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Nutrition

Cycling Nutrition: A Guide to Meal Prepping

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While cyclists talk about dropping kilos, diet and weight loss might not be the answer. Weekly meal prepping and planning trumps the latest trend. Diets all work in the beginning, but they are not really creating healthy habits. You are constantly reminded of what you shouldn’t put in your body, instead of reminding you of what you should be adding to your diet.

Weight loss plans remove fat, and carbs and reduce portion size. However, the simple concept of adding good quality foods to your diet will help fuel you properly, losing weight in the process. Meal prepping ensures you have what you need ready and available when you’re hungry, keeping you from backsliding into bad habits.

What is Meal Prepping?

Meal prep can mean something a little different to each person, so you have to find a system that works for you. At its simplest, it’s preparing some or all of your meals for a week at one time. The goal is to save you time as well as remove the common tendancy to eat what is easiest rather then what is best for your body. If you have a system down for breakfast and lunch, then just prep dinners for the week. Or, if you find yourself always rushing out the door in the morning and grabbing a croissant on the way to work, then prepping breakfast will be important for you.

How to Meal Prep

Although meal prepping will save you time and money in the long run, it does take an initial investment. Start off with some quality tupperware containers, BPA free is best as you will be using them to reheat meals. Also, having them all the same size will help you stack them easily in the fridge.

Step 1: Plan

Sit down on Saturday or Sunday night before your weekly grocery run. Start with broad strokes and general meal ideas. Having a plan will help keep track of the quality of calories you are adding, as well as a general idea of the quantity of calories. From there, you can start getting specific. Unless you’re already a super clean eater, prepping some plain chicken and broccoli for 5 meals a week just won’t cut it. Try planning two to three different meals, so you only have a couple days of the same thing. It’s not a fail-safe solution, but seeing fish taco Tuesday is exciting, for one, and two, if you’ve shopped for the ingredients and they are in the fridge already, it’s much harder to order Pad Thai from across the street. The meal plan will take all of 10 minutes, and will help you fuel your work week, and your weekend rides.

Step 2: Shop

Knowing what you are cooking for the week makes doing a weekly grocery shop easy. No more wandering around the grocery store impulse buying. Having the bulk of your produce at the beginning of the week allows you to get home and unwind instead of adding the task of picking up groceries on the way home from work. It doesn’t sound like much, but with the food already in the fridge, you can start food prep earlier, and get to the good part! Picking up a couple of missing or forgotten items during the week is more manageable once the bulk has been taken care of.

Step 3: Prep

This is the part that will take the longest, but once you get into it, it can actually be a lot of fun. Use the time to catch up on some podcasts, or hang out with you significant other and prep together. Again, there are a lot of different ways to go about this, so you have to find what works for you. You can completely pre-cook a couple meals and then split them into containers to last you the week. Or, you can get everything ready to cook so it’s easy to throw together after work. Vegetables can be especially tedious to wash and chop, but once done you’ll find you use them a lot more readily.

Fueling For Your Ride

Cyclists should be focusing on what they can add to their diet to improve energy levels before, during and after rides. The calories and nutrients that you deprive your body of during the week will leave you feeling flat by the time you get to your next ride. Challenge yourself to be more mindful of how your body feels during a ride. Were you dropped that last time you rode on an empty stomach? If so, then try different approaches to see what works for you and has you feeling your best both on and off the bike.

Replacing Junk Food

Meal prepping and planning isn’t about sticking to a strict diet, but being mindful and planful when it come to what you’re putting in your body. We all have moments of weakness, but when you’ve taken steps to avoid the temptation altogether by having healthy, nutrient filled meals on demand, it’s a whole lot easer to forget about the junk food.  Snacking is the most dangerous part of your diet. Chips and salsa is great if they accompany Fish Taco Tuesday, but not great if they creep into a nightly routine.

Planning your snacks will help. Nuts and dried fruit are a cyclist’s best friend (try dates, figs and apricots they are underrated). Keep these in the pantry so they are easy to grab when a salt or sugar craving springs up. These nutrient-dense snacks can be sweet, salty and fatty but they are also providing your body with valuable resources that corn chips can’t.

If you’re trying to lose weight, riding your bike will be the biggest tool at your disposal. Adding volume to your weekly regime will shift your current caloric balance in your favor, but be warned – adding kilometers will also have you craving more food (pro tip: add good calories)!

If you are training with any kind of intensity, losing weight might be harder than you think. When you train with intensity your body will add muscle while shedding fat. This change in body composition replaces dead weight with functional muscle mass. This is why focusing on a number goal it’s always the best option. Instead, paying attention to the quality of the foods you put in your body will allow you to ride more, faster, and more frequently.

Cycling Nutrition: Common Mistakes to Avoid

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Cycling nutrition is about more than just what you’re eating. You have to take into account how much energy you’re spending, and ensuring you are getting the right nutrients at the right times to feed those muscles. Whether your goal is weight loss, or to simply feel better and stronger on and off your bike, there are some mistake you’ll want to avoid.

As we reach the end of January, those New Year’s diets and resolutions may be already slipping into the background. That may not necessarily be a bad thing. When we focus too much on diets or what we can or cannot do and eat, it is easy to fall off the bandwagon. You want to establish a healthy lifestyle, rather than a simple health kick that will come and go before you can experience any real changes.

Here are some of the most common nutrition mistakes that cyclists make.

cycling nutrition

Skipping Breakfast

It doesn’t have to be a full-meal deal, but you want eat at least some breakfast, especially if you are planning on riding later. You have been effectively fasting overnight, so giving your body some fuel first thing will set the tone for your day and get your energy up. Not convinced? Here’s what eating breakfast will do for you:

  • It boosts your metabolism.
  • Keeps your blood sugar levels stable during the day
  • Reduces risk of craving or overeating later.

That being said, don’t go stock up on breakfast cereals. Think smoothies, oatmeal (not the instant kind), fresh fruit, eggs, and whole grain toast.

Waiting too long to eat in between meals

If you don’t eat, then you’ll lose weight, right? No. Not only can that mentality can create the starve-binge eating pattern, but it’s also hard on your body. If you go too long without eating, when you do eat you are more likely to eat too much or eat the wrong things. This surge of insulin sends fat storage into overdrive, which is counterproductive to weight loss.

You should never go more than four hours without eating. Snacking can be your friend! Avoid high sugar snacks that will spike your blood sugar and then lead to a crash, but instead nibble on foods that will sustain your energy levels throughout the day.

Not fueling properly

When you’re just starting out, or are focusing on weight loss, you may think that it’ll speed things up if you don’t eat before, during, or after a ride. However, if you’ve ever experienced undernourished muscles on a hard climb, you know this is not the case. You can get away with gels and bars on shorter rides, but if you are going out for hours at a time, you need to be fueling your body properly. You should also eat a small meal before your ride so you go in with energy to spare. (This does not mean carbo loading! See below…)

Carbo loading

There’s a bit of a misconception when it comes to carbo loading. Despite popular belief, it is not eating as many carbohydrates at a meal the night before a ride or event. That gigantic plate of pasta the night before your big ride is not carbo loading– it’s just a really big dinner. Most athletes do not even need to carbo load. The need arises if you are going to be pushing yourself at moderate to hard efforts for 2+ hours without access to food.

The goal of carbo loading is to ensure that you have maximum glycogen in your body for an an endurance ride or race. Glycogen is the fuel that powers your muscles, but there is an upper limit to how much glycogen a body can store. Recent research has revealed that it is most effective to do a short but intense workout before carb loading. This will make your muscles hungry for carbs so they will grab and store them for the upcoming event.

Post-ride binge

You’ve just finished a hard ride, so you’ve earned that large pizza, right? Not so much. It’s easy to eat just about anything that comes across your path after a ride, so make sure the right things cross your path. Plan a post-ride snack or meal ahead of time to save yourself from temptation.

Eating too late at night

Life gets busy, and it’s not always realistic to be sitting down to eat dinner at 5pm. Especially if you are training after work, you may not get home from the gym or a ride until 8pm. However, eating a big meal right before heading to bed can not only affect your sleep, but it also increases fat storage. The easiest fix is to try have your main meal at lunchtime, then have a small meal in the evening before you go to bed.

Eating too fast

With packed schedules it can be hard to have the time to sit down and eat slowly, but it’s important. Eating too fast results in eating too much. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to catch up and tell you’re body it’s full, so if you just plow right through you’re going to miss those signals altogether.

Undereating and focusing too much on weight

It may tempting to starve yourself to reach that ideal weight and achieve that lean look in your lycra, but there are much healthier ways to get there. Eating disorders are surprisingly prevalent within the cycling world, and we need to be careful with our habits and our words (and how they may impact those around you). We should replace talk of losing weight with eating healthy and training hard.

Energizing Food for Cyclists: Top 10

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Whether it’s the grey time of year or your diet, sometimes you’ll find that your energy is just zapped. If all you want to do is crawl into bed and binge watch the latest Netflix show, then you may want to take a look at this list of energizing food for cyclists. Not only can they help you shake that ‘blah’ feeling, but they will have you feeling strong both on and off the bike.

Food for Cyclists

1. Celery

We all know an apple a day keeps the doctor away, and you may be on board the kale train as a nutrient dense food, but what about celery? It may just be the unsung hero you’ve been waiting for, without the bitter taste! Celery contains apigenin, which is powerful in its anti-inflammatory action and can help with recovery. It is also packed full of nitrate (which also made beetroot juice so popular), which can help reduce the energy cost of exercise, positively affect muscle contraction, and up your overall energy.

2. FishFood for Cyclists

Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids has been linked to low moods and energy levels, so getting your fill of fatty fish can help give you a boost. Many of us get plenty of the unhealthy fats, but are lacking the healthy ones in our diets. Try wild salmon, herring, sardines, or anchovies as a means to get your brain functioning to its fullest potential, and aid in the absorption of vitamin D.

3. Oatmeal

If you are craving some comfort carbs, try some oatmeal before you reach for the pastas and potatoes. Carbohydrates trigger the feel-good emotion of serotonin (which is why they can be dangerous), but you can use this to your advantage. Real oatmeal, not the instant kind, can act as a slow release carb, sustaining you over time rather than spiking your energy. Plus, you can load it up with things like nuts, fruit, and even maple syrup if you’re in need of some sweetness.

Food for Cyclists4. Hemp Seeds

Rich in iron and magnesium, hemp seeds can aid in the transportation of oxygen and muscle contractions. They are also packed with protein and those fatty acids your body needs, so can make a great addition to your smoothies, salads, or stir frys.

5. Lentils

Lentils are your ultimate pre-ride fuel, but can also be a great addition to your everyday diet. Used by vegetarians as a healthy and hearty source of protein, lentils also provide slow burning calories. Relatively speaking they are low in calories and high in mineral content (especially iron), which can help your muscular endurance. Lentils can be used in place of pasta, replace meat in soup, or even be cooked into your morning omelette.

6. MilkFood for Cyclists

Milk can be a good source of “the sunshine vitamin D,” which effects hormone balance and immune regulation in the body. With the lack of sunlight over the winter in a lot of areas, energy levels drop and many people have depleted immune systems. Raw milk can be a great source of vitamin D, but you can also get it in supplement form.

7. Coconut Oil

Coconut is calorie dense, and can work as a fast-acting source of energy. Coconut oil specifically is rich in fatty acids that can help your endurance reduce blood lactate levels, as well as including a hit of vitamin C and electrolytes. You can put it in smoothies, or use it to cook with in just about anything!

8. Green Tea

If you’re on your third cup of coffee and it’s just not cutting it, green tea can help stimulate those brain waves. High in an amino acid called L-theanine, it can increase your alertness while also giving you a hit of caffeine.

9. BananasFood for Cyclists

We all know bananas are packed full of potassium and magnesium, making them a go-to choice for athletes. They can help prevent muscle cramps, and they’re great for digestion. You really can’t lose, so grab a banana for the perfect snack.

10. Dark Chocolate

If you’re craving a hit of sugar, then curb that feeling with some dark chocolate. Not only does it release that feel good serotonin, but is also causes a release of endorphins that can pick up your spirits on a dreary day. Everything in moderation though, and keep it to just a few squares rather than the whole bar.

How to Lose Weight Cycling: The Essentials

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Your bike, when put to good use, may just be the best tool you have to lose weight. Whether you’re just starting out and looking to cycling as a means to a healthier lifestyle, or are a veteran cyclist, there are a lot of reasons you may be looking to lose weight cycling.

Shaving off the pounds can make you faster, boost your confidence, and impact almost every part of life. Just make sure you are putting your well-being first. If you are working towards a weight goal, ensure that is it one that will actually improve your overall health and fitness.

Why Cycling?

So, why chose to lose weight cycling over other means? Running is known for being on of the more effective way to burn calories, but is also a high impact sport. Especially if you live in a city and are running on roads, each step sends impact through your feet, ankles, calves, knees, and onward. This can make it a difficult activity to start if you have previous injuries, and you can be at risk of overuse injuries (which increases the heavier you are).

Cycling, on the other hand, is a low impact activity that like running, you can do almost anywhere. It’s also a ton of fun! Biking is all about the legs, but it’s also a cardiovascular exercise that burns a ton of calories. Weight loss comes down to burning more calories than you are taking in, causing your body to use energy stores. Plus, as you strengthen your muscles cycling, you’ll also be building up oxygen delivering capillaries. With oxygen running through your body at a faster rate, your metabolism will speed up and start to eat away at fat cells, resulting in weight loss.

Lose Weight Cycling

Steps to get started

Make a plan not a goal

Goals can be a great motivating tool, but without the plan to get there, they will remain out of reach. You need to get specific and lay it out in a way that makes sense to you. This could be a simple as riding your bike to work three days out of the week or putting in a couple hundred miles.

Be realistic with yourself and your schedule. If your plan is too demanding in the start, you probably won’t stick with it, but if it’s too easy you won’t see results. Can’t find time to commute or ride in the evenings? Try a lunch hour spin class. For more information check out this article: The Benefits Of Having A Cycling Training Plan.

Find your moderate base pace

Starting out you will want spend most of your time on the bike at 68-79 percent of your max heart rate. If you don’t want to fuss about measuring it with a heart rate monitor, then aim for a pace that leaves you out of breath, but still able to carry on a conversation (no gasping). Great, now hang out there.

You shouldn’t be so drained at the end of the ride that you won’t want to head out again, enjoy it! Once you’ve established your base, then you’ll want to introduce some variety to your rides in the form of intervals or high intensity sessions.

Lose Weight CyclingDiet

Your diet is the sum of the food you consume, and as you probably already know it is a huge factor in weight loss. Ignore what the latest fad is, it all comes down to nutrition and fueling your body with the right amounts of the right things. Just because you are going for ride after work does not mean you should carb load.

Carbohydrates need to support your cycling routines, not hinder them. The reality is that too large a portion can lead to peaks and dips in energy that can actually leave you feeling lethargic. A good rule of thumb is to aim to eat a fist-sized portion of low-glycaemic carbohydrates to ensure that you get a steadier release of energy as you ride.

Weight loss is a simple concept: More calories out than in. So, keep your diet simple. Eat a balanced, healthy diet, control your portion size, and cut out unnecessary snacking and you will be well on your way.

Don’t fear the hills

Going up a hill takes a lot more energy than riding on a flat surface. This will cause you to use up extra calories in a shorter period of time. So, hills are actually your friend!

Embrace the cycling communityLose Weight Cycling

Accountability is important for everyone, but it’s not something you should dread. Finding a cycling partner or joining a weekly group ride not only ensures you show up, but it’s also a great way to meet people. So, head down to your local bike shop and find out how you can get involved.

Enjoy it!

Cycling is fun above all else, so make sure you keep it that way! Think of it as a part of your day you’re looking forward to, rather than something you have to do to lose weight. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you’ll be to stick with it for the long haul.

HFLC Diet (High Fat Low Carb) for Cycling

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The HFLC diet is another one of the media frenzy approaches to dieting. The high-fat, low-carb diet, or HFLC, basically undermines the authority of the food pyramid that’s been promoted for years. While proponents swear by it, others consider it a recipe for hitting the wall. All you can do is examine the studies, and decide for yourself.

The problem with studies, is that they are typically published to qualify a position while never casting any doubt on it. This type of study correlates with the preconceived outcome in a positive way.

HFLC diet

What is the HFLC diet?

At least part of the issue is compounded by the definition of low-carb, high-fat, high-carb or low-fat. Some experts define a high-fat or fat-adapted diet as having between 20 and 60 grams of carbohydrates per day, while other low-carb diets allow for 100 grams per day.

A typical HFLC meal plan, might take in roughly 50 percent of  calories from fats, 25 from carbs and 25 from protein. The current government recommendation, for comparison, is 30 percent of calories from fat, 50 to 60 percent from carbs, and 10 to 20 from protein.

Does it improve performance?

The fadish diet is actually centered more around low-carb than it is high-fat. Eating a mammoth amount of fats is typically not recommended. Studies done by Joe Friel, one of the godfathers of cycling and author of the Cyclist’s Training Bible, point out that while the HFLC diet does not directly improve performance, but agrees that getting to and staying at race weight without calorie counting or hunger is more doable on the HFLC diet.

A study last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine made one of the most convincing cases yet. Researchers found that men and women who switched to a low-carb diet lost 14 pounds after one year, eight pounds more than those who limited their fat intake instead. The high-fat group also maintained more muscle and trimmed more body fat.

Paleo Diet

The HFLC diet is sometimes compared to the Paleo diet. Paleo is about eating foods that a body is designed to process. The Paleo diet excludes dairy, which is often a key component of a HFLC diet in terms of grass-fed butter, cream, etc.

Traditional Approaches

Bonking is caused when blood glucose or blood sugar drops below normal levels. It’s also known medically as  Hypoglycemia. Glucose, an important source of energy for the body (and mind) comes from food. Carbohydrates are the main source of glucose. Rice and potatoes, as well as bread, muffins, cereal, fruit and sweets are all carbohydrate-rich foods and some cyclist’s favorite fuels.

The most common approach is to ingest carbohydrates to provide more glucose for longer or harder rides. And you bonk if you don’t get the carbs you need. The bonk is that feeling when you have exhausted your glycogen stores by not eating enough carbs to produce more blood glucose and are still riding the bike.

By restricting the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, the body is forced to utilize fat as its main energy source. But not all the carbs though; doing so runs the risk of a massive energy deficit. A small energy deficit is fine and can result in weight loss, but health risks can result from large restrictions of carbs.

Fat Limitations

The theory behind the low-carb, high-fat diet is that, according to studies, it trains your body to utilize fat better. The problem is, despite the fact that you’ve increased the volume or intensity at which you can utilize fat, for at least some of the energy demands, fat metabolism has limitations that prevent it from being able to fuel you at your highest levels.

It appears that adopting a HFLC diet can impair carbohydrate utilization and your top-out, or high-end performance, may decline. Studies have found evidence that training low on carbs for an extended period may hamper your muscles’ ability to utilize carbs eaten before competition.

Going Longer

If you’re focused on distance and not speed though, don’t write off HFCL. It can help you with bonking because your body gets accustomed to using it’s fat reserves more efficiently. It can help delay the onset of fatigue and to go faster for longer.

Another incorrect assumption is that the only advantage of a HFLC diet is purely performance. While some tests may not show a performance improvement, they also don’t show any degradation. However inflammation, stress, and the immune system are all shown to be better on a HFLC diet, improving the cyclist’s ability to train and aids longevity.

But how low do you need to go on carbs? Because of the fairly limited data on the topic and no one-size fits all, there’s no standard level of reduction per day before you start to burn fat.  But most experts agree that the level of carbohydrate restriction needs to be fairly rigorous to achieve changes.

Fat Gain

People often misunderstand the notion of high-fat or fat-adapted,  assuming a high fat diet will cause you to burn more body fat. Even though you may burn more fat, you will have consumed more fat than you can burn, which results in a net fat gain.

Should I try HFLC?

Try the HFLC diet yourself by simply starting one morning ride or training session without consuming carbohydrates. If that’s not an option, or if the feeling of cycling on an empty stomach doesn’t appeal to you, then eat what you like for breakfast and try restricting the consumption of carbohydrates on the same day between training sessions.

Opt for higher-fat foods and protein.  Meals might include fish, eggs, yogurt, red meat and some vegetables. Foods high in fat are olive oil, coconut milk and oil, nuts, avocado, and yes — bacon. You might feel  the intensity of your ride or training session is lower than expected, especially in comparison to one completed in a high carbohydrate state.

The HFLC diet doesn’t exclude all vegetables or fruits. High-starch vegetables are excluded due to the carbs, however, nutrient rich fruit and vegetables such as broccoli and blueberries are all part of the HFLC diet.

It’s up to you

HFLC diets aren’t for everyone. However, it is worth keeping an open mind on the benefits of such a strategy. Research shows that athletes who get about 50-plus percent of their diet from fat produce better average times to exhaustion in exercise tests than those eating typical low-fat, high-carb diets.

No one has the the right to decide what the HFLC diet means to others, or exactly how many carbohydrates can be included or excluded. One has to accept to utilize a HFCL diet in their own way.

Will it work for you? That’s a question that only you can answer. There are too many variables when it comes to the physiology and metabolic systems of individuals. Cyclists should be in both camps. Think of it as a bicycle: Low-carb is your front wheel, and high-fat is your back wheel; is one more important than the other? Test it out and see how it goes and let us know if it worked for you.

The Number of Calories Burned Cycling

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Everyone has their own reasons for cycling, whether it be that feeling of freedom out on the open road, a way of commuting, or a means to be able to eat whatever you want. (Not going to lie, being able to enjoy a beer guilt-free is worth putting in a few extra miles).

No matter what kind of exercise you’re doing, most of us want to know the number of calories burned. Something like running is a little easier to calculate because it’s solely your body powering movement. Cycling, however, includes wheels, which complicates things when it comes to calories burned climbing versus cruising downhill.

Understanding energy output compared to input is important, especially when it comes to working towards weight loss. There are lots of charts and equations out there that will take your weight and the length of your ride and spit out a number representing the calories you burned on a ride, but just how accurate are they? There are a lot more factors at play here than may be realized at a glance.

The Number of Calories Burned Cycling

What is a calorie?

A calorie is simply a unit of energy, but it can cause a whole lot of confusion and debate. Yes, 500 calories of twinkies may be the same amount as 500 calories of carrots, but are the two really the same thing? The “how much” is equal, but that “what” is radically different.

It’s not the number of calories that is important here so much as how they make you feel. Foods that are calorie dense and nutrient light won’t make you feel satiated causing you to eat more than your realize.

The Number of Calories Burned Cycling

How important is calorie counting?

Your calorie intake is as important as you make it. The reality is, most of us have no idea how many calories we consume in a day, let alone how many we burn. We notice when we get a little thicker around the middle, but may have misconceptions as to just how many calories are needed before and after a long ride.

It’s true that weight loss comes down to the simple matter of calories in versus calories out, but that doesn’t mean those calories can be from whatever you want. The type and quality of those calories determines how efficiently they are turned into fuel for your body. What you should eat to prepare for a time trial day versus a long slow distance are actually different. High intensity workouts draw from carbohydrates, which quickly turn to fuel for you muscles, whereas easier, longer rides will burn a higher proportion of fat.

Calorie counting is one way to make you more aware of what you’re fuelling your body with, but it’s about so much more than a number. Not all calories are created equal, and you want to focus more on what is sustainable rather than depriving yourself. The number of calories you burn may be the same no matter what, but ensuring those calories come from the proper places will make all the difference in your performance.

The Number of Calories Burned Cycling

What is calorie burn?

Your calorie burn is determined by three things:

  1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) – Your BMR is how many calories you burn at rest, consisting of the energy it takes to keep all your body’s systems operating.
  2. Activity Level – Your activity level is the calories you burn when your body is in motion. This can be broken down by taking the speed and duration of your ride in comparison to your weight.
  3. Thermic Effect of Food – The thermic effect of food is the energy it takes to digest the food you eat.

How to measure calories burned

The most accurate way to measure the amount of calories burned while out on a ride it to use a detailed app (Strava or MapMyRun), or a cycling computer that takes the following into account:

  • Intensity – Measured by your heart rate or with a power meter, intensity has a huge effect on the number of calories burned. If you ride one mile at your maximum effort in three minutes, you will burn the same amount of calories than if you were to ride the same mile over ten minutes at a more leisurely pace. It’s essentially shortening the amount of time to spend the same amount of calories.
  • Gender – The larger you are, the more calories you burn in your burn day-to-day as well as when exercising. As men are generally larger than women, they burn more calories.
  • Aerodynamics – This is not just wind direction and speed, but also your position on your bike and your build. If you have more surface area open to the wind, it will take more energy to push through a headwind. Aerodynamics is a hard thing to measure, so it is most often not taken into account.
  • Weight – Be as accurate as possible with your weight (don’t lie to yourself), because the energy it takes for a heavier person to ride the same distance as a lighter person is different.
  • Duration– Generally speaking, the longer you ride, the more calories you will burn.
The table represents rough estimates of how many calories you burn when cycling, running and swimming for an hour at different intensities.

How To Stop Cramping Now!

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Cramping Myths and Hydration Truths

Cramping and fatigue in general are still relatively poorly understood physiological phenomena, but every cyclist has experienced Exercise Induced Cramping, and knows exactly how uncomfortable they can be! There are plenty of myths, anecdotes, and magic cures peddled by companies and fellow riders alike, but what can the Science tell us about cramping?

Stop Cramping Now Cramping Myths and Hydration Truths

What Causes Cramping?

Cramping is not necessarily a sign of poor hydration or electrolyte imbalance. Cramping is not necessarily a sign of poor nutrition, poor warm-up, or poor preparation for race day. Cramping is not necessarily even a sign of poor fitness… but all of those factors may contribute to fatigue and cramping.

Exercise Induced Cramping occurs when you push yourself harder and for longer than your body is used to: ie. a combination of greater volume/duration and greater intensity than your body has adapted for.

The current best theory for Exercise Induced Cramping is related to neuromotor fatigue. Basically, the nerves that carry signals to and from your muscles and your brain get tired just the same as your working muscles. Those nerve signals begin to misfire This neuromotor fatigue can send overlapping, uncontrolled signals to your muscles. This can result in twitching, cramping, complete locking up of your working muscles or the feeling of ‘dead-legs’ and an inability to produce power.

 

Hydration and Electrolytes

When you sweat you lose both fluid and ‘electrolytes’, which refer to a variety of minerals dissolved in the body’s fluids and tissues, and are essential to overall function. Sodium is the most abundant electrolyte lost in sweat, and so ‘salts’ are occasionally used synonymously when talking about replenishing electrolyte balance.

Sweat is hypotonic, that is: the electrolyte concentration of sweat is lower than the electrolyte concentration of your blood. This means that when you sweat you lose more fluid than you lose electrolytes, and therefore fluid loss will be the limiting factor to performance and is more important to replenish during exertion. During activities longer than 90min, and especially endurance events longer than 4 hrs you will lose both fluids and electrolytes to sweat, and both will need to be replenished.

Studies have shown that performance is negatively affected when total body weight loss approaches -2% via fluid loss (although even this finding has conflicting evidence). You should aim to replenish fluids during activity to avoid this extent of fluid loss. A general guideline is to drink at least one bottle – 500-750 ml – of fluid per hour.

 

Can you Drink Too Much?

You may have heard horror stories about athletes over-hydrating during endurance events and suffering from hyponatremia, or severely low electrolyte imbalance. These instances are an extremely low percentage occurrence and most often only seen in extreme ultra-endurance events. Studies found only 0.1-4% of an ultra-endurance population exhibited signs of hyponatremia, compared with 80% occurrence of basic dehydration.

Under-hydration can affect your performance during even short-duration activities and should be a far more significant consideration than over-hydrating. You have to try really hard to give yourself hyponatremia, but dehydration takes effort to avoid.

 

Fluid and Nutrition

Drinking an electrolyte-fluid mix can be effective to maintain performance and avoid cramping and fatigue, but the fluid is certainly more important than the electrolytes in that bottle of mix. Mix offers a more obvious advantage to performance, of course: as a nutritional source of carbohydrates (sugar/glucose). Some electrolyte supplements can be low or zero calorie, but more common is for drink mix to contain both carbohydrates and electrolytes.

Briefly: nutrition is a completely different topic which I won’t tackle here, but suffice it to say that calories from carbohydrates, protein & fats are significantly more important to performance over a multi-hour endurance event than electrolytes. You don’t have to choose one or the other!: carbohydrate + electrolyte mixtures can be a great way to replenish both on the bike! For optimal performance, you probably need to be eating more than you think!

I would suggest that if you find that drinking a carbohydrate/electrolyte mix helps you avoid cramping and boosts your performance, this is more than good enough reason to continue what works! This may be in order of importance; 1) the fluid; 2) the nutritional calories, and finally; 3) the electrolytes.

 

So What Should You Do?

The first thing that needs to be said is don’t worry about changing anything if you know what works best your you! Your body is very good at regulating itself: It will take in whatever you give it with very little fuss. The science indicates it should be unnecessary to supplement salts or electrolytes as long as you eat properly leading into your cycling event. You should get all the salts, minerals and electrolytes you need from a nutritious diet, not to mentioned ensuring optimal performance on the bike. Longer events will require fluid, electrolyte, and calorie replacement and you can get that from any combination of solid foods, gels, or drink mixes.

 

How to Prevent Cramping?

  • Nothing magical, just expose your body to greater duration and intensity of training stimuli. ie. go harder for longer, and next time you won’t cramp as early into your event! Training in the heat will assist acclimatization to the heat, and training in the cold, to the cold. You can experience cramping in any conditions to which your body is poorly acclimatized to.
  • Take care of the low-hanging fruit as part of your pre-event preparation: Ensure you are fresh, well-rested, with sufficient nutrition and hydration in the days leading up to a particularly hard event. Come prepared with sufficient nutrition and hydration for the length & intensity of the event and for the expected conditions on the day. TrainingPeaks has a fantastic guideline for basic pre-, during, and post- race nutrition & hydration planning.
  • There is also a potential genetic predisposition to cramping. so… get different parents? 🙂

How to Relieve Cramps Once They Start?

  • The fastest & most reliable method of temporarily easing cramps is passive stretching. Trying to stretch a cramping hamstring while on the bike is a good way to come to grief, but if you can slow up or even dismount and stretch the affected muscle it can provide much needed relief.
  • Continuing to hydrate remains important when you begin to cramp. Cooling via fluid intake will also help. However by the time cramping is occurring, hydrating and cooling probably won’t have a quick enough effect. You’ll be forced to slow down first, which probably has a more direct benefit.
  • Speaking of slowing down, an obvious (and often unavoidable) way to reduce cramping is simply to reduce your effort. This eases the demand on your working muscles, your heart & lungs, and also your neuromotor system by reducing the amount of voluntary nerve signalling to your muscles. This allows your entire neuromotor system to relax and recover.
  • Finally, recent headlines have highlighted using pickle juice, capsaicin (spicy pepper, chili powder, etc.), vinegar, or mustard as cramp cures. I haven’t explored the evidence in-depth, but the proposed mechanism is not actually the salt in those foods, but rather that the spice/acidity of these foods overpowers the rest of the neurological system and reduces nerve firing activity globally through your body. Similar to how biting your tongue “distracts” you from the pain of your stubbed toe.

Eating Disorders and Cycling

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Introduction to Eating Disorders in Cycling

“If you lose ten pounds, you could be as fast as me” said a seasoned vet to a new cyclist at a local hill climb. The impressionable cyclist rode home thinking about how much faster they would be if they could only shed a few kilos.

eating disordersEating disorders are prevalent in our sport. We don’t perceive them because the sport is incredibly lean to begin with, but in a culture shrink-wrapped in lycra, it’s only natural to obsess about the excess fat we carry around. Eating disorders in cycling are prevalent for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is no denying that being lighter makes going uphill easier; weight has a substantial performance impact on the bike. Secondly, the idolized image of a featherweight in their skin-tight kit, floating up the local hill is another contributing factor that puts cyclists at risk.

Who Is At Risk?

Adults

Good news for adults. Studies show that the general population is not at risk. While there are certainly cases of eating disorders, relative to adolescents, there is not much to be concerned about. Cycling boosts confidence, and more frequently than not, logging time on the bike naturally trims the waistline. The chatter at the coffee shop is mostly harmless, and the 50 year old smashing a donut is not likely to be affected by his friend quipping about his belly. As the banter becomes more regular, cyclists begin to casually talk about weight outside of their circle of lyrcra-clad friends. We become desensitized to the impact of our words, especially on the people who look up to us. We need to stop talking about how much weight we need to lose.

Perception of Weight Are Influenced By:

  • Pressure of the sport
  • Coaches
  • Peers
  • Parents

Take note of who influences you, and who you are influencing. There is a good chance that your opinion affects someone you did not realize.

Adolescents and Young Adults

Adolescents and young adults are without a doubt vulnerable to adopting risky weight management methods. Over 15 studies in the past two decades have shown that the population under the age of 25 are significantly at risk of developing unhealthy eating habits. The semantics between peer-reviewed studies can be overwhelming, but the basic distilled facts are jarring.

The Unhealthy Facts of Eating Disorders in Endurance Sports

In two studies conducted in 1994 and 2004, Jorunn Sundgot-Borgen revealed some scary insights into eating disorders in elite athletes:

  • More elite athletes are at risk of sub-clinical and clinical eating disorders than the general public (13.5% vs. 4.5%)
  • Females are significantly more at risk than male athletes
  • 89% of females participating in elite endurance sports were classified as at risk
  • 85% of females participating in elite athletics were dieting
  • 67% of these athletes were instructed to lose weight by a coach or mentor
  • 10% of these athletes dieting were given a plan to achieve the desired weight

With these facts in mind, can we risk imposing our views on weight when the next generation of cyclists attempt to attain these unreasonable expectations? We should replace talk of losing weight with eating healthy and training hard.

Eat Like A Pro (and More Than a Pro)

Phil Gaimon and his dietitian are deliberately hyperbolic when they argue that 80 percent of the training is done in the kitchen, while 20 percent of the work is done on the bike. You don’t actually have to starve like a pro to achieve your desired weight. The plain chicken breasts and kale that Gaimon describes in a few of his books and interviews sounds unappealing (maybe the food is bland to prevent him from overeating), and the smoothie he drinks after every ride leaves something to be desired. But, as long as you are cooking what you are putting in your body, you’re ahead of everybody else. If you bake a cake, guess what? You can eat it. If you make a club sandwich for lunch, go ahead, eat it. The unprocessed, nutrient-rich food that you’re preparing for yourself will set you up for success. Stop talking about the weight that you’re losing, and start talking about the food that you’re cooking!

Drink Like A Pro

Water helps transport nutrients through the body, so that when we are exercising, our body is able to get what it needs to ride. Inadequate hydration will also lead to a drop in blood volume, which will wreak havoc on your body’s ability to access the oxygen it needs. It is difficult to hydrate perfectly on the bike, but as long as you start your ride properly hydrated, hydrate throughout and make a concerted effort to replenishing fluids after a ride, you will give your body the water it needs to operate like a well-oiled machine. The perception of feeling light when dehydrated is actually working against you. Get water in your system so that the hard work you put in on the weekends pays off.

Taking on the KOM & QOM

Weight is the default topic of choice when tackling the local KOM/QOM, but challenge yourself to discuss the tougher topics instead— The ones that we have control over and an incredible knack of ignoring.

Happy eating!

Meal Planning Trumps Your Weight Loss Diet

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While cyclists talk about dropping kilos, diet and weight loss might not be the answer. Weekly meal plans trump the trendiest weight loss diet. You’ve tried The Paleo, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and now you’re playing around with The Kytogenics.  The diets all work in the beginning, but they are not really creating healthy habits. You are constantly reminded of what you shouldn’t put in your body, instead of reminding you of what you should be adding to your diet. Weight loss plans remove fat, remove carbs and reduce portion size. The simple concept of adding good quality foods to your diet will help fuel you properly, losing weight in the process.
 Meal Planning Trumps Weight Loss Diet

Weight Loss Diets Aren’t Fueling Your Ride

Cyclists should be focusing on what they can add to their diet to improve energy levels before, during and after rides. The calories and nutrients that you deprive your body of during the week will leave you feeling flat by the time you get to your Saturday morning club ride. Challenge yourself to be more mindful of how your body feels during a ride. Ask yourself:
  • Was I dropped the last time I rode on an empty stomach?
  • Did the salad I substituted for my carb-load-pasta provide me with enough punch for my Saturday club ride?

Replacing Junk Food

We’ve all heard the analogy: “Fueling your body with junk is like putting diesel in a Ferrari.”
  •  Do I feel sluggish after smashing that bacon cheeseburger? 
As you start to add nutrient rich foods, keep asking yourself these types of questions:
  • Did my smoothie bowl fuel me for my ride better than my nutella and toast?
  • Do my legs feel fresher after I substituted corn flakes with a quinoa-fruit bowl? 
 It’s cliche, but true: Everyone’s different, so be mindful of what your body needs.

3 Steps to Supercharge Your Diet

1. Meal Plan

Sit down on Saturday or Sunday night before your weekly grocery run. Start with broad strokes and general meal ideas, having a plan will help keep track of the quality of calories you are adding, as well as a general idea of the quantity of calories. It’s not a fail-safe solution, but seeing fish taco Tuesday is exciting, for one, and two, if you’ve shopped for the ingredients and they are in the fridge already, it’s much harder to order Pad Thai from across the street. The meal plan will take all of 10 minutes, and will help you fuel your work week, and your weekend rides.

2. Grocery Shop

Knowing what you are cooking for the week makes doing a weekly grocery shop easy and possible. Having the bulk of your produce at the beginning of the week allows you to get home and unwind instead of adding the task of picking up groceries on the way home from work. It doesn’t sound like much, but with the food already in the fridge, you can start food prep earlier, and get to the good part! Picking up a couple of missing or forgotten items is more manageable once the bulk has been taken care of.

3. Plan Your Snacks

Snacking is the most dangerous part of your diet. Chips and salsa is great if they accompany Fish Taco Tuesday, but not great if they creep into a nightly routine. Planning your snacks will help. Nuts and dried fruit are a cyclists’ best friend (try dates, figs and apricots they are underrated). Keep these in the pantry so they are easy to grab when a salt or sugar craving springs up. These nutrient-dense snacks can be sweet, salty and fatty but they are also providing your body with valuable resources that corn chips can’t (full disclosure: the author is known to eat a bag of corn chips a week).

Now Go Out and Ride

If you’re trying to lose weight, riding your bike will be the biggest tool at your disposal. Adding volume to your weekly regime will shift your current caloric balance in your favor– Be warned, that adding kilometers will also have you craving more food (pro tip: add good calories)!
Furthermore, if you are training with any kind of intensity, losing weight might be harder than you think. When you train with intensity your body will add muscle while shedding fat. This change in body composition replaces dead weight with functional muscle mass. Paying attention to the quality of the foods you put in your body will allow you to ride more, faster, and more frequently.
Bon Apetit!

Battling the Holiday Weight Gain with Cycling

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holiday weight gain

The end of the year is a time of revelry, and with that revelry comes indulgence and over-consumption. The weather is turning for the worst too making riding a bit more difficult because of condition and not wanting to suffer through bad weather. Devising some tactics to deal with holiday weight gain can keep you happier and healthier along with maintaining your fitness through this season that is fun and fraught at the same time.

Indulgence and Holiday Weight Gain

There are sweets at work. There is alcohol at the party. There is a feast at your family’s house. It is hard to handle all the indulgence. Find some strategies that work for you to enjoy yourself but also to keep holiday weight gain to a minimum.

  • It is okay to have treats and delicious food. Make sure whatever you are consuming is really worth it and increases your enjoyment of the moment.
  • Before going into a situation, set limits for yourself. An open ended commitment to eating and drinking will not end well.
  • Be honest with yourself when you are full or you have had enough to drink.
  • If there are a lot of options, take small portions so you can get a taste of everything you might enjoy. Then you can make a decision about what you really like and go back for more (if you are not violating the previous point).
  • There is no obligation to force feed yourself. Remember that peer and societal pressure is a thing, even when you are an adult and make a conscious decision to ignore the pressure.
  • Choose to fill up on the healthier options on offer – vegetables, fruit and other non-processed and less calorie-dense foods. It will make you feel fuller without dropping a calorie bomb in your gut.
  • Hydration levels affect your perception of satiety. Make sure you are well hydrated while partying the month away. An additional bonus to good hydration is that it will help you cope better with alcohol in your system.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line to battle holiday weight gain is to keep pedaling or staying active in some way. If you are already riding regularly, find a way that you can continue even as the daylight fades, temperatures drop and precipitation increases. A good set of lights might help to keep you on the road in the dark; nothing beats them to see or be seen. All the high visibility colors and reflectors do nothing compared to active illumination.

When the weather is sure to make you uncomfortable, set up a space indoors that you can ride in on a trainer or rollers that will keep you motivated. You will need a fan and some sort of entertainment. Staring at the wall or your bike computer the whole time sets you up for failure. Music, movies and friends make the time go by much faster.

Prepare a manageable schedule for yourself that you can stick to for your rides. A commitment will keep you on the bike and keep the holiday weight gain at bay. The more you ride, the more you can indulge, within reason of course. If you are lucky enough to have a schedule that allows you to ride more than usual at this time of year, the easier it is to burn off those treats. But beware – those treats do not provide optimal fuel for training.

Other Activity

The winter is also a great time to throw in some other activities to your exercise program to stave off holiday weight gain. Find something that is interesting to you that you may not get to do when it is nice out and you are more committed to riding. Again, make a regular schedule so you can stay fit and keep burning those extra calories you may be eating. The activity could also be a nice mental break from all of the riding; when you come back to riding, it will be fresh and exciting again.

You Already Know

You are already aware of what the end of the year can do to your body. It is hard to handle the indulgence and holiday weight gain if you do not have a plan. Make a plan and try to stick to it. You will be even more committed to the plan if you write it down and tell others about it – this works for anything. This will lead to a happier and healthier season, and that is what it is all about, right?

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