Training & Nutrition - Low Carb Diet

Will a low carb diet effect my cycling? I am not riding as much in the cooler weather, but when I do ride if I am eating little or no carbs should I load up for the ride? I use gels and such during.

If you are trying to lose weight a better strategy would be to eat some complex carbs at least several hours before the ride and then eliminate simple carbs during the ride to facilitate more fat utilization while riding.

i would agree with TWTD. You will need Some carbs on a ride over a couple off hours. It doesn't seem to matter much for 60 to 90 minutes. Your body can store about 2 hours of glycogen for ready use. After that without replenishment you will be sucking fumes. Bonking is not a plesant experience.

i rode a 30 mile ride when I was just begining a low carb diet. Did fine for about 25 miles and then the "wall" hit me and I crawled back. While I was in the "induction" stage I just modified my workouts to shorter and more intense. Doing interval training and hills but no long (2 hour) rides. Now I have added Carbs back in the rides can be longer but it is too dang cold out recently

a few bites of a peanut butter on whole wheat sandwich is a great midride pickme up

I agree... I've been looking at the South Beach diet.. which does nearly eliminate carbs in the 2 week induction period.. then adds more complex carbs later on... so it is not like Atkin's... according to the book.. if you are exercising, i.e. cycling for some distance, you want to carbo load a bit... just eat the right things... Whole grain breads... Real oatmeal, not instant... things like that...

But I can tell you, from experience, that if you don;t have anough carbs on a long ride... say around 45-70 miles... you will bonk, and you WILL hate life...

gels are good on rides.. they are simple carbs, but you are burning them up as you ride... so it is all good

jeff

I should modify what i said to add that if you are riding more than a couple hours and perhaps even sooner at very high intensity such that you deplete your stored carbs you will at that point need to add some on ride fuel that includes carbs(for high intensity you would probably want mostly carbs such as gu)

I am starting the South Beach just to try and drop a few pounds before spring. I am 6'3" and 197lbs so I am not over weight, but would like to drop the gut. My midweek rides are usually between 20 and 30 miles, and 40 to 60 on the weekends. Lately too cold to do any. I have bonked before and do not wish to repeat. Thanks for the info.

I am starting the South Beach just to try and drop a few pounds before spring. I am 6'3" and 197lbs so I am not over weight, but would like to drop the gut. My midweek rides are usually between 20 and 30 miles, and 40 to 60 on the weekends. Lately too cold to do any. I have bonked before and do not wish to repeat. Thanks for the info.

my suggestion would be to take it easy during induction.. but after that you should be good to go... at least that is what I get from the book... your weekday rides should be affected.. but the weekenders, at least during the first 2 weeks... might be a little tougher...

I've sorta been doing the SBD induction... with some carb... I guess it's amaybe a phase 2 kinda thing... but I don;t need to really lose any weight either... jsut a little around my gut... I'm 5'10" and about 163... I'd love to get just below 160... but we'll see... I'm not gonna stress about it, if I don;t

JEff

I was unable to workout or ride with any intesity at all
when I started the SB Diet. My workouts degraded into suffer fests.
Once I started back on carbs I felt a lot better.

I know others that have done quite well on it though. I just
couldn't make it work while working out.