Need Nutrition help urgently!

luke5495

Hi,

I have recently started cycling everyday for fitness and am having real trouble with knowing what to eat, and when to eat it.

For example, I read somewhere that a small breakfast is better than no breakfast before a ride, so I have been eating a cup of oatmeal and half a banana, half an hour before rides in the morning, but each time I ride, I get terrible cramp in my stomach. I know I must have to leave it longer, but then I would be waking up at stupid times.

I was wondering whether it is entirely necessary to have my breakfast before, and whether I can have it after?
or whether for endurance rides past 90 minutes do I need breakfast, but for anything under can I leave it till after?

I also was hoping someone could help me by telling me what I need to be eating on the ride and how often? and then of course what sort of things I need to be eating during the rest of the day.

I ride 45 minutes most of the time, but do two 2 hour rides a week as well, and am hoping to increase ride times, but I just can't because I don't even have the energy for these rides.

The biggest problem i'm finding other than stomach cramps and bonking on longer than 2 hour rides is having the energy to carry on each day.

So some help would be absolutely wonderful if anyone has the time to read through my rambling as I am completely and utterly confused what to do, and if you live in brighton and see a very slow climber, it's likely it's me, and i'm nearly about to be sick haha.

Thank you

Luke

LegendLust

Eat your banana straight away after your ride then make sure you have your remaining breakfast within half an hour if possible. This will help with your recovery after your efforts. You could add some yoghurt, seed and berries to your oatmeal breakfast to up the nutrition and protein (or use oats instead of the oatmeal). Also, you could try a good quality energy drink on any ride longer than an hour for you - sip a little every 10-15mins. I use The Edge by Reflex Nutrition.

I've been cycling a long time and unless I'm doing a hard ride over 3 hours I never have breakfast before a ride - always after. If it is a hard 3 hour ride I'll have an omelette or a couple of bananas before i step out of the door and have a Nakd bar (or similar) on the hour along with sipping energy drink. Try to remember to eat a lot of your daily carbs on your ride and just after it.

phreak

I'd say that most cyclists regularly eat whilst riding, so it does suggest that riding and eating aren't mutually exclusive activities.

I think it's probably a good habit to eat a strong breakfast anyway, whether cycling or not, but I doubt it would make a huge amount of difference for a 45 minute ride.

cougie

We're all different - but I never have breakfast and can happily do a three hour - 20 mile run on just a few jelly sweets.

Your breakfast isn't providing energy for your 45 minute rides anyway - your body should have plenty of reserves from the days before. Are you eating properly the rest of the time ?

lambpie

I think the part of your issue is in "recently started cycling everyday". I think you've probably upped your volume so much your body is feeling a bit trashed. If I'm up early to exercise or ride and it's less than 90 mins of even hard exercise I won't have breakfast, just water while I'm doing it and as LegendLust says, eat straight afterwards. I think you probably need to think about how much exercise you are doing and maybe back off a bit and build more slowly.

On normal 2-3 hour rides I'll typically have breakfast 45 mins to an hour before heading out, really only drinking on the bike but having a bar or gel with me if I need it. Over 3 hours I do need food and clearly the harder the ride the more I will eat/drink. I've never bonked in my life or really felt close to it, so this routine works for me. Everyone's different though!

keef66

I'm the opposite; I have to eat breakfast before I do anything strenuous. The few times I've gone without I've ended up feeling most peculiar.

I find I can eat a massive bowl of porridge and within 30 minutes be out on the bike with no problems. Keeps me going for quite a while too. If I'm going for longer than 90 minutes I have to start eating after the first hour.

luke5495

Thank you all for the great advice, I went out today and didn't eat breakfast and found my stomach was a lot better, I could climb harder and faster, I think I will stick to the advice definitely of having my breakfast afterwards and for 3 hour rides I will get up an hour early to have my breakfast, that way I can be sure it has been digested properly.

luke5495

cougie wrote:

We're all different - but I never have breakfast and can happily do a three hour - 20 mile run on just a few jelly sweets.

Your breakfast isn't providing energy for your 45 minute rides anyway - your body should have plenty of reserves from the days before. Are you eating properly the rest of the time ?

Thats the thing, I do not really know what to eat the rest of the time off of the bike, i'm kind of just eating what I can afford, and it may not be healthy but just the standard things I normally eat, such as:

Oatmeal and banana for breakfast
tuna sandwich for lunch
potato beans and cheese for dinner

This is a normal day for me, I don't even tend to eat snacks in between, I make sure I get enough water and maybe sometimes have an apple or two but thats about it, I really don't know what I should be eating, I've had a look around on a lot of sites, but it all seems a bit too expensive for me as a student to keep up with. Also as I do not know much about nutrition, there are so many options, and I am not sure which ones to mix and match together to make it healthy in one day.

If you know of any cheap recipes or day plans that would be amazing

LegendLust

luke5495 wrote:

cougie wrote:

We're all different - but I never have breakfast and can happily do a three hour - 20 mile run on just a few jelly sweets.

Your breakfast isn't providing energy for your 45 minute rides anyway - your body should have plenty of reserves from the days before. Are you eating properly the rest of the time ?

Thats the thing, I do not really know what to eat the rest of the time off of the bike, i'm kind of just eating what I can afford, and it may not be healthy but just the standard things I normally eat, such as:

Oatmeal and banana for breakfast
tuna sandwich for lunch
potato beans and cheese for dinner

This is a normal day for me, I don't even tend to eat snacks in between, I make sure I get enough water and maybe sometimes have an apple or two but thats about it, I really don't know what I should be eating, I've had a look around on a lot of sites, but it all seems a bit too expensive for me as a student to keep up with. Also as I do not know much about nutrition, there are so many options, and I am not sure which ones to mix and match together to make it healthy in one day.

If you know of any cheap recipes or day plans that would be amazing

Try rolled oats instead of the oatmeal. Make sure you use wholemeal bread for your tuna sandwich. Swap the baked potato for sweet potato. Off the bike you need to make your carbs low GI.

Make sure you get some varied veg or salad in your diet - the more different colours you have on your plate the better.

Raw Carrots and beetroot are cheap (raw beetroots are great roasted). Add some spinach as well.

Try and get some protein in your evening meal - or at the very least substitute the cheese for cottage cheese.

Oatcakes and peanut butter (no added sugar) or cottage cheese are good for snacking on or eat some nuts with your apples. Most of the above is cheap (apart from the nuts!)

xavierdisley

luke5495 wrote:

cougie wrote:

We're all different - but I never have breakfast and can happily do a three hour - 20 mile run on just a few jelly sweets.

Your breakfast isn't providing energy for your 45 minute rides anyway - your body should have plenty of reserves from the days before. Are you eating properly the rest of the time ?

Thats the thing, I do not really know what to eat the rest of the time off of the bike, i'm kind of just eating what I can afford, and it may not be healthy but just the standard things I normally eat, such as:

Oatmeal and banana for breakfast
tuna sandwich for lunch
potato beans and cheese for dinner

This is a normal day for me, I don't even tend to eat snacks in between, I make sure I get enough water and maybe sometimes have an apple or two but thats about it, I really don't know what I should be eating, I've had a look around on a lot of sites, but it all seems a bit too expensive for me as a student to keep up with. Also as I do not know much about nutrition, there are so many options, and I am not sure which ones to mix and match together to make it healthy in one day.

If you know of any cheap recipes or day plans that would be amazing

If you're a student then get creative with the value foods. Eg. these all mixed together and heated up a bit


With this on top


Is £1.88 & 1434kcal. A tuna sandwich is £1.05 and 390kcal. Tinned food won't go off when you do the typical student trick of leaving it in the back of the cupboard so is less ideal than fresh, but you'll end up actually eating it. Don't neglect your meats for essential amino acids, that's where you'll spend the money. Go frozen for meat to keep the cost down, don't buy cheap sausages and think that it's meat (!).

You don't have to plan your meals to the nth degree so don't worry so much - but having stuff available in the house to cook with stops you from going and buying a sandwich/kebab or other typical student food!

Xav

luke5495

Thanks so much xavierdisley and LegendLust, I am so excited about these new ideas I think I may go on a shopping spree right now. haha It's so simple but I was just too stupid to think of it myself because I was getting all confused with all these crazy online recipes and thinking it was really difficult to eat healthy. Eating healthy and exercising is a completely new thing to me but with this help I may just be able to pull it off. Thanks for the great advice I'd buy you each a beer if I could, oops, I mean tuna sandwich with wholemeal bread.

JayKosta

This site has good info -
http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition ... ad_cycling

An easy after-exercise recovery drink is low-fat chocolate milk, but you need to keep remembering to buy it...
I use a mixture of powdered whey protein and Gatorade powder - inexpensive and quick to mix with water after exercise session.

For improving speed and strength, intervals are very effective.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

dw300

LegendLust wrote:

Make sure you get some varied veg or salad in your diet - the more different colours you have on your plate the better.

8)