TMonk

if I eat a lot the night before than im usually good to to train on just a bananna as long as i eat on the ride

Stealthammer

Yeah, I buy both wild and farmed salmon because buying strictly wild would be cost-prohibitive on my budget, but I am cognisant of the fact that in one case I am buying a really healthy fish product with all the nutritional benefits of a fish raised in the wild, and in the other I am just buying a healthier alternative to red or white meat, but that I still enjoy eating. Either way I am better off than choosing beef or pork, but with wild salmon I am also getting the additional benefits of both higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and a more beneficial mix of fatty acids as well.

Black cod (or sablefish) has only very recently been available as farmed, and so far the farming has been marked by very low survival and production rates (only about 5% I am told), so nearly all of the black cod you see in markets is still caught wild. This will probably change as the fisheries develop better methods and practices, but the upside at this point is that the farmed black cod so far are being raised mostly on cultivated plankton rather than a soy/corn mix, and they are raised in large ocean-based pens, so the fish should remain a relatively healthier fish product with all the benefits of the fish caught in the wild.

Also, since domestically farmed salmon have developed such a poor reputation relative to wild caught with regards to their nutritional value, we may actually see a market opening up for a "healthier" farmed salmon that are fed a more natural and organic diet rather than the soy/corn-based one currently is use, that also eliminates the need for many of the chemicals and antibiotic as well. This could lead to a catagory of farmed salmon the are nutritionally relatively close to wild salmon. We will see.

Fat Boy

That would be nice. Costco has frozen Wild Alaskan fillets for reasonable money. The fresh stuff around me is on the order of $10/lb. The wild black cod is more like $13/lb.

One interesting option is grass fed / grass finished beef and bison. The mass-farmed stuff has an omega6/omega3 fat ratio of around 10. The grass fed/grass finished meats have that ratio down to around 0.66. Pretty impressive swing if you ask me. Sure, it's not like eating fish or something of that nature, but it certainly makes it a much better option. The cost is about twice what you find in the grocery store. When you take into account how little red meat I eat, it makes it a reasonable purchase.

It should be noted that the omega 9/6/3 balance needs to be there. There's nothing magic about omega 3's. It's just that the 'normal' western diet is completely overloaded with the O-6 fats, so concentrating on getting 3's into you diet helps get the balance back to something close to optimal (whatever the hell that is).

caloso

Re eggs: I have started eating a lot more eggs for breakfast lately. It's a quick and easy way to get a jump on your daily protein requirements. And it really doesn't take that much longer than making oatmeal.

rbart4506

Made quiche for lunch...

Finished my 2hr trainer workout and whipped up the quiche while i was drinking my recovery drink. Put it the oven to cook while showered and stretched. By the time I was ready the food was done! Perfect timing and got some extra points because my wife was running stairs outside in -7C weather and walked into the house with lunch cooking...

Still had a protein shake after and that was on top of my salad that had half a can of tuna...

Simulated climbing repeats sure take a lot out of you...

caloso

I'm gonna take a dietary mulligan for today.

Fat Boy

It's not that guacamole and ceviche are really all that bad for you, but why did I have to eat so damned much of them?

saratoga

Speaking of salmon, I've gone to ikea a few times on a Sat afternoon just to look around. One time a few hours after a hard morning ride I had the low blood sugar headache going full swing and had a snack in their cafe.

Found their smoked salmon to be pretty good. That and a bowl of soup hit the spot without being too much, plus for what's basically cafeteria food it's pretty decent. Now anytime I go there I'll stop and have it.

Walrus

Started tracking my calories very closely and weighing/measuring for portion control a few weeks ago.
Easily the best thing I've done for my eating habits since I swore off fast food a few years ago.
It's motivating to see the numbers and there is no way to cheat yourself.
I'm consistently losing 1.5-2lbs a week which is much needed after gaining about 15 from race weight since summer.
Keeping a detailed food log is also a huge help as I know exactly how many of my calories are coming from carbs, fat or protein.
Cross-referencing to my ride logs, it's easy to make some connections. I've discovered that eggs, whole wheat, fruit and barley work really well for me. Chicken is out in favor of fish or tofu, dairy is mostly out because I realized it was making me nauseous on the bike.


Another plus I've noticed is the way I divide up my calorie dense/calorie light foods during the day. Generally speaking, I've shifted towards eating the calorie dense foods earlier in the day and while on the bike and it's really taken away from the ravenous appetite I have late at night.

Anyways, enough rambling. Goal weight is 132lb/60kg, no excuses to not reach it by late March/early April!

beatlebee 

Anyone following the: breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper?

mattm

Sounds like a gimmick, to me.

beatlebee 

Yeah, obviously not peer reviewed research. I just like to wake up hungry. I lose weight when I “front load” my calories.

Enthalpic

The idea has merit. Nutritional breakfast consumption is correlated with below average BMI and a small/early supper essentially lengthens the fasting period which is mild form of "intermittent fasting."

On the first point a nutritional breakfast is important. Sugar cereals exploited the "most important meal of the day" concept to make junk food seem better than it is just because it was eaten in the morning. Turns out if you preload someone with a small junk food snack shortly before sending them into the all-you-can-eat buffet they eat just as much if not more food than if they didn't have the snack - despite the fact they should have felt less hungry. The reverse is also true, but to a less extreme extent, if you pre-load someone with nutrition they naturally eat less during the rest of the day. Potential biochemical mechanism is gut expression of peptide YY in response to protein intake.

Intermittent fasting is just lengthening the overnight fast by keeping food consumption into a shorter window each day. Some evidence shows that even if total calories are kept constant (aka pig out during the feeding window) the fasters do better overall. This is the reverse of the "eat five small meals" people but it works for some populations, however, I'm not sure if it works with athletes. Potential biochemical mechanism is improved muscle insulin sensitivity and the aforementioned metabolic switch toward fatty acids during low-glycogen states.

AMFJ

I lost 100lbs a few years ago doing that (while being very strict with my diet and exercising). Took about 6 months total. I didn't realize it was a "plan" until I told someone what I had been doing and they responded with that. Since then I've lost another 20 or so pounds, and I generally still follow that idea--to the extent I can while also eating what I need to in training.

Tulok

So What you're telling me here is that by me forgetting to eat a meal lately due to school and work, that is why my muscles have been sore and I have been bonking more? My power has been increasing as I've been doing training but I have been near throw-up acid levels in 45 minutes sometimes, when I used to to a few 4 hour rides a week with 3000ft of climbing without feeling so drained. Do I just need to eat more protein?!

UMassAm

how the eff do you get to a decent racing weight?

I'm endomorphic and I've never been lean. I'm the thinnest I've ever been and I'm only down to probably about 20% body fat. I get stuck between thinking I'm taking in too many calories to lose weight, and not eating enough calories to keep my energy levels up high enough to train with intensity. I track my caloric input and output, but I've plateaued a bit and it's frustrating. On one hand I want to lose 10 more pounds to go faster, on the other hand I want to get stronger to go faster- doesn't seem easy to do both.

mike868y

You can't lose weight and get faster at the same time. It's general practice to lose weight in the off season/early base and gain a few pounds back as your race season progresses. At least that's my take on it, someone else may have a different opinion.

rkwaki

Hey that's my copyrighted material.

rkwaki

It's not how much you are eating it's what you are eating.

UMassAm

I've heard that to mike, maybe my question is, should i continue cutting 500cals/day or settle for where I'm at and focus on getting stronger? I'm biased toward the latter. though, i remember reading that you could train with intensity and still lose fat on 300cal deficit/day

I agree, I eat clean 90-95% of the time: eggs, kashi cereal, peanut butter/jelly on whole wheat, trail mix w/ fruit, nature valley granola bars, whole grain spaghetti, whey and gatorade. That's pretty much what I have every day. Then again, theres always the other 5-10% of the time.

mike868y

Sounds like you're eating too many carbs and not enough protein/good fat.

kensuf

Ditch the bread. Eat more veggies and lean protein.

rkwaki

Hey bastard did you plug into my brain? - Get out it is a crazy place

To UMassAm if you are tracking everything then just put up your macronutrient breakdown. My guess?
Protein - 10%
Carbs - 60%
Fat - 30%

UMassAm

Protein - 20.5%
Carbs - 53%
Fat - 26.4%

Overall.

Racer Ex 

Yes, you can. The devil is in the details. You think the GT riders are gaining weight and getting faster or losing weight and getting faster a month before the event?