fooferdoggie 

ok I need to tell you about my wacky body as it is not even close to normal.

first I can't eat carbs of any kind but in tiny amounts. they cause a lot of problems the worst is a lifetime of heartburn really bad heart burn. like your worst heartburn 24/7 for years heart burn. Also they cause me to gain weight even if I cut calories say if I ate a candy bar I would gain 2 pounds the next day and it would take all week to loose that weight. if I do it twice in a week I wont loose it at all. Plus I don't get much energy from carbs either I may get a little but it is not much. it also causes other issues if I eat it all the time like lost muscle and a lot of weakness. I think it is some genetic thing as stomach problems run in our family on the male side. my brother has some of the same problems.

I also have these weird food intolerance's that I think happened about 25 years ago from way too many antibiotics that destroyed my gut bacterial for a few years. this has forced me to eat mostly only protein only with some veggies that don't have much of any carbs. but it also limits spices seasonings and pretty much anything new, not sure of the details but I think I was taking vitamins when this started and I have been able to take them. I can also take some fiber pills as long as I don't take too many because of carbs.



my esophagus got trashed with 57 years of heartburn and it is super sensitive now. Every medication I tried for my gut or to help my esophagus causes it to hurt worse. Along with carbs anything acidic anything spicy or sour. even breathing through a mask makes it ache. It runs my life and I will do whatever it takes to keep it from getting worse.

so only strict control of what I eat keeps me healthy and active. but all my energy mostly comes from protein. My esophagus hurts with fats like oils and cream and other really fatty foods. I cant do like the keto people do and eat a lot of fat. most of my fat comes from cheese or fatty meats. the strange thing is even though I am super low carb my body does not go into ketosis. the nutritionist thinks my body converts excess protein into glucose. But why knows? my blood tests are pretty normal even my cholesterol is only a tiny bit high but that's after a bacon and egg breakfast.



Ok I wanted to get all this info out so I don't have to constantly post about it. my body has beaten me into submission over this and I cant change it no matter how badly I want to. I think if I stay away from carbs I will get better and I can eat veggies more often but I don't really know and it is a slow process. once a week I may splurge on some carbs a like a flourlesss chocolate cake or such no grains just sugar. but if I just eat that I will be tried for hours. I find if I eat it as I start a long ride it is ok. it still causes issues but its usually ok if I don't do it more then once a week.

so around November last year I wanted to get around better then my e scooter or the bus. at this time my energy levels kinda sucked. they have been much worse but I was stuck with just enough energy to make it through the workday and not much left. Years ago riding a bike helped a lot and I wanted to do it again but I knew I could not peddle a regular bike at more then maybe 10mph. on a 9.5 mile commute each way this is way to slow. I discovered e bikes. I went on test rides and I really had fun on a bike that I lost years ago from this sickness. I am always on my feet and according to my apple watch I walk about 5 or more miles a day.

so I get the e bike a very nice bosch powered bike that only runs if you peddle. for the first three months all I could do was spin with almost no effort ( I just got it setup to show the wattage I put out) and I bet most of the time it was only 70 watts for the most part. any push at all and I would get tried almost instantly and I would be wobbly after the ride.

slowly I was able to work more and more and I was able to go from turbo to the next level down assist and keep my 20 to 22mph top speed. my average speed increased from 16mph to around 17.5 to 19 on a really good day. I would ride 20 to 25 miles per day and maybe 30 to 40 over the weekends. Then 3 months ago my wife and I got a e tandem. so now I ride between 220 and 240 miles a week.

if I am feeling good I can average 180 watts for my 9.5 mile ride each way but that's a lot of work. I am more likely to be able to maintain 160 watts on the two rides a day. I don't work as hard on the tandem as my wife is not upto it though sometimes we can cruse at 20 with no motor helping. according to my bike that has my watt output ,heart rate and speed and Candace I tend to burn 350 or a bit less calories and my Garmin that has all the same but the wattage is close maybe 50 calories off. all my daily riding shows about 800 to 1000 calories burned.

ok my diet before I started riding was around 2200 to 2400 calories a day. I don't eat packaged foods so I don't know exactly. but that kept my weight the same around 186 but I needed more food with all the riding. but I cant increase my calories that much I just don't have room. all I really have to go by is hunger it takes so long to get the energy from protein its hard to tell how it effects my energy levels with the amount I eat.
I don't know how I can tell how many calories I need or if I am burning as many as the computer tells me. I think I have added around 600 or so more calories. Some days I feel more tired then others and I don’t always know if it was what I ate or if I worked too hard or did not eat enough. The while eating thing is a huge burden on me that makes eating less then fun most of the time.