Miele Man

Another good recovery drink for post-ride is chocolate milk. Apparently it has everything your body needs. As far as extra calories in a drink gopes, I just eat a bit less to compensate for them. I do stear clear of diet or other sodas because they're too sweet and don't have a nything other than the sweetner to aid recovery. Infact they'll often make things worse by increasing your thirst as sugar does.

Cheers from Miele Man

FrenchFit 

Comparing me to you and offering advice is not something I'll do, but to give you a point of reference: I've been daily fasting for the last 1.5 years, I'll do my work-outs and consume nothing, before or after. Maybe some diluted Cytomax for a long workout, just to feel purposeful. Then when I started adding runs, 5k-10Ks to my work-outs, I found I needed to do some recovery for the muscles..so some Hammer powder in water and I'm done for the day. Food at 6pm.

I'm not putting out pro power, but who is? You need much less than you think, unless you are body building; stop obsessing.

Rowan

sstorkel hit the fat and protein solution. But I really do have to ask the question about rehydration. I'd suggest you aren't drinking enough, not just for the ride, but for the day around it.

Kevin in TN

Glucometers are very cheap if you want to actually test the effect of high-glycemic foods in a measurable way. They basically give them away for free in order to sell the strips ... and if you're just using it for sporadic tests, rather than routine use as a diabetic would, the strips are not a significant cost.

The correct way to do this would be to test the effects of a non-glycemic food taken while sedentary, then test the effects of the maltodextrin drink taken while sedentary. Then you would have a baseline of good/bad that you could use to evaluate the effects of the maltodextrin drink post-ride.

In my experience, a 250 calorie high-glycemic recovery drink after a 90 minute ride would only be helpful. Personally I would go with more than that after a longer ride. But everyone is different.

Generally, shortly after long exercise, incoming sugar is used to store glycogen. This is the idea behind recovery drinks. It is when we eat sugar that we don't need (when sedentary, or when overeating) that it is stored as fat.

If you burn 900 calories and drink back 250 calories (and don't overeat afterwards), you won't gain fat, regardless of what is in it. Calories in vs calories out still rules.

nkfrench 

My personal experience is that I perform better and recover faster from intense rides with recovery-type refueling right after the ride, and with sport gels during the ride.
By "intense" I mean rides where my heart rate is in Z4 and Z5 for a significant portion of the ride (an hour in these zones); or on rides over 3 hours. I do not ride much in Z1 or Z2.

The calories have to be figured into the daily total, but this way they go into refueling the muscles with sugar not into replenishing fat stores. The protein helps avoid desire for a post-ride nap, as does some caffeine.
For evening rides, post-ride is dinner as soon as I get home, with a little larger portion of protein and carbs.
For rides earlier in the day, I will often stop on my way home at a convenience store and get a Monster Coffee Energy Shake drink, Java Monster/Starbucks coffee energy drink or a light Chocolate Muscle Milk (chalky taste) if I don't want the caffeine. These are about 100-250 calories and digest easy when I have no appetite.
During rides I carry a 5-serving flask of Hammer gel that I call "Hill Helper". It doesn't cause the intestinal cramping I get from most sports drinks, easy to consume in desired quantities, does not require refridgeration, and gives a quick energy boost. I will have 100-150 kcals during an intense 75 minute ride or none on a 120 minute easy ride.

I am not in OP's weight class but assume he has these objectives:
Improve health, fitness, and happiness
Lose a large amount of fat
Build muscle strength and endurance (including the muscles cycling doesn't use)
Increase daily basic metabolic rate
Be able to participate in group rides for motivation, pleasure, support and social aspects
Improve cycling abilities
Maintain healthy relationship toward food and exercise
Have a sense of accomplishment meeting health and exercise goals
Have enough energy to enjoy daily life-beyond-the-bike activities

Sullalto

I just drink a pint of chocolate milk and a piece of fruit after my commute/fun rides. I ride 6x a week, 100-200 miles a week.

I did start eating protein bars, and I think they help. I added them in at the same time I started lifting 3x a week, and swimming 3x as well. One day a week I sit on my ass and do nothing, physically. I jog a couple miles, 3-4x a week as well. I eat the protein/recovery bars after a multidisciplinary workout, but don't bother if I only did one thing. Unless it was intervals or hills.

My weight loss has hit a plateau, but I do think my fitness is still improving. I'd probably lose weight without the 200-400 calories from a recovery/protein bar, but I'd rather feel great and be more active than be lighter and less active. I'll revisit the scale in 3 months, and see what's happened.

I do think I can push a bit harder, and hard workouts seem to hurt less afterwards when I'm regular about the protein/recovery bars. To me, that's more fun than seeing a smaller number on a scale. Live according to your own priorities.

(though I'd probably be less blasé about the scale if I wasn't seeing visual results in upper body muscle tone and increased fitness on runs/rides. Measuring myself using different progress is a whole lot easier than seeing no progress.)

colbydunkle

For me it depends on how long/hard I ride. According to MMR my 11 mile commute burns 770 calories. So after this I only do a protein shake. On my longer rides 25-50 I drink (my personal choice) a Post Recovery Workout shake from Advocare. 3/1 carb/protien. Followed by a high protien meal 1 hour later. Has been working for me. Just started biking this year and have increased from 8 miles to 53 being my longest. Burned 3700 calories that day and felt awesome the day after.

Willbird

Those calorie numbers IMHO are suspect :-). I'm not saying you made them up, :-) I'm saying many of the aps/calculators are flat out wrong about calorie burn again IMHO :-).

Bill

JakiChan

My diet shake that I use also makes a great recovery shake. So it's just my usual afternoon snack. The only change I make is depending on how rough the ride is I might put a double espresso in it...or a couple of doubles.

indyfabz

+1. 770 calories in 11 miles is 70 calories/mile. Sounds high unless it's a really difficult commute. Think about it. A century at that rate would burn 7,000 calories. My last long road ride before I went on tour was 72 miles. 4,500' ft. of climbing. My friend's app calculated only about 3,250 calories burned.

Willbird

Most important I suppose is what we DO with any numbers we find or calculate.

I rode 17.4 miles July 4th, and 62.5 July 5th. I ate 300 calories extra on the 4th, and 300 extra on the fifth. Using the Calculator ap I got 700 calorie burn for the 4th with a 260 lb rider, and the 5th came to 2518. 3218 burn minus 600 nutrition should give a 2618 deficit for those two days, if calculator was right that should add up to a extra 12 ounce weight loss for the week once the water weight in muscle all resolves itself.

I do not expect to see that much, in fact I really do not expect to see any blip really for that week.

Bill