Training & Nutrition - is there a time _not to eat carbs?

a link to another thread is fine - "carbs" seemed too general to search for.

what i want to know is this: ppl talk about how important carbs are along with sports drinks, water, and protein supplements like a powerbar or a protein drink. so tell me how should my daily intake relate to the workout itself?

i eat all the time - without too much structure. i have learned to hydrate and eat _during a ride, and to try to get a protein drink in during that first hour or two _after a ride and i have leared to load up on carbs _before a ride.

but sometimes i'm doing my same slacker diet - eating an entire homemade pizza by myself or something - and i'm thinking "well, i know I'm taking a day off tomorrow.." and i just I wonder if my diet should be more tailored to the individual workouts or if i can just pig out throughout the week in a vague attempt to get enough calories and protein. the protein goals in particular seem very difficult.

i only ride 100 miles a week or so and i just got up to that level this summer - hoping to be more like 150/week before long though.

thanks for any advice..

Generally, ingesting a huge amount of starchy carbs just before going to bed is a bad idea.

Dave

like sleep, you can't catch up on nutrition. i don't like tailoring my eating habits too much, but on the days i ride i will eat anything i want. i try not to eat too much fat along with my carbs. on off days i ratchet the intake down.

i like the simpler carbs rather than the starchy carbs.

the best thing i learned this year is to carbo load 2 days in advance of a hard workout. i'll also eat more protein and less carbs in first 1/2 of the week. since mondays are days off for me, tues and wednesdays are medium to high tempo i eat more red meat, etc. from sunday night through tuesday. wednesday through saturday is carb carb carb, as thursday, sat and sun is hard, fast and long days.

i ride 220 miles a week, so my overall calorie count is high, but somewhat calculated.

I generally try to follow my appetite. I have found that if I require more carbs or fat, I get hungry. If my activity level is low, I am generally less hungry.

I try to eat only when I am hungry. This sounds strange but folks do eat for other reasons (boredom, depression, etc).

As far as when not to eat carbs. It used to be popular to preceed carb loading for a race or event by a carb depletion for a few days before starting to load. Suposedly this was to prime your body to store more glycogen. This is much less popular than it used to be.

Dan

This has worked well for me as far as weight loss and training...

1. Eat around 6 meals a day. This minimizes the spike in your blood sugar which in turn allows less carbs to be converted to fat after your body has gotten what it needed from your meal. Think of energy as a series of waves. You don't want big peaks and valleys in your energy level because your body reacts by lowering metabolism and starts craving sugars. Eat every 3 hours or so.

2. Eat carbs and protein in the morning (to break your fast) and before and after workouts (to fuel and re-build your muscles). Eat protein before you go to bed or your body will nibble on your muscles to get the protein (stored energy) it needs at night.

3. If you are going to be inactive for a certain period in the day (desk job for example) minimize carbs and eat almost all protein for all of these mid-day meals.

4. Avoid eating carbs and lots of fat at the same time. fat and protein is ok. protein and carbs is ok too.

I had never before lost weight until 4 months ago when I had a diet epiphany. I've just weighed in 30 lbs lighter and my major strength exercises have not suffered (bench, squat, pull-down). I'm dropping weight almost too fast still and I am less hungry than I used to be when I was GAINING weight.

Hope this helps!

thanks blue-
this is just the kind of advice i was looking for. i like riphraph's advice too, but i'm curious what a weekly meal plan would look like since it does the carb load two days ahead thing.

thanks again y'all..