To stay at my current weight, my base calories per day are about 2.600 calories. On workout days I obviously need a lot more (e.g. 700-1000 calories more depending on what workout I do). Most of my workouts are done at night (after my kids went to bed) and I notice it’s hard to eat enough to compensate for all the calories I burned during the day and during the workout.
Eating 700 calories or more after 9pm in the evening doesn’t sit well with me, because it messes with my sleep and I can’t even get down that much food because I’m not really that hungry.
And during the day I’m usually pretty full from my regular meals and have a hard time getting more food down without feeling bloated.
I’m afraid that not eating enough calories to compensate all burned calories will have negative effects on my recovery.
So, long story short, what would be a good, practical strategy to eat enough calories to promote recovery and sustain current weight?
Should I just eat more during the day? And if so, what kind of foods would be suitable without feeling bloated? Should I add carbs to my drink for during the workout (even though I don’t need them to fuel the workout itself)? Should I do a high calorie proteinshake post-workout and do less solid food after, perhaps making it easier to sleep?
Just looking for practical tips, since I’m quite unexperienced with nutrition in general.
Thanks!
Make sure you have a full meal 3 to 4 hours before your workout. Then taking as much liquid calories on the bike as you can. 100+ grams of carbs per hour. I would train your gut to handle even more. Immediately off the bike, I would go with a recovery shake. Start off each morning with a proper breakfast that includes enough protein
Thanks for replying. Got any recommendations regarding a good, digestable (and hopefully with a good price/quality ratio) brand for adding liquid calories to my drink?
Only thing I’ve used before (for longer outdoor rides in hot conditions) are the SIS GO Hydro tablets, but that was only for elektrolytes, not so much for adding carbs.
Yes, super cheap and easy. I’ve been using the following for the past 2 years. Sugar, Gatorade powder (for flavor) sodium citrate. I do 110-120g per hour for every workout. I do 80+ grams sugar and 30g gatorade. I have scoopers that measure the exact amount, so it’s just a scoop of each in warm water. You can mix in warm water before, leave in the fridge and have it ready to go.
I agree with @MI-XC. Make sure you focus on fueling during and around your workouts. Replacing the calories immediately after the workout is not necessary. Instead, you should be thinking about your total caloric needs and come up with a plan for how you will achieve that daily.
I’d suggest you start by tracking your nutrition so that you know how far you are from your overall caloric needs, and where there is room to improve. Once you have calculated your overall caloric needs and your macro-nutrient targets, think about how you are going to achieve that throughout the day. You can make small changes throughout the day that will make a big difference.
As @MI-XC mentioned, gradually improving your ability to consume nutrition on the bike will also help. The cheapest option is to make your own drink mix. Bearing in mind, this was posted a few years ago, Jonathan’s example of how to make your own drink mix may help. You can adjust the ratio and amount as needed. Research suggest that consuming fructose and glucose at a ratio 0.8:1 is associated with the highest rates of carbohydrate oxidation.
All of the above sounds like a good solution. Eat a mid day snack on workout days, drink some carbs during the workout, and have a protein shake afterwards.
No it’s a lot easier for me to put on weight compared to losing it
I just went from 91kg back to 85kg’s (just by using the myfitnesspal app and reducing calorie intake) between the start of August and the end of October, but didn’t really think about properly fueling my workouts and how to approach it on a day to day basis.
I just tried to eat more on workout days in a rather random fashion.
But now I want to go next level with fueling / nutrition while keeping my weight the same.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Sarah, much appreciated!
Currently I’m using the myfitnesspal app to track nutrition and based on my entries and data so far (it takes my Garmin data as input too) it says I need about 2.600 calories daily to maintain my current weight (around 85kg / 187lbs at 192cm / 6ft 4) with 326gr carbs, 87gr fat and 131gr protein. Obv. the nutritional demands are higher on days that I do a workout.
So that’s what I’m aiming at. Would you say that’s an effective way? Or do you know of better alternatives? Right now I’m basically relying on an app
Regardless, I will definitely start experimenting with fueling on the bike and take recovery drinks/shakes instead of plain tap water. Very curious whether that will increase my overall performance
I would try to eat more carbs, that’s really not enough
If you have hard days, aim for 2g/kg carbs per meal for that day, hard days can either be high intensity or long days.
For easy days, 1.5g/kg is enough for each meal
I would try to go a bit easier on the fat, there is a lot of fat in your diet, and since fat contains 4 times as many calories per gram, than carbs, the calories add up.
So lower the fat, up the carbs.
And also, if you up the carbs properly off the bike, you don’t need to do 100g/hr on the bike. 80g/hr is plenty if you eat enough before and after the rides.
I’m curious - is the 2600 from a calculator or empirical based on tracking? I ask because I started a weight loss journey with a cycling nutritionist and we started with a calculator that put me at about 2200, and I’m a similar weight to when you started (I went form about 85kg down to 75kg). I’ve also had my BMR tested and that sits around 1650.
As for food, a good smoothie with some oats, a banana and some honey can be a good pre workout meal (say 20-30 minutes before) and it’s too heavy on the stomach.
The 2.600 calories per day as a base is purely based on what the algorithm of myfitnesspal told me. I’m 85kg now and 192cm tall (so that gives me a BMI of 23.1). When I wanted to lose weight (from 91.5kg down to my current weight) it gave me a calorie goal of 2100 calories (which proved to be ‘correct’, since I actually lost the weight). In that sense, 2600 doesn’t sound to far off for my height and weight, but I’m just relying on myfitnesspal and my experiences thusfar.
2.600 calories doesn’t feel like I’m overeating and doesn’t make me gain weight (for now at least), so in that sense it’s now not only the algorithm but also empirical. But I’m a complete novice with this nutritional stuff, so I can’t tell for sure that 2.600 is correct.
I just want to add that weight loss and fitness improvements are generally a bad idea to do at the same time. If you want to get faster on the bike, youll need to eat properly, and it’ll be really hard to lose weight at the same time.
You can of course be in a deficit, but it has to be insanely precise to make sure you keep carbs and protein up, and keep fat down.
In my experience, the number one thing to keep in mind if you are trying to not gain weight, is to not eat foods that have high fat mixed with your high carb intake after your workout in the evening. The higher insulin from the carbs will tell your body to store fat, and the carbs you’d been eating will be first used for fuel (and any leftover stored in the muscles after exercise), so you don’t want to have a bunch of fat to store while you are sleeping.
It took me a long time to get my calorie balance all figured out with all the exercise and macro needs (in great part because of the continual increase in hours per week and power/wattage per ride as ftp has increased), but eating ice cream or some chocolate in the evening (after a big bike day) seemed to quickly undo any losses I’d had during that week. So, I tried eating my ice cream right after the ride (at lunchtime/early afternoon), and my day-to-day weight swing has stabilized quite a bit, and I’m losing weight pretty consistently over the last month.
It’s not even a consideration . Quality ice cream is a good source of fat, carbs, and protein. And I’m not eating it every day or anything, just 1 or 2 times a week after a 2000+ calorie ride.
Based on this conversation, here are some principles I suggest you follow, as a starting point:
1.4-1.8 grams per kg of Body Weight of protein per day
At least 1.2 grams of fat per kg of Body Weight per day (to support hormonal health).
Fill in the rest with carbohydrates.
Metabolism varies from person to person, over time, and in response to a host of different external factors (changes in training volume and intensity being a couple of many reasons your nutritional needs could change). Dialing in your optimal carbohydrate intake will take a little trial and error.
In terms of what “the rest” is, start at figuring out your basal metabolic rate, then adjust up or down depending on training performance, energy levels, and weight changes.
Ah yes, that’s so helpful. I already listened to that episode, but thought it was rather complicated stuff, so will check it again.
How would one go about figuring out a basal metabolic rate? (I’ll go ask ChatGPT in a minute, but perhaps you or the others have tips too )
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. Quality ice cream is a good source of fat, carbs, and protein. And I’m not eating it every day or anything, just 1 or 2 times a week after a 2000+ calorie ride.
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