Fueling Long Ride and Weight Loss

There is certainly wisdom in the ‘dont diet on the bike’ phrase…but IMO it is not universal. Like all other aspects of your life…it is possible to overconsume.

If you’re doijg a 1 hr recovery ride, burning 400 calories, and you’re takijg in 120g or 480 calories, well…/that’s just kinda silly IMO.

Again, as in everything food related, a balance must be struck. You DO want to diet on the bike. You ALSO want to fuel your workouts. Those are competing interests…but both can be met at the same time. Someone mentioned above…eat enough to avoid the ravenous, destroy the fridge feelijg that can come with too large of a calorie deficit after a ride, and cause a whiplash later in the day that puts your calorie intake above what it might have been for the day if you fueled a bit more fully for the ride. Both ways will produce a deficit (diet…) on a zone 2 ride. The issue is managing how LARGE of a deficit. 500 cal? 1000? 1500? It depends on how you feel after., and will need tweaking to find a deficit that contributes to weight loss, yet doesnt make youneat two pizzas a couple hours after the ride.

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I can see that the diet off the bike not on it is something I haven’t really thought of to be honest. I was used to looking at the calories of the food I would be eating and thinking oh I’ve only burned say 300 calories when I get home but that’s kind of the way it should be. I’ll progress with MFP as I am doing and see if upping the intake during hard rides will help and report back. Thanks for the help.

I think when people say “don’t diet on the bike” it should be phrased “fuel for the work required”. If you’re doing a 1 hour recovery ride, you probably require little, if any fueling. But if you’re doing a multiple hour effort that’s burning a ton of calories, your body is so depleted, either your performance is going to suffer, you have a binge in your future, or both.

For myself, anything over a couple hours, I seem to do best consuming about a third of the calories I’m burning. For example yesterday I did a 5.5 hour trainer ride, burned 4000 calories and took in 1200, not counting the bowl of oatmeal before I started. Felt good on the bike, and didn’t clear out the fridge afterwards.

That being said, most rides under 90min I don’t take in anything but electrolytes and caffeine, and can usually achieve my goals, but some days a banana can feel like jet fuel.

To each there own, and you should absolutely not mindlessly stuff your face on or off the bike, especially if your goal is weight loss. But in my opinion, if your goal is also to get faster, fuel your workouts, no more, no less, and then manage your calories the rest of the day.

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:thinking:

Seems like you would’ve been severely underfueled unless your FTP is pushing close to 400w.

When I do a 4000 kJ ride, I fuel about double that, just under 2500 kCal.

Not necessarily.

In 2019 I was doing fasted no-carb long rides – 5hr 3200 cal.

Quoted rider is only burning an extra 800 cals but taking in 1200+ cals + stored glycogen.

I’d say that’s far from “severely underfueled”.

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I’d agree I could’ve taken in more. I had the benefit of being in a controlled environment and knowing exactly how much the effort was going to be. Plus my bananas were green, and I was stuck with hydration mix and gels, so by the end I was suffering a bit of palette fatigue. It came out to about 75g of carbs an hour at .8 IF. If I was aiming for a longer effort, I would’ve gone for more carbs and a lower IF. Also I had overate the day before which probably didn’t hurt.

I guess my point was more that I didn’t starve myself so I could bask in a 4000 calorie deficit…for about an hour before I consume an entire pizza. It was actually under 5 hours of actual riding time. I was doing the Uber pretzel on Zwift and used TR to control the trainer, adjusting the resistance as the terrain changed.

Burning stored glycogen is not taking in calories. In fact, it is the exact OPPOSITE of taking in calories…

Point being…??? :man_shrugging:t2:

(my point being is that the ride was not “severely underfueled”)

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5.5 hours on the trainer?! Hats off to you man! That is a solid effort and needs to be applauded! Wowee.

I am in the same boat as you. Anything over 3 hours for me, which I do fasted anyway, puts me in calorie deficit for the rest of the day. Well, puts me in a place where I am ‘chasing’ KJ’s.

I generally eat pretty healthy and don’t consume artificial sugar etc. Lots of fish and vegetables etc. I try to keep my weight stable but depending on the rides I do, it fluctuates between 72-75kg. I try my hardest to not drop below 72kg because it affects my power output and I generally feel way too thin below 72kg.

This morning I did a 3hr Endurance ride at 60-70% FTP and burnt like 2,200 KJ if that is of any use to anyone! I don’t count KJ’s during the day but I know that I need to make sure that I put some of that back in.

Same again. Just a coffee before those 2-3hr Endurance rides. Have a bottle of electrolytes too.

Agree here. Fuel for the workouts that you do. I have to consume CHO’s before VO2 and Threshold workouts … no way I could do them fasted. Performance would suffer as those workouts shift me away from LT1 and put me in a zone where I’m burning more CHO’s than fat. Need to fuel for that.

Huge @Captain_Doughnutman! Was that on the trainer or out on the road? Did you take in electrolytes on those rides or any glucose in your bottle at all?

Haha, thanks for the kudos. I was completing all the routes in zwift, I think I’m done with super long trainer sessions for a while now.

The one benefit is you really dial in your bike fit, or else you’d be wrecked.

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Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ve just made some flapjacks this weekend ready for my next outing and made with about 40g of carbs in give or take either way a couple. Going to up the carbs to about 80g an hour and see what happens.

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Totally on the road. I did 4hrs on the trainer once for an experiment, never again. The only thing I took on the rides was salty water and a “bulletproof coffee” flask. No carbs of any type.

That said, I’m not condoning this type of riding (I was doing it for a perceived medical diagnosis), merely stating that it can be done without crashing and back-to-back sessions.

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