Cycling hunger...
 

Carbs before and during the ride, protein after.

Also I'd guess some of this is your body reacting to a new activity. It'll probably normalize.

You aren't confusing thirst for hunger are you. You didn't mention anything about hydration. Thirty miles of riding in the heat we are having here will be two 24oz. bottles and maybe a little more for my riding.

Thx for your reply. I vaguely considered that. Now that I'm reading it, it makes more sense. I never expected anything like this and it's disheartening eating so many calories so quickly after a great workout. I guess as long as I keep riding consistently that I'll still come out on the better side. It's harder to moderate the calories after having such a massive burn. I guess I better dig deeper into my diet and track things closer so I can understand it as I start to acclimate.

30 miles = 50 km.

If you burn 100 calories every 5 km, approximately, then over 50 km, you probably would have burned 1000 calories.

Feel free to eat as many of those 1000 calories you want!

If you're trying to gain weight, you'll probably want to eat more.
If you're trying to maintain, enjoy every calorie of the 1000.
If you're trying to lose, you might want to reign it in at 500 or 750 or so.

Are you keeping track of the calories you consume?

What did you eat before the ride?

I tend to agree and find that a casein protein shake after a ride helps assuage hunger.

Hunger can linger into the next day after really big rides and sometimes a shake the next morning helps satiate the appetite.


-Tim-

related, got curious & found this bike/calorie calculator

https://caloriesburnedhq.com/calories-burned-biking/

I find that after a long ride, it takes a whole day ( worst case) for my hunger to return. I never want to eat during or after i ride long or hard. i have to force it. ( the weird thing is that i am a classic overeater /f at guy. no will power nor craving control... but after a ride, nada)!

How are you figuring 2100 kcal?

What was I harping about in the other forum topic, and nobody wanted to hear it? Lol.

I'm the same way. After a good weight workout I'm barely hungry, if at all. But after cycling, I'm extremely hungry, especially for carbs. It requires all my willpower to stay on track. What helps me the most is to eat while I'm riding. There are a lot of rides where I could easily complete the ride without food. Problem with that is I then need about double the calories afterward to give me the same level of satiety!

For a quick fix, try eating a little more during your rides and see if that helps. For a longer term strategy, make sure you're keeping a food log/diary/journal of everything you try, so once you get it right, you'll have a record of it.

When you ride your body burns a combination of carbs and fat depending on the intensity of your ride. The higher the intensity the higher the % of carbs burned. If you ride all-out for an hour you'll be burning close to 100% carbs. For myself, hunger seems related to how many carbs I burn.

As your fitness improves your body will adjust to burn a higher % of fats while riding at moderate intensity. A reasonable test is being able to ride at a reasonable pace for 3-4 hrs without eating and still feel decent at the end of a ride. You might try lowering the intensity of your rides and see if that affects your hunger. As others have mentioned, you're likely overestimating how many calories your burning. Many estimators based on HR are off by as much as 100%. For reference I weight around 75kg and burn approx 40Cals/mi based on powermeter readings which provide a fairly close estimate of energy used. If you're not trying to lose weight you'll need to replace the calories you burn otherwise you're going to feel hungry.

Yeah, it seems a bit.......optimistic?

I've never felt hungry during a ride or shortly after one. At least not to the point of craving food. I do find that if all I do are short (for me) 20 mile rides that I tend to eat more at meal time and snack more in between. Perhaps to the extent of negating the Calories I burned riding.

Longer rides seem to fair much better. I supposed just the additional time involved uses up the time that while not cycling, I'd be grabbing some thing to put in my belly. Also, since I actually did burn more Calories on the longer rides of 35 to 45 miles I can eat larger portions at meal time.

DSFDF i'm sure.

Keep at it and things will work out just fine. :thumb: :thumb: As for myself, just glad this 69yo geezer doesn't have to keep track of anything other than to "keep on breathing, keep on breathing."

Best advice, My experience is the same. Get your body tuned to make better use of available nutrients. Takes time to adapt. If hunger after the ride is making you gain weight, seemingly unavoidably, during the adaptive process try eating more carbs, and only carbs, on the bike, not less. That will make you less hungry after. As you begin to feel better, gradually cut back on the on-bike carbs until you get to zero for 30 miles, but based on your post-ride hunger. That'll take a while.

You'll need more protein if your legs hurt on the bike, otherwise not. A handful of walnuts is a very effective post-ride hunger stopper and they're good for you.

I weigh 70kg. On a recent 153 mile, 10,000', 10 hour ride I burned ~4100 calories, based on my power meter. Because of the ride length, I rode as hard as I could which was not that hard, and ate ~1500 calories on the bike, less than half my burn. As Greg says, I can easily ride 3 hours, even hard, without eating and not be particularly hungry after. Drink lots, though.

I'm also starving after I ride. I used to ride three times a week and lift three days a week, with one day off. As I've aged and had injury after injury, I ride twice and lift twice, take another day off, and on the last day, do something lighter like pilates or barre. I lost 20 lbs and it wasn't that hard !!!

This is what works for me although I generally do not crave solid food during a ride. In a recent book on sports nutrition, the authors recommended keeping up with calorie needs during the ride and avoiding a calorie deficit. I have been consuming calories in a sport drink from Hammer Nutrition at the rate of about 150 calories per hour. I'm able to finish a 5-6 hour ride and not be famished. there are numerous sport nutrition book available. Find one specific to cycling or other endurance sport and good luck.

Spot checks suggest that can be 50-100% high.

25-35 kcal/mile is a more reasonable assumption without better data.

1 Watt = 1 joule/second, so 100W in 1 hour = 360,000 joules or 360kj.

1 Calorie = 4.2kj although cycling metabolic efficiency is never better than 25% so you can approximate 4 Calories in = 4.2kj out and round to 1 Calorie in = 1 kj out.

On "flat" terrain out-and-back using a power meter with +/-1.5% accuracy I measure about 100W averaging 15 MPH for 360 Calories / hour and 24 / mile; 150W at 18 MPH for 540 Calories / hour and 32 / mile; and 200W at 20 MPH for 720 Calories / hour and 36 / mile.

That calculator might be somewhat accurate if your not used to riding but if u are somewhat fit and ride enough u will burn about 30 cal a mile . The more fit u are even less maybe 25 a mile.