bykemike 

My choice is to ride areas that are somewhat remote, not many stores or restaurants so I have to carry what I eat
during the ride. Usually I underestimate and end up weak and boinked out by the end of the ride.

Today was a real good 55 mile run, I felt good every inch of the way and I estimate I ate about 1200 calories in the form of nuts, Cliff Bars, and beef jerky. Seems like a lot to me but it was one of my better rides in the last month.

So if any of you had to guess on your food consumption what would it be?

Mike

dalameda

I rode 45 miles yesterday with 3,000 feet of climbing. While on the ride had one kind bar 200 cal, one gu gel 100 cals and a small bag of honey roasted nuts 160 cals. I was a little cooked on the last climb of the day. Meant to have another gel at the bottom but forgot. weather, hills, and your size are also going to factor into how much you need.

bikepro

Did a two month training program for the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred last year. The coach has over 40 years experience in long distance, endurance riding. His rule is this: "What you eat the night before fuels the morning. What you eat for breakfast fuels the afternoon.". You still need to eat throughout the ride, and you should start eating small amounts as soon you start riding. The longer the ride, the more important this becomes.

lenny866

Nothing under 30. Longer than that I have about 200 calories per hour in food and another 50 -75 in drink. I don.t start until the 20 mile mark.

Mark Stone

I buy generic fig bars and portion them into sandwich bags, 3 per bag, total 210 calories. On the day of a long ride, I eat a baggie 30 minutes before the ride, one at the start of the ride, and then every 30 minutes after that. During several charity tours I rode on in the Colorado Rockies in the 1990s (specifically the Children's Hospital Courage Classic, Home - 2014 Courage Classic) this would finish me strong after about 6 hours (or so) on the bike and over mountain passes. I also set my Timex Ironman watch to beep every ten minutes to remind me to take a drink of water.

John_V 

My daily rides are either 35 or 44 miles with a 50 or 66 mile ride on one of the weekend days. My breakfast consists of a bagel with non fat cream cheese and a banana with a cup of coffee. My lunch is a PBJ and a glass of chocolate milk. My 35 mile rides consist of an almond bar and water (electrolytes in the summer). My 44 mile rides consist of an almond bar and a GU Gel. On my longer rides, I throw in a PBJ. Been doing this for over two years and never bonked.

Weatherby

duplicate

Weatherby

I did 81 hilly miles yesterday. No breakfast (mistake). Two bottles of Cytomax (maybe 400 cals), a double latte, and 5 boiled baby potatoes with parmesian and a dab of coconut oil. I almost blew chow on a 3 mile climb......it came right after the latte.

On longer ride, I try to get at least 300 cals per hour down but for me it depends upon pace. If I go really hard, it seems the digestive track stops. Going at a slow pace, I can eat and process a lot of material.


On a 200k with almost 10k climbing, I consumed around 3000 cals and also electrolyte replacements. No problems on the whole ride.

gregf83 

Did a hard 100km group ride today (burned 2200 Cals). Ate 1/2 clif bar (125 Cals) and 1 1/2 bottles with gatorade power (375 Cals) about 500 Cals total. Felt pretty good at the end.

Biker395 

The calorie counters I have used put me at about 700 cal/hour at my weight and typical speed. My Garmin gives about the same result, but I usually discount that and assume the number is about 500 cal/hour.

jyl

I don't eat on rides less than 40 miles. On longer rides, I eat something (banana, energy bar, or equivalent) every hour or so.

Garfield Cat

How many calories consume or burn?

nuke_diver

So far 0 but I've never gone longer than about 45 miles. I'd like to but my riding time is limited and that's the best I can do. Which is probably another reason why I cannot gain any weight (a nice problem at our age I suppose)

OldTryGuy

I always have liquids and some gels with me when I head out. Since the system processes 250 calories/hr.(+/-), I factor in the time and intensity of my ride in determining just how much stuff to take.

lhbernhardt

I am constantly amazed at how much in fluids most riders go thru. On a typical 3-hour ride here in the Pac NW coast, I usually forget to bring a bottle, and I might have some gummy bears if they happen to be in my jersey pocket. 3 hours on the fixie is usually around 70 km.

I remember doing the McClinchy Mile (a "McClinchy Mile" can be any distance; in this case, it's 100 miles) in Arlington, WA last year. I had a full bottle, but just had a few pieces of fruit or a couple of cookies at the rest stops. It was a cold day, some wet roads but no rain. I finished with the bottle still completely full.

The last long hard ride I did in good weather, back in December when I was down in California (Bay Area), I rode with some people thru Morgan Territory and then up Mt. Diablo. I actually brought a bottle, but because my temporary bottle cage (attached with velcro) came loose, I lost the bottle while climbing Morgan Territory Rd (it was still full). It rolled down the hill where it would have been quite an effort to retrieve, so I just continued without the bottle. We stopped for lunch somewhere near the base of Mt. Diablo, where I had a wrap and a Coke. Then I climbed Diablo (on the fixie), had some water out of a fountain at the top, then returned to Concord. No problem.

I like Grant Petersen's modification of Velocio's rules in his book, "Just Ride." Instead of "eat before you are hungry, drink before you are thirsty," Grant says, "eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty. I like this a lot better! Makes way more sense for me.

Luis

jppe

I'm in the less camp as well. I'm probably burning around 600 calories per hour---maybe more on rides with more climbing. I generally don't eat anything for rides of 60 miles (around 3-3.5 hours). For 100 milers I usually eat a banana and either a few fig newtons or peanut butter crackers starting at about 3 hours. Sometimes I'll drink a coke but only about 8 ounces of it. For week long tours where I'm riding around 5 hours per day I'll eat a LOT more. Mostly PB&J sandwiches, cookies and fruit.

John_V 

I'm like you. I usually have a full bottle at the start of each ride and end up with a full or almost full bottle at a the end of the ride. In a typical Florida summer ride, I will sometimes go through a 12 oz bottle of electrolytes.

SA_Brak

I've seen carb requirements to be between 30-60 grams per hour which is about the limit of what you can process. This can be in liquid form (sports drink) or solid (gels, bars, cookies, etc). Don't try anything new on important rides/races. With all the food choices it can be easy to over-eat so look at the labels so you know how much to take in. For example, 16 oz of Gatorade is 28 grams of carbs which is why I usually dilute it, especially when the temps get hot.

Louis Le Tour

I'm just short of my 71st birthday and we old farts need to drink more because we don't stay hydrated as well as the young crowd. Right now I'm drinking about one 700 ml every 25 miles.

nkfrench 

How much I eat and how much I burn vary tremendously from ride to ride.
If I ride at a conversational pace on flattish terrain on a cool day, I don't require much on rides up to 50 miles.
Throw in some hills, increase the temperatures, and ratchet up the pace and I'm decimating my stored sugar and I get dehydrated easily. I'll carry 5 servings of hammer gel and 48 oz of water with electrolyte tablets, and find some stops to refill water bottles and get some snacks. Out in the country I'm using a camelbak.
In the worst summer heat I will go through 48 oz of fluids and 2-3 gels on a 17-mile ride with a few short steep hills. Some of the fluids are consumed directly at the ride finish, and the ride starts 5 hours after lunch. I've done a rolling average 16-17 mph for that ride so I am out in the heat 90 minutes including the pre- and post- ride routines.

FrenchFit 

Probably just about a ga-zillion variables to consider, beginning with your body fat composition and training regime. As an outlier data point, I'll bike a 30 mile loop without food and just a few gulps of water with diluted Cytomax, and that's after running a 10K. But, I fast every daytime, so adding food along with morning exercise seems foreign to me. I've been doing 5K/10K running doubles lately, and force myself to drink a bottle of Perpetuem in between. It makes the second run real groovy, lots of energy left over.

The one thing I feel confident in telling you is: if you consume 1200Cal of food riding 55 miles, you'll be needing to bring those 1200Cal on all similar rides - you are going to train yourself that way. Good luck with that.

OldsCOOL

Nothing until the ride hits the 50mi mark. That is my max for distance each week (I do fast 20's and 30's mostly).

Weatherby

I am always amazing how little I sweat and how little water I need when cycling in cool damp areas like the Pacific NW or how much I sweat when it is hot and dry like Death Valley.

I drank 180 oz on a 10 hour ride the other day and post ride weight was close to what I started with, maybe down 1%. I also used salt and electrolyte replacements when I started to cramp mid-ride.

Lose 2% due to dyhdration modestly impacts performance but lose 5% and aerobic performance drops 30%. You need what you need. Rides are different, physiology is different, etc.

Dehydration and Over Hydration (Hyponatremia) for the Cyclist | Tuned In To Cycling

https://www.asep.org/files/SouthardV2.pdf

CommuteCommando

I can do 50 on two Clif bars, three if it's hilly. Water on cool days, over 80 F a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade G2.

Carbonfiberboy 

Assuming a ride over 3 hours, I shoot for 250 calories/hr if I'm riding hard. Less if going easy. On very long rides, my motto is to hit that 250 mark for the first 3 hours. Then the ride will go well. You never want to get depleted more than you can help if you're going long. Short rides, it's whatever. Doesn't really matter.

I have a riding buddy who's a 1/2 bottle/60 miles guy. He gets into trouble on the 10 hour rides, though. He wouldn't if he'd drink right from the start. He's the same with food. Bonks on the long ones. Experience on short rides is no teacher. 60 is short.