incurable hunger when touring

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molzor
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by molzor »

beaumont is indeed a veggie, but i think he broke this a lot while he was in countries where it was difficult. last summer i met a dutch man on my trip who was raw vegan, for lunch he would eat 10 bananas. then pick up a kilo of grapes for dinner!

ive never weighed myself before and after tours, weight isnt something i think about a lot. i never seem to gain or lose anything. maybe ill just start doubling up on everything in future.

as for the cake comment, maybe i was a bit hasty haha. the amount of sugar was my only concern.
dakari-mane
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by dakari-mane »

It could be you are dehydrated. Being dehydrated can make you have hunger-like pains.

Drink more water before & after your meal.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Yes water, if you stop peeing or do so little in the day then as you are eating salts in the food then drink some more like clockwork during the day even if not thirsty.

I will be trying peanut butter and choc and nut spread on rice cakes next time round, might suck some sweets too.

My biggest problem on the move is downing the what is got to be some dry food as well as semi liquid stuff and trying to chew it up and swallow whilst breathing, its hard work.

Any ideas :?:
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jk49
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by jk49 »

Soreen? (Maltloaf)
axel_knutt
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by axel_knutt »

I don't do big mileages, but on my last tour I was averaging 4600 kcal/day for just 52mpd. Here's an idea of the menu:

Breakfast: Muesli. A fifth of the packet, not the 50g 'portion' marked on the label, along with a whole 500cc carton of milk. About 800kcals.
During the day: I start with half a loaf of sandwiches, that's about 1200kcal. Then I start on the biscuits, a whole packet is usually about another 1000kcal. Sometimes I'll have pasties/nuts instead for a change.
Evening meal: Usually something like a tin of chilli with rice. Again, that's a third of a 500g packet of rice, not the 'portion' on the label. About 1000kcals.
Then in the evening I start scoffing bix/nut/etc to fill up.

I remember getting up and finishing off a packet of biscuits in the night at Badby hostel, then I got up again and started on the muesli. I'd only done about 30 miles that day.

I only eat high calorie foodstuffs on tour, and save the healthy eating for when I get home. Fruit doesn't pay it's way for all the space it occupies in the luggage.

Increasing fat isn't a good idea, it inhibits carb utilisation and accelerates the onset of exhaustion, subjects can exercise up to 2.6 times longer before exhaustion on a high carb diet compared with high fat.

Subjects recover faster from overtraining on HCLF compared with LCHF.

The extent of protein degradation during exercise is heavily influenced by the availability of bodily carbohydrate stores, when carbohydrate is depleted protein broken down from muscle contributes 2.5 times more energy during exercise (10% vs 4%).
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LollyKat
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by LollyKat »

Eating a hearty breakfast if you can should help. Unfortunately I can't - I wish I could follow Ayesha's strategy:

Ayesha wrote:When I'm on a multiday tour of 100ish miles per day, a 3000 kCal breakfast is a must.

4oz Muesli, 4 Weetabix, 2 eggs, 2 bangers, 2 bacon, mush' and beans. 6 slices of toast with butter and marm'. All washed down with about a litre of coffee, well sugared.

It takes about an hour to get through this kind of feast. Get on the road about 10 o'clock in the morning and get to the next digs at about 6 o'clock in the evening. I might feel peckish mid-afternoon. Cream scones and tea.

A light evening meal. I DON'T sleep on a full stomach.

This strategy has probably been trained by using B&Bs for many touring holidays. If breakfast comes in the price, use it!
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foxyrider
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by foxyrider »

I agree that breakfast is important but the tenet I ride by on tour isn't calorie counted nor is it mileage linked. A typical days ride could be between 40 and 150km, usually averaging @ 20kph

breakfast - meat/cheese sandwich, coffee and yoghurt if available (if its a hotel/bb night I might well avail myself of more!)
late morning break - coffee & cake
lunch - nothing too heavy but could be soup/hotdog/something & chips depending on availability
dinner - usually @ 7.00pm, again nothing too heavy but could be pretty much anything joined by a beer or two.
supper - coffee/chocolate perhaps with a few biscuits or a bag of my weakness - gummi bears!

There may well be an ice cream stop in there too!

Hydration is really important, on a warm day I can get through 5l easily - I find 'iced tea' to be good, not as bland as water and pretty cheap. I don't generally carry snack food with me, in the past I have and its just been carried all day.

I usually have a walk after dinner which helps prevent sleeping on a heavy stomach - for me at least.

I won't claim there aren't tour days when some element is missed or that I don't get hungry between times (one day last year I was 20km into the ride before breakfast because I forgot to get supplies the day before!) I've got enough meat on me (94kg) to survive a few hours as long as I can hydrate. I long ago decided that my annual tour is my main holiday and not a trip to see how little I can spend so yes, I use restaurants, I go in 'attractions' and I stop to eat and I'm sure that last helps me perform better as digestion is at least started before the blood is drawn to other areas (have you ever tried eating currywurst whilst riding? :lol: ).
Convention? what's that then?
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molzor
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by molzor »

thanks for the tips people, i tend to eat loads in the evening rather than at breakfast. maybe splitting this up a bit could help!

i tend to just consume anything i can get my hands on, ive eaten some bizarre combinations in my time. but try to keep things fairly balanced.

on my first ever tour we went with hardly any money so lived on a lovely balanced diet of pasta sandwiches. one night we did push the boat out and my buddy edd made a wiener curry! (edd's wiener curry - get it?)

I eat a lot better when i do it now though, this was when i was 16. the same year we decided not to take a tent. this was because wild camping was illegal and you cant really be accused of camping if you dont have a tent! ha
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Once on the move / awake you need to eat regularly, and drink.

Your body reserves of energy can be expired in as little as 2.5 - 3 hours hard exercise with no food intake.
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horizon
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by horizon »

molzor wrote:I always seem to get an unstoppable hunger when im cycling for prolonged periods of time.
Obviously cycling burns calories so you have to replace these stores or lose weight, but does anyone else get an irrational desire to stuff your face after riding. I find it usually develops a few days- a week into a tour.

Im not talking about normal hunger here, i can remember one night eating a 6 egg omlette with ham cheese mushrooms in a big baguette. then a curry, then some cereal, then fruit, then icecream and a big lump of cake, and it continues. usually i run out of ideas of what to eat before i actually cure the hunger.


Just a thought but it may not be calories per se or quantity you are after but a certain type of food ingredient e.g. a vitamin or mineral (or, as someone has said, water). You may not know what that is but your body might and keeps you hungry until you satisfy it. Maybe just salt for example or what might be contained in a vegetable. I could throw in here the idea that much of what we eat today is a bit depleted due to agro-farming, but that's to back up the point, not to start on that track.

This is just an idea of mine - no evidence or anything.
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by Vorpal »

horizon wrote:Just a thought but it may not be calories per se or quantity you are after but a certain type of food ingredient e.g. a vitamin or mineral (or, as someone has said, water). You may not know what that is but your body might and keeps you hungry until you satisfy it. Maybe just salt for example or what might be contained in a vegetable. I could throw in here the idea that much of what we eat today is a bit depleted due to agro-farming, but that's to back up the point, not to start on that track.

This is just an idea of mine - no evidence or anything.


It's a reasonable supposition & I would recommend that anyone in that situation give in to cravings. Even if you just think a particular food sounds especially good, make a point of getting and eating it. Our bodies often know what we need, even if there are only limited means of communication!
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pjclinch
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by pjclinch »

Vorpal wrote:
horizon wrote:Just a thought but it may not be calories per se or quantity you are after but a certain type of food ingredient e.g. a vitamin or mineral (or, as someone has said, water). You may not know what that is but your body might and keeps you hungry until you satisfy it. Maybe just salt for example or what might be contained in a vegetable. I could throw in here the idea that much of what we eat today is a bit depleted due to agro-farming, but that's to back up the point, not to start on that track.

This is just an idea of mine - no evidence or anything.


It's a reasonable supposition & I would recommend that anyone in that situation give in to cravings. Even if you just think a particular food sounds especially good, make a point of getting and eating it. Our bodies often know what we need, even if there are only limited means of communication!


I think it might have been Frowned Upon had I paused this morning's Bikeability session for a chilled G&T...

(only had to tell one of the kids that he really didn't need his fleece-lined waterproof jacket!)

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LollyKat
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by LollyKat »

Indeed - I find that I crave fatty things, like cheese and chips, in spite of general advice that it takes more energy to digest and not recommended while on the move. But then I don't have spare body fat to fall back on.
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by Vorpal »

pjclinch wrote:I think it might have been Frowned Upon had I paused this morning's Bikeability session for a chilled G&T...

(only had to tell one of the kids that he really didn't need his fleece-lined waterproof jacket!)

Pete.

Hah! That's not quite what I meant. Anyway just because your lot this morning induced a need for G&T doesn't make it a craving :P
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Re: incurable hunger when touring

Post by pjclinch »

Vorpal wrote:
pjclinch wrote:I think it might have been Frowned Upon had I paused this morning's Bikeability session for a chilled G&T...

(only had to tell one of the kids that he really didn't need his fleece-lined waterproof jacket!)

Pete.

Hah! That's not quite what I meant. Anyway just because your lot this morning induced a need for G&T doesn't make it a craving :P


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