I get what you want to say, but I don’t think it is that simple. How are you supposed to know what “fueling appropriately” means when you don’t have the experience? Some people thought they were over fueling when they would be running a calorie deficit even if they took in more.
Fueling is an essential of our sport and something you have to learn if you want to become good. So I don’t think it is right to say “Don’t worry about it!” I completely agree with the sentiment “Don’t obsess over it!”, though.
I don’t want to put words into his mouth. I linked to a related thread for a more nuanced discussion with a broader set of voices. I singled Alex out, because his posts are almost always worth reading carefully.
Finally someone who mentions eating off the bike… First 20+ answers in this thread haven’t even mentioned that.
The key to nailing workouts isn’t by fuelling 80-90g of carbs for 60-90min on the bike, eating properly before (the evening before and the morning of) is key.
The reason why 80+g of carbs for each workout is pushed for so hard by the TR team is because most people don’t know how to eat properly for the type of training we do, so it lowers the number of failed workouts.
Its not that hard to fuel properly by eating right, but it needs some conscious choices in food choice the evening before a ride, for breakfast etc.
For example, you have a 90min threshold ride tomorrow
Am I riding today, if yes, then I need to eat plenty before and after that ride, especially during dinner. Plenty of pasta/white rice.
The morning of the ride, you need plenty of carbs, plan your breakfast accordingly. Look at how many carbs your breakfast has. If you’re having oatmeal you’re likely to get too full before you get enough in. My go to is either pancakes or 3-4 pieces of toast with some honey/jam on 1.5-2 hours before the ride.
Are you having a rest day the day after the hard workout, or easy ride like Pettit? Then cut back the carbs and focus more on protein.
Always keep unnecessary fats low. If you are fuelling properly with carbs and protein, you have to sacrifice some of that unnecessary fat, otherwise you’ll end up taking in too many calories.
Final thing, for any endurance ride under 90min, you don’t need carbs if you have eaten properly the day before and the morning off. You have enough glycogen stored.
But anything over 90min and/or any types of intervals, you really have to plan your intake.
Off the bike you can eat healthy whole foods on the bike you are stuck with tooth rotting simple carbs. If you race I’d start training fueling for the race during specialty and stay away from a continuous feed of simple carbs when you are on your bike unless you don’t care about your teeth of course
There is a big difference between sugar and simple carbs. White rice and pasta are simple carbs.
If you fall into the trench of “whole foods” off the bike you’re gonna have a hard time if you ride a lot. You need to eat more simple carbs.
Sugar on the other hand, we need to be smart in how we take it in, since it doesn’t help having candy on a rest day. But a handful of haribos before a ride, no problemo!
We have amylase in our saliva, simple starches turn into sugars in our mouth almost instantly
Didn’t you ever do the following experiment in high school: put a bit of iodine in a starchy solution, spit in it and see the colour change almost instantly ?
That’s a bit outside of my knowledge so cannot comment on carbohydrate breakdown due to saliva.
All I know is that if we resort to eating complex carbs, oatmeal being one of em most athletes overhype, we tend to get too little carbs for the training that we do, before we get full.
Complex carbs all the way on rest days, but for fuelling for coming workouts, white rice and pasta all the way.
Nope, we don’t get to do those fun things in Sweden
Fueling correctly:
-Weight stays constant
-Performance increases
-All (most) workouts are achieved
-good sleep (although many other factors influence that)
Unless you are gaining weight, i would not say you are overfueling.
and as said, do not diet on the bike, unless your sole purpose is weight loss and performance is not a goal. Eat right off the bike, fuel your rides.
True with the amylase, but that the major amount of intake “simple starches turn into sugars almost instantly” is an oversimplification.
Mono- and disaccharides have a much better absorption rate and are therefore preferred in sports drinks, not pasta.
Having said that, there is a time and place for solid foods as carb intake in a fuel strategy, for sure.
That’s not the point I was trying to make, my point is that starches also feed the cariogenic oral microbiome and eating starches as well as sugars frequently in small amounts leads to dental problems
Most of my trainer workouts are right after work and about a hour long. I just make sure I’ve eaten enough during the day and I’ll eat a snack close to the end of the day. I rarely fuel during those hour long indoor workouts. Maybe if it’s a soul crushing workout I may take a gel halfway through or something.
I had the same question as the OP. There are now several companies that are trying to commercialize continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). I ultimately signed up with Signos to evaluate, among many other things, the effects of different nutrition strategies on blood glucose. The experience has been interesting (could be the subject of another long thread) with no major revelations but some valuable insights.
My on bike hydration (2 scoops of Skratch in 16 oz water) produces dramatic glucose spikes, regardless of the workout I am doing. I attached an example from this morning - started drinking 45 minutes into a VO2 max workout and finished the bottle during second 45 minutes.
These observations have led me to adopt several changes mentioned above:
-Z2 under 90 minutes - water only
-Sweetspot/Threshold - 40-60 grams for workouts 60-75 minutes
-VO2 max - 40-60 grams for workouts at 60 minutes
I have not observed any changes in RPE or increases in appetite later in the day. My FTP is trending back up after a brief COVID induced decrease. Important to note, these findings are unique to me. Because of my lifestyle (3 kids under 4) most of my workouts are limited to 2 hours.
The other major effect I have noticed is that - any riding in the morning (even 1 hour Z2) dramatically blunts glucose spikes from meals later in the day. Its pretty cool to see.
One this to consider here to is that intense exercise creates a glucose spike! I have done fasted VO2 which has the same glucose spike as fueling with 60g carbs during!
That’s a very good point. I’ve also seen effects from stress, mood (how excited to workout in am), among others. But the peaks are more glaring on the overly fueled Z2 rides.
Cool points and thats interesting to see from the glucose monitor.
Makes sense that exercise produces glucose spikes. I can’t speak super scientifically about it, so correct me where I am wrong, but the body releases glucagon when it detects blood sugar dropping.
This is where daily nutrition comes into play, I imagine.
Now I just use the app I wrote to do the math for me.
Someone send me a software developer (or two) who wants to partner with me on writing our app so I can get it pushed out to you all faster.
Then we can all argue about if my algorithms are good or not. I look forward to all the feedback. Just want to make sure I’ve got a developer team in place that can iterate at light speed for everyone’s sake.
Lots of smart folks here saying pretty reasonable things. Would be good to have your critical appraisals of the app math. Thank you to the many of you who already signed up for beta testing.
Glycogen depletion is not the primary reason for fueling, or even a reason at all, for rides under 2 hours. Blood sugar maintenance and cognitive drive probably is.
Most folks fail in workouts, even long ones, LONG before complete glycogen depletion happens. Reason: hypoglycemia affects psychology powerfully, and psychology affects endurance performance, also powerfully.
And one friendly reminder: TLDR: Blood sugar spiking during exercise is not unhealthy, probably because the pancreas acts different during exercise.
I’ve yet to see evidence that blood sugar spikes during exercise, of virtually any magnitude possible in someone without T1D or T2D, are unhealthy. (Please send me literature if I’m wrong here!) That is, your pancreas responds differently to blood sugar spikes during exercise than at rest. And meaningfully so. The reason: muscles are 10-100x more sensitive to glucose and insulin during exercise, than while resting.
As I understand it, pancreas cells die mostly permanently over the course of one’s life, in response to rapid insulin production needs, driven by spikes in blood sugar. The good news: the pancreas doesn’t do that during exercise. If the pancreas did its normal insulin production for the amount of sugar consumed during exercise, or even for the blood sugar levels seen during exercise, (which is thought to be a driving mechanism for pancreatic damage and T2D development over time), during exercise, we’d all faint, every time we drank sugar during exercise.
I welcome evidence to the contrary! FWIW: I am not SME on T2D or T1D, though I’m slowly moving in that direction.
Feels a little bit like you missed the second part of my statement:
Final thing, for any endurance ride under 90min, you don’t need carbs if you have eaten properly the day before and the morning off. You have enough glycogen stored.
But anything over 90min and/or any types of intervals, you really have to plan your intake.
You jump straight to failing workouts. One don’t fail 90min endurance ride unless something is really really wrong, and yes, then glycogen depletion is probably not the main factor.
I should have clarified as well that I mean: “But anything over 90min and/or any types of intervals, you really have to plan your intake on the bike” regardless of food intake off he bike leading up to the workout.
I cannot comment on the rest since I am not knowledgable enough, but in the discussion regarding fuelling on the bike, my understanding is that if you are doing up to 90min of endurance riding, you’ll be fine with onboard stored glycogen if you have eaten normally.
And like mentioned above, anything above 90min and/or intensity of course should be fuelled on the bike, as well as taken into account when fuelling pre ride.
