Training & Nutrition - Better Eating Need Help!

ok guys ive been riding my bike now for about a month and its awsome but my eating habits are still S$%T so my questions are what do you guys/gals eat before a ride after a ride??? any healthy easy to make recipes for the other meals and how many times a day do i eat 3 4 6??? im so lost when it comes down to eating right what to eat and what not to eat i know the big greasy cheeseburger is a no no but other then that im stuck...



any help would be awsome

From the looks of your ticker in your sig, your BMI is 47.9. If that is correct, you don't currently need any cycling specific information regarding diet.

I'd suggest one of the thousands of books and websites that have hundreds of recipies in them. There's probably more low calorie or healthy recipe books out there than non-healthy recipe books these days. You can even find a few thousand for free on various recipe websites if you wanted to.

ok ill look around but im looking for more energy for longer rides any suggestions there to eat this vs that as far as muscle recovery and energy go

I'm not sure how far you're going, but what I do is:

40mi ride and below, water or electrolyte drink on the ride. no food needed; you'll have enough energy in your system.
40-75mi ride, have fig newtons, or peanuts, or gel blocks every 25 miles or so
75-120mi ride, same as above, but have a PBJ sandwich/chips somewhere in the middle. Might also up my snacking intervals to every 10-15 mi.

Then I eat something when I get home.

Most people are ok with no added calories on a 1.5-2 hour ride, assuming a decent breakfast beforehand (or lunch or dinner if you ride later in the day).
I can go 2.5 hours or so.

The way to find out how long you can go is to go out for a ride and not eat. When you get all slow and weak and dumb, you have "bonked". Your brain runs only on glycogen so when you run out you get stupid.

sounds good ill go try that out thanks

For a good quick breakfast I eat oatmeal sweetened honey with granola mixed in. Takes about 4 minutes to make and keeps you full for hours.

Plan to have healthy food on hand for when you are hungry after a ride. Get some chicken or turkey and whole wheat bread and make a sandwich instead of buying a fast food burger. Stock up on fruit and ingredients for salads.

Most people are ok with no added calories on a 1.5-2 hour ride, assuming a decent breakfast beforehand (or lunch or dinner if you ride later in the day).
I can go 2.5 hours or so.

The way to find out how long you can go is to go out for a ride and not eat. When you get all slow and weak and dumb, you have "bonked". Your brain runs only on glycogen so when you run out you get stupid.If I were using that for a metric, I'd be confused about what to do most of the time. :rolleyes:

With 100 to lose, you may consider seriously counting your calories. Just strip it down to the basics. A deficit at the end of the week is a positive weight loss.

Have you tried the Livestrong site? Set up an account - Free - and start using the daily plate. You can track what you eat and also your exercise. I would also recomend The Best Life Diet. It is more a food/lifestyle change and teaches you to make better choices.

I have lost 20+ # doing the above. Good Luck! It will happen!

I agree with most of whats been said above. If you've got some serious weight to lose I wouldn't worry so much about eating specifically for cycling, rather your goal should be to burn more calories than you consume. Personally for losing weight I prefer the Weight Watchers program (I lost 35 pounds in 4 months), its basically calorie counting and there is a lot of information on the internet about it, how it works, and tips for staying full. I didn't want to pay for it so I used their formula to create my own Excel database of food, if you're interested in doing it yourself but aren't to sure about how to setup the Excel sheet you can PM me and I'd be happy to send you the excel file I have with all of the foods I ate for 3 or 4 months. Good luck and keep pedaling.

With 100 to lose, you may consider seriously counting your calories. Just strip it down to the basics. A deficit at the end of the week is a positive weight loss.

Have you tried the Livestrong site? Set up an account - Free - and start using the daily plate. You can track what you eat and also your exercise. I would also recomend The Best Life Diet. It is more a food/lifestyle change and teaches you to make better choices.

I have lost 20+ # doing the above. Good Luck! It will happen!

But then dont i have to figure out how many calories i should be eating a day to help with weight loss because if i eat 1500 calories a day i dont think i would have the energy to even ride my bike a mile do you have any suggestions on how i do that????

And Vision i sent you a PM incase you didnt see

But then dont i have to figure out how many calories i should be eating a day to help with weight loss because if i eat 1500 calories a day i dont think i would have the energy to even ride my bike a mile do you have any suggestions on how i do that????

And Vision i sent you a PM incase you didnt seeOf course you have to figure that. We know that's hard to figure exactly. So you figure that, you eat those calories, you observe your weight. Most people think a 500 calorie deficit is doable, which would lose you 1 lb./week. So if your weight doesn't change, you cut by 500 cal./day. If you are losing too quickly, you add calories. Some of the people who have posted in this thread have obviously run a greater calorie deficit than 500. My advice would be to start off slow and gradually, over a period of weeks, try to increase your rate of loss. It will take time for your body to get used to running on fewer calories, and for your stomach to get used to smaller meals. Treat it as a lifestyle change, not a diet, so don't do anything you can't maintain. These adaptations are standard training adaptations that everyone goes through.

And Vision i sent you a PM incase you didnt see

Actually I don't see any PM's in my box. However, it appears that I can't attach an excel file using this forum (I've never tried before). If you're comfortable with it send me another PM with your email address and I can email it to you (you could just make a new email address just for this and send that to me if you're not comfortable with it).


But then dont i have to figure out how many calories i should be eating a day to help with weight loss because if i eat 1500 calories a day i dont think i would have the energy to even ride my bike a mile do you have any suggestions on how i do that????

If you use the Weight Watchers program it will help you estimate how many points to start with based on your age, sex, activity level, and height. This won't definitively nail down how many calories you use in a day but it'll give you a good ball park and starting point.


It will take time for your body to get used to running on fewer calories, and for your stomach to get used to smaller meals. Treat it as a lifestyle change, not a diet, so don't do anything you can't maintain.

:thumb: This is completely true if you're going to do this don't treat it as a diet but a new way of life. Also your going to be hungry because as Carbonfiberboy said your stomach needs to shrink and that takes time. For the 1st month I was typically a little hungry all the time (this might also have to do with the fact that when you first start trying to lose weight food is all you think about), after that it wasn't too bad because my stomach was full after eating much less food.

well lets do this! Guys your rock thanks soo much for the great info!!!

@Vision Silverado4x43500@msn.com is my email

@Vision Silverado4x43500@msn.com is my email

I've emailed you the spread sheet, let me know if anything is unclear or you have any questions.

Also if anybody else reading this thread (now or in the future (which I guess would be the present for you...)) is interested in this let me know and I can email it to you as well.

break things down one step at a time

your number 1 priority should be cleaning up your diet.

number 2 increasing your activity level

once you have both of those the weight will come off

lots of long rides (for you) at a slow to moderate pace


this morning I did 2 hours on the trainer with some interval work with no breakfast and a bottle of cytomax... a big meal is not always necessary before a ride

I prefer to not eat anything before a slow/base morning ride of 90 minutes or less. I let my body burn fat. If I'm riding longer, I eat a mix of protein and carbs, and eat during the ride. After some comments here, particularly by Carbonfiberboy, who knows his stuff, I'm eating more during a long ride than I used to.

I also track my eating on TrainingPeaks.com, both to see how much of a surplus/deficit I'm running (generally a small deficit), as well as to track my macronutrient and micronutrient balance. For instance, it's told me I need to reduce fat in favor of carbs if I am going to follow the guidelines my coach has provided. Staying on top of that logging isn't easy. In fact, I'm behind now, so I should stop posting and log my eating. The fact that it is a pita also helps you cut down on just grabbing a snack, especially one you don't normally eat, because you don't want to have to log it!

When you get all slow and weak and dumb, you have "bonked".Shoot, I'm that way when I start!

For the OP: If you're eating normally, you don't need to eat much, if at all, prior to a short (less than an hour or so) ride. If you ride when you get off from work, something like a granola bar or a Clif bar about an hour prior to your ride will perk you up.

Some of the best advice here:

your number 1 priority should be cleaning up your diet.

number 2 increasing your activity level

One of the few good thing about being a big guy is that you burn more calories per hour than skinny guys, even just sitting there. I'm about 200 lbs., and according to most of the charts out there I go through ~1,000 calories/hour of aerobic exercise. If you reduce your caloric intake and make sure you're eating good stuff rather than junk, and you keep up the exercise, the weight will come off. It'll take some time, but then it took a long time to put it on.