Re Branko D's observations above:
"Even dwarfs started small" (Werner Herzog of course). As Branko says, good on ya. I think all of us who came to riding late go through this thing of "have to have carbs." It's great that you're posting your rides on Strava because kJ roughly equals calories burned, as long as your stats which you entered into Strava are correct. It'll still vary with the wind. Any ride on a windy day will have a higher burn. Strava seems to account for elevation gain correctly. For many years I used Strava's estimates. After I got a power meter, I saw about the same numbers.
I have always eaten about half my burn. It's slower to build up fat burning ability this way, but it does steadily improve, plus you get to have fun on your bike while that's happening. I think it's fine for experienced expert riders to ride without eating. They already have an excellent fat burning ability and are simply trying to improve on it. They ride just fine on fat and glycogen, but starting out, that isn't the case.
I remember my first 50 mile ride, where after 30 miles I found myself sitting in a ditch watching the world go 'round. I'd bonked because I didn't eat. I ate a Clif bar and 10' later was good to go, no further problems. Then there was the time I was trying to ride my first century, solo. At about 75 miles, I was again sitting in a ditch, a grown man crying. I ate. One gets experience by screwing up. The longer you ride, the more times you'll screw up, and the more experience you acquire. Randonneurs say that when anything goes wrong, the first thing you do is eat, and no one burns fat as well as a randonneur.
My method was continually trying to ride further on one ride/week. At first I was also a prisoner of the flat. Hill intimidated me. But after I could ride a century of mostly flat, I started hitting the hills and discovered I could ride hills after all. Hills are what bike riding is really all about. Sounds crazy, but that's how it is. At some point, nothing else works you hard enough to generate improvement. I don't think you'd be posting here if you didn't want improvement.
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Results matter