I started riding about 5 months ago about 25 miles daily on an average. I used to weigh 185 and have lost about 15 pounds since. Now I think I eat almost twice as much and my food bill is larger. Not that I don't enjoy it or have difficulty affording it, but is there a point where you kind of stabilize on eating after a while, as in eating less and less and still have energy to pedal? Maybe a more caloric diet is the answer.. or what gives you more energy, vegetable calories or meat and which one lasts longer?

Edit: sorry I didn't see training and nutrition section...

I rarely cook so it's buffets for me. That way I control what I eat. My first trip to the buffet line I pack down with salads and greens, I mean really load up. My second trip up I get my meats or fish and veggies. I finish off with fruits or jello. I keep my meat intake to a reasonable amount, the body needs protein. I keep fried foods down to a barest minimum and fast foods are a no-no for me. I'm down to 185 and I haven't weighed that since high school back in '84.
Ernest

Fat: 1 gram = 9 calories
Protein: 1 gram = 4 calories
Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 4 calories
https://www.nutristrategy.com/nutrition/calories.htm

And another good site on nutrition:
https://www.nutritiondata.com/

Thanks machka for those websites. What a wonderful idea, "do some research"... and that I will....and yea man buffet rocks, when I get in there it's like a toy store.

Don't worry about it, enjoy it!

I particularly like it when someone says, "geez! you eat like a horse! how do say so slim?"

Exactly. I love that when I go for my 2nd (or 3rd) donut at work and people ask how I keep in shape. I invite them to join me on my bike, no takers so far.

Ride to eat, eat to ride.

You need a certain amount of protein. Too little and there's not enough for building and repairing body parts, and too much can cause problems as the extra is used as fuel and creates a lot of pollution/byproducts that in turn have a negative effect on various systems, compared to carbs or fat. Also, if I recall correctly excessive protein affects calcium and bone in a negative way.(dark leafy greens like kale, mustard, bokchoi, spinach*, chard, and leaf lettuce have a very positive effect on bone due to a proper Ca to Mg ratio)
I need to double check but I recall the target range is .75-1.5 grams of protein per kilo of body mass per day.

Carbs are burned during med-high output work, and fat during low-moderately high output(they overlap a good deal)

Your hungry because your body is trying to reach a target weight. A high fat diet will trigger a higher target weight than a diet based on complex carbs.
Very complex carbs include beans, peas, lentils, whole-whole grains(not ground up) many fresh or lightly cooked vegatables
Moderately complex would be whole grain breads, sweet potatoes, well cooked vegatables, and some fresh fruit

Simple carbs are good just before and during exercise as digestion slows during intense physical output.
This includes glucose, sucrose, whitebread and plain pasta and mashed or baked potatoes(fats can slow digestion)

Oils are generally better than fat that is solid at room temp., health wise.
Mostly, get used to being a bit hungry or reduce the calories you burn.

+1 Great site.

"You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense each year, trillions of dollars, correct? Instead -- just play with this -- if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world -- and it would pay for it many times over, not one human being excluded -- we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace. Thank you very much" -- Bill Hicks

amen.... I love your signature..... huge Bill Hicks fan here

here is another one

"It's just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one."-Bill Hicks

I'm a Gulf War Veteran, and one of the veterans benefits I was able to get is food stamps. I used to weigh 160, but now I ride less and eat more, so my weight is now...
Freaking 280 pounds.
Motorists don't jump out of their cars to assault me anymore. It would be suicide.

Protein, in any form, will give you better sustained energy. Carbs, even complex carbs, are converted into sugars before the body can process it, so that can leave you with a sugar (carb) crash. Fats give you a lot of energy per gram, but it takes longer to convert, so they're better for long, steady distances. For the "best bang for the buck", a breakfast of oatmeal, orange juice, milk and eggs. Lunch and dinner, think pastas.

Machka mentioned Nutrition Data before. There is a really good feature where you can input what foods you ate and the amounts and it will analyze it for you and give you the results. Very helpful, indeed.

You will not get a sugar crash from complex carbs. Even glucose won't give you a crash if taken just before or during intense sustained exercise. Burning protein creates ammonia and urea which the body then has to filter from the blood, it also uses a lot of water. Fat requires the most oxygen to burn.

Most of the energy used, is from glycogen stored right in the muscles themselves.(At full capacity: about one pound of sugar hooked to 4 pounds of water or about 1800calories) Blood sugar(glucose) is used much more slowly as the body likes to save it for the brain, which burns nothing but glucose.

Fat is used from various stores in the body makes a large portion of the low and slow metabolism and can be eaten at almost any time.

Just after exercise one should immediately eat a moderate sized low fat meal of simple carbs and some protein to restore the glycogen while the muscles are most receptive, to halt muscle breakdown (they will try to eat themselves, silly things) and provide new building materials.

This should be a low fat meal because fat will slow up the absorption of the carbs and protein(which should be in an easily digested form. well cooked, ground, and mashed, taken with water.)

An hour later follow up with a more balanced meal of complex carbs, fiber, protein, and fat