Thank you for the detailed menu Joe. That really helps quite a bit. I need to add a few things to my eating plans. I’m falling short on some of the days, and need good quality foods to add.
So My fitness Pal quotes 2470 maintenance and 1970 to loose 1lb per week. Do you think ignore calories burned on rides and just fuel on the ride. So 1970 calories a day plus say 1 gel per ride but ( hour commute evening only ) make sure I get my morning and evening meals in post ride for recovery.
Thanks for all responses so far all info helps.
1970 plus 2000 puts you right around your 4000 you were consuming before. So I’d wager your commutes are way over estimated. I’ve been sitting around thinking what id I try if I was in your shoes. Id start with 1970 and maybe consume 500 per each way of the commute. That’d put you at 3000. Track it for a few weeks and see if you start dropping weight. If you’re still maintaining I’d drop by another 250-500. Just make sure you log every calorie you consume. Maybe others could chime in and give some better advice or nutrition ideas, but something seems amiss.
Totally agree cub8556, I actually started taking more carbs for fuel at least 6 months ago as I was feeling tired and lacking oomph and I was seeing lots of things about undereating and gaining fat so thought I may not be getting enough. I’ll give it a few weeks as you mentioned to see what happens.
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If your commute is 20 miles, that’s not 1000 calories of energy – unless it was something like 1 hour @ 280w, or 90min @ 195.
Strava is full of crap on the energy estimations. Better to have a powermeter on your commuter bike, especially if that’s most of your weekday riding.
35, 183cm, 66 - 67 kg, 10 - 11% BF
2200 - 2500 rest days
2800 - 3200 TR workout days
3000 - 3400 outdoor ride days
I ride 10 - 15 hours a week, id say 3/4 of that is TR, The last few weeks iv been closer to 10 hours on the bike with 3 weight sessions thrown in, just to mix it up.
Macros are 50% carb 30% protein 20% fats and never really cheat, closest i get is Cliff bars or a few stroopes on a ride, my other forms of on the bike nutrition are Dates, figs and bananas.
Honestly i need to tweak my eating, either change the macro split (up the carbs) or just eat more because iv been becoming really flat lately, no energy and i am getting moody, not sure how some of the 2000cal (and under) a day guys are managing, i have trouble keeping under 2500 on some rest days, hats off i guess.
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Keep in mind people aren’t listing the FTP. For example I train 6 hrs a week on a FTP of around 210. So my calorie needs are going to be different to someone @ 300w
Plus the daily activity doesn’t tend to be mentioned. Sit at a desk all day vs Farmer on his feet all day. Makes a huge difference.
Doesn’t matter what your FTP is if you’re listing your calorie intake and deficit. Hopefully no one is going to take the numbers straight off the forum and applicate it to their own diet without thinking it through.
True, I guess Im struggling with food at the moment, starting to think iv got worms lol.
Why would FTP matter? That would only matter in the greater context of your training schedule, which people aren’t posting in this thread anyway. Body weight is more important
I should have quoted, sorry to confuse. I was replying to this:
I can manage under 2000 cal some days. But then I don’t burn as much (due to low FTP). Plus I’m not that heavy.
If you have a 300w FTP then you are going to need higher calories to fuel and recover vs myself @ 210.
Ah that makes more sense now! 
I know my BMR and have a PM so the Kj’s are right in front of me. Basically, I eat BMR+Kj’s. Not too scientific but, when I track calories, like right now, I’m in a deficit for sure and weight comes down and I get leaner.
For riding I plan on 500Kj’s/hour. Depending on the number of hours I try and eat many of the cals prior to the ride and try to get close to the rest during the ride. If I don’t eat enough pre ride and during the ride post ride calorie management is difficult and I usually over eat.
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I’m a weirdo, and this goes against all good advice, but I don’t bring food on a ride unless it’s going to be more than 3000kj of work.
If it’s a VO2/fartlek session, ok, that’s two hours, maybe two and a half, and 1500-2000kj. I’ll burn off a lot of stored glycogen during the hard bits, and just ride at 60-70% of FTP to finish it up.
A long aerobic ride, ok, if I have a 1000 calorie breakfast three hours before the ride, I should have ~3000 calories of stored energy. Power may fade over the last 30min, but so what? Burn the fat.
After this ride I smashed 2000 calories over three hours post-ride, but that meant I broke even, when I added breakfast cals.
I ate a couple of more times in the late afternoon and evening for `1500 calories. So break even for the day, considering the only other things I did were walk the dog and go to the grocery store.
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Hi, I am using a power meter Check out my activity on Strava: Follow David on Strava to see this activity. Join for free.
But still do not accept it or if weigh a whole lot less
that 923 kj is legit – but, Strava’s conversion to calories is suspect.
kj to calories usually assumes 25% gross mechanical efficiency – hence the 1:1 conversion often used for kjoules to calories. What your GME is varies. If you don’t get it tested, better to aim on the safe side and 1:1 rather than going upward.
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Dude. If I did that I’d be seeing dead people, riding the wrong way against traffic and begging bums for bite of their ham sammich.
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I started doing "no food unless 3000+ Kj five years ago. I suspect it may have help me develop fat max – or not. I find that I don’t need much food unless I’m doing prolonged efforts over threshold.
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Here’s a follow up gang.
Over the past 3 weeks I have increased my intake to around 2400-3000 depending on kJ’s burned during rides. I’ve fueled during longer rides over 2 hours with ~150-200 kcal/hour. The training hours kJs burned during them has stayed the same.
I’ve lost 3.2 pounds (that is consistent and not water weight).
So…basically I’ve increased my caloric intake by around 500 kcal and LOST weight. I expect that this is going to continue and potentially accelerate as my body realizes it doesn’t need to hoard fat stores.
I’ll follow up again in a few weeks.
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Awesome! Great job!