You really should get a CGM and log it for 10 days just to get an idea of how you are responding to foods, cycling, fueling, etc. I had my doctor give me a few Dexcom G7s even though I’m nowhere near diabetic, just for this reason. If they have an issue with it find another doctor that will.
1 Like
just thinking outside the box here and as it had worked for me:
just 2 years back I was gaining weight although I ate lesss and did more sport. So I wondered was was wrong - I had followed all the advices I was given and failed so ended up with around 120kg on the scale.
The GPs I visited gave me the great advice of “just eat less” - thanks for that. Then finally I found one that did an Insuline resistance test with me - lasted 3 hours and e voila - I was diagnosed with exaactly that, which in the end is a kind of inflamation of mostly the liver, which again disturbs the coordinated work between liver and pancreas - the 2 main organs of our insulin production and handling. The cause can be either bad eating habits or genetics. I was then send to a nutricionist, who evaluated my eating habits from the ground up and gave me new directions on what to eat and what to strictly avoid.
The first months I was taking my reading glasses to the supermarket (I am 57) to study all the ingredients, avoided super processed foods and all that and since following that route, I am currently down to 88kg.
Since for me the cause of the problem is on the genetic side, I also have to balance my daily nutrition needs with the needs of the workouts and events.
Summing up: Before you keep the current trial and error approach, I would exclude any medical issue and then speak with a nutricionist.
Greetings from Germany.
5 Likes
What diet were you following when you hit 120 kg and what diet did you switch to in order to get below 90 kg? How did your on-bike performance change?
I think KWcyclings and your points are forgetting something. Yes, you may not need to eat to get through a 90 minute tempo ride, however, as you said, you are burning 1000-1500 calories. Even if you are dieting to maintain a 500 calorie deficit, you are going to replace that with an EXTRA 500-1000 calories during the day. Saying you don’t eat during the ride is kind of missing the forest for the trees.
Thank you for sharing this, I’m definitely going ask my GP about this, however it might take some convincing since dutch GP are known for not prescribing much, inc tests.
1 Like
just to point to my adapted “diet” if you want to call it that way, which I don’t as diets as such never work - only sustainable changes in how we fuel our body.
First of all I switched to whole grain bread (which is easy here in Germany as the bread nation #1 
) - and I mean bread, no toast looking bread, then dropped all sorts of industrial sugar, incl. fructose, glucose, saccharose etc pp. You will wonder which products contain sugar, which shouldn’t. Hence I studied the ingedients lables on the packages and even baked my own bread. Also used organic vegetables, avoided any sort of juice, like orange juice (which spiked my insuline level terribly). Pasta was used in the form of either wholegrain or alternative forms like made from lentils etc. What else. Switched from cow milk to oat milk (but the one with no added sugar as else it would be worse then regular milk). And all this with consistency. Was very hard in the beginning, but later turn into no brainer habits.
In the early stages I used the bike as an additional metabolism aid, but over time I noticed that the entire body had started to adopt and it felt more and more easy not to die while riding.
Now and since I use TR I feel safe and complimented with the workouts, which I mainly use to keep my fitness level growing. An increase of FTP comes as a bonus but is not my priority. I even did my first Century mid last year and felt great.
5 Likes
btw, just an example of what I typically have for breakfast : Overnight Oats, consisting of:
60g Oats, 1 scoop of Whey protein, 150g Skyr (natural) and 140ml Oat Milk
That translates into roughly 565 Kcal (57g Carbs, 10g Fat, 61g Protein)
PLUS: Coffein of course - Life without coffe is possible, but does not make sense 
5 Likes
as we say “persistence always beats resistance”. Keep pushing them. Did work for me and I kept asking the same question until I got the desired answer.
This is a good point, though I occasionally overeat by an amount where I’ve already consumed the 1500 calories in high-caloric-density crap in a short period of time before I get on the bike. Very unhealthy, I know.
1 Like
One question on this topic, I noticed that sometimes I’m eating more calories for the recovery meal then I burned.
For example just did 1h Vo2, Trainerroad says 453 Cal, my revory meal was arround 500kcal. Is this too much?
The margin of error in counting calories is probably higher than 47calories. I would not worry at all about an extra 50cals in a recovery meal but would make sure that overall trends are at what you need for the week/month.
If anything an extra 50 calories for a recovery meal is beneficial.
2 Likes
Just an extra question: Do you feel like you’re thirsty all the time and you also need to pee a lot? If so, I would really make an appointment with your doktor, to do a OGTT.
1 Like
I might look into this, but I don’t feel like I pee more often then normal.
On other notes, I’m back at tracking food. My main objective for now is just to guarantee that each day I don’t go bellow 110g of fat and hit 130g of protein.
For now I’m not going to make any other major changes to the meals.
If this doesn’t solve, I want to play around with food timing on rest days.
2 Likes
That’s 1,510 calories without any carbohydrates. I am not an expert, just the fat calories feel high unless you’re on a very low carb diet.
He’s not saying he’s not eating carbs. He’s making sure he’s getting the appropriate minimums of fat and protein.
Then you modulate carbs on top of that based on your workload and calorie goals.
1 Like
Understood, and the ‘without’ in my comment I think created some unintended confusion.
He’s at 1510 before any carbs. If he ends the day at 2500 he’ll have 40% from fat, 20% protein, and 40% carbs. That seems out of balance to me.
2 Likes
Percentages are irrelevant and shouldn’t be used when you’re fueling heavy.
The methodology comes from some of the recommendations on the Kyle Pfaffenbach Podcasts.
You should get a baseline of 1.6 g/kg (or more) protein per day and a 1 - 1.2 or thereabouts g/kg of fat per day (but most people don’t have to try for this and you don’t want to do too much). I don’t remember the exact g/kg - but it’s close.
Then you add carbs to balance out your caloric needs for the day.
Percentages will mislead you as your calories go up and they were never meant to be used in scenarios like this.
3 Likes
Also - you’re not going to be ending any days at 2500 unless you’re really small and have a low FTP, or you’re not training at all.
Ah - I struggle to get to 1g/kg/day of fat.
As a 70kg individual, my target today, with a 90min/1100kj z2 ride this morning, is 140 protein, 450g carb, 70g fat. In practice, I will likely marginally exceed protein and carbs, and be under on the fat.
2 Likes
I’m personally of the mind - Get some healthy fats in your diet, but not too much, hit your protein goals every day with high quality protein, and then layer in the carbs. Fuel hard on the bike with simple sugars when it makes sense, whole healthy carbs off the bike.
3 Likes