My 22 mile commute is as much about getting back into shape I want to be in and feeling great about myself as it is about saving money and doing the right thing environmentally. On the “getting back into shape” side of things I think that I may have been missing the mark and suffering needlessly because of it. I arrive at work completely zonked after riding only 11.2 miles. I know I am not eating enough in the morning before I ride and I am not eating the right things (sugary foods from our cafeteria) while I am at work.

So I have set forth a plan to change that and have better control over what foods I put in front of myself. I went to the Vitamin Shoppe today looking for a shake mix that had similar characteristics to what is listed below and found nothing. Everything I saw had lots of sugar in it so I went the route of getting everything separate.

I have broken things down to give me the most amount of good fuel with the least amount of crash and burn…I think. This is my pre-ride and during work meal plan:
Pre-Ride Breakfast Shake= Powdered Pure Soy Protein, Creatine, Glutamine, Ground Flaxseed, 8 oz. of Soy Milk, ½ cup frozen strawberries (no sugar added). If I am doing the math correctly, this “shake” will give me:
• 324 Calories
• 37g Protein
• 9g Fat (4g from Soy Milk, 5g from Flaxseed) , 0.75g saturated fat (from flaxseed), 0g trans fat
• 0g Cholesterol
• 482mg Sodium
• 2g Total Carbs (8g from Soy Milk, 2g from
• 13gSugar (6g from Soy Milk, 7g from Strawberries)

Lunch Shake= same as above but without creatine.

Afternoon Snack= ½ cup of my favorite healthy food, soy beans (no salt added). ½ cup of cottage cheese if I am still feeling peckish.

Dinner….???...I don’t eat beef and rarely eat pork so it is usually a seafood dish or a chicken dish of some kind.

My Stats:
6’2” tall, 222lbs. If I remember correctly what my doctor told me, the ideal weight for my frame is about 185lbs(?).

I am looking for some nutritional advice from the board members here. What alterations would you make to this? What kinds of foods do you eat while at work? I have been a breads and sugars hound for too long and now it is coming back and biting me in the butt with the demands of my ride.

My commute is 70.9 kms round trip. I ride to work on nothing but water. I eat breakfast after I get there. Going home, I need to eat a cookie or something just before I leave for home, and today was a very, very windy ride, so I had another one halfway back.

At work, I just eat what I normally do when I don't commute by bicycle.

What kinds of food do you have for breakfast? What do you try to avoid?

Wow, I just did the math and you are obviously in much better shape than me. You commute is almost double mine and you eat nothing before you leave for work?

Right ... the last time I eat is the night before. My stomach doesn't like to eat early in the morning.

Today I had poptarts for breakfast. In the past I used to do toast and honey or something like that, and I'm thinking I may start that again.

Let's see...raw oatmeal, ground flaxseed, wheat germ, raisens, granola, banana(sliced) and 2% milk. Half and half (reg and decaf)Coffee w/creamer(non dairy) and honey. Big glass of water after about and hour w/a multi vitamin. Arrrive at work and pound down 28 oz of Gatorade. Refill w/plain flitered water. 1st break: Yogurt(fruit...blueberry, strawberry, etc.) Lunch: Chicken, brown rice, garbaNzo bean combo w/ginger salad dressing, Kale or Collard greens, apple and some pretzels...plenty of water. Snack before going home...banana or powerbar w/water.

This is my basic diet during the week. It works well for me. I'm going to add some protein powder as I'm 'running down' a little at work. 3-4 hrs per day cycling as my commute is 40 mi rt. I eat alot of food and have been losing weight steadily until recently when I started gaining 'muscle weight' while becoming 'leaner'. BFC is aound 13% and rhr is 52 bpm. BP is 110/70.

I try to avoid 'greasy, heavy' bf foods like hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, etc. Though every once in a while...

BTW, I'm 5'11" and 180 lbs.(down from 196)

Y'know, everybody's different. I ride 17 miles one way and don't eat before I leave. I used to, but I don't have time. I think it's important to replace what you used up for the ride home, though. I eat a bowl of cereal at work, and chug a tablespoon of whey protein powder. I nibble through the day, but try to get lots of fiber and good fats in me. I usually eat nuts, apples, dried fruit, peanut butter, and some good carbs like leftover lasagna, spaghetti, etc. If I don't get those in I'll do a Carnation Instant Breakfast about 45 min. before my ride home.

Just lotsa stuff, very diverse, whatever you like and know is good.

11 miles seems far, and it will for a while, but it really isn't that far and once your body gets used to it you won't have any trouble.

Getting good sleep is key, though.

Yeah, this is right on. One can have the best, personally tailored diet in the world, but if you're not getting good sleep there's no recovery. Whenever I step up my intensity level I usually go through a short period of restlessness as my body adjusts to the new level of demand. If it continues beyond a few days I back off for a while. If/when it gets to be a grind take a day or a few days off.

My ride is 19 miles one way. I eat a Clif Bar on the bike, after I get warmed up. Usually grab a bagel when I get to the office. I try to have a snack around 10:30 (banana or pretzels or something). I usually avoid side items (fries, chips) at lunch time, just have a sandwich or something. Snack again mid-afternoon. Don't usually eat on the way home, but that leaves me with a pretty serious appetite at dinner time!

a handful of peanuts or almonds is great for an energy boost. Also, peanut butter (check into the omega-balanced variety.)

Carrot juice is also good.

instead of an expensive, high calorie, fitness or protein shake post-workout, my trainer recommends just plain chocolate milk (yes, it's high in sugar, but so are a lot of the fitness shakes.) He says it has the same complex amino acid (something or other) that all the fitness/protein shakes advertise for muscle building/recovery.

I would add a leafy-green veggy to EVERY dinner (chard, kale, spinach, broccoli, etc.) and some orange colored veggies or fruits (squash or melon). And, tomatoes and onions are some of the more beneficial vegetables as well.

Can you garden and grow your own? that makes it super simple (no grocery store trips or spoiled vegetables.) I just pop out to the garden before dinner and grab up some fresh veggies or salad greens.

And, I'd throw in lots of salmon or other fish for dinner as well (and/or tuna at lunch) for some good protein and omega oils.

An 11 mile ride isn't enough or even to close the length or time needed to make you go glycogen depleted even at a time trial effort/wattage load. A simple, balanced, normal breakfast should provide the energy you need. Arriving zonked, might be simply that you're not getting enough sleep or due to some other reason like sickness/cold/flu or a medical condition where your blood sugar levels are abnormal. General fatigue like that is also a sign of over training, meaning that you're putting too much load on your body too soon without enough recovery time.

If you're looking for information on diet, I highly recommend Chris Carmichael's (Lance Armstrong's trainer) book called Food For Fitness.

My energy has been really good on the ride home, I will usually just grab a little something before I head out, spoon of pb or some fruit and drink some water also, I think the water helps a ton.
I drink gen maicha during the day since it supresses appetite so I don't snack all day because I am bored.

I have a jar of the smart balance pb and it's not too shabby.

I have needed less and less food as my fitness level has increased. Riding centuries has also put my commute into perspective. 28 miles each way is not that long of a ride.
Anyhow, while I am not currently riding the full version of my commute due to building a new commuter I have in the past.

I spent the last couple years playing around with my nutrition and calorie counting. Now I have a sense of what I need and it really is not that much. I do tend to eat better with a slight increase in quantity when I ride more.
I do not eat before my 28 mile commute in the morning. I eat maybe 200 more calories for lunch.

Wow, you guys (and gals) have more ... well, everything than me! Willpower, stamina, strength, etc.

I can't leave the house without breakfast... a lot of mornings, it feels like my stomach is caving in. A glass of water can alleviate that, but only for about 10 minutes or so. Breakfast is usually a high-fiber cereal such as Grape Nuts or Uncle Sam, and a cup of hot joe.

Snacks during the day are a handful of peanuts, or a few potato chips if I can scam them off someone else. Lunch is usually whatever was for dinner the night before (gotta love a woman who cooks for an army, even when the army isn't there), another handful of peanuts before the ride home, and whatever my wife's cooked up for dinner.

Dinner's always healthy, not heavy; plenty of veg, chicken, maybe some noodles, whatever she's in the mood to make. I'm often surprised but never disappointed.

I use a multi-vitamin to offset my distaste for most vegetables (thank goodness for salsa). Other than that I try to keep my caloric intake about 500 cals below what I burn. I use fitday.com for figuring everything out keeping in mind that their estimated calories for the recomended cycling speeds is to high so I select the next slowest notch and that is a bit closer to the mark. Anyway, I have discovered that I don't need to eat nearly as much as I thought I did to keep the energy up.

First of all, I don't think you're eating NEARLY enough. You weigh 222 pounds. A simple rule of thumb is that your maintenance calories(calories needed to maintain your weight at a sedentary pace) is your bodyweight x 10. So for you to maintain your current weight let's say you need to eat 2222 calories. It is unlikely you're anywhere near that---and you're exercising on top of that.

Safe weight loss is one pound a week. You can push it to two pounds, but any more than that and you're just losing muscle and water. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so if you maintain a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day, you will lose a pound a week. Bump that to a 1000 calorie deficit and you'll drop two pounds. If you drop your calories TOO low you'll either get sick or your body will freak out, go into starvation mode, and you won't drop nearly the weight you want to.

As to your diet---I would try to eat something as simple as a bowl of oatmeal before the commute, then have a shake once you arrive. It's more important to have protein after exercise, as you are repairing and building the muscle. I would recommend you have real food for lunch. Subsisting on protein shakes gets old(I've done it). On days I ride to work, I pack in a natural peanut butter sandwich on multigrain bread, an apple, and a carrot. I either have some plain nonfat yogurt or skim milk with that.

You don't need to eat beef. Skinless, boneless frozen chicken breasts in a bag are affordable and easy. Chicken breast, as many green or red vegetables as you like, and a complex carb of some sort. A baked potato with a drizzle of olive oil is fantastic. So is whole wheat pasta or brown rice.

It's not difficult or complicated to eat right.

+1

Also, how hard do you ride in the morning? I consider myself to be in good shape, but I still take it somewhat easy in the morning on my 19 mile commute in, and leave early enough to not feel pressured. That makes me feel awake by the time I start work without tiring me out (teaching adolescents does that by itself). I then feel free to go as hard as I like back home (if the kids didn't wear me out too much first), and even add on some miles for my training.

fwiw, almost every morning that I ride, I have a 2 egg omlet with diced ham and chedder, 2 slices of toast, and a glass of juice. As climbhoser said, your mileage may vary.

A year ago when I began commuting, I needed to have a good simple breakfast of cereal & fruit before leaving and more fruit with yogurt after arriving. I had a 21 mile 1-way commute.

I took about 6 months before my body is fully adjusted. Now I can take a 30 mile ride on an empty stomach if I have water with me.

I listen to my body. If I eat as needed, I can increase fitness and slowly lose weight.

Michael

Yeah, you can do a lot worse than plain old chocolate milk, all right. I like chocolate soy milk, myself, because milk products tend to make me congested. My usual is nothing before the ride in (which is about 9 miles), about half a cup of chocolate soy milk and a bagel with a small shmear of light cream cheese when I get to work. I'm also a fan of the "handful of peanuts and raisins" as an afternoon snack. Thing is, though (as you and OP both obviously know), you need to substitute those things for other foods, not simply add them on. You don't do the chocolate milk and bagel when you get to work, and then have a donut.

"Eat your colors" is a good rule of thumb, from what I understand. Plenty of greens, but also yellow-oranges (squashes, carrots, some other root vegables), reds ('maters, strawberries, raspberries), blue-purples (blueberries, blackberries), whites (onions, garlic, cauliflower). The rule isn't universal, but each of those color groups tends to be a good source of a particular type of micronutrients: beta carotene/vitamin A in the yellow-oranges, lycopene in the reds, etc.

I could happily eat fish every day -- the problem with canned tuna being the heavy metals, though, can't eat it TOO often.

20 miles is a long ride?
I do 19 in an hr during lunch.

Shhh.... we huntin wabbits here...

Crap. I forgot about the rabbits.

I can't make any judgements on "suggested weight" since I don't know your physical history. To me, 6'2" and 220 isn't that big sounding (I'm 6'6" and 250, so maybe similar proportioned?) Anyhow, from the make up of that shake it sounds like you're looking to lose some weight; low sugar, low carb, low fat, high protein). The issue with exercising twice a day becomes maintaining a proper balance of nutrients to keep your energy levels up, while still maintaining a negative caloric balance of ~500cal/day to hit the safe target of 1 pound per week of loss.
First, you need to know (approximately) how much you burn just by existing; this is your BMR, or Basal Metabolic Rate. If you do nothing but lay on the floor all day, your body will burn this amount of calories on its own. Calculate that amount here.
Then, figure out how many calories you're taking in through a normal day of food. 2 of those shakes is 648cal. 0.5c of soybeans is 405cal. 0.5c of cottage cheese ~110cal. You're only up to 1163. Even if you gorged on McD's and got a Big Mac value meal at 1170cal, you're barely topping 2300 for the day, which at your size is likely going to be within a couple hundred of your BMR.
It sounds to me like you're bushed after a ride because you're starving yourself.

Now, my personal stats for comparison...
I'm 6'6" and 250. Optimally I should be be closer to 215, and I'm working on that. I have a 30 mile round trip commute which I ride 4 days a week, plus long rides (75 - 150mi) on the weekend. My BMR is 2380, so just laying around all day I need 380cal more than the USDA suggested diet of 2000 calories per day. Factor in a couple of workouts which my HRM tells me are 650 - 750 calories each, and I'm up to 3780cal/day just to maintain my current weight. Throw in a long weekend ride of 75miles and I can burn off a whole extra day's worth of calories in a 5 hour ride.
I eat all day long, but now it's a matter of eating things that are good for me, instead of keeping a big sack of crisps or candy at my desk.
I ride in with a bottle mixed 50/50 of Cytomax and IsoPure Zero Carb. It's my breakfast appetizer. At work I'll have a bagel or a bowl of oatmeal. I snack on a sandwich bag full of grapes or cherries during the morning. For lunch I eat real food; a deli sandwich on good bread, or leftovers from the previous night's cooking. Today it's kung pao scallops. Between lunch and the ride home, I snack on more fruit. An apple, a nectarine, whatever I've brought for the day. Another bottle of the Cytomax/IsoPure mixture on the way home, and then a reasonable dinner. I tend to eat late (for me, that's 7pm since I wake up 4:15am), so a bit of salad, 3-4oz of whatever protein, a fresh baked dinner roll, and 3/4 to 1 cup of veggies typically holds me over just fine.
I refuse to deny myself dessert if it's around, and it always is, so a bit of homemade sorbet or a couple of cookies or a few blocks from a good chocolate bar end the evening.

I won't say that I've lost any weight eating this way, but I also haven't gained any either.

You're supposed to take it out of the can first.

I used to ride 34 miles round trip to my old job. Pre-ride was a little bit of coffee, to get the heart going, and a Cliff bar. Drank lots of water on the way in. Ate oatmeal when I got to work. Ate whatever for lunch. The kicker for the ride home was to eat another Cliff bar 30 minutes before heading home. If I didn't I'd be painfully hungry on the ride back...17 un-flat miles traversing a valley.