Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Eating Problems

I've been having this problem get worse and worse- I can't eat enough on a long ride.

I can start off well enough. For the first couple of hours I can manage eating an energy bar every hour and alternating between water and energy drink as necessary. I used to be able to do this for maybe 5 out of 6 hours (a lot of times I wait an extra half hour for the first bar) for the completion of a century without feeling any weakness or stomach pain.

Once I stepped up to 8+ hours (about a year ago) I made it to the point where energy bars started tasting like crap and I couldn't get by on them alone. I heard a lot of different suggestions about other things to take along, and Fig Newtons were especially good at doing the trick for me. I could eat enough to maintain my energy level and my stomach didn't rebel on me.

The problem is, for my last 3 long rides nothing has seemed to work. Anything I eat makes my stomach hurt. I've even tried ditching energy bars completely and using "real" food only. I've tried to force myself to eat, but that makes my stomach hurt even worse and then I start to second guess myself. Am I eating too much? Is the stomach pain hunger, or am I simply too full? Have I been drinking too much (I've since ruled this out)? If I just wait another 30 minutes will the pain go away so I can eat again (no)?

If I completely stop and eat a real lunch I'm fine. But nothing seems to work when I'm on the move. I'm not sure how to describe the way my stomach feels. I don't feel hungry, and I don't feel full. I feel a slight urge to eat mixed with the feeling you get when you've eaten something that doesn't quite agree with your stomach. At times I've felt on the verge of throwing up, but I haven't actually done it (I've wanted to just to see if that would make me feel better). Eventually I push too long without enough food and I start feeling weak. I haven't completely bonked; I've always forced myself to stop before I get an insurmountable energy deficit.

This has happened to me 3 straight weeks, and the week before that I did a 400k (for which I was fine because we stopped for lunch and dinner). If I take a couple weeks off from long rides could my stomach regroup? If you overtrain can it bother your stomach?

Is there something I can try to eat that will relax my stomach? Yesterday I tried a banana thinking that its bitterness would balance out all the sweetness I tend to eat, but I was only able to eat half of it and it didn't have the effect I had hoped. I've also tried salty foods without much luck.

What about a liquid/gel only diet? Anyone had any success with that? I may try it, but I was thinking such a huge amount of sugar would tend to upset my stomach as well.

I'm really not sure what to make of all of this. I used to be able to eat anything, but it seems like the more time goes on the pickier my stomach is getting. It's to the point now that it's ridiculous (I can only eat 2 bars before my stomach refuses food) and I've had to cut rides short, which has been a difficult emotional experience for me.

Is this something I can fix, or should I start from scratch again, making a concentrated effort to train myself to eat, even on short little 50 milers?

I am saying all this from the perspective of someone who has been struggling with stomach issues since she started randonneuring ... but it is getting better. :)

1) If you don't have one already, get a Bento bag. That made a world of difference for me. All of a sudden I didn't have to eat an entire energy bar or whatever, I could just nibble when I felt like it. I can also carry a couple different things in my Bento bag so I don't have to stick with the same thing each time I take a bite.

2) Nibbling is the key for me. If I try to eat an entire energy bar (or whatever) in one go, I can't do it. But if I have a bite of the energy bar, and then pedal for a while, then have another bite of the energy bar, I can eat the whole thing over the space of an hour without feeling overstuffed.

3) You've got to eat what you crave, not what you think you should be eating. Apparently it is like being pregnant ... a pregnant woman will crave something odd, and keep it down, but if she eats something she isn't in the mood for, she may bring it back up again. In the same way, I have had some odd cravings out there, and I can keep them down just fine and my stomach is happy, but if I go with something my brain tries to tell me is good for me, there's a good chance it is coming right back up. Your body knows what it needs ... if you crave potato chips, you're likely after the salt; if you crave chicken, you need protein; when I crave anything orange (the color orange), my body is after Vitamin C; etc. etc. Start analyzing your cravings, chances are any weird cravings you might have will be there for very logical reasons.

While I am riding, I eat things like: potato chips, corn chips, cheezies (a small bag of any of those just fits into my Bento bag), salted almonds, beef jerky, cookies of various sorts, timbits, granola bars, fruit bars, crackers, etc. I rarely eat energy bars anymore.

4) Sitting down and eating a real meal now and then is a good thing to do. If you ride the PBP, or most of the other 1200Ks, that's what you'll likely be doing every 100 kms or so. If you can complete a ride on real meals, that's great. I have trouble eating real meals because it is too much at one go ... I envy people who can!

5) I keep going with solid food for as long as I can, and then I switch to Ensure. I finished both my 400K and 600K on Ensure. That could be interesting for the PBP because I'm not sure I'll have my Ensure, but I'll see what I can do. So yes, I have quite a bit of success with a liquid diet ... and Ensure has a good blend of carbs and protein etc., so it isn't very sugary. I only use gel on the odd occasion.

6) Zantac! There are several of us who pack Zantac on most of our brevets ... it settles down the stomach acid and makes the stomach feel a bit happier about things.

7) Breathing ... this is something I've just discovered! Yes, I've been breathing all along, but on my 400K and 600K this year, I discovered that when my stomach was hurting and feeling a bit upset, if I sat up and took a deep breath through my nose (that seemed to be more effective than breathing through my mouth for this purpose), and then let it out slowly, and concentrated on relaxing, my stomach pain would go away almost instantly.

8) And just curious ... what are you using for your sports drink? I've tried several, and there are a couple brands that just don't work for me for any length of time, they almost make me feel a bit nauseated. You might want to change your sports drink and try something else.

9) Electrolytes. My 600K was warmer than I'd ridden before this year, and my 400K was HOT. Somewhere in the middle of the heat of the day on my 600K, I wasn't feeling 100%, so I decided to take an electrolyte pill ... about 20 minutes later I felt pretty good. 2 or 3 hours later, I started feeling a bit icky again, took another electrolyte pill, and felt good again. Same on my 400K, only I took quite a few more because of the heat. If your electrolyte balance is off, you will feel nauseated ... that's the case if you're doing a 400K or if you've got the flu. So if it is at all warm out there, or if you've been sweating a lot, take an electrolyte pill.

10) Slow down. If you start to feel a little off, just slow down a bit, relax. :)


BTW - if you can avoid throwing up, avoid it. From my experience, once I start throwing up, I don't stop. It doesn't help, and it is not pleasant. I took down the Middlebury Gap that way!!

Try liquid nutrition. Drink plenty of sports beverage on the bike and add some high calorie liquid like Ensure, chocolate milk, Yoohoo, orange juice, etc. Whatever works for you. You may need to experiment with it.

Gels also work and are easy to digest. Pop one every half hour and chase it down with water of sports drink. The trick is finding flavors that you can stand. Ignore any claims by the manufacturer. Just get a variety of brands and flavors and see what you like. Bring more than one flavor on rides because your taste may change halfway through.

Another thing. I have more difficulty with eating on long rides in hot weather than cool. I expect this is due to dehydration, so you might try picking up on your drinking on the bike.

I've been having this problem get worse and worse- I can't eat enough on a long ride.

I can start off well enough. For the first couple of hours I can manage eating an energy bar every hour and alternating between water and energy drink as necessary. I used to be able to do this for maybe 5 out of 6 hours (a lot of times I wait an extra half hour for the first bar) for the completion of a century without feeling any weakness or stomach pain.

Once I stepped up to 8+ hours (about a year ago) I made it to the point where energy bars started tasting like crap and I couldn't get by on them alone. I heard a lot of different suggestions about other things to take along, and Fig Newtons were especially good at doing the trick for me. I could eat enough to maintain my energy level and my stomach didn't rebel on me.

The problem is, for my last 3 long rides nothing has seemed to work. Anything I eat makes my stomach hurt. I've even tried ditching energy bars completely and using "real" food only. I've tried to force myself to eat, but that makes my stomach hurt even worse and then I start to second guess myself. Am I eating too much? Is the stomach pain hunger, or am I simply too full? Have I been drinking too much (I've since ruled this out)? If I just wait another 30 minutes will the pain go away so I can eat again (no)?

If I completely stop and eat a real lunch I'm fine. But nothing seems to work when I'm on the move. I'm not sure how to describe the way my stomach feels. I don't feel hungry, and I don't feel full. I feel a slight urge to eat mixed with the feeling you get when you've eaten something that doesn't quite agree with your stomach. At times I've felt on the verge of throwing up, but I haven't actually done it (I've wanted to just to see if that would make me feel better). Eventually I push too long without enough food and I start feeling weak. I haven't completely bonked; I've always forced myself to stop before I get an insurmountable energy deficit.

This has happened to me 3 straight weeks, and the week before that I did a 400k (for which I was fine because we stopped for lunch and dinner). If I take a couple weeks off from long rides could my stomach regroup? If you overtrain can it bother your stomach?

Is there something I can try to eat that will relax my stomach? Yesterday I tried a banana thinking that its bitterness would balance out all the sweetness I tend to eat, but I was only able to eat half of it and it didn't have the effect I had hoped. I've also tried salty foods without much luck.

What about a liquid/gel only diet? Anyone had any success with that? I may try it, but I was thinking such a huge amount of sugar would tend to upset my stomach as well.

I'm really not sure what to make of all of this. I used to be able to eat anything, but it seems like the more time goes on the pickier my stomach is getting. It's to the point now that it's ridiculous (I can only eat 2 bars before my stomach refuses food) and I've had to cut rides short, which has been a difficult emotional experience for me.

Is this something I can fix, or should I start from scratch again, making a concentrated effort to train myself to eat, even on short little 50 milers?

When I first started doing centuries, I did water + clif bars plus a little gatorade. The results were not very good - I'd get to 70 or 80 miles, my stomach would be upset and I would be miserable.

For me, here's what worked...

Switching to a real hydration drink made a *huge* difference for how things work for me. I use accelerade myself, but you need to find the one that works well for you.

Stopping the clif bars. I like clif bars as a snack perhaps 90 minutes before a ride, but I think they're just too hard to digest during a ride, even if you eat them in small chunks. You don't really need the fat during the ride.

Limiting myself to around 300 calories per hour. More is not better.

Avoid anything else that's mostly sugar. No clif bloks (which I love), no gel, etc...

Using fig newtons for a little extra snack, and (the real secret for me) carrying a couple whole-wheat bagels to eat in chunks. Those balance out the sweetness of the accelerade, and the combination seems to put off the food fatigue.

Be ready to change plans when you get food fatigue.

I agree with Machka about the bento box.

Try Cashews and beef jerky, and apples.
Only eat if you're starving.

Oh, another thing .....

I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but I seem to have an odd reaction to gatorade (or other sugared drinks) and pretty much any energy bar, but especially powerbars.

If I take a bite of a powerbar, then a swig of gatorade, my mouth feels like I've been eating fresh pineapple ... all tingly like pins and needles. It's painful! Plus there's a really horrible aftertaste.

If I eat powerbars (which I rarely do anymore), I have to wash them down with water very well before I take my next swig of a sugared drink (which I rarely drink anymore!).


You might think about trying different food and beverage combinations ... something else might work better for you. I now drink HEED, and eat cereal bars and granola bars.

Thanks for the info, guys. I think I might try the liquid nutrition route to see if that works for me. I haven't tried it up to this point because I'm one of those people who loves to feel full. Do you feel hungry when you're drinking your food all the time? Even if it does make me a little hungry, a little hunger pain would be easier to push through than what I've been experiencing lately, so liquid nutrition is worth a try.

A few of you have hinted at dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, and I was wondering about this after the first time I had stomach issues. It was hot that day and I took my CamelBak along and made an extra effort to drink a little every 5-10 minutes. I weighed myself later and there wasn't a significant weight loss, so I was getting enough fluid. I had water in the CamelBak and sports drink on the bike, so most of what I was drinking was water. I kind of wondered if I might have experienced a bit of hyponatremia, but I've always been skeptical that hyponatremia is overblown by the media and is more rare than it's made out to be, so I didn't give much serious thought to that idea. I do tend to drink more water than I drink sports drink. I'll try to up the sports drink and see if that makes a difference.

I have so many different things to try, and if I want to do good experiments I can only try one thing at a time. This process is going to hurt. :)

Try Cashews and beef jerky, and apples.
Only eat if you're starving.
If you wait until you think you starving it may be too late to catch up.

If you wait until you think you starving it may be too late to catch up.


yeah but at least you'd have some food.
Wouldn't it be worse if you didn't?

Hyponatremia is relatively rare, but I have reached that point and had to DNF a 600K because of it. When you get to that point, your electrolytes are so imbalanced that you can't stop throwing up. I was stopping to throw up about every 10 minutes, until finally I was just losing it while riding. I managed to stagger of the bicycle at one point, after doing this for several hours, and my father drove up, loaded my bicycle into the car, and told me the ride was over.

I had all the symptoms of hyponatremia, as described in the articles on this site: http://www.ultracycling.com/siteindex.html .... including the fact that I had lost about 6 lbs in about 30 hours.

It was a LONG time before I could hold anything down.

The way to prevent hyponatremia is to make sure you are consuming enough electrolytes if you are going to drink a lot of plain water. That was my mistake. I had foolishly stopped consuming salt about 12 hours before the symptoms started.

As for feeling full ... I actually like to feel just a touch on the empty side normally, but especially if I am feeling sick. Maybe that's part of your difficulty, you think you need to feel full, but you really don't. When you're not cycling, does your stomach hurt if you don't feel full? If so, do you take Tums or something when your stomach hurts? If so, you might want to pay a visit to the Dr to be checked for acid reflux or the beginnings of an ulcer. If the Dr says you're OK, consider taking Zantac during your ride, and maybe topping it up with Tums just to calm the acid down a bit.

yeah but at least you'd have some food.
Wouldn't it be worse if you didn't?
it would be worse not to eat, certainly. but it's better to eat before you're starving ;)

for the record, DXChulo, I was going through similar symptoms to yours during my 300k (no appetite, kind of queasy the entire way through, stopping to eat was fine but couldn't eat while pedaling, etc.) and found that the things that helped me most was

a) watching what I ate the day and night before a ride. Nothing too spicy and less dairy 24 hours before the ride calmed my stomach down on my 400 and 600k.

b) cutting down on sweet items. my mouth gets tired of tasting artificially sugary stuff and my appetite diminishes as a consequence. so, fewer gels and sports drinks, more savory/neutral things like jerky, nuts and/or bagels. if I have sweet stuff, it's from natural sources like fresh fruit.

c) having a variety of things to snack through so that my mouth doesn't get bored.

I also started using Sustained Energy for some liquid carbs and protein and had some decent success with it. It does not make you feel full, nor is it as pleasurable to digest as real food, but it does the job and it's not bad to have as a part of a diet that involves other food/calorie sources. The thing that I like most about it is that Sustained Energy does have a very plain taste, so sipping my way through a bottle of it doesn't make my mouth feel like I just gargled a mouthful of cola.

Some very good points, spokenword.

For me, I cannot eat anything dairy before my ride or during my ride. I'm mildly lactose intolerant, except when I feel under stress when I'm extremely lactose intolerant. While others knock back large chocolate milks at controls ... I'd die out there if I did that!!

And yes, a variety is good. Once I've eaten a particular energy bar, or cereal bar, or granola bar, I usually don't want to see it again for the rest of the ride. When I used to eat energy bars, I went to the grocery store and picked up one of each. I'd have 15 different energy bars with me. Now I tend to just buy whatever catches my fancy in the convenience stores.

The bento box:
1) beef jerky- I like the hot and sweet "Jamaica Me" flavor
2) smokehouse almonds- nothing tastes better than salty flavorful nuts on a long ride (except maybe Doritos, but they are harder to carry).
3) Payday and Baby Ruth bars (Baby ruth bars are no good in hot weather. They melt.)
4) Gu, and/or shot blocks- If your blood sugar gets low and you start to fade, these act fast and get your energy back. An alternative to these would be some dried mango slices.
In your trunk bag or handlebar bag, you could keep a Larabar or two.
The back middle jersey pocket:
1) Endurolytes
At the controls:
REAL FOOD! A Sandwich (half now and half saved for later), or some JO JOs and chicken tenders.
If I see a Tim Hortons I'm all over that Chili and a couple of doughnuts too please. Chocolate milk too!
HYDRATION: I try to down an entire 32oz Gatorade, or 2 full water bottles at each control so that I am fully hydrated before departing the rest stop. It's important not to leave the rest stop thirsty.
I have never been nauseaus on Rando rides. I never lose my appetite.
Not surprisingly, I have never lost weight on a long ride either!

Thanks for the info, guys. I think I might try the liquid nutrition route to see if that works for me. I haven't tried it up to this point because I'm one of those people who loves to feel full. Do you feel hungry when you're drinking your food all the time? Even if it does make me a little hungry, a little hunger pain would be easier to push through than what I've been experiencing lately, so liquid nutrition is worth a try.

A few of you have hinted at dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, and I was wondering about this after the first time I had stomach issues. It was hot that day and I took my CamelBak along and made an extra effort to drink a little every 5-10 minutes. I weighed myself later and there wasn't a significant weight loss, so I was getting enough fluid. I had water in the CamelBak and sports drink on the bike, so most of what I was drinking was water. I kind of wondered if I might have experienced a bit of hyponatremia, but I've always been skeptical that hyponatremia is overblown by the media and is more rare than it's made out to be, so I didn't give much serious thought to that idea. I do tend to drink more water than I drink sports drink. I'll try to up the sports drink and see if that makes a difference.

I have so many different things to try, and if I want to do good experiments I can only try one thing at a time. This process is going to hurt. :)

I'm not hungry when I mix the accelerade/newtons/bagels.

I used to do the water thing, and found that it's really easy to drink more water than you can absorb, which gives you a bad sloshy feeling. The sugar in the hydration drinks increases the absorption rate over plain water, so it will keep you hydrated better.

Just don't go with a high-fructose drink - not good.

It's good to see so much misinformation mixed in with some reasonable comments as well.

Since the original thread starter did not mention what kind of intensity they would like to maintain, it's anybodies guess as to why normal food would not be acceptable on long rides.

I wonder if the source of the problem has anything to do with food at all. There's always the possibility that other non-cycling, non-digestive related problems are the cause of discomfort.

I did get a kick out of the "drugs" and "cashews" comments, they always work......

Never been interested in power bars, sport bars and drinks etc etc...too expensive and too much sugar. For my 8+ hrs rides I always take homemade sandwiches made from multigrain bread, (slow release GI.) with honey, sultanas and peanut butter and some banannas as well, it's more natural, sugar wise and lasts a heck of a lot longer than "trendy" bike food. Just each small portions at a time every now and then, BEFORE you get the "hunger flats". Maybe an electrolyte drink in one bidon and water in the other.
Works for me.....and NO gut ache from too much junk sugar.;)

I pretty much agree with stevegor. After trying all the gels, bars and sports drinks I've found that bananas, peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and an occaisional vanilla gel washed down water and an electrolyte drink is a perfect balance.

It's good to see so much misinformation mixed in with some reasonable comments as well.

Since the original thread starter did not mention what kind of intensity they would like to maintain, it's anybodies guess as to why normal food would not be acceptable on long rides.

I wonder if the source of the problem has anything to do with food at all. There's always the possibility that other non-cycling, non-digestive related problems are the cause of discomfort.

I did get a kick out of the "drugs" and "cashews" comments, they always work......

Care to separate the misinformation from the reasonable comments? :)

When it comes to intensity, I like to keep it relatively high. I'm not going out over LT or anything, but I'm not going for an easy spin, either. I do easy rides early in the season, but this problem has only come up in the last month or so. I suppose there is the chance that I'm simply going too hard. Maybe I should try an LSD ride this weekend and see what happens.

I will be trying something new this weekend, but I'm not sure what I want to try first. Any suggestions?

Don't worry, I won't be taking drugs any time soon. I feel like a doper if I even drink caffeine. ;)

I have found Monique Ryan's book, "Sports Nutrition for Endurance Atheletes" to be an excellent source of research based information. Available at most large local library systems.

I will be trying something new this weekend, but I'm not sure what I want to try first. Any suggestions? If you're attempting to fuel while riding at high effort levels, then the nature of the fluid/fuel mixture becomes more important. In addition to digestibility, fluid transport must be maintained from the gut to the muscles or performance suffers and GI problems develop.

Fueling has always been a very individualized requirement in endurance activities - and that's why strategies remain so hard to define for everyone. If you are generally interested in discovering what might be going on in your case, you would have to describe everything about your eating habits from the day before the ride, right down to everything you do during the start of the ride.

If you are not weighing yourself, and if you don't know whether you "overreact" to sodium (high blood pressure?) you have no clue to the nature of your hydration. Similarly, if you are not experienced enough to genuinely know your caloric reserve (liver glycogen) and the rate of your caloric expenditure, you have no ability to design optimal fueling strategy.

I would assume all these things are already known by everyone, but they ignore the complexity of the issue and make grab-ass "made up" forum answers to feel good. Well, there isn't any answer coming from the Internet, you need to investigate and analyze yourself and figure out your ride-diet.