I’ve been using some of the ideas from Matt Fitzgerald’s “endurance diet” book. They’ve helped me a lot. Calorie/nutrient tracking via myfitnesspal is useful at times, too.
The book stresses that you don’t have to have a radical, prohibitive ‘diet’, as long as you prioritize healthy foods while understanding the compromises you have to make to eat from unhealthy food categories.
Simple changes are easiest at first: get ‘pasta’ made from lentils or quinoa (for example), replace mayonnaise with prepared mustard, use whole-wheat tortilla (or corn) instead of refined flour tortillas, use spices (such as curry or garam masala) to add flavor, instead of sugar-filled sauces like ketchup. Use whole-grains instead of white rice or white bread. And so on…
Calorie-dense foods are delicious but they come at a cost. Being sensible with portions, and stopping when you’re satiated (rather than when you’ve run out of food to eat) are game-changers.
If you’re refueling to get stronger quality over quantity should be a focus. When Burning 1200 calories on the bike the post workout focus should be replenishing glycogen stores so you can go again the next day or two. Glycogen replenishment takes up to 48 hours so if your consuming simple carbs on the bike what you consume in that post workout window is vital to replenishment. Cheez it’s are comfort foods but not helping you!
Brown rice.
Beans.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Barley.
Oatmeal.
Quinoa.
There are several others and great ways to prepare these so they are tasty……
Overnight oats! There’s about a thousand ways you can make them, find one you like, but it only takes a few minutes to throw together AT NIGHT and then you just pull it out of the fridge in the morning.
I really like sour gummis as well. Unfortunately, on the bike they give me GI discomfort.
Very good idea. “Old” potatoes are better for certain dishes like potato salad or German-style fried potatoes. (I think the starches break down a little further, etc.) Oh, and that also works with sweet potatoes, too.
This is definitely an option if you want to try meal prepping ahead a little. You can also boil some chicken in advance and put e. g. shredded chicken into said potato salad or so.
Oats are good at keeping you full, but not a great way to load up on carbs.
If you have a long day/hard day on the bike and want to load up on carbs, the amount of carbs you get in before you get full on oats is too little. Pasta and rice is the way to go for fuel carbs.
There is also a lot of fibre which is good to keep in mind for race day where you don’t want to be lugging around a lot of fecal matter.
I think you might be misinterpreting the phrase “dieting on the bike.” I don’t think they mean don’t have a calorie deficit overall, I think they mean fuel your workout. That means having the appropriate pre-workout meal and appropriate fueling during the workout, but it doesn’t mean have a calorie surplus. Any excess carbs are going to be stored as fat. Fat is not going to increase your power. I’d focus on high protein and high fiber foods with a either a neutral calorie intake or a slight deficit and an emphasis on carbs before and during a workout. If you are going into a hard training week, excess carbs may help you rise to that challenge, but from a long-term standpoint, a calorie surplus cannot be sustained without unproductive weight gain.
Hmm you might have some sort of dairy intolerance. I have a scoop or so of whey most days and only use the bathroom 1-2 times per day and it doesn’t stink anymore then it should.
Also, @Craig_G is right. The ‘recovery window’ thing basically doesn’t matter unless you are doing 2-a-days and need to re-feed as quickly as possible. But over 24 hours your muscle glycogen will be the same whether you eat in the window or not.
What will make a difference is if your diet outside of the shake remains the same whether you have the shake or not. Because adding a 3-500 calorie shake with 30+ grams of protein to your day (all else equal) will make a much bigger difference for recovery than eating in that window will. But if you spread that shake over your existing meals then you probably wouldn’t notice a huge difference.
For fueling workouts, I aim to eat half of what I expend while riding, which as a 6’6" guy with weight to loose, is a lot of calories.
Off the bike I am trying to loose weight, so I try to eat around my RMR and use the calorie deficit from riding and extra walks with my dog as my deficit. So far the hunger is minimal and weight loss has been pretty predictable and about .5-.7% a week of total body weight. My wattage seems to be improving, we will see on my next ramp test. Rest days I eat ~10% more calories.
Also, I got rid of all fast food, processed, and dairy. The only time I eat sugar based product is on the bike. This generally includes a stop at one of my many favorite donut shops.
You should not be targeting a calorie surplus.
Also you don’t necessarily need to count calories.
What the right choice of foods does for you is it allows you to just follow your appetite without overeating.
That means eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, lean meat and fish and carbs from whole foods. And drink water.
700 Cal of Cheez-its is just a lot, you are looking at the 1200 Cal burned during the workout and think that you can eat the 700 Cal of junk for free. The problem here is that the 1200 Cal workout also gives you more appetite and those 700 Cal of junk are not going to satisfy your appetite enough and you will still overeat or stay hungry while not at a deficit.
There is still room for junk food. Even if you want to eat those 700 Cal portions, just do it only once per week or do it after every work out, but cut it down to much smaller portions.
If possible, I am more obsessed with cooking than biking. Here are a couple of veggie ideas:
roasted carrots (super easy to add potatoes or sweet potatoes to the pan as well): cut the carrots into fairly big pieces, toss in whichever oil you use, salt, garlic power, onion powder, paprika. I like to add ginger as well but some people don’t like ginger that much. Make sure they have plenty of space on the pan so they are not touching. Roast at 425 for 25-30 minutes. The key is to not touch them. Carrots have a high sugar content so if you don’t touch them you will get one side that is really nice and caramelized. If you add potatoes, they will get one really crispy side but the interior will still be soft and creamy.
You could also add brussel sprouts. If so, cut the ends off and then cut them in half (hotdog style) and place the cut side on the pan.
This is a sauce I use for sautéing quick veggies that will serve 2:
2 tablespoons of oil (I use a mix of toasted sesame oil and olive oil)
Rice vinegar (like 10 - 15 dashes) but any white vinegar would work,
soy sauce (like 5-7 dashes) - use tamari if you want gluten free.
2-3 cloves chopped garlic,
whatever amount of chili crunch that gives you the spice level you like; or sriracha,
tablespoon or so of honey (I have used both sugar and brown sugar and they work fine as well). Optional Items
miso - I use red miso but white miso would be fine
fish oil - two dashes or so depending how much you like it
fresh grated ginger
Get saute pan nice and hot (I set mine at med and let my cast iron warm up for like 5-10 minutes while I get the veggies ready and put all the sauce ingredients together). Add a separate tablespoon of oil and give it a bit until it starts to run really quickly across your pan, add the veggies (I have made broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, bok choy, carrots, green beans, and probably other stuff I can’t think of), once they are starting to get a little brown I add the sauce and stir it around a bit. If you add too many vegetables to the pot they might not brown but thats okay. cook until they reach the desired level of doneness. If you like them softer it can take a while so a trick to speed it up is to add a dash of water, cover the pan and steam them.
This sauce is super versatile - it makes exceptional fried rice, you can add orange, lemon, or my personal favorite is pineapple, to easily change it up. You can also throw meat in the mix as well. Goes really well with shrimp. I have made veggies like this and pineapple fried rice 4-5 times in the last two weeks. Oh, i also recently put it on red cabbage and its super tasty as well.
That’s all the fuelling-the-work you should be doing. The rest of your diet should be balanced and healthy, with an increased protein bias depending on how much training you do week in, week out.
I would suggest that if you are massively hungry after a workout that you have fuelled, then you are either mistaking thirst for hunger, or you weren’t well nourished before you started. Just imo of course.
One additional idea to consider…pushing away form the table before you feel “full”. It is amzing how different you can feel 20-30 minutes later.
Since I am currently off the bike, I am trying to avoid putting on the lbs…so I am eating less overall. When i finish my “meal”, i often feel like I am still hungry / cold eat more. But within a short period of time, I feel satiated.
Please check that ravioli again. It seems like such a huge amount calories that the bag must be massive and also expensive. Even the Walmart family size “48oz” cheese ravioli is 2000calories, so I’d just check that you’re seeing the calories and not the Kjs.
I think the biggest part that a lot are skipping is just your portion control. I would count calories for just a few days to try and get a handle on how much you should be eating, and then focus on a few ways to lower your hunger (until it’s at an appropriate amount and not lower). Things like drinking more water (especially at meal times), chewing your food a lot more and slowing down how fast you eat, removing all distractions while you eat, chew gum in between meals…
I think at 4am cereal isn’t inherently bad, but I would swap a bit of it (or all if you don’t actually like it) out for some muesli/granola and yoghurt which is suprisingly satiating.
I drink around 1 lifter per hour of fluids which includes electrolytes. So it would be the nutrition part of anything. But I’m always hungry after a ride. It’s not unheard of for me to kill a couple Chipotle burritos after a long summer ride. I’ve always had a big appetite, it just gets bigger after riding. But I do agree I probably could do better with fueling with real foods before the ride.
I think I’m reading it right. I’ll normally eat half the bag.
Edit: Wait, I may be an idiot. It’s a 2 pack. So it may be 3200cal for the entire 2-pack, in which case I eat 1/4 at a time which is around 800cal. That makes more sense. I thought I remembered it being around 750 last time I looked at it.
1/2 the bag is +1500 calories…holy hell, I’d be big as a house if I regularly ate that much in a single meal (leaving aside any beverage or side dish calories).
