Nutrition

Bust these five fuelling habits that can hinder your ride

Whether you race or simply want to keep up the pace, how you fuel your body is a vital part of the performance equation. To crush any fitness goal, it’s important to eat smart and sidestep fuelling fumbles that could easily knock you to the back of the pack. But it’s easy to make certain nutrition mistakes without even realizing it. To keep your rides going strong, here’s how to remedy some common unwise fuelling practices that may have snuck into your routine.

You trim recovery carbs for protein

Restocking spent carbohydrate stores (glycogen) is a major part of exercise recovery for cyclists. Evidence suggests that eating carbohydrate and protein after a workout can stimulate greater glycogen synthesis during recovery compared with carbohydrate alone. How? The amino acids that make up the protein in items such as yogurt and chicken can encourage the pancreas to release more insulin, thereby increasing muscle glucose uptake and, in turn, glycogen formation within muscle cells. But there is a catch. As reported in the journal Medicineandscienceinsportsandexercise, this duo only works to its full potential if the protein consumed does not replace any of the calories coming from the carbohydrates. The energy from the protein should be added to an existing amount of carbs, not as a replacement. This means that 100 g of carbohydrate and 30 g of protein could stimulate more glycogen synthesis than 70 g of carbs and 30 g of protein. So prudent sports nutrition advice would be that if you consume 2 cups of pasta after a big ride and want to add some meat sauce for a shot of protein don’t take away some of the noodles to make room for the bolognese.

You wait too long to fuel

You feel good at the start of the ride, but as it goes on, your energy starts to evaporate until suddenly you’re facing an #epicbonk. It could be that you have fallen into the trap of waiting too long to fuel the engine. If you want to keep pedalling along at a speedy clip, it’s better to give your working body calories early and often. In a randomized, crossover design study in the International Journalofsportsnutritionandexercisemetabolism, researchers in England found that when subjects consumed smaller amounts of carbohydrate in the form of sucrose at frequent intervals (15 times every 5 minutes) during an endurance exercise test they were able to go longer until exhaustion set in than when they performed a trial in which the same amount of carbohydrate was provided, but all at once following 75 minutes of exercise. The early and frequent approach to fuelling resulted in less muscle glycogen use which spared this precious energy source during the initial phases of activity, leading to performance gains. In a separate investigation published in the Journalof Strengthandconditioningresearch, cyclists who consumed a gel every half hour during a two-hour steady-state ride were able to push harder during a subsequent 15-minute time trial compared with those who ate the fastdigesting carb every 45 minutes. Frequent fuelling can also be a recipe for fewer stomach woes if you take in fewer calories more often rather than consuming greater amounts in one or two shots.

You brush off breakfast

Just because your rides take place later in the day doesn’t mean you should skimp on breakfast fuel. Extending your night fast (hello, intermittent fasters) may slow you down. Researchers in the U.K. asked a group of highly trained cyclists to either skip breakfast or eat breakfast as usual before performing a 20-km time trial in the evening. On breakfast days, the riders consumed about 580 calories between 8 and 9 a.m. and another 875 calories at lunch. On no-breakfast days, the participants skipped breakfast and ate their first meal at noon, taking in about 1,455 calories. (It’s the same amount as when they ate breakfast, just in one meal.) Eating breakfast helped the cyclists push more watts and finish the time trial quicker despite not consuming more calories or carbs overall by that point in the day compared with fasting in the morning. Perceived effort was also less when calories were consumed in the morning. The investigators speculated that nutrient timing could influence how much glycogen is available to power a workout later in the day. The upshot is that eating a hearty morning meal is a good strategy for performing your best on that post-work group ride.

You turn up the heat with caffeine

Yes, caffeine can give you a boost. But you may want to hold off pounding the espressos and canned Starbucks if you’re riding in sultry conditions. A 2021 study in the journal Medicine and science in sports and exercise showed that active young men who were given 5 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight one hour before performing 45 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling in a steamy 37 C environment experienced higher rates of hyperthermia-induced hyperventilation and a greater reduction in blood flow in the brain than when they exercised in the heat without supplementing with caffeine. The findings suggest that caffeine may impair how well thermoregulation works during exercise in very hot conditions, which could lead to concerning conditions like confusion, light-headedness and premature exhaustion – so not exactly the performance benefits you are hoping for from the stimulant.

You refuel on impulse

Even if you have torched a bazillion calories, it’s still a good idea to eat healthy foods as part of your recovery strategy. That practice is less likely to occur if you have not given your post-ride food some forethought. Participants in a University of Nebraska-lincoln study who were asked to choose between an apple and brownie were about one-third more likely to favour the fruit when deciding what they were going to eat before versus after their workouts. The findings suggest that simply committing in advance to a certain postexercise snack may increase the odds of eating something more nutritious, the researchers said. Making food choices when you’re done your ride and starving is a recipe for hammering a bag of chips. Set aside some healthier options before you hop on the saddle so that there’s a better chance you’ll recover with a bigger dose of nutrition.

“Perceived effort was less when calories were consumed in the morning.”