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-   -   Low Carb Nutrition Bicycling 3 + hours (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=432170)

max7 Sun, Aug-14-11 13:09

Low Carb Nutrition Bicycling 3 + hours
 
I enjoy road biking and try to ride everyday during the summer. I try to do rides of 30 - 60 miles at least 3 times weekly. I began a low carb diet (Atkins) in April and limited my ride times and distances. I have begun riding longer distances and eating Oh Yeah protein bars to ensure that I do not "bonk" during the ride. Since, my weight loss has seemed to have stalled, I suspect the additonal protein bars may be the culprit. Does anyone have low carb suggestions to fuel by 3 - 4 hours bike rides ???
Thanks !!

Dodger Sun, Aug-14-11 18:48

I've done 60 miles with just some nuts (almonds or walnuts) as food. They seemed to provide all the extra energy that I needed.

Rick 51 Sun, Aug-21-11 13:02

Quote:
Originally Posted by max7
I enjoy road biking and try to ride everyday during the summer. I try to do rides of 30 - 60 miles at least 3 times weekly. I began a low carb diet (Atkins) in April and limited my ride times and distances. I have begun riding longer distances and eating Oh Yeah protein bars to ensure that I do not "bonk" during the ride. Since, my weight loss has seemed to have stalled, I suspect the additonal protein bars may be the culprit. Does anyone have low carb suggestions to fuel by 3 - 4 hours bike rides ???
Thanks !!

I have had the same problem of bonking during a ride of more than an hour or so. I think I have found a solution, but I wanted to run it by you guys and see what everyone thought.
Here is yesterday's ride and what I did.
I eat a LC breakfast before riding (2 eggs scrambled with cheese)
I have found that at about 45 minutes in I need something to prevent bonk. At this point I will eat a banana. so about 45 minutes in there was a Starbucks. I had a coffee with half and half (no sugar) and my banana.
After about an hour and half, I was getting hungry so I ate some mixed nuts I had packed (1/4 cup of salted pecans, pistachios, and salted almonds)
After about another 40 minutes or so I was feeling a little tired so I ate a second banana.
Finished the ride 3 hours total time, 31.4 miles and 1854 feet of vertical climb. I felt good and felt like I could have kept riding
My concern is that the bananas have a lot of carbs, but since I ate them during exercise, do I really have to worry about the carbs in them? I'm thinking I burned all of them off while pedaling.
What do you guys think?

fibersnap Wed, Aug-31-11 11:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick 51
My concern is that the bananas have a lot of carbs, but since I ate them during exercise, do I really have to worry about the carbs in them? I'm thinking I burned all of them off while pedaling.
What do you guys think?


I eat carbs and whey protein while exercising, and as long as my intensity is high enough it seems like they get burned off. The real test though is controlling cravings afterwards - i.e. not stopping at three 7-elevens on the way home for cookies and ice cream.
It seems that when I eat stuff like plain oatmeal with plain whey protein drink, I don't get cravings as bad as when I eat sugary fruit like bananas or oranges.
So, I guess the advice is to be mindful and monitor your own cravings after cravings exercising and the day after. It's helpful not to berate yourself for going off the wagon, but to be analytical as to what kinds of foods set you off.
At least with me, the real damage is not what I eat DURING the time I exercise, but what happens to my diet afterwards.

Warren D Thu, Sep-01-11 03:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by fibersnap
I eat carbs and whey protein while exercising, and as long as my intensity is high enough it seems like they get burned off. The real test though is controlling cravings afterwards - i.e. not stopping at three 7-elevens on the way home for cookies and ice cream.
It seems that when I eat stuff like plain oatmeal with plain whey protein drink, I don't get cravings as bad as when I eat sugary fruit like bananas or oranges.
So, I guess the advice is to be mindful and monitor your own cravings after cravings exercising and the day after. It's helpful not to berate yourself for going off the wagon, but to be analytical as to what kinds of foods set you off.
At least with me, the real damage is not what I eat DURING the time I exercise, but what happens to my diet afterwards.
It seems odd to be eating during exercise. I can't imagine eating while doing anything high intensity. What kind of exercise are you doing?

Warren D Thu, Sep-01-11 03:36

Quote:
Originally Posted by max7
I enjoy road biking and try to ride everyday during the summer. I try to do rides of 30 - 60 miles at least 3 times weekly. I began a low carb diet (Atkins) in April and limited my ride times and distances. I have begun riding longer distances and eating Oh Yeah protein bars to ensure that I do not "bonk" during the ride. Since, my weight loss has seemed to have stalled, I suspect the additonal protein bars may be the culprit. Does anyone have low carb suggestions to fuel by 3 - 4 hours bike rides ???
Thanks !!
More fatty foods before the bike ride.

Rick 51 Thu, Sep-01-11 14:27

Quote:
Originally Posted by fibersnap
I eat carbs and whey protein while exercising, and as long as my intensity is high enough it seems like they get burned off. The real test though is controlling cravings afterwards - i.e. not stopping at three 7-elevens on the way home for cookies and ice cream.
It seems that when I eat stuff like plain oatmeal with plain whey protein drink, I don't get cravings as bad as when I eat sugary fruit like bananas or oranges.
So, I guess the advice is to be mindful and monitor your own cravings after cravings exercising and the day after. It's helpful not to berate yourself for going off the wagon, but to be analytical as to what kinds of foods set you off.
At least with me, the real damage is not what I eat DURING the time I exercise, but what happens to my diet afterwards.
Well so far I have not had the urge to go clean out a bakery after a ride, so cravings have not been a problem so far. I have gone for bananas as they provide potassium as well as some sugars. Also oatmeal doesn't pack well for a snack part way through a long ride. :lol:

fibersnap Fri, Sep-02-11 19:39

It's not hard to eat while bicycling - I just pull over for a moment.

Any other exercise, you just stop doing it for a moment. It's hard to think of sport or exercise that wouldn't let you stop and eat. Maybe long distance open water swimming??

As far as oatmeal - LOL, I don't bring it cooked. I just eat raw instant oatmeal washed down with protein drink. I keep the oatmeal in a little sandwich bag. It's light and fits in pocket. I pull over to eat it - don't want to crash my bike, lol.

I find that drinking whey protein with carbs helps my performance a lot and shortens the recovery period. Eating fat during exercise upsets my stomach.

Here's article on what tour de france cyclists eat during race days:
http://www.livescience.com/6699-tou...riders-eat.html

Rick 51 Sat, Sep-03-11 07:02

I'll have to try taking a packet of oatmeal with me.
I was half awake/half asleep last night dreaming of this mornings ride, and I think I may have the LC replacement for GU.
Packets of mayonnaise. Small, easy to pack and consume. Now the question is will my body accept mayo during exercise and will it help.
Guess I will have to experiment. This is either going to be a great idea or the worst idea I have ever had.
Anybody want to place a bet?

fibersnap Sat, Sep-03-11 08:11

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick 51
I'll have to try taking a packet of oatmeal with me.
I was half awake/half asleep last night dreaming of this mornings ride, and I think I may have the LC replacement for GU.
Packets of mayonnaise. Small, easy to pack and consume. Now the question is will my body accept mayo during exercise and will it help.
Guess I will have to experiment. This is either going to be a great idea or the worst idea I have ever had.
Anybody want to place a bet?


I haven't found unflavored instant oatmeal in little packets. I would skip the heavily sugared and artificially flavored ones (e.g. maple syrup etc.) in favor of the plain. I just pour a little of the plain oatmeal into a sandwich or ziploc bag and put in pocket. The instant oatmeal is already preprocessed so it's easy to chew as opposed to rawer steel-cut oatmeal.
The mayo packets are interesting idea. I just haven't found success mixing eating extra fat on days I exercise. My stomach doesn't like it.

It's probably anathema on this board, but I do best on a low-fat diet on the days with lots of hard exercise. On the days I'm recovering from muscle soreness, I go back to strict low carb.

This maybe bad advice to the person though who still has a lot of fat to lose like Rick51. It took me over a year to lose a bulk of my excess bodyfat, and during that time I was strictly low carb with almost no exercise, and that's when I really lost the bodyfat - at the expense of losing much of the muscle and fitness as well.
For Rick51, who is at 50%, of his bodyfat loss goal, it may be smart to accept diminished cycling performance and 'bonking' in order to lose the excess bodyfat more quickly?
It's really been a struggle for me to find good balance between losing bodyfat and gaining muscle mass and improving exercise performance.

Warren D Sat, Sep-03-11 15:35

Quote:
Originally Posted by fibersnap
It's hard to think of sport or exercise that wouldn't let you stop and eat.
High intensity weight training. I can't even face eating for quite a while after the workout.

fibersnap Sat, Sep-03-11 16:39

Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren D
High intensity weight training. I can't even face eating for quite a while after the workout.

That makes sense - the hardest workout I do is a mountain bike climb up a really steep hill for about 90minutes with frequent breaks. I suppose it's analogous to doing sprints intervals.
I haven't done weight training for a long time, and you're right that it's a different level of exertion. The biking gets me pretty tired and sore but it's nothing like the exhaustion from really hard core weight lifting.

Have you guys looked into the CKD/TKD diets from the hardcore bodybuilding crowd? The carbup day seems pretty dangerous, LOL.

Rick 51 Sun, Sep-11-11 20:49

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick 51
I'll have to try taking a packet of oatmeal with me.
I was half awake/half asleep last night dreaming of this mornings ride, and I think I may have the LC replacement for GU.
Packets of mayonnaise. Small, easy to pack and consume. Now the question is will my body accept mayo during exercise and will it help.
Guess I will have to experiment. This is either going to be a great idea or the worst idea I have ever had.
Anybody want to place a bet?
OK so this morning I did almost 4 hours of riding. About 2.5 hours in I stopped for a cup of coffee, and I pulled out the 5 packet of mayo I had put in my pack.
They went down easy, and I seemed to have much more power on the climb after my break. Also since I did not wind up in the bushes yaking, I am going to call this a win.
I will buy some instant oatmeal and try that next weekend.

Swizzle Thu, Sep-22-11 21:38

thats awesome! Have to try the mayo

caveman Wed, Sep-28-11 21:26

You should be eating sugar doing long distance exercise. Your body will immediately burn off the sugar and you won't gain weight.

When I did long distance cycling I used to drink coca-cola diluted half-and-half with water and left open overnight to get rid of the CO2.

I have hiked up Mount Whitney solely on gummy bears.


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