Day to day eating habits and performance
 

Hey guys,I have a silly question. Im curious if the things we eat day to day have an impact on our performance on the bike? Im not talking about what you eat on the bike, what you eat before a ride or race, or what you eat after. Im specifically talking about what you eat normally every day. Breakfast , lunch or dinner. If it does have an impact, what foods should be avoided that would have a negative impact on performance?

I don't think it's as much about avoiding as it is about emphasizing. You've heard it before: vegetables and fruit. Natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible. We recycle probably 1 can/week. Shop on the outside ring of the grocery store. Brown rice rather than white. Whole wheat bread rather than white. De-emphasize meat. Buy organic. Avoid alcohol. All that stuff. Some of that is avoiding things that are definitely bad for you, such as pesticides, and some of it is getting things that are good for you, like micronutrients. It makes a difference. Because of that, it's what the pros do.

absolutely.

eating whole foods is going to lead to you being healthier, and performing better.
world class athletes aren't spending time in mcdonalds.

IMO, you should eat a well balanced and varied diet. The rest makes very little difference. Doing what pros do isn't bad, but their entire lives revolve around getting results and they'll do anything that might possibly help, whether or not it has actually been proven to help.

Yes it has an impact. The two most important things are getting enough carbs to muscles, and eating the right number of calories.

Eating generally "healthy" foods helps with both of these things. When carbs are in beans, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, they tend to have a lower glycemic index than in sugar and processed grains, meaning carbs from beans get absorbed into your bloodstream more slowly, so more of it can trickle into your muscles. If you eat a bunch of white bread, it will go into your blood too fast, and your muscles won't absorb it fast enough, and some of it will turn into fat.

Also eating healthy foods helps you naturally regulate calorie intake. For example, this weekend, I ate a box of oreos as a snack! 2000 extra calories which surely went to fat, with little nutrition. If I tried to eat 2000 calories of dried fruit I would have felt full and bloated after 600 calories of them.

The human body is an incredibly complex chemical lab and factory -- constantly making and mixing different chemicals which it uses for thinking and moving. You cannot oversimplify that process by taking a few nutrients in before a ride and expecting the body to be able to function at its best.

Yes, when you are working hard, the body may need additional supplies of this or that -- but it needs to start with a complete and balanced chemistry that it can only get from an overall healthy diet.

I recently read The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Joe Friel. It will really answer your question in depth.
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You are not going to get maximum performance doing HFLC/Atkins/Paleo/Primal. Don't fool around with your macros...

Calorie partitioning.

Good food and vitamin stores is a long term thing. You must eat well enough to replenish what vitamins and minerals you use up and keep everything topped off. I would say it takes at least 2-3 months to really see any improvements from an improved diet and they are not so easy to detect. You may notice one day that you are not as tired as normal, or that you are sleeping better because of the improved eating. You won't get a kick and all of the sudden feel extra strong and good.

In general, I would say no. If you're eating your normal diet and normal timing, then I would say you're probably good. If you have a sensitive stomach and have a big Vindaloo lunch, you might have digestion issues, but that's a special case.

Now, can your diet have an overall positive or negative effect on your riding? You bet.

HFLC and Atkins will give you trouble on anything over an endurance pace. Once adapted, you'll be able to go forever without eating, but you definitely won't have any snap to your legs for anything tempo or above.

Paleo/Primal diets are independent of macro splits. Yes, you are eating meats and no you aren't eating grains, so it tends toward the lower end of the carb spectrum, but you can split it about any way you want. For overall health, I think heading in this direction on eating is a smart idea. You would have to be smart on your carb supply, but I really don't think these diets limit you to the extent that they should necessarily hurt your performance.

If you ride every other day, your daily diet impacts your performance. If you ride once/week, not as much.

Chris Horner claims to have eaten McDonalds the day before each (except for one) of the big climbs in the Vuelta this year....maybe he's onto something. Then Team Sky is reported to have had several beers the night before the final stage of the TDF this year. Shocking.

Honestly, when you're burning 5000 calories a day (and you've been on that burn rate for nearly 3 weeks) it really doesn't matter if you have a Mickey D's burger here or there. It's not like he's trying to cut weight. A lot of times it's really more important to be mentally prepared for a big race than the last little mouse fart of nutrition. I contend he would have been able to put another 10 seconds into everyone if he had been able to find In-N-Out!

Horner has come on in the last couple years and he says that he has cut weight by really watching his diet while training at home. He doesn't race a bunch. He is able to come in for big races and be in very good shape rather than having to 'race into shape'. The ability to really tighten up his nutrition while at home is a big deal.

Very true. Interesting how McDonald's one of the largest Olympic sponsors.

LOL. Right?

So what im getting from all this is generally to use commons sense for the most part and eat "decently". I rarely eat fast food(weakness for pizza though), I NEVER drink soda pop, and I try to cook alot of the stuff I eat. I need to start shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store more.

So happy the Boar's Head counter is on the perimeter at my grocer.

I'm not an expert on cycling, but I've been playing roller derby for a decent amount of time (and it's a fairly intense endurance sport, thankyouverymuch). I try to eat as close to the earth as possible and throw vegetables into everything. If you cook already, try to incorporate vegetables into meals you already make. Spaghetti with meat sauce is easily kicked up with spinach, mushrooms, onions, and whole wheat pasta or spaghetti squash for a base. My recent mission is figuring out homemade energy snacks for the road. Gels / gummy junk / etc. don't do much for me and are expensive. I like almonds and a box of raisins, but it'd be nice to have a few more road-stable options (something that won't explode / leak everywhere when I'm riding).

oh hey, and don't overlook nutrition timing

I don't eat breakfast. I start my day by drinking coffee with coconut oil mixed into it.

If you are Chris Horner, an NFL player, dedicated strength athlete, or anyone else that burns through 8-10k calories a day, you can probably get away with eating what ever you want when ever you want. But if you are not struggling to keep up with a calorie deficit and want to be healthy, avoid all prepared food and anything with a label on it.

There is a difference between eating for tomorrow's ride and eating for the ride you plan to take when you are 60-70 years old.
... For tomorrow's ride, the McDouble may make little difference (although Caldwell Esselstyn says it constricts blood flow almost immediately) -- but most agree that it may keep you from riding in your 60's & 70's because your plumbing will be all clogged up...

And the same is true for high glycemic load foods (like pasta the night before a race).

It all depends on what your goal is...

About the label . . . Lance counted calories. I once read that someone asked him how he managed to keep track of how many calories he was eating. His reply, "I read the label!" I thought that was pretty funny. I also don't eat much of anything with a label.