Cycling Diet advice

mccutchie

Hey Guys,

I'm new to cycling and recently purchased a road bike. For the last 2 weeks now I have been cycling early in the morning, roughly around 15 km 4 days a week.
I need advice on what I should be eating & drinking before, during and after the cycle. I have not started to take any specific drinks or protein shakes as I'm not 100% sure what to take and when. I have noticed over the last day or so, i've felt a bit run down and i'm probably not refueling as I should.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

mccutchie

tunney

A banana, or other piece of fruit, during or before the cycle would be my recommendation.

Lumen

I think there is a limited amount you can do to improve recovery when starting cycling. All the fancy recovery drinks in the world are not going to change the fact that your body needs time to recuperate.

That said....porridge before, bananas during, milk and starchy food afterwards.

My favourite is a big veggie curry, rice and naan washed down with full fat milk.

Ant

It strikes me that 15km cycles four days a week shouldn't be leaving a beginner cyclist tired - unless you're cycling the four days in a row without any rest days in between.

It's possible that you're not a morning person (like me) and find it hard to eat a big breakfast beforehand. I usually go for porridge with mixed fruit and chopped banana. When I feel like treating myself, I might make some batter the night before and have wholemeal waffles with a banana topping. (Like Lumen and tunney, I'm a big fan of bananas).

If you've eaten beforehand, you shouldn't have to be eating on the bike until after about 25km or 1 hour. For longer cycles, I'd recommend - again - bananas and Nutri-grain cereal bars. After your cycle, I'd recommend eating anything you like that's rich in protein (but not too fatty).

This question has been asked before and you'll find some interesting answers from regular Boardsies. If you start getting more serious, there's some good advice from one of Ireland's finest cyclists.

Toblerone1978

After the spin get plenty of water into ya and if you were sweating hard, get some salt in to avoid cramps.

mccutchie

Thanks for the advice guys, very helpful.

IM0

tbh for the moment while your cycling 15km, you dont need any special diet/drink or even to eat during the ride, riding for 2-6hrs+ is a totally different story. Basically anything other than an empty stomach will do fine, eat as you normally would.

Highway_To_Hell

me@ucd wrote: »

tbh for the moment while your cycling 15km, you dont need any special diet/drink or even to eat during the ride, riding for 2-6hrs+ is a totally different story. Basically anything other than an empty stomach will do fine, eat as you normally would.

+ 1

Most people who cummute to work/college on a bike would do about 10-15k and would only have breakfast before leaving the house. For my commute I have half a grapefruit before leaving and a bowl of porridge in work, don't carry any drink with me as my bike won't take a bottle cage.

Harrybelafonte

I cycle similar distance for commute, I just make sure to have breakfast and a small snack maybe an hour before heading off?

buzzingnoise

Highway_To_Hell wrote: »

+ 1

Most people who cummute to work/college on a bike would do about 10-15k and would only have breakfast before leaving the house. For my commute I have half a grapefruit before leaving and a bowl of porridge in work, don't carry any drink with me as my bike won't take a bottle cage.

if you want to lose weight and ramp up your metabolism for the whole day and consequently lose even more weight, eat nothing!!!
two glasses of cold water to wake you up and keep hunger and dehydration away. eat your banana/breakfast in work/school after.
Fair play for doing 15km every morning but unless you are really bombing it you dont need to change anything.
you will be grand after a few weeks.

anoble66

if your hungry your metabolism slows, it doesnt speed up.

buzzingnoise wrote: »

if you want to lose weight and ramp up your metabolism for the whole day and consequently lose even more weight, eat nothing!!!
two glasses of cold water to wake you up and keep hunger and dehydration away. eat your banana/breakfast in work/school after.
Fair play for doing 15km every morning but unless you are really bombing it you dont need to change anything.
you will be grand after a few weeks.

buzzingnoise

anoble66 wrote: »

if your hungry your metabolism slows, it doesnt speed up.

But if you exercise it speeds up!!!! We are not talking about starvation. You eat after,when your body needs it, that's the difference. If you want to lose weight, you don't need a banana, pure carbohydrate, before you do 15km, you will just burn it on the cycle. You need to create a situation where you burn more calories than you consume.

chakattack

I'm going to disagree with all the "ah you'll be grand" or "just drink water" advice above based on my own experience as a beginner.

Most of us probably forget what it feels like to be wrecked from a 15-20k commute and now only need recovery drinks (whey + milk + banana + flax seed for me) after a 2hr+ spin.

I remember when I started commuting I was getting run down just like what you're saying despite eating healthily. I was coming from a background of gym exercise and what worked for me then...plenty of protein and veg and moderate carbs limited to the first half of the day was no longer working. I wasn't eating enough carbs in the evening to recover properly and my porridge for breakfast was too slow to release energy so I was running on empty in the mornings.

Try upping your carbs...don't go overboard but eat something fairly fast release like a bagel or cornflakes before you leave and try bringing some lucozade sport for the cycle.

The general before, during and after advice outlined above works well but don't up the amount you normally eat hugely just yet.

I suppose it depends on your goals. Do you want to cycle to lose weight as soon as possible or do you want to cycle to improve at cycling and go progressively further and faster (while losing weight)?

mccutchie

Guys thanks for all the advice. For the moment i'm cycling 15 km, next week I'll be upping it to 20 km and so on. My purpose for cycling is to keep fit, weight isnt really an issue. Long term I'd like to do some charity cycles etc.
What I have found though is that my appitite has really increased and I wanted to be sure I was eating the right food, as I was feeling a bit run down, hence my post.

chakattack

mccutchie wrote: »

Guys thanks for all the advice. For the moment i'm cycling 15 km, next week I'll be upping it to 20 km and so on. My purpose for cycling is to keep fit, weight isnt really an issue. Long term I'd like to do some charity cycles etc.
What I have found though is that my appitite has really increased and I wanted to be sure I was eating the right food, as I was feeling a bit run down, hence my post.

Keep up the good work. Listen to your body...eat good wholesome food to satisfy your appetite, drink plenty of water and get plenty of sleep. Don't be afraid to take an extra day off if needs be.

Sign up for an event in the middle of the summer as a goal.

Hermy

Lumen wrote: »

That said....porridge before, bananas during, milk and starchy food afterwards.

My favourite is a big veggie curry, rice and naan washed down with full fat milk.

@Lumen

Why is milk good after a long spin?

sxt

A tall glass of water beforehand as well helps to make sure your hydrated enough. I like to plop one of those vit c tablets in for taste.

Lumen

Hermy wrote: »

@Lumen

Why is milk good after a long spin?

It makes the curry taste better.

Hermy

Lumen wrote: »

It makes the curry taste better.

Good answer.:D

furiousox

When I get back from my 50k spin, my Garmin's telling me I've burned off 2000 calories.
Is that accurate?
Seems a lot of calories to lose over a 2hr spin.

DirkVoodoo

Probably about half that in reality.

Beasty

furiousox wrote: »

When I get back from my 50k spin, my Garmin's telling me I've burned off 2000 calories.
Is that accurate?
Seems a lot of calories to lose over a 2hr spin.

Garmin calories are cheaper than real ones

You need to multiply a Garmin calorie by around 60% to get a real one

(Garmin ones feel better though - I often get through 1,500 an hour:D)

jdt101

furiousox wrote: »

When I get back from my 50k spin, my Garmin's telling me I've burned off 2000 calories.
Is that accurate?
Seems a lot of calories to lose over a 2hr spin.

This function is wrong on the Garmin's. I have a 705, I think 2000 = 1340, if that makes sense, so multiply by 0.67.

On recovery drinks, I don't use any. One/two gels during a race thats it. Even on ROK no special drinks or gels. Robinsons Orange & Water.

jdt101

furiousox wrote: »

When I get back from my 50k spin, my Garmin's telling me I've burned off 2000 calories.
Is that accurate?
Seems a lot of calories to lose over a 2hr spin.

7,198 calories...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5104929

furiousox

"YOU LYING LITTLE WH0RE!!!" :mad:

(Flings Garmin over back wall.....)

biomed32

hey dude fair play. i know how it feels to start off, although i did it totally wrong. my best advice to you is to keep to a regular routine, vary your routes and at best i find eating a banana before a cycle does me grand, i also like to keep a bottle of water or sugar free orange squash with me on the bike, realistically you dont really need to eat on a 15k cycle but when you get in i would suggest a further bananna/apple/grapes etc and plenty fluids and for lunch having a light salad with chicken or tuna. once you ramp up your distances you can as people have been saying take food out on the cycle, i like odlums bars with honey or the humble nutrigrain bar. i tend not to drink sports drinks at all unless its a real long cycle (roughly 60+k). talking from experience and from doing it all wrong it does get easier and you tend to feel better and more energised once your body gets used to cycling:)

ednwireland

Nutrition: Why milk is a cycling super-drink

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/fitness/article/nutrition-why-milk-is-a-cycling-super-drink-25698

IM0

ednwireland wrote: »

Nutrition: Why milk is a cycling super-drink

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/fitness/article/nutrition-why-milk-is-a-cycling-super-drink-25698

science needs to have some kind of drip feed hold filter on 'discoveries' say five years..so that by the time we hear about it we can laugh at it as something new which completely contradicts it will have come out in the mean time

</general observation on 'discoveries'>