Post 2hr sweet spot hunger

I’ve been doing my 2hr sweet spot workouts in the morning before work and have a good dose of carbs and protein post workout (real food) and proper fueling during. Around 3-4 hours later, my hunger goes through the roof. I work in sales and don’t usually have time to grab lunch and was wondering what others use as a good snack in between meals for that post sweet spot hunger

Fruit, nuts, and strawberry milk. Granola, yogurt. Really I eat all day.

But I still eat a hefty lunch. High protein and veggies.

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I’ve been doing SS work up to 3.5hrs 2-3 days/wk and find that fueling during helps with the post ride more than anything I’ve tried. Still run a deficit after a 3000kj ride but I’m not trying to eat everytging in sight a couple hours after.

Typically I’ll make some pb toast with banana and honey first thing as I’m getting on the bike then try to take in a couple bars and/or clif bloks on the bike. Immediately after I’ll have a protein shake, 3-4 eggs, spinach and oats/rice. Nuts and fruit the rest of the day if I’m working.

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Check out the Feed Zone Portables cookbook

Milk! Real, good source of protein, affordable, portable, easily accessible - there’s probably some in your fridge at work right now. If it’s whole milk and you can drink a pint, that’s approaching 500kcal and 20g protein each time.

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Full cream milk, peanut butter and Nutella are perfect fillers. Super calorie dense and filling plus pretty cheap as well

It’s quite impressive just how hungry SS work can make you.

For example, i did a 2 hour TR SS ride and then stuffed myself full of food right after till i couldn’t eat anymore. Not even an hour later, my tummy was rumbling and i was hungry again!

Personally, i go to bed and sleep so i don’t feel hungry :stuck_out_tongue:

This.
Yesterday I did a 2hr SS and took in 300g carbs during the ride plus another 150g carbs immediately after w/ recovery drink. Followed that with a moderate meal 30min later. Wasn’t until ~6 hrs later that I got hungry again. Without the extra in-ride carbs I’m pretty sure I would have experienced the SS hunger zone.

Eat foods like this.

Sounds to me like you don’t eat enough before/during/after. Maybe you should have a good look at it.

For snacks I keep around nuts and fruit, easy. I have an emergeny cliff bar with me if I cannot stand it but have gotten pretty good with fueling so I don’t need it often.

Remember that it’s average, not normalised power, that governs how many calories you burn during a workout. So sweetspot, that allows for long intervals at still quite considerable power, is a big big calorie burner - usually more so than vo2 or anaerobic where you need to spend a greater amount of time recovering between intervals at low intensity.

How many calories you burn also depends on your power, but at my FTP of 281, a 2-hour session like Antelope +5 would burn 1450 calories. That’s equivalent to 17 gels. Or 6 cinnamon and raisin bagels. Or 14 bananas. Or (deep breath) porridge made with 100g dried weight oats, 50g raisins, 30g peanut butter, 25g honey, plus 2 Clif bars and a banana.

In other words, it’s a lot. So when you talk about “a good dose”, is it actually coming close to matching what you’re putting out?

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I use the Sweat Scale to determine my impending hunger.
Workouts like VO2max where I’m barely sweating even though it’s hard work, I’ll eat normally.
3hr SS rides where it looks like I’ve been hit with a firehose…I know I’m going to be stuffing it in.

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amazing wrap up of that comparison, thank you! I hope my FTP doesn’t rise or I have to eat even more :upside_down_face: