sbeatonNJ

Ok so I bonked today really badly 20 minutes into my a session on my trainer, I wasn't doing anything hard in fact today was supposed to be an easy recovery day after beating myself up Saturday and Sunday. So I'm spinning along at 17/18 mph nice high cadence watching a bmx dvd and I start to feel faint and shaky, take a sip of some gatorade figure it will go away. Bam five minutes later and I am shaking like crazy, can't concentrate, my body feels weak all over so I get off the trainer. This is the second time this has happened to me in the last week, again during an afternoon ride. My rides before lunch never seem to give me trouble it always seems to be when I ride in the late afternoon.

Now I know this has to do with nutrition so I am asking for some reccomendations as to snacks and timing to make sure I benefit from the food I take in, I am dieting and trying to make every morsel count. It if helps here is some information on my day and what I ate.

Up at 6 no breakfast yet, at gym by 7, 10 minute warm up on bike, then 30 minutes of lower body lifting, plus 100 lower back extensions and 100 crunches. Then off to work from 830 to 3.
Breakfast Dannon Frusion Yogurt 290 calories I think plus an EAS body for life bar, another 250 I believe, and a cup of black coffee.
Lunch, 11:30, a can of slim fast and an eas bar, 220 I think for the slim fast 250 for the bar I believe.
Also drank a lot of about 2 quarts of water during the day and had a couple handfuls of trail afterwork. I got on the trainer around 5:00. Oh and I weigh about 250, which is down 15 pounds since the New Year.

The day above is pretty typical, I usually mix up riding first thing in the morning and afternoon depending on if I have class that night and what time classes go till. When I ride in the morning, post poning breakfast except for dilluted gatorade during my ride, I am fine. Tommorow I may try eating a large breakfast and lunch and reducing my dinner and see what happens. Anyway sorry for the lengthy post but I did not want to just ask for advice without giving you the full picture of what is going on. Thank you in advance for any help and advice, also if you have any more questions let me know.

forum*rider

I would definately try eating something for breakfast. I like to eat whole-grain cereal(plain cereal, no sugar or any of that stuff) with skim milk.

sbeatonNJ

I do eat breakfast I just usually eat it after my morning workout. Of course if my morning workout is a really long ride I will eat before but usually it is just an hour in the morning at the most during the week. Thanks though!

Marge

It's the Slim-Fast you are not getting enough calories for the intensity of your workout.
That's why you are weak, shaking,etc. Try eating a better breakfast. 1/2 of a whole grain cereal,
unsweetened with soy or skim milk and a banana. for snacks you might consider a whole
grain cracker with a good hummous (one with out high fructose corn syrup) or a scant
2 teaspoons of natural peanut butter (that's ground peanuts) It is a pain but you've got
to read labels.

terrymorse 

So basically you had a lunch with very few carbs, fasted for 5 and a half hours, then you tried to exercise on a trainer. You were hypoglycemic before you even got on the trainer. Here's some basic information on hypoglycemia.

If you're going to exercise in the afternoon, you should eat something around 3 hours beforehand. Since you're on a low carb diet, your glycogen stores are probably always low. This makes you more suceptible to hypoglycemia.

cheebahmunkey

hmmm...looking at that it seems like I may be hypoglycemic. Thanks for the informative site though!

snowy

First, Do you know how much Sugar is in one of those Slim Fast shakes???? Here is the info go to this page
https://www.slim-fast.com/products/pr...product_id=270
I think honesty its the sugar your taking in. One of those shakes has 34g of sugar. Sugar is one of the last things to break down in your body.

I too think you need more food at lunch. A shake and one of those bars for lunch I don't think is enough you need protein or something. I would eat like a Heathly Choice meal for lunch with some fruit.

I think you feel good in the morning cause your taking in lots of sugar then you bonk at the end of the day. Its like a natural high. Up in the morning down in the afternoon. Do you feel fatigued???

I would really consider making some changes to your diet I know your losing weight but you can still lose weight and eat good. Now that you are cycling you do need more food and your body is in a sense trying to tell you this.
This is only my opinion you can totally ignore what I'm saying if you like!!!

cheebahmunkey

yeah I was gonna say something about having a shake for lunch. I'm not sure why people do that. For the same or less calories you could have a Turkey sandwich (or low carb wrap if you like) or chicken, or a large salad, etc. Why try to live off a shake that fills you up about as much as, well a milkshake would. I mean, people don't actually get full from drinking milkshakes do they?

snowy

Yep, I think one shake for a meal is not enough. Especially when your cycling, your burning so many calories. Your body needs fuel to keep moving.

bpohl

Can you actually bonk after 20 minutes? Seems like you would have enough stored glycogen to keep going for at least 45 minutes to an hour, unless you're on Atkins or something.

sbeatonNJ

Thanks everyone for your replies! I use the shakes because I (gasp) actually enjoy the taste of them and also being a substitute teacher I get called at the last minute so I keep them in the car for days I rush out the door sans a real lunch. After typing up my list of food and reading over it I kind of realized it was too little food for my needs, even with aiming for a calories deficit. This is my third season of cycling and I swore this one would be the one I finally get the weight down, I guess I went a little overboard but I was a wrestler and working out hard while limiting food pretty severly is just old habit.

I took some of the advice here today and ate more food including more whole grain items and felt better. However due to the snowstorm and spending 4 hours (no lie) in my car to go 8 miles home from work I did not get to see how it would affect a 4 to 5 PM ride. Again thank you everyone for your advice, sometimes it helps to get someone other than yourself's opinion.

vrkelley

The snack is a good idea. After the induction stage, a person on a low-carb diet should still be able to convert proteins to the needed glucose. ....Hypoglycemia is not bad in itself....article states (and notice the danger signs):

"hypoglycemia is uncommon except as a side effect of diabetes treatment".
"When blood glucose begins to fall, glucagon, another hormone produced by the pancreas, signals the liver to break down glycogen and release glucose, causing blood glucose levels to rise toward a normal level. If you have diabetes, this glucagon response to hypoglycemia may be impaired, making it harder for your glucose levels to return to the normal range."

Symptoms of hypoglycemia include:

*hunger
*nervousness and shakiness
*perspiration
*dizziness or light-headedness
*sleepiness
*confusion
*difficulty speaking
*feeling anxious or weak