time I’ve had either in a long time.

Yeah beans on toast is a good meals. Beans are a good protein source

[PH]

I was just have jam sandwiches and then peanut butter sandwiches recently haha. Never mixed them together

Try it, you might be surprised, it's apparently a popular thing in the US.
I'm a Graeme Obree fan, he recommends Marmite and mustard sandwiches, they have no nutritional advantage but when you offer to pass them round, no one wants one

[ourclarioncall]

PH

lol 😆 phew , marmite and mustard. That’s in a league of its own along with bovril and rivetta.
The M+M combo would have to be on cheap brown bread to frame the whole concoction for added resistance  😁