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Nutrition timing

Old 11-13-20, 05:28 AM
  #1  
Awesomeguy
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Nutrition timing

During your bike rides , how often do you consume nutrition to prevent a crash/ bonk?

i usually like to go to my rides 20 -30 minutes after a solid meal, but 40-45 minutes into my ride I feel I need something ( should have carbs, but little fat/ protein is ok) the other day I got home after a 45 minute ride and had few dates (2-3/60 calories) and felt lot better ... but I’m wondering if I want to extend my rides to 1.5 -2 hours how should I time it and how much (calories ) to consume ?
What should be the macros in each consumption ?
Should the amount I described be sufficient to hold me over additional 45min to hour without crashing on energy

I also don’t want to over consume as I would like to lose 25 lb, and in general think it’s unenjoyable and counter productive to have to frequently fuel

my friend who goes on 1.5 -2 hour rides consumes Gatorade through his ride but I don’t know if I like that idea
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Old 11-13-20, 05:46 AM
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just bring water, eating while riding is not necessary, unless you are going to be out all day, otherwise its pointless honestly and counterproductive if you want to burn fat
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Old 11-13-20, 06:29 AM
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I usually eat nothing on rides up to 2.5h, if I've eaten within an hour before the ride. On longer rides I try to eat something every hour or so. If you are going to do 1.5-2h rides and lose some weight, eating during the ride is not necessary. It's good to have something sugary with you though, just in case you feel the bonk coming.
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Old 11-13-20, 09:25 AM
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what you ate the previous 24 hours is fine. No need to fuel up while riding unless you get into hour 3 or 4
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Old 11-13-20, 10:03 AM
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Originally Posted by Awesomeguy
During your bike rides , how often do you consume nutrition to prevent a crash/ bonk?

i usually like to go to my rides 20 -30 minutes after a solid meal, but 40-45 minutes into my ride I feel I need something ( should have carbs, but little fat/ protein is ok) the other day I got home after a 45 minute ride and had few dates (2-3/60 calories) and felt lot better ... but I’m wondering if I want to extend my rides to 1.5 -2 hours how should I time it and how much (calories ) to consume ?
What should be the macros in each consumption ?
Should the amount I described be sufficient to hold me over additional 45min to hour without crashing on energy

I also don’t want to over consume as I would like to lose 25 lb, and in general think it’s unenjoyable and counter productive to have to frequently fuel

my friend who goes on 1.5 -2 hour rides consumes Gatorade through his ride but I don’t know if I like that idea
Eat as much as you feel the need to, as often as needed. If you eat in small portions frequently and chew your food slowly it shouldn't be a problem.

if you want to consistently maintain a reasonably low body fat percentage while still being able to enjoy eating in abundance, you gotta incorporate resistance training into your routine. It tremeoudlsy helps with biking endurance. Do bodyweight excersises as well as resistance band stuff.
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Old 11-13-20, 10:04 AM
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Gatorade has far too much sugar in it.
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Old 11-13-20, 10:06 AM
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Sugars give me energy.
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Old 11-13-20, 10:09 AM
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Totally depends on when my ride is. In general though, for a 2 hour ride ill bring a granola bar and/or applesauce packet and sometimes use it, but sometimes not.
If I ride in the middle of the day, I might plan a stop halfway thru the ride for some food if its a 3-4 hour ride.

There is no right or wrong way since it totally depends on multiple factors.
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Old 11-13-20, 11:53 AM
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You shouldn't need anything extra vs what you normally eat during the day. The only thing I consume on rides of 1.5-2 hours is water. This morning I went on a 1.5 hour ride after just drinking a big glass of water (straight out of the kitchen tap, too!), the last time I ate anything was last night dinner.
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Old 11-13-20, 03:53 PM
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already consuming more than you might need for the extended ride.
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Old 11-13-20, 04:35 PM
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There is no right or wrong when it comes to when you eat, how much you eat and what type of food you choose to eat. You just need to experiment and figure out what works best for your needs.
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Old 11-13-20, 06:06 PM
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1.5 hours is about how long the glycogen stores will last for a regular person riding hard while fasted. If you've already had a meal, then topping off after 1.5-2 hours is fine but not really necessary. For rides longer than that, it depends on the intensity. Go hard enough and you'll be burning more calories than you can digest, with the rest of what you ingest just sitting in your stomach. That is why eating a bit at a time, constantly is the general advice for hard, extended riding.

People who can go 3+ hours without eating and bonking are not riding very hard, but are metabolizing fat, which can be desirable as long as you give your body time to become fat-adapted (our bodies are much more inclined to crave carbs as easy energy). But that's just one way to ride. You can still become fat-adapted even if you eat, as long as you run a calorie deficit.
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Old 11-13-20, 06:15 PM
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I don't go by time. I bring food but often enough I won't eat it unless I feel like I'm crashing. Everyone's different.
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Old 11-13-20, 07:09 PM
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Originally Posted by caloso
I don't go by time. I bring food but often enough I won't eat it unless I feel like I'm crashing. Everyone's different.
The first aid kit comes in handy after the crash.
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Old 11-13-20, 10:54 PM
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It depends on what kind of food and how much and the interval before the ride. If you have a cup of coffee and a piece of dry toast before you ride, you may very well need to carry a granola bar on a one to two hour ride. If you have bacon, eggs and hash browns you will only need water. Like I said it all depends on intake and duration before and the length of the ride.

The only time I have seriously bonked (includes tunnel vision) was mile 95 on a double century. After consuming copious quantities of calories (no chicken embryos) I finished the ride.
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Old 11-13-20, 11:14 PM
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My 100 mile Breakfast
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Old 11-14-20, 12:40 AM
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Looks to be on the scale of a genuine Irish breakfast.
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Old 11-14-20, 02:36 AM
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Doing time-restricted eating (TRE), I try for a longer fast before riding ( or Concept2 Model D rowing ). Water only during my rides. Black coffee is no problem before.

.
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Old 11-14-20, 05:28 AM
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Unless you are talking about racing, agree with Surak's advice - assuming you are drinking enough water, you are never going to actually bonk after 45 - 90 minutes of riding in normal conditions. If you start doing 1.5 hour rides, I bet after doing a few you will not feel like you need energy at 45 minutes - you will begin to acclimate to the longer rides. You have plenty of energy in your system to fuel that long a ride but everyone's mileage does vary - especially if crazy heat or wind or hills are involved.

The standard advice is that for rides longer than that you need between 30 - 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour to be added. Your second water bottle can be a sports drink that has carbohydrates and you can eat some. For example, a 20 oz bottle of Vitamin Water (not the Zero kind) has 33 grams of carbs and a package of 2 Fig Newtons has 22. That is usually I carry on "normal" rides that are going to last longer than 2 hours. Crazy heat or crazy hilly rides I drink more, so those time get shorter.

There is no need to eat enough to replace the calories you are burning. Calorie burning is a very murky area but here are some rough calculations I've found work for me: at 15 mph/hour I'm burning about 40 calories per mile or 600 calories per hour. 60 grams of carbohydrates is 240 calories - even the high end of the recommendations for normal people (90 grams of carbs) is only 360 calories. At higher speeds, the carb intake recommendation go up because the burn rate goes up but for a 3 hour 45 mile ride where I burn something like 1800 calories, I am fine when I ingest just the 330 calories that are in the Vitamin Water and Fig Newtons - as long as I've been drinking enough water, too.

I've cycled for a long time that way and my body is OK with burning fat and I carry plenty with me! Again, Your Metabolism May Vary - try doing a few 1.5 hour rides without eating and see if the "I need some energy" point starts getting later and later in the ride.

For weight loss purposes, you should underestimate the calories you burn riding - it is not hard to eat too much and just break even on a bike ride!
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Old 11-14-20, 05:19 PM
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I also have to agree with Surak's advice. For shorter rides there's no need to eat, but once you ride longer than 1.5 -2 hours you might want to refuel your body.
I use the following rule when going on longer rides -> once I'm over 2hrs riding I eat 200calories an hour to keep my energy level up.
Usually I have an oath bar on me and a package of gummi bears for some quick sugars. =)

But then again, you should listen to your body. if you need an energy boost after 45min, just eat a (healthy) snack. Remember we're all different and have different needs.
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Old 11-17-20, 01:17 AM
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Depends entirely on how hard I'm going.

Basically, your ability to metabolize fat goes down as lactate goes up, reaching zero at VO2max intensity. If it's a hard ride near or at threshold, you're not only expending more per hour, you're also metabolizing less fat, and consequently without eating, you start to fade and then at one point you're toast. If going easy on the other hand, then just the occasional bite every hour is fine.

For those who measure power, every 100W is 360 kcal / hr not counting in basic metabolic expenditure, so at 200W it is already 720 kcal/hr, and so on.
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