Cut portion sizes. Not stupidly, just gradually down, especially dinner portions. Your stomach will gradually get used to the smaller portions and you'll feel satisfied sooner. Don't eat until you're full. Stop as soon as you aren't really hungry, have a cup of herbal tea, and see how that feels. Don't try to eat enough to last you all night. Instead, right before bed have 15g whey protein or a piece of cheese, 1-2 oz. You can also cut portion sizes by having 15g flavored whey protein in water about 1/2 hour before a meal. For dinner, 1/2 the plate should be veggies, 1/4 carbs, 1/4 protein. If you don't eat meat, you can put these things together in a casserole or some such.
After a hard ride, if you are going to work out again that day or the next day, it's important to have a recovery food as soon after the ride as possible. I usually try to have something in the first 10 minutes, then small amounts of carbs about every 15 minutes until I can get a meal.
Originally Posted by
chet31
As a former biochemist, I could write pages, but the basic paradox is that your body wants to burn glucose/glycogen first, that's what it does best, and that's what your body needs to do for you to perform at your best athletically. However, to burn fat, you must be mostly depleted of glucose/glycogen. This is why, while dieting, don't count on any personal bests athletically. It is perfectly natural for you to bonk more easily while losing weight. To prepare properly for a hard ride, you need to eat well for 3 days before the event. It takes about 3 days to fully replenish the glycogen stores in your liver and muscle. However, while you are doing that, you are not burning fat. This is the dilemma. The proper way to prepare nutritionally for peak performance is pretty much the opposite of what you do to lose weight.
Most of this is incorrect, biochem or not. One burns fat and glycogen in proportion to the percentage of VO2max at which one is operating one's system. There is absolutely no need to deplete glycogen in order to burn fat. That's terribly wrong and misleading. Never do that if you can help it, it's called bonking. Instead, to burn fat, focus on time on the bike. The more time you can put in, the more fat you'll burn. The trick is simply to burn more calories in exercise than you replace by eating in response to that exercise.
It is true that you'll be gaining weight as you prepare for an exceptionally long, hard ride, but you'll almost never need to do that. The usual fast weekend century requires no advance nutritional preparation at all. I can easily ride a century on any given day, almost without respect for what I've done the day before. I'll be faster if I've rested for a couple of days first, though, but I certainly don't need to eat specially. Ordinary good nutrition is all that one needs. The old advice about carb depletion and loading is no longer operative, having been found to stress the athlete more than it's worth.
Thomas Chapple has written quite a good book,
Base Building for Cyclists, which does a good job of describing the process of burning fat while riding, and how one can benefit by doing more of that.