Cycling Nutrition, Diet Meal Plan & Carb Cycling Guide
In this article, we’re going to go from basic to more complex topics in order to help you NAIL your cycling diet plan. Every day, not just on race day, you want to have a cycling nutrition plan.
While the list of topics is below, the biggest topic that we want to discuss is Carbohydrates and Carb Loading, as these questions arise so often when we discuss cycling nutrition for performance.
Cycling Nutrition
Sections
↓ What’s Different About a Cycling Diet Plan?
↓ Basic Nutrition for Cycling Performance
↓ Nutrient Timing
↓ Endurance Athletes Grocery List
↓ Nutrition: Cycling Duration and Intensity
↓ Carbohydrate Loading for Cycling
↓ Carbohydrate Periodization
↓ Losing Weight and Maintaining Cycling Race Weight
Related Article: Best Supplements For Cyclists
Cyclist Diet Plan
A cyclist diet is A LOT different than a “normal person” diet. Cycling expends a lot of energy and if you want to get the most out of yourself and optimize cycling recovery, it is crucial that you get your biking diet figured out.
What is different about a cycling diet compared to a “normal person” diet?
Increased Calorie Intake
If you want to put a lot of watts out in training, you’re going to have to put a lot of the right food in. You can’t expect to drive a car across the country with an empty tank. How many Calories? This depends a lot on how much you’re training, how fit you are, gender and body size, but you will likely need between 3,000-6,000 Calories.
Nutrient Timing
It’s not just about what you eat, but when you eat it. This is hugely important. You might consume the right amount of Calories, but if you don’t eat at the right times, you will struggle to perform. We’ll dig into this later, but you need to stack carbohydrates before, during and after you training to optimize your performance.
Carbohydrates
To support your cycling training, you will have to shift your cylcist nutrtion plan to focus primarily on carbohydrates. This is your rocket fuel. Many riders tend to overconsume proteins and fats and should switch to a high-carb diet plan.
Simple Sugars
That’s right, while you’re out training, simple sugars are your friend. When you are riding, you need something that will digest quickly and absorb into your muscles rapidly. Avoid foods that are high in fiber, protein and fat while riding as this will slow digestion and potentially cause GI issues. Some good options are drink mixes, pure granulated sugar, maltodextrin, energy gels, and even sugar water.
Meal Planning
If you want to perform at your peak, you must put some forethought into your cyclist nutrition plan. Got a big ride planned? Make sure you have a post-ride meal planned out. Traveling to a race? Ensure you know where you’re getting your pre-race breakfast.
Clean Eating
Just because you burn a lot of Calories doesn’t give you free reign to eat junk food all the time. To perform at your peak, you must put healthy, nutrient dense food into your body. This will help provide you with the nutrients you need to recover, prevent sickness, promote gut health and even improve your mental wellbeing.
If you’re new to cycling, the sooner you dial in your cycling diet, the quicker you will make gains and crush your goals.
Is cycling good for weight loss? Yes, cycling is possibly the best exercise you can do for weight loss. However, in this article, please keep in mind that we are providing recommendations for cycling performance rather than weight loss. That being said, if you follow these recommendations, you will be able to train harder, recover faster and do more work on the bike. Along with consistent cycling training, it’s likely that following these recommendations will lead to fat loss and improved performance.
Update to 2022: I’ve started using ketones to boost my performance, and they are considered a food group! Check out this article to learn more!
Related Post: Eating While Cycling
Your Cycling Diet Plan
Get fast, stay lean… Read on!
Cycling Nutrition For Performance 101: The Basics
Where do we even begin? Let’s get really basic…
What fuels a bike ride? What is the best diet for cyclists? Let’s figure it out so we can make a cycling nutrition plan that works for you.
Carbohydrates
Fruits
Grains
Legumes
Vegetables
Sugary Sweets
Milk / Dairy
Cycling Specific Sport Food
What is the other macronutrient that can be used as fuel, but not as effective of a source for endurance activities like cycling?
Fats
Dairy
Seeds
Nuts
Oils
Meat
Tofu
Avocados
What helps you recover from intense, muscle shredding activities?
Protein
Meats
Milk / Dairy
Eggs
Lentils
Seafood
Legumes
Nuts
Quinoa
Vegetables
Are you confused that many items are in multiple categories?
It makes it hard to understand what are you supposed to eat, and when, if you want to optimize your biking diet for cycling performance.
We’re going to break it down for you and make a cycling nutrition plan.
It's not only what you eat, but when you eat it
When do you want to focus meals on eating carbs?
Carbohydrates should be the mainstay of your cycling meal plan. That said, you really want to focus on extra carbs before high intensity interval sessions (Zone 4 or higher) or long duration sessions (3+ hours).
When do you want to focus meals on eating protein?
Immediately after a mega hard session of lifting, intense intervals, or a 4+ hour ride.
When do you need to specifically meals on fat?
For most of us; never. It will naturally get into your cycling diet. Ideally, you’ll be consuming healthy fats like nuts, seeds, fish, and oils, but a nice steak or pork chop a few times a week is a great way to change things up.
But, the carbs and protein proportion can be way off.
The following points are based around these tenets from (these are taken from Asker Jeukendrup, a leader in Sports Nutrition):
Glycogen concentration in the muscle is dependent on diet. The more carbohydrate in the diet the higher the glycogen stores
Glycogen concentration declines during exercise, especially higher intensity exercise
Higher glycogen concentrations in the muscle resulted in less fatigue and better performance
If Carbs Fuel Cycling, Why Can’t I Just Eat Them All The Time?
While we shift our cyclist diet plan towards carbs, remember that you need protein to repair your body after hard sessions and you need fats for healthy body function. NOT EATING FATS is a recipe for sickness and poor performance. But again, you most likely don’t need to seek fat out; Just don’t avoid it.
The other main reason you can always go crazy on carbs is that you will retain more water and look a little puffy, like the Michelin man, not P. Diddy, after carb loading, so you need some time to “unpuff”. This does not mean that you should avoid carbs, but you simply don’t need to overly focus on them.
For every 1g of carbohydrate consumed, you will retain 3g of water. If you carb load, do not look at the scale and think you are fat; you are just retaining water.
Many times when cyclists think they’ve gotten fat after a long weekend of riding and racing, it’s just the puffiness from all the carbs and inflammation. So, eat less carbs the following days to reduce this (this does not mean NO CARBS).
Cycling Weight Loss: Find Your Race Weight & Maximizing Power to Weight Ratio
When To Shift Your Focus To Carbs?
During Race Season, carbs are king, and really need to be eaten often to keep your energy rolling along.
Let’s assume the following schedule, and these are how focused you should be on carbs. The issue with laying out a cycling meal plan like this though is that some people ride in the morning, others at night, and some swap back and forth. In order to really get this dialed in, we’d need to know at what times you are riding, so these are GENERAL guidelines.
Monday: OFF, lean more towards a well rounded diet with protein and healthy fats to stay full; extra carbs are not needed, BUT YOU STILL EAT CARBS. Use this day to UNPUFF from all the carbs over the weekend by reducing the carb loading (we’ll get to that). Fit extra carbs into your biking diet at night to prepare for the next day.
To clarify, we do not cycle off carbohydrate EVER. We are always consuming carbs, but shift the amount based on the workouts. When in doubt, I lean towards carbs and just watch the amount that I intake.
Tuesday: Intensity, 2 hours; carbs for breakfast (oatmeal, cereal, breads, jams, etc). Just lean breakfast towards carbs, aim to finish solid foods 3h before the ride. This may take some adjustments due to work and depends on when you are riding.
Wednesday, Moderate riding, 2 hours, no major focus on carbs, eat normal proportions.
Thursday, Endurance Riding, 2 hours, no major focus on carbs, eat normal proportions, unless you have a big day on the weekend, in which case you want to start carb loading.
Friday, OFF, lean more towards protein and healthy fats to stay full; extra carbs not needed, unless you have a big day on the weekend, in which case you want to start carb loading
Saturday, Big Ride or Race: CARBS before the ride, protein and carbs after to recover and rebuild
Sunday, Big Ride or Race: CARBS before the ride, protein and carbs after to recover and rebuild
Take a look at this infographic which will break down our Nutrition Fueling Suggestions:
So that’s it - that’s the basics. Keep in mind the key word: BASICS. We get more into carbohydrate loading at the bottom of this article.
What To Buy at The Grocery Store
So, in this post, we’ll look at one trip to the grocery store, and highlight things that you can buy that will help you out as an endurance athlete and help you utilize nutrition for cycling performance. Watts are made in the kitchen.
This may seem obvious to some, but I remember trying to clean up my diet, and I really wasn’t sure what to eat in order to hit all of the boxes when it came to carbs, fats, and proteins.
For a cyclist diet plan, you don’t need to go out looking for fat, as it will work itself into your diet as you eat whole foods. I’d more recommend focusing energy on avoiding the bad fats: cookies, chips, burgers, ice cream, etc. Look for nuts, avocados, olive oil.
If this post is helpful, and you want me to make a version of what I buy on the road, for weekend races, when you can’t really cook in a hotel, let me know!
Nutrition was always a hard thing for me to understand when I first started riding in 2008. I didn’t really know much about carbs, fat, and protein, but slowly learned more and more as I read things in magazines only. I had no clue as to what I should eat and when.
Everyone has heard the saying that you should focus all of your shopping on the outer ring of the grocery store: produce, meat, dairy, go home.
Skip all the bagged chips and bull, but to me there are some things I definitely jet down the aisle for: coffee, frozen fruit, raisins, sparkling waters if I’m feeling fancy…you get the point. But skip the processed junk food.
Bread is delicious; Patrick makes his own and I try to eat high quality breads, but hey, store bought bread happens. Try to avoid bread with weird ingredients and preservatives. Bread should go stale in a few days if it is fresh and the most natural kind!
When there’s a big event coming up, I like a lot of carbs, such as: fruit/veggie, rice, wheat. I like to spread them out, so I don’t eat just one thing, and read way later in periodizing the carbs for better performance.
In the video below, I discuss my grocery list! I know, how silly.
Focus all of your shopping on the outer ring of the grocery store
Endurance Athlete’s Grocery List
The best diet for cycling should feature healthy, real food like what is listed below:
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Bananas
Avocados
Grapes
Spinach
Kale
This Living Lettuce is DOPE
Carrots
Mushrooms
White Onion
Apples
Peppers: I like red, yellow, and orange the most.
Potatoes; I like white, red, or sweet! YAMS!
Tomatoes; all kinds, especially the little colorful ones
Pickles sometimes, not really a usual thing
Frozen Fruit - big into blueberries, cherries, pineapple, and strawberries
PROTEIN / MEAT
I don’t buy much meat anymore, but if I did, it would be the following:
Boneless Chicken Tenderloins
White Eggs
Pork Chops / Pork Tenderloin
Filet Mignon, small portions no greater than 6oz
Fluids
I stick to water.
OTHER CARBS
RICE RICE RICE. Love Basmati and Jasmine
White rice + Almond Butter + Honey = Bike Race Killer! It’s so good.
Get some Korean sweet and spicy sauce. I like this one: Sempio Gochujang Hot Pepper PasteJam if we’re carbing hard.
DIPS
Hummus
Spicy Guacamole
Baba Gannouj - rare treat
Lunch meat for Chris’ work. I’ll crush some post ride sometimes. Only purchase ones with no nitrates.
I’m not a big fan of cheese or dairy. I’ve never understood why we drink the milk of another mammal; I think we’re the only ones to do that.
While I love cookies and potato chips, I’ll never buy them because I can’t control myself around them. Know thyself!
Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels, and high performance expectations require high performance fueling! Don’t buy garbage food!
Eating healthy isn’t expensive, it’s just that crap food is really really cheap.
pasta, in small portions, to hit that 10g per 1kg of body weight for carb loading
Nutrition: Cycling Duration and Intensity
For a cycling diet plan, aside from just focusing on the macronutrients, one also needs to consider the timing and intensities of the activities that you are fueling for. If you’re asking “what to eat and drink while cycling”, read on! Also, there is a full product suite here, rated best cycling nutrition, to help you out, with Torq Energy discount code EVOQBIKE.
What should I eat before a cycling?
To answer this one, carbs is the answer for cycling performance. This will fuel all your efforts. Try to finish eating solid foods 3 hours before a high intensity session, or 90 minutes before an endurance session. You can use drink mix or any liquid carbs in the time leading up to the event or ride, to keep your carb stores topped off.
What should I eat after cycling?
You want to refeed with normal whole foods and utilize carbs and protein.
What should I eat during my ride?
You can find a wide variety of bars, gels, and chews, along with hydration products, to get you through your even without any GI Distress.
I use exclusively Maple Syrup in a soft flask, and sugar water. It’s so simple and effective! Spending $$$ on expensive drinks is a thing of the past for many of us.
Remember, during the ride you do not want to consume much protein, fat or fiber: these all slow the delivery of carbs and even fluids.
Carbs are able to sustain high intensity outputs, whereas fats cannot.
Let’s quickly review what durations of exercise you can power without adding any extra macronutrients, specifically carbohydrates, since this is the one that fuels cycling related activities the most.
Related Post: When to Consume Caffeine Gels in Cycling
What To Eat For 2 Hours or Less Of Cycling
The body stores carbohydrates in your liver and muscles, with enough storage to fuel 90-120 minutes of cycling, assuming that you haven’t depleted the carb stores from strenuous exercise the previous day, or by drinking alcohol, and that you ate a well balanced meal the day before.
This also assumes that you are riding at an endurance and low tempo pace (50-80% FTP).
Therefore, you only need to supplement with 90-100g of carbs if you are training longer than 2 hours, or if it is a session very high in intensity (93% FTP or greater). If it is just a 90-120m of endurance, you can eat less.
While you can probably finish the session without eating, I wouldn’t recommend this, as then you will be very hungry afterwards. Focus on hitting 60-80g of carbs for this ride, but you don’t need to carb load much before.
This ride at 50-80% for 90-120 minutes will deplete your carb stores, so make sure you replenish them after you consume your post ride protein. Return from ride and consume 20g of protein, then next comes the carbs.
What To Eat For High Intensity Cycling or Racing For Less Than 2 Hours
We simply lean our cycling diet towards carbs. What does this mean? We really focus on eating carbs for 2 days before a big criterium or circuit race, but not on a massive carb loading schedule. We lean towards 5-7g of carbs per 1kg of body weight. Yes, that is a lot of carbs. For a 70kg rider, that’s about 420g of carbs, so 1,680 calories from straight carbohydrate.
During the event we stick to maple syrup and sugar water, but you can also use a sports mix, gels, and bars. You want fuel that is easily digestible.
One serving of sugar water the morning of your race is helpful as well, or whatever carb based drink you consume; and then one serving to stay topped off before the race.
Low Intensity Cycling or Training Rides For More Than 2 Hours
We don’t eat much more for these rides since the intensity is low and you can burn off your breakfast and use the fuel that you consume on the ride. If it is a zone 2 endurance ride, eat your normal breakfast and just lean towards carbs. Stay on top of the fuel during the ride, getting 60-90g of carbs per hour. Most gels and drink mixes are just carbs, whereas you need to be careful when it comes to the bars that you eat. Some are very high fat, and this is not what you want to be fueling with on long rides, since fat cannot be used for energy as efficiently as carbohydrates.
High Intensity Cycling or Training Rides For More Than 2 Hours
Carb drink, as we call it, is a must.
Carb loading, a MUST.
The general recommendation for carb loading is 10-12g of carbs per 1kg of body weight. YES, that is a lot of carbs, and YES, you will go over your normal amount of calories for the day.
We find the 12g/kg to be overkill. We hadn't been able to get an answer from anyone on how this math works out; if your glycogen stores can only hold 500g of carbs, why are we eating more? Is it usable within the blood stream? The answer to that is NO, as only 4g floats throughout the blood stream.
More on this at the bottom of the page, but for now, here’s the idea:
Staying topped off on carbs for long, high intensity sessions, will allow you to lay down the watts like you have not done before. Carb loading works, and you can use Monday to unpuff a bit; just don’t eat so much that you shock your body or feel uncomfortable. Drink more water or decaf teas, eat a hearty breakfast when you are hungry, and let your normal activities bring you back to race weight.
Yes, fueling for a race needs to be carbohydrate focused, and while we focus on eating whole foods and being healthy, sometimes when you are at a race hotel, you need cereal! I would only recommend eating one bowl; try to find oatmeal instead.
I mistakenly used to carb with a lot of cereal; it never left me feeling full and my legs felt trashed on some hard efforts. Stay away from boxed cereals IMO.
Carbohydrate Loading for Cycling
What is Carb Loading?
Carbohydrate Loading, or Carb Loading, or Carboloading: whatever you want to call it, you’ve heard us preach about this from the mountaintops. Whether it’s in our Instagram stories or other blog posts, we’re all about a high-carb diet plan to make sure you are properly fueled for a bike race.
Let’s assume you’re doing a high intensity race or one that has a duration over 2 hours. If so, it’s time to start carb loading.
What Do We Know For Sure About Carb Loading
The big question is: Does Carb Loading Work?
Yes, carb loading works! Here’s what we know about carboloading.
Glycogen concentration in the muscle is dependent on the athlete’s diet. More carbohydrate equals higher glycogen stores
Glycogen concentration declines during exercise, especially higher intensity exercise like 90% FTP an higher
Higher glycogen concentrations in the muscle resulted in less fatigue and better performance
Highly regarded nutritionist Asker Jeukendrup wrote up this history on carb loading. Here are the cliff notes version. Does carb loading work?
CARB LOADING SUPERCOMPENSATION
It was originally thought that you needed to deplete the carbohydrate stores in your body for a few days, and then start carb loading, creating a higher than normal level of glycogen.
While your body does replete glycogen faster if you have fully depleted the stores, it does not bring them up to a higher level. Said differently, the stores fill up faster if you’ve been fully depleted, however they do not fill up more than if you hadn’t completely depleted them.
This created athletes that felt weak and irritable, due to the lack of carbohydrates providing energy.
A taper strategy became more popular...as you got closer to your event, you trained less, and consumed more carbohydrates. This works well and was a 7 day carb loading plan.
Eventually, a 2 day program took over and this seems to be the most prevalent way of carb loading in 2019, and the one that we promote.
How To Carb Load
Simply put, carb loading is shifting your diet towards carbohydrates for 48 hours before your event, leaving the fats and proteins off of your plate. Ideally, you don’t overdo it with tons of fiber that can create gastrointestinal stress, but some fiber is good to keep things moving through the body.
When To Carb Load?
Before any big race! Especially during stage races when you really can’t eat too many carbs.
When To Carb Load? Before any intense training session that will last over 3 hours. When you go on your long ride, make sure you’ve carb loaded so that you have glycogen stores that are topped off and ready to attack the long duration.
How Many Carbs Do I Consume For Carb Loading?
Carb loading is defined as 5-12g of carbs per 1kg of body weight. We don’t think 5 is enough based on the studies we’ve come across (although one study does claim 5 to be enough, but keep reading to see why we don’t recommend this) and have settled that 6-9g per 1kg of body weight 2 days out, and then 8-10g per 1kg of body weight the day before is best.
THIS IS A LOT OF CARBS.
If you don’t want to count carbs, shift your diet towards carbs and eat a little extra. We promise you that the “extra” based on how your feel won’t be extra. Most athletes underestimate how many carbs they should consume.
What Foods Should I Use For Carb Loading?
What are the best carbs for cycling? All of them. Just kidding. When choosing my carbs for cycling, I like a variety, which mainly include rice, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and some bread and pasta.
I made a video that we will post that shows exactly what I ate for 100 mile gravel race where I burned 5,500 calories. I flatted and had to TT a bunch to try to reach the lead group again, but either way, I would have burned about 4,500 calories that day.
You’ll want to know what the best carb loading foods are for your body, so test them out on your next long ride
Good carb loading foods include fruit, oatmeal, rice, breads, sweet potatoes, more rice, a burrito. I hit over 1,000g of carbs the day before the race.
While I used to be huge on cereal, I’ve really tried to keep my best carb loading foods to be those that are natural, like fruits and other natural sugars, like honey or maple syrup.
While processed foods are easy to use for carb loading food, they aren’t the best carb loading foods in terms of quality. Make sure your digestive system can handle all the fiber before you go overboard and only use fruit as your carb loading food, or if you eat too much processed foods, you may find yourself bound up and unable to really excrete it all before the race starts.
Side Effects of Carb Loading
Weight gain: for every 1g of carb you retain 3g of water. This will create some weight gain, but it will come off as you race. The benefit of having carbohydrates to fuel your racing and exercise are well worth the slight gain.
Puffy look: because of the water retention, you won’t look ripped. Remind yourself that you aren’t preparing for a beach day, you’re preparing for a bike race.
Odd feelings: honestly, sometimes all the carbs make me feel weird. Not sluggish, just loaded with a ton of sugar. I take those feelings and pour them onto the pedals.
Carb Loading Diet
While we don’t always carb load, sometimes you’ll hear us refer to “leaning your diet towards carbs”, which refers to Carbohydrate Periodization. We’ll talk about that below in detail.
When do you want to utilize these carb loading foods like pasta, fruits, breads, etc?
If you have high intensity intervals the next day, anything at threshold or above, you’ll want to make sure that your glycogen stores are filled and ready to crush the workout.
Leaning your diet towards carbs simply means focusing on eating carbs over protein or fat the day before the hard intervals. You don’t need to go crazy and carb load for this workout, but make sure the glycogen is topped off.
Eating a small bowl of oatmeal or fruit before bed is a great dessert snack; just don’t make it fatty with additives like nut butter.
Carbs To Eat On Race Morning
Here are some easy pre-race carb loading food for your race morning, where you might not have fresh fruits or smoothies available. A bagel and an instant rice packet mixed with honey and peanut butter. If you’re really struggling, you could use cereal, but I’d search (or bring with you) oatmeal, and carb drink seem to work well for us pre-race.
Do not eat eggs, sausage, bacon, avocado toast, etc. Those have too much fat and will NOT fuel your body for the bike race!
Yes, fueling for a race is different that “eating healthy”, so it’s okay that you don’t have a well balanced meal the morning of a big race or hard training session; you are eating carbohydrates to FUEL THE CYCLING EFFORTS.
Carbohydrate Periodization
This could get dense very quickly.
In 2018 there were reports that Team Sky was on a Train Low, Race High carbohydrate diet, and cyclists were going keto to “improve their fat burning capabilities” and then reserve carbohydrate intake for race days.
There are major problems with this.
Low Carb Diet For Cycling - The Problems
The Amount of Work You Can Do
If you’re on a low carbohydrate diet and cycling, good luck going hard. Sometimes even tempo rides, up to 90% FTP, can feel extremely hard if you’re low on carbs.
Forget doing longer threshold efforts, and your ability to do enough work to allow for adaptations to occur is way too low.
If you want to ride hard, or even medium hard, you need carbs!
Now, that said, when we get to carb periodization, you can see how you can manipulate your carb intake schedule so that you aren’t always eating carbs. We do NOT follow this protocol as of 2020; we are always eating carbohydrates, but sometimes a few less.
Decreased Ability To Oxidize Carbohydrates
This study was brought to my attention from this blog by Sigma Nutrition which is largely based on this study.
Main takeaway: if you train with low carbohydrates to increase your ability to use free fatty acids, your ability to use carbohydrate decreases!
Therefore, training low all of the time, and then trying to focus on carbohydrates on race day for hard efforts is a major mistake!!!
YOU. NEED. CARBOHYDRATES.
But, we don’t have to overdo the intake, and I was definitely guilty of that.
How To Periodize Carbohydrates
So how do we actually implement all of this knowledge?
We need carbs, but can’t eat a ton of them all the time.
You can’t ingest more carbs than your repletion rate.
Shout out to the Trainer Road guys for pointing me to this Nutrition Review that sources over 100 studies and compiles some amazing information.
There are some great studies sited here, but the point of this article is to BOIL IT ALL DOWN!
We need carbs to race (Saturday and Sunday) and then for hard sessions on Tuesday and/or Wednesday, and then need to carb load on Thursday and Friday for races….so wait a minute, is Monday the only day off?
No. There are no days off carbs.
If you want to get serious with this, you need to look at this meal by meal.
Annoying?
Not at all; this effect in the kitchen will give you benefits when racing! An annoying problem is just disguised as an opportunity!
If you are cramming carbs in at a rate faster than they can be synthesized, you’ll be converting these carbs to fat. We obviously don’t want to do that.
2021 Update: I don’t think all of the science is dead on. I’m jumping the gun here, and continue readying, but if you deplete your glycogen stores, repletion rates will vary from athlete to athlete. The body knows to restore the gylcogen instead of creating fat, but at what rate? I don’t think we can pin an exact number on there.
The rate of 60-90g of carbs per hour is very individualized, and the timing of when these carbs are ingested matters as well.
The following text in italics has been taken directly from the study listed above.
My comments then follow in normal font.
(When we are talking about grams of carbs they were originally listed in wet weight, which I have converted back for ease of reading and comprehension. Dry-weight values are 4.325 times greater than wet-weight values.)
The current recommendations for carbohydrate intake in athletes vary to reflect the daily training load. Simply put, the longer and harder you’re training, the more carbs you need BEFORE and AFTER the session.
Glycogen supercompensation results from a combination of ample rest, reduced training volume, and the consumption of a high-carbohydrate diet. To fully stock up your stores, you need to NOT use the carbs that are building up. This is another reason why a rest day and openers ride are great before a big competition, as you prepare your body for the race.
8–12 g carbohydrate/kg of body weight [BW])3,4 considered necessary to fully replenish muscle glycogen stores. Continue to read on, as our recommendation is in line with others…12 is too high, 10 should be the max.
However, it appears that many athletes may not be consuming enough carbohydrates on a daily basis to fully restore muscle glycogen. They looked at different sporting athletes, and many were not refueling with enough carbohydrates at at the 1g per 1kg of body weight recommendation mention below. Consume those carbs!
After exercise, the restoration of muscle glycogen occurs in a biphasic manner.
1.0–1.2 g carbohydrate/kg BW/hour after exercise stimulates the highest rate of glycogen synthesis and is an important strategy for athletes involved in competition requiring many trials or bouts in a single day.
In trained and well-fed endurance athletes, muscle glycogen concentration is roughly 650g following at least 8–12 hours of rest but can reach supercompensated levels of 865g in highly fit, rested athletes after a few days on high-carbohydrate diets56; after prolonged intense exercise, muscle glycogen might fall to 216g.
The big takeaways above are the 1g per 1kg of body weight immediately post exercise and that athletes can store almost 900g if you are big and lean. More muscle, more glycogen storage; another benefit of being a lean athlete in the gym!
The high end rate of repletion of carbs, OR for rate of absorption for carbohydrate loading, is about 0.8-1.2g per 1 kg of body weight per hour. At 80kg, I can absorb 64-96g an hour. So theoretically I could store 900g of carbs over 10 hours of eating. BUT IT NEEDS TO BE PERIODIZED AND SPACED OUT OVER 10 HOURS.
Non-mega riding, untrained, and smaller athletes can store about 500-550g of carbs at once. Since I’ve been training for over 10 years with massive miles and am much larger, 900g of CHO storage is not out of the realm of possibility.
Therefore, eating a HUGE pasta dinner with bread at a restaurant is likely to bomb your system and NOT all get stored as glycogen. You need to space out your feeding. This was a BIG point that I’ve been missing over the past few years.
Smaller, more frequent doses of carbohydrates seem to work better for athletes, and repletion rates appear to be higher if you’ve just depleted your stores fully as opposed to just carb loading. Said differently, you can most likely absorb more than 0.8-1.2g of carb per 1kg of body weight after a mega ride than if you just came off the couch. See below.
After exercise, the restoration of muscle glycogen occurs in a biphasic manner. During the first phase, glycogen synthesis is rapid (51-130 g), does not require insulin, and lasts 30–40 minutes if glycogen depletion is substantial
The second phase 35-51g/hour with additional carbohydrate intake. Periodic carbohydrate supplementation can result in supercompensation of glycogen stores, an advantage after tasks requiring hours of sustained physical effort.
Takeaway: there i that initial 1 hour window according to this study, but I know there are others out there that show that the repletion is complete no matter how fast you consume the carbs by 24 hours later, which is plenty of time for MOST of us. If you’re doing a night ride and then early session, you really want to refill those glycogen stores ASAP and try not to deplete them all the way! Eat a bar at the very end of your ride.
As an example, an athlete who begins a hard 2-hour training session with a muscle glycogen concentration of 650g may experience a 50% decline in muscle glycogen to 325g, close to the theoretical threshold at which muscle function is impaired, making subsequent training or performance difficult
Takeaway: 300g or less, from all the info above, is when we start to struggle to perform at our maximum capability. Therefore, diets less than 5g per 1kg of body weight are not ideal for performance.
Starling et al.88 reported that 24 hours on a high-carbohydrate diet (9.8 g/kg BW/d) restored 93% of the muscle glycogen oxidized during a prior 2-hour cycling bout at 65% VO2max;
Sherman et al.77 found that participants who were fed moderate- or high-carbohydrate diets (5 vs 10 g/kg BW/d) over 7 days of training were able to maintain their glycogen stores from day to day on the high-carbohydrate diet but experienced a 30%–36% decline in muscle glycogen on the moderate-carbohydrate diet. However, the lower muscle glycogen levels did not impair training capacity or exercise performance (run or cycle to exhaustion at 80% VO2 peak.
Takeaway: This one is confusing. Above, they show that even though a 5g CHO per 1kg /BW did decline glycogen stores, but performance did not decline. I would take this with a grain of salt for now because many of us are going to have workouts that exceed 80% VO2Max within the week. Therefore, find that sweet spot of about 7g CHO per 1kg/BW.
In practical terms, athletes should be educated and encouraged to consume enough carbohydrates to replenish at least a sizable portion of their muscle glycogen stores so that training intensity can be maintained from day to day.
In the hours soon after exercise, consuming high–glycemic index (GI) foods can speed muscle glycogen restoration. Low-GI foods are digested and absorbed more slowly than high-GI foods, differences that result in a slower rise in blood glucose and insulin levels,111 an effect that can last for hours after eating
Techniques such as training with high muscle glycogen stores but sleeping and then training the next morning with low muscle glycogen stores have been shown in some studies to enhance glycogen storage and performance. However, more research is needed to confirm the consistency and magnitude of these responses.
Takeaway: MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED on fasted training. If you do it, do it in z1 for 60-90 minutes no more than 1-2x per week, and then try to carb up enough for your training session later in the day. My biggest drawback is that athletes train fasted and then miss out on the quality workouts later in the day or 24-48 hours later.
Conclusion
10-12g of carbs per 1kg of body weight for your cyclist diet plan. YES, that is a lot of carbs, and 12 seems to high based on the math. Taper it back to 8-10g.
YES, you will go over your normal amount of calories for the day if you don’t shift the diet towads carbohydrates. Staying topped off on carbs for long, high intensity sessions, will allow you to lay down the watts like you have not done before.
Pre-race carb loading works, and you can use Monday to unpuff a bit. When you wake up, just eat when you are hungry.
Drink more water or decaf teas, eat a hearty breakfast when you are hungry, and let your normal activities bring you back to race weight.
Is this easy to do? No, it can be annoying, but it will optimize your performance!
Carb Loading Cheat Sheet
2 days out from event: 6-9g of carbs per 1kg of body weight. Lean diet towards carbs so you’re not overeating.
Day before event: 8-10g of carbs per 1kg of body weight.
During the event: 75-90g of carbs per hour regardless of body weight.
Post event or hard ride: 1g per 1kg of body weight of carbs immediately. After that, space out your eating of carbs if you are preparing for hard training the next day. Otherwise, eat normally and don’t go over your caloric intake for the day.
Below: a video on immediate post ride consumption and two pics: post ride carbs, proteins and healthy fats (but don’t need to go out of your way to find these).
The video below will help you understand when you should just use protein and when you need carbs in your cycling recovery nutrition plan.
Set Up Your Cycling Diet and Nutrition Plan
Pre-Ride: Complex carbs (fruit, bread, oatmeal)
During: Simple sugars (gels, energy bars, drink mixes)
Post-Ride: Simple carbs (rice, potatoes, pasta)
Losing Weight and Maintaining Cycling Race Weight
Do you want to be fast or thin? Change your eating habits over time. Do this slowly and create new habits! Read our Ultimate Guide to Cycling Weight loss to learn more about this subject. We will offer you helpful and practical tips to lose weight in a safe manner for cycling performance.
If you shed 5lbs asap but don’t change a thing, you have a good chance of putting it back on.
Two Cat 4 Questions came in:
Weight Loss - If your main weakness is the number on the scale instead of your PMC, should you consider a weight loss block (what would that look like?) or try to pair caloric deficit-days over a longer period to training? Of the former - what does that look like? If the latter - how would that be structured with the 5-blocks to Racing to make sure you are adequately adapting for each subsequent workout or block?
Historically I haven't fueled my workouts well - gotten into a bad cycle of doing my morning training fasted (even races often) and then eating like a bird the rest of the day, and then being starving at dinner and eating the entire house. It's the kind of thing that when I step back and look at it then it's clearly so bad - but in the moment, when I get off the bike, there's a bit of fear about eating too much, gaining weight, and "undoing" the weight loss I just earned on the bike.
Check out this video for the answer:
Some notes:
You should never be "losing weight" after a ride. The purpose of rides is to stress the body, break you down, and then you recover (eating is key to this), your body says "that was kinda hard, i better grow and get stronger" and you rebound a stronger human; this is VERY simplified but should get the point across.
Cut some some calories at the end of a long ride AFTER you've already WELL FUELED AND RECOVERED. NOT RIGHT AFTER RIDE.
A little hunger at night is okay, but going to bed starving is a recipe for poor sleep and not recovering.
Focus on fat loss, not body weight; you will retain water with carbs etc; if you chase just that # it will drive you nuts. Get a scale with fat % and watch that only for now.
Don’t count calories but count carbs on the bike
1. NO BS: goodbye soda (even diet ones), candy, cakes, sweets, garbage. BYE FELICIA. Eliminating these will fast track this is a healthy way.
2. Focus on fat loss; don't get obsessed with small fluctuations on the scale, it could be water weight. Think long term and stick to your plan, NO cheating!
3. 300-500 calorie deficit a day. FUEL workouts. Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinner (low cal but nutrient dense!)
4. Don't reduce carbs, reduce overall calories. People who cut carbs see a quicker decline in "weight", but that's water weight. Athletes who eat carbs are more fueled for intense sessions and recover faster (they aren't sure exactly why, but carb loading actually helps recovery too...my theory, you just are never totally depleted and dead!)
5. SLEEP. when you're tired, you're more likely to eat a twinkie and have less resolve. Sleep deprivation also inhibits fat loss.
6. No recovery shakes, eat food. If you can, finish a ride and have one of your meals right after!
7. Snacks are veggies only. If you feel a little hunger, that's okay. That's your body telling you, "Hey, i might need food IN A WHILE, start foraging or go hunt something." Not: go eat the cheeze-its. Do it, they taste like cheese. MMMMM cheese. NO!
8. Don't go all day being good only to cave at the end. Long day + tired + "I've been good" is a recipe for disaster. When dinner is over, we are done fueling!
Contact EVOQ for Cycling Nutrition Plan Expert Guidance
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