when to eat ?

dcab

im planing on doing my first long ride 2moz? i was wondering how often i should eat? as a rule i dont realy get hungry when im out but i dont obviously want to burn out is there a general rule of thumb or not ?

Nickodemus

When you say long, how long do you mean?

CrookedCucumber

If you're eating reasonably well in general (i.e., not on a harsh diet), you shouldn't normally need to eat at all on a ride of less than about 2-3 hours. The human body can store about 2000 Calories in readily accessible form. So if you assume an energy consumption of about 600 Cal/hr, you should have enough for 3 hours, say 2 hours to be on the safe side

For a very long ride, what you consume has to a balance between meeting your energy needs and convenience. There is a certain advantage to taking all your on-bike nutrition in liquid form, because (a) you also maintain hydration, and (b) you can consume more regularly without stopping.

Anyway, in my view, if you're cycling at a good pace and are reasonably fit, you should probably be taking about 200 Calories of something (food or liquid) every half an hour or so, starting about 1.5 hours into the ride (to allow for digestion).

Generally the less fit you are, the more you will have to eat or drink to keep on pace.

Jez mon

It depends on a whole load of things, (temperature, pace, fitness etc) the above advice is good.

However, some good rule of thumb advice would be to eat before you feel hungry (but don't force food down your gob!). Generally, I don't really feel hungry on rides, until suddenly :shock: i run out of energy, and when this happens it's really unpleasant. You really don't want this to happen on your first long ride (or ever) so don't scrimp on the food, you can always just eat less when you get back home.

As you get more experienced you'll easily be able to judge for yourself when and how much to eat, and be able to feel the onset of the bonk, before it hits you. 8)

dcab

had to sack the long ride due to family commitments, i managed to get 50m in though and had to fight a fierce head wind! thanks 4 the advice