Originally Posted by
work4bike
I Inadvertently started intermittent fasting when I started my 2006 Appalachian Trail (AT) thru-hike. I felt like crap in the beginning, because I was taking in far fewer calories than I was burning throughout the day of hiking up and down the Appalachian mountains. I usually hit a town anywhere between 1 & 2 weeks, so I had to carefully ration my meals, since you can carry only so much food.
After a few weeks I was feeling better and better, i.e. stronger and stronger, but my basic diet never changed. This impressed me so much I looked into it after the hike and that's when I learned about intermittent fasting. That's basically what one is forced to do when hiking day-after-day in the mountains, while rationing food.
I now to this purposefully. It's very common for me start on a 40+ mile ride in the morning without eating any food and I don't eat any thing during my rides, including gels and sports drinks -- only water. That would have been unthinkable before and I probably would have hit the wall, because my body was never trained to do that.
I do believe intermittent fasting and eating very healthy home-grown foods are so important to our health, more than most people know..
Read
Thirst.
https://www.amazon.com/Thirst-2600-M...dp/B07MXNHSLY/
My wife and I read it to each other during our 10-day backpack this past September.
There's also this:
The section I'm referring to starts at 24 minutes.
These guys are talking about my exact on-bike nutrition program which I've followed for the past 20 years to so, except they still haven't figured out the exact per hour quantity: It's 50% of my per-hour kilojoules. The video did wake me up to the fact that I need to do the same thing on my short rides and indoor trainer sessions. I recover faster if I do. There's been a lot ink spilled about post-ride recovery drinks. I think if one does on-bike nutrition properly they aren't worthwhile until one gets up over 2000 kJ on a ride.