bike2math

With the hot weather now here, and biking four miles in the morning and 10-15 on the way home, in addition to weekend rides of varrying lengths, all on my clunky mt bike with lots of lights, rack and pannier: I find I am hungry. Like fungry hungry! I can't work during the day. I sit in my office and when i'm not reading bikeforums.net i'm thinking about what kinds of food would taste really good right now.

On the ride home I find myself dreaming about what to grill that night.

and it dosn't seem to matter what I eat. I eat healthy food, veggies, protiens from eggs, fish, and the occasional beef or chicken off my grill, but I just need so much of it!!!

I don't seem to be gaining weight. In fact since starting biking again in March I have lost 10-15 pounds... but since the hot weather came in any hope of a diet is gone.

Anyone else have these problem? How do you deal with it? What keeps the munchies at bay for you?

jharte

My ride is 14mi. I used to get the munchies when I got to work and looked for ANYTHING I could get my hands on. Now I bring 2 sandwiches, cut in half. I eat 1/2 every 2 hrs starting at 8:30am. If I ride to the gym, I'll bring an extra 1/2 for on the way home. Most of the time it's ham/cheese on whole wheat or PB. This has helped me stay away from the vending machine and I don't "hit the wall" during the day.

GTcommuter

I agree. Instead of doubling my lunch portions, I'm gradually switching to two small "lunches" during the work day plus a snack. Spreading the food out across the day keeps my brain functioning and productive. I eat a bowl of oatmeal first thing at my desk at work and that does as much as anything to keep me full until mid-afternoon.

kf5nd

I ride in 25 miles in the AM. I drink 24 oz of Gatorade on the bike, then have a snack immediately upon getting in to work. And coffee with real sugar in it. This seems to hold me until lunch.

Monument Man

I ride 37 miles a day and man oh man am I amazed at my ability to down chow without gaining weight. Some days I eat like a freaking animal, I actually had two dinners the other night (more like 1.5 dinners but who's counting?!) pasta and a small burrito. i've lost around 15 lbs in 10-12 weeks and have gained lots of muscle. the problem is that when i don't ride for a day or two (rainy weekends) i really need to be careful to control my eating.

on the nights i dont' commute i eat far less.

i snack on nuts and nuts and nuts too. man i can eat like a jar of nuts.

the worst though. The absolute worst is riding home and this guy along my ride grills out a lot. he makes burgers and steak and man the smell is SO good. 15 miles from home too. drives me crazy.

watching a show last night about Lance, and the guys eat 6000 calories per day during training and racing.

sethw

before my commute today (11 miles) I ate a bowl of cereal, ate a bagel and an iced coffee once I was at work, then had a slice of pizza and a can of soda for lunch. I REALLY need to cut out those sodas, I know. But still - it's 2:30pm and I swear I could down another two slices of pizza

DCCommuter

See also https://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/li...e/trucycle.htm . Scroll down to the section, "The Cyclist Hunger and Eating Style."

Jeprox

That's the perk of cycling to work and back everyday for me(>40 mi). I get to eat as much as I can and still be the same 135#s. I eat mostly veggies and fish, milk and cereal, sometimes beef and poultry, trail-mix inbetween meals.

samundsen

Right there with you. Had my breakfast at 7am this morning, arrived to work at 8am, ate my lunch at 10am, had to head down to the cafeteria at 12:30 to score some more food, right now (at 2pm) I am desperately craving the Clif Bar in my backpack (know I can't eat it yet, I'm scheduled for a weight lifting session with a personal trainer after work, and I'll be starving to death if I don't eat something about 30-45 minutes before that). I know I'll probably down two full servings for dinner tonight, and then have something else before bedtime.

I also wake up early in the morning raving hungry. First thing I do is get up and eat a solid breakfast.

And no, I am nowhere near overweight. I'm 177lbs and 6'2".

JugglerDave

Yeah, at lunchtime in the cafeteria I picked up this "Tollhouse Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich". 7 ounces, 520 calories, something like 25 grams of fat. All because I was a little hungry after eating a "normal" lunch and telling myself "I need more calories for my 32 miles home".

Felt like I had eaten 3 big macs or something. Not doing that again.

eblaska

Oh man, I usually just try to eat a tuna sandwhich and vegtable soup. But the other day, I had my sandwhich and soup. Then my bosses wife brought these avo and beef teriyaki tacos in. I had three of them, then on my ride home I felt kinda sick and got off my bike and leaned over and barfed all over the sand haha.

Eggplant Jeff

Woah, people do things in their office OTHER than read bikeforums.net?

recursive

Maybe some do. I couldn't say

And for my part, I'm up to like 5 or 6 meals.

jnbacon

So, is this more biking than before? I've found that my body needs about two weeks to adjust to more exercise. I'm starvin' the first week, then just sort of hungry a lot the second, and by the third, my body figures out that it better deal with it and I go back to a normal hunger cycle.

The trick for me is to not over do it the first week. If I eat like I want to eat, I keep eating that way. Instead, if I add a couple hundred calories throughout the day (I spread my eating out like others have suggested), I get by until things go back to normal.

recursive

I don't know, I haven't gone back to "normal" since I started. It make sense, since riding burns calories, and your body can't just magically come up with energy without food. It might get more efficient, but I'm still eating my ass off (figuratively speaking, ahem) over here, and lost weight since I started too.

bike2math

I haven't changed my mileage at all. And clearly from the replies here I get many fewer miles than lots of people. I do mow an acre worth of lawn with a push mower once a week , but i've been doing that since i moved here. (Boy I can't believe how hungry that lawn mowing makes me, its all I can do to take a shower before I go clean out the fridge) I think the difference is how hot it is now. There has been a significant increase in the heat in the last months, and almost lock step with it went my appetite.

I do my 15 mile ride home at 5:00 or 6:00 and it is usually around 95 and humid.

jnbacon

My hunger goes back to normal, not how much I eat. But when I change the amount of cycling, my hunger tells me to eat constantly. That's what changes, I guess because my body figures out that I'm not really starving.

recursive

Aha, gotcha.