As a teenager, my usual first-breakfast before a ride was a couple of museli bars & an orange juice. These were quite intense rides but unstructured. One morning I subbed them all out for a donut. Big mistake. 
Clearly it hadn’t digested.
The A1c test doesnt work on my heamoglobin, and my doctors have never been able to explain to me why. Just that I am a haem varient.
Does anyone here know the scinece behind why my blood isn’t suitable?
Nice cast 
I think the only bit not covered is pre-loading, although I think previous casts did.
So makes sense the eating on the bike vs off the bike, but for most of us here it’s not long before we’re on the bike again 
often I’m just looking around the kitchen for anything I can consume before the next workout comes around, when in fact a decent carb load on a recovery day before a big morning session can be a good idea.
VEry interesting podcast. Thanks
There’s a lot of carb. Lot of saturated fat too. When you start tracking/caring about it it’s surprising.
Like…a plain croissant has 16g or more saturated fat. For reference, the AHA recommends 6% of total calories from sat. fats. Research implies you may be able to go up to 10% before measurable risk increases (if you don’t currently have ASCVD, otherwise < 6%).
For a 2k diet, 6% is 13g. So the croissant already exceeds it.
Glazed donut has like 9g, candy bars are in that ballpark. Maple Oat Pecan Scone (personal favorite) is 11g saturated fat.
Saturated fat tastes great. It’s what they use to hold the sugar together. 
I usually aim to keep it at 4/5% of total calories. So one splurge can easily blow that budget.
I’m not sure about the specific croissant you buy, but a quick Google search shows a plain croissant to have 14g of fat, 8g of which is saturated.
And, for me anyway, a croissant probably isn’t something I’m going to grab mid-ride. I’d more likely go for something like a fruit pie, or a snickers, or something else with a lot of simple carbs.
Increased lifespan and increased turnover are contradictory. You can’t have both.
It was a beautifully sunny day. Low wind, and felt great. Was a metric century ride with a donut shop in the middle. We were zipping along, setting PRs and having a glorious day. Got to the shop, and I bought an apple fritter type thing. We all hung around in the quaint little town ‘digesting’, and then took off for the return. I had only eaten half of that thing, and ended up tossing the rest, I had saved for later, on the trail. Nothing digested and I kept burping apple and cinnamon and just felt like crap. I’ve since sworn off any donut thing completely. Maybe the apple thing was a bad choice, but it ruined a perfect day.
Too much sugar? That it was fried (too much oil (all donuts are fried)). I just pass on them, and would rather snarf a ‘real’ sports snack I’m comfortable with.