Eating or taking gels all the time even before ride?

Whiteeddymurphy

This may seem a daft question. I have just returned to cycling after a couple of years with the odd comeback for a couple of weeks here and there. I did 30 miles on Tuesday & at 14.5 average I expected my calves & thighs to feel heavy which they do and my lungs to burst out my chest on climbs which they did. I mainly want to get fit with say 1 stone weight loss (currently 14.5) will I get fitter if I take a gel before I go out & eat every time I flag slightly or will I always struggle once I stop doing this prior to reducing my weight. I just feel this way it keeps my legs going slightly & interest up

I'm currently planning to ride every other day. Similar miles or should I try to do shorter say 10 mile rides but faster through the week then longer at weekends. I should know all this but forgot really. I just need a bit help during my 1st couple of weeks

imposter2.0

Gels have nothing to do with fitness - they are just a relatively poor way of taking on carbs. Unless you are racing, eat proper food instead.

47p2

Cycling 30 miles does not require gel refuelling before or during the ride, you're never going to shed a stone that way. Eat healthy 'proper food a couple of hours before you go out and that will keep you going

meanredspider

Certainly taking a gel before you go out will not be a clever thing to do. Apart from it being almost an emergency form of food, your liver bumps up your blood glucose level anyway once you starts exercising. A colleague of mine once took 3 gels before the start of a marathon and reckons he almost went hyperglycaemic.

My thoughts are these: if your lungs are busting, do some intervals or do other high intensity training. If you're struggling to keep going, then long slow rides (the longer and slower the better) are your friend. Ideally, a mixture will be great.

Whiteeddymurphy

It's hard to put in words what I mean. I realise my body may not need it for that distance it's just if I do it to keep my energy up it makes the ride more bearable. So if I did this until I get a bit fitter I will stop. The question would be if I do stop them or flapjacks would my body feel like day 1 again or will I be fitter or more used to the bike hence progress to my weight loss goal

meanredspider

The short answer is still that you shouldn't need them at all. By all means eat 1-2 hours beforehand but you really shouldn't need a gel.

kajjal

If you eat enough of the right kind of foods your body will perform normally and not need gels etc. , unless you really push the time and distance. This does depend on how your body reacts, mine tends to need more in ride food and water than other people being over 6ft6. But as long as you don't run out if food and drink in ride you will be fine.

Just keep riding regularly and the speed will come. One thing I do is have a chocolate sports milkshake after a longer ride and strangely it stops my legs feeling heavy and I feel better for it.

imposter2.0

Whiteeddymurphy wrote:

It's hard to put in words what I mean. I realise my body may not need it for that distance it's just if I do it to keep my energy up it makes the ride more bearable. So if I did this until I get a bit fitter I will stop. The question would be if I do stop them or flapjacks would my body feel like day 1 again or will I be fitter or more used to the bike hence progress to my weight loss goal

Asking people to predict how your own body may or may not feel after eating is going to be impossible, for obvious reasons. everyone is different and responds differently - just try it for yourself.

craigus89

Whiteeddymurphy wrote:

It's hard to put in words what I mean. I realise my body may not need it for that distance it's just if I do it to keep my energy up it makes the ride more bearable. So if I did this until I get a bit fitter I will stop. The question would be if I do stop them or flapjacks would my body feel like day 1 again or will I be fitter or more used to the bike hence progress to my weight loss goal

I think you need to man up a bit to be honest, you'll get through the struggling beginner bit if you just get out an ride.

JayKosta

If you ride long after eating (e.g. 12+ hours) then having a gel or some other quick carb calories is fine, especially if you ride harder than at a very leisurely pace.
My choice is 6 'fig newton' type cookies soon before, and Gatorade while doing a 30-40 mile ride.
But to lose weight, the best results will come from controlling your food intake, and stop 'eating for pleasure'.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

Bozman

If you eat a healthy balanced diet you shouldn't require any extra fuel for up to a 40 mile rode.

Jules Winnfield

If you want to lose weight then the best way of doing it is by riding in a pre breakfast, fasted state with only coffee as fuel. (Caffiene increases your fat metabolism apparently) Ride for 2+ hours, keep the pace nice and relaxed so you can talk in easy sentences without being out of breath and generally keep your heart rate low. Don't push it on the hills and do not give 2 hoots about your average speed. That is immaterial and you will get faster naturally the more weight you lose and the fitter you get. You DO NOT need to eat anything at all on these type of rides and if anyone says any different then they are talking bollox. The idea of these rides is to train your body to use your excess fat reserves for fuel, so you don't need to start throwing carb rich foods down your neck when you are not riding hard enough for your body to use them. I find it comical when I see the local cyclists out on their 20-30 mile, weekly Sunday pootle and they are throwing bananas and gels down their necks like it's going out of fashion.

When you return eat a healthy breakfast as normal (you should be trying to eat healthier anyway if you want to lose weight) and within a few months your waistline will have shrunk no end. I do these rides with a HRM to keep my heart rate precise and since February I have lost 3 inches at least from my waist, I am down to a weight of 131lbs from 144lbs and I feel leaner and loads fitter than I ever have been. Granted I have never been a big lad anyway but riding this way has helped me shed my unwanted fat. My muffin top has now disappeared and according to my non cycling significant other, my bum is not going south anymore. I'm 42 years of age and 5' 8.5" by the way.

There is an app called My Fitness Pal and I use that to help with my calorie intake but primarily to make sure I am taking in enough protein in my diet. You may find it useful too.

hypster

Jules Winnfield wrote:

If you want to lose weight then the best way of doing it is by riding in a pre breakfast, fasted state with only coffee as fuel. (Caffiene increases your fat metabolism apparently) Ride for 2+ hours, keep the pace nice and relaxed so you can talk in easy sentences without being out of breath and generally keep your heart rate low. Don't push it on the hills and do not give 2 hoots about your average speed. That is immaterial and you will get faster naturally the more weight you lose and the fitter you get. You DO NOT need to eat anything at all on these type of rides and if anyone says any different then they are talking bollox. The idea of these rides is to train your body to use your excess fat reserves for fuel, so you don't need to start throwing carb rich foods down your neck when you are not riding hard enough for your body to use them. I find it comical when I see the local cyclists out on their 20-30 mile, weekly Sunday pootle and they are throwing bananas and gels down their necks like it's going out of fashion.

When you return eat a healthy breakfast as normal (you should be trying to eat healthier anyway if you want to lose weight) and within a few months your waistline will have shrunk no end. I do these rides with a HRM to keep my heart rate precise and since February I have lost 3 inches at least from my waist, I am down to a weight of 131lbs from 144lbs and I feel leaner and loads fitter than I ever have been. Granted I have never been a big lad anyway but riding this way has helped me shed my unwanted fat. My muffin top has now disappeared and according to my non cycling significant other, my bum is not going south anymore. I'm 42 years of age and 5' 8.5" by the way.

There is an app called My Fitness Pal and I use that to help with my calorie intake but primarily to make sure I am taking in enough protein in my diet. You may find it useful too.

I would generally agree with this but going back to the OP's original query I would also suggest one shorter, harder ride in the week rather than just long, slow, fat-burning miles all the time. Find a hill not too steep, maybe 5-6% that takes maybe 5 minutes to climb. Warm up for 15-20 minutes or so to get there and then do 4-5 repeats of the hill for 30 minutes or so pushing reasonably hard with easy recovery descending the hill each time. Easy warm down down for 15 minutes at the end and you have a decent, resistance, interval session which only lasts a manageable hour or so which should be easy to fit in to your training week somewhere.

This sort of session also mixes things up a bit rather than just going out for the same sort of ride each time and because it is only an hour long, you can face pushing yourself just that bit harder and get the benefit of that as well. You shouldn't need anything but water on a ride like this either which will help burning calories.

Jules Winnfield

I agree with you there hypster, my weekday rides after work are made up of these 1 hour (or just over) rides of around 20 miles. As ive mentioned, i use a heart rate monitor and i warm up for 15 minutes in zone 2, then i up the effort to 5 minutes in zone 3 then 5 minutes in zone 4 then 5 minutes back down in zone 3 again. I do these intervals 2 or 3 times then ride home in zone 2 to warm down.

Sometimes i even include an all out sprint has hard as i can go for 30 seconds after the zone 3 interval just to get the fast twitch fibres working. Even on these interval rides, even though they can be hard, i still dont eat on the bike. You should have enough energy from the food you have eaten throughout the day to fuel sessions like this.

Like you say, its about making the most of your spare time when on the bike and making it count and not wasting it on 'junk' miles.

nibby

Jules Winnfield wrote:

There is an app called My Fitness Pal and I use that to help with my calorie intake but primarily to make sure I am taking in enough protein in my diet. You may find it useful too.

Just curious as I'm currently making an effort to eat right and take in correct amount of carbs/protein etc.

What sort of amounts are you eating each day?

Jules Winnfield

I've got is set that I want to maintain weight so that gives me a goal of 2080 calories per day. Looking at the breakdown, I'm allowed 260 grams of carbs and 104 grams of protein per day. This calorific limit is just the bare amount that your body needs to function though. Because we are cyclists, obviously the more time and effort we put in on the bike, the more this intake will need to rise to cope with the calories burned. I think this is where you need to listen to your own body when riding. If you feel drained after a tough, long ride then you need to up your calorie intake perhaps before and during the ride.

I have also linked Strava to My Fitness Pal so any rides and calories burned during that ride will update to your diary on MFP automatically. That saves me manually inputting the exercise myself.

nibby

It's interesting. I do the same with myfitness to monitor the amount of protein/carbs but don't take any notice of what it recommends.

For me for example to keep to my current weight and when adding daily exercise it's telling me the goal is over 500 g carbs and over 200 g of protein.

I'm nowhere near those amounts.

Does it work for you in keeping to the same weight?

Jules Winnfield

I have set myself to be 'lightly active'. I have only taken my daily work into account not my exercise. I don't want to state I'm a very active person and eat the daily calories for a very active person and then on my rest days, off the bike, I'm then eating far too much and putting weight on. The days when I am riding I will adjust my calorie intake to compensate for the extra effort and calories burned. I've only been on MFP for 8 days now so it's too early to state if it's keeping me at the same weight, only time will tell. Like I said I am using it mainly to make sure I'm getting the right amount of protein. But the more indepth you go with MFP, the more interesting it is finding out exactly what you are eating. I thought I steered clear of fatty foods, but there is more fat in food that you can care to imagine. It's been an eye opener that's for sure.

nibby

agree, it's a good app to keep track of things and make sure you are hitting targets etc.

I'm just not sure what it's recommending and if you keep to that will help achieve goals. Only one way to find out I suppose and I've never been shy of an excuse to shovel more food down my mouth.

Jules Winnfield

Put it this way Nibby, I have a massive love for Chinese food and we have a cracking take away near us. Last Saturday we had a huge take away and I was 1800 calories over my daily limit on that day. I rode a fasted 50 miler with a few intervals the next morning and with my calorie intake and a couple of after work rides and commutes during this week, things have evened out again.

I don't religiously stick to the recommended 2080 calories everyday, i do my best but if I do go over then I know a good ride will burn off my excess intake.

mosa

Interesting reading. I just started cycling a couple of years ago or so & have just restarted this week. 2 rides of 32 miles with a day off after each. Would like to learn or train properly. Main goal is fitness with slight weight loss but would like to be able to get more miles in within reason & build endurance. Any tips or a link to a plan that could get me started off?

jgsi

mosa wrote:

Interesting reading. I just started cycling a couple of years ago or so & have just restarted this week. 2 rides of 32 miles with a day off after each. Would like to learn or train properly. Main goal is fitness with slight weight loss but would like to be able to get more miles in within reason & build endurance. Any tips or a link to a plan that could get me started off?

Best advice from me is to join a good local road club and take it from there.