Fuel your ride - a layman's perspective
So we have all got our own ideas on eating when cycling, however from my own perspective it can be either too much, too little or just the wrong stuff than what our body needs to keep us going. Just for the record, I am not a sports nutritionist, but feel that I can give you my perspective and my strategy based on many years and many thousands of miles of riding.
Just a little bit of background. Cycling is primarily an aerobic sport ( ignoring the anaerobic state you transition to when things "get busy"). By aerobic I mean that the body primarily generates energy in an oxidised state, using the oxygen that we breathe in a process called cellular respiration. This process uses sources of energy such as carbohydrates (using a process called glycolysis) and body fats (used to create fatty acids and glycerol) to generate ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which triggers our muscles to contract (when we want to create movement). We also can also use lactate and ketones in certain circumstances, but that is over complicating the matter at hand.
In this aerobic state, carbohydrates are called upon as the primary source, followed by body fats. As you may have found out on long rides, carbohydrates are a finite quantity and unless we refuel we will run out pretty quickly (ie bonk). We have a huge store of body fats, but that is generally more difficult to access, so to help gain easier access to fats we often use "fasted training rides" to deplete our carbs on purpose and hence train the body to use fats instead....this is called improving our metabolic flexibility.
So bearing that in mind let’s look at what we need to eat before we ride, what we need when on the go, and what we need after riding.
*Before we ride we need to “fuel up”. It may seem common sense that anything goes… so let’s have a massive fry up ! But hold on before committing those rashers of bacon, fried eggs and sausages to the pan, in reality, what we need are slow release (ie unrefined) carbohydrates such as oats, muesli or bran….food that our bodies will find hard to break down and hence will last several hours. So to your obvious disappointment, fry ups are out.
Would I recommend a smoothy, fruit juice a gel or energy bar ? Only if combined with low release foods to offset the high sugar content which would otherwise give you a quick hit but will soon send your blood glucose levels to the floor as you can see in the glucose trace below; in this graph I took an orange juice as part of my breakfast, causing a near immediate glucose spike (in red) which is nearly always followed by what is called a glucose rebound (the big trough); it took almost an hour for the glucose level to stabilise. In the interim time I felt weak as a kitten and bloated, not what you need at the start of a long ride. So for me, orange juice or anything with high sugars levels, ie high glycemic index (GI) is out of bounds. So if you ever feel lethargic or bloated after eating high GI food, or taking an energy bar or gel, then perhaps it is a glucose spike/rebound that is causing it.
Is pasta or rice or other processed carbs for breakfast good ? This depends on how much carbohydrate your body can cope with before getting cramps. I have seen athletes neck bowls of the stuff, so it must be okay yeah…but to a point. All carbs are not equal, high GI carbs more likely to cause cramping issues than those with a high fibre content; consider your stomach to be a funnel with a wide cone at the top and a small pipe at the bottom. Processing the food you eat is called gastric emptying. In general, most of us have a small pipe, ie slow gastric emptying, meaning that if we keep shovelling in the carbs before we can use them, our funnel overflows….ie cramps, bloated, etc.
Professional athletes have trained their guts to use carbs over many months or years, their “pipe” is larger, meaning that their gastric emptying process is efficient, so can cope with much more carb intake than the recreational cyclist. Get the idea? Not to stress the point, this is why if you gorge yourself on highly processed carb training energy bars, gels and the like, it is going to backfire…sometimes literally !
To illustrate this point, I was talking to a guy during the London 100 ride a few years ago; we were waiting at the bottom of a steep climb, stopped due to a bottleneck. This chap had a twisted expression and beads of sweat across his brow. I asked if he was okay and he told me that he was suffering from the energy gels he’d consumed. I asked how many, and he said nine…we’d only been going a couple of hours. He certainly proved that cramps come with overdoing the gels as certain as ..well now you get the bear analogy.
In some circumstances it is necessary to do a “fasted” workout….but these are generally limited to 2 hours. This doesn’t preclude a coffee or two before setting off, but no carbs – this has been shown to be a good way to shock your body into using your fat stores more effectively, ie improve metabolic flexibility. If you intend doing a fasted ride, take some food with you just in case you need it.
During Rides. So having had a healthy, fibre rich and low processed carb breakfast what should you expect to be able to eat whilst riding/training. Again, it depends. On long endurance rides where you will be in the saddle for several hours, pretty much anything goes as along as you match your carb intake to your level of exercise (the amount you burn) and you stick to the amount of glucose and fructose that you can tolerate.
There are many variables such as lean muscle and fat mass, metabolic efficiency and environmental factors, but the typical person can tolerate approximately about 60 grams of glucose or 90 grams of fructose per hour. An energy gel is 21-26 grams per sachet (or approx 100 calories), so when you read take 3 per hour, that’s 300 calories you are consuming per hour and you maximum intake the average person can cope with, so you’d better be burning a lot of calories and be able to cope with a high carb intake…which is why I hear so many seasoned cyclists limiting their use to be being the “emergency gel”, to be used only as a last resort if you run out of steam before the end of a ride (it’s called ‘bonking’, or “the man with the hammer visits you”).
On a long ride I will typically take a bag of almonds, some cereal/muesli bars and bananas (not only a good source of slow release carbs, but a great source of potassium that your muscles and digestive system need during exercise). At stops I’ll try to find a flapjack or granola bar rather than cake, or if you cannot stomach the idea of rich sugary snacks, take a peanut butter sandwich with you, or homemade flapjacks – and consider that gels and bars are there for convenience, but at a potential cost to your digestion system. It is likely to be warm, so remember to eat sources of salt such as crisps, salted nuts, etc.
Also remember that you need to drink water, preferably with zero calorie electrolytes. I have stopped using energy powders in my water as these can quickly and unthinkingly push you over your hourly carb intake. I usually consume about a litre every hour (more in the summer), not only keeping me well hydrated, but also improving my feeling of well being and hence lack of grumpiness.
If the ride includes a lot of long hill climbing, then I take a bag or two of Jelly Babies (or their Spanish/French equivalent) – both small but effective doses of quick release energy, and more calcium gram for gram than milk. If you like the idea of sweets, but prefer a natural product, I can recommend guava energy bars as an easily digestible alternative – though not cheap.
I have been deliberately non-prescriptive in the amounts you can eat because how much or little you consume is so dependent on the factors already described, so is a bit hit and miss; however as a guide, look at how many calories you are burning during an exercise. As an example I’m 60 years old and weigh 75Kg, and typically burn approx 500 calories an hour. My maximum burn was 3,500 calories on a ride over 100 miles with 2,800 metres of climbing, so I could afford a slices of cake that day. We all come in different sizes and metabolisms so you may be burning 250-300 calories an hour if slight of frame, or you may be burning 600 or 700 calories per hour on intense rides if you are carrying more "timber".
If you are unsure, Strava or TrainingPeaks will help you estimate your calorie burn (in Kcals or KJoules), and from that you should be looking to match the total burn with what you are consuming, and as I said above, not all calories are equal, so several beers at 160 calories per 500ml are not going to do you any good.
After a ride I advise taking a creatine rich protein drink or bar. For the ladies, research suggests that the impact is improved by consuming protein within 20 minutes of finishing you ride. This is important as our bodies will begin to repair itself from the strain you placed on it during the exercise (which is also why rest between exercise is so essential) and if there is no fuel in your body it will move into a catabolic state, taking energy from your glycogen stores (which take a long time to replenish), so it is important to give your body a good dose of protein to use instead to rebuild in the anabolic state (....which is why anabolic steroids are used in doping). If you enjoy milk, go for that, otherwise there are plentiful choices of post-exercise protein drinks and bars you can get from your local bike shop, on-line or sometimes the event organiser.
For events such as the 6 Points Mallorca Challenge, in the evening you will be presented with a smorgasbord or culinary delights. It would be a travesty to forego such riches, so here's a useful hack. Research has shown that the order in which you eat has a huge impact on your blood glucose levels. This hack (Ref 1) is very simple, eat fibre rich foods first (the green stuff), followed by protein (meats, fish, eggs, legumes, etc), then fats (nuts, oils, cheese, etc), and finally carbohydrates (the starchy stuff such as potatoes, fruits, grains etc that are turned into sugars). Eating in this sequence is comparable to the effects of diabetes medication. Fibre reduces the action of alpha-amylase, the enzyme responsible or breaking down starches into glucose, slows gastric emptying and creates a "mesh" in the intestine making it harder for glucose to make it through the bloodstream.
As a result of this hack, you'll reduce the glucose spike, suffer less inflammation and over time possibly lose a bit of weight in the process.
So eat normally, replace the calories burned each ride with unprocessed, natural foods, and if you suffer from feelings of bloatedness or lethargy after a meal then you may wish to look to move to lower GI food and drinks, or change the order in which you eat.
Eat well and enjoy your cycling !
Reference 1 : Alpana P. Shula et al., " Food order has a significant impact on postprandial glucose and insulin levels". Diabetes Care 38, no 7 (2015) : https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/38/7/e98