By training I am refering to my mixed martial arts training and conditioning. I don't have much fat to burn, but I do have some I'm trying to get rid of. I'm probably walking around with 11-12% body fat. 8% is where I would like to be weight wise.

After reading here and other places as well. I believe I have come up with a decent meal plan to try out on my upcoming ride. As I always do, I'll adjust and tweak it until I get it right.

Thanks for the help bike people.

I posted a thread about cutting body fat % for tour prep & was surprised at rather negative reactions ie only bike racers need to think about that. Folks say just do a lot or riding & body will adjust w/o any special diet. Not really true since many folks ride a lot but stay overweight. IMO 8% is a reasonable goal & doesn't put one into the razor's edge zone. Takes discipline but has benefits: easier climbing, smoother over saddle & perhaps most importantly the leaner cleaner body eliminates exercise toxins & digests food more efficiently.

For me, every pound counts. Especially since I'm 195lbs right now. Target weight is 180. Some people fight for grams on bikes and spend thousands to do so.I could drop a whole bike of weight for the cost of effort and dedication! But I'll listen to my body as I go.

I also do not lose weight by just riding more. When I was just training without riding I was maintaining weight within 1-2lbs. I added riding to work and riding on the weekend. No weight change with the same diet... everyone is different.

For rides over five hours I plan on half a Clif bar per hour. 125 Calories, 22g of carbs. After twelve hours I usually substitute a little real food.

I bring one Clif bar on rides which should last 3-5 hours, usually eat it after 4 hours if I'm not yet fifteen minutes from home because that's usually how long it takes to get hungry, and rarely eat anything on rides under 4 hours.

Knew a courier that also raced on weekends but stayed plump-Clyde 'cause he ate mass quantity of pizza for dinner, heh. I sometimes use Clif bars, seem pretty good as far as processed food. I heard about a company that makes custom-recipe snack bars...for the Yuppie athlete w/money to burn, heh. For tours I'd guess one could make healthy snack bars with a dehydrator.

I read a blog one time where a guy crossed the US and had done his research to determine that the most calories for the least number of pennies at that time were Hostess Twinkies (or something similar) and so he crossed the US eating nothing but Twinkies. It's a shame he eventually pulled his blog because it was entertaining to say the least as how to go on the cheap.

His blog was surely sponsored by The Diabetic SocietyŽ and his sugar "spike and crash" profile resembled a mountain stage of the Tour de France.

That's pretty gross, makes avg fast food look healthy by comparison. Once saw a Tour de France broadcast where they asked an American star about calorie requirements & he stated that his intake was below theoretical need. Met an Indian guy who was biking 'round the world & he preferred a light diet w/white rice as main calorie source. He was rail thin but had enough energy to pedal his heavy Indian commuter bike.