Originally Posted by
dieselgoat
I started experimenting last summer with riding fasted in an attempt to burn some fat. I started riding about 25-30 miles and worked my way up to 70-80 miles on absolutely nothing but what I ate the night before. Some of the rides were maybe zone 2, but some were zone 4. I averaged 18-19 mph with 55-60ft of climbing per mile.
If I ride in the morning, I never eat anything, unless I'm riding a very challenging ride where I'm gonna need the calories later on. In my opinion, cyclists grossly overestimate how many calories they burn and eat way too much. That's the reason you see so many fat cyclists. Again, just my opinion.
This is also my experience.
A cup of coffee, and that's it.
I can do 50 without food or gu, unless it has significant climbing.
People that eat carbs on all their rides teach their muscles to depend on carbs.
The key to this approach us that most rides are zone 2, and my muscles have adapted to put out 250 watts in Z2, so I can cruise 20mph without dipping into last night's meal (glycogen stores).
Riding fasted would be very difficult on a calorie deficit, since you'd have much less stored glycogen, due to caloric restriction the day prior.
In this case, OP might need to do easy but long rides if attempting fasted training.