Diet tips for Cyclists

[RogerThat]

Fast/intensity is a method used by continental professionals to lose weight (up to 6kg) early season before racing begins.

It goes on the principle you do your 40 mins -1 hour of (moderately) intense cycling before breakfast, and more importantly when your glycogen stores are depleted overnight. This basically means your body has very little 'fuel' left in the tank and it's only option is to use fat as a it's predominant fuel. You can obviously do this hour as part of your commute. To enhance the process it's recommended you fit three or four high intensity efforts (40-60secs each) into this overall to boost the outcome. Three times a week and you can expect to lose weight at a steady rate, without too much discomfort. It's not a 'something for nothing' regime, but if you can fit it into your commute then it hardly feels like training at all!!

[honesty]

I know strongmen/powerlifters do something similar as well, but for them its more light to moderate for 1 to 2 hours so you dont burn muscle. This can be the one downside of doing something like high intensity before breakfast is that you can start burning up your muscles which you should be trying to preserve.

[RogerThat]

The body will only start metabolising muscle tissue when it has exhausted every other option for fuel. Fat is a ready source of fuel, it's not so quick to metabolise as carbohydrates, so you couldn't do a whole hour of high intensity, but you could still do a hard workout and be well fuelled.

If you have a 'bit of timber' on you, it's enough to keep you going for many many hours of even strenuous activity. That's the purpose of fat: a fuel source for when we run out (or cant catch! ) everything else. This would only be a problem for thin riders, with <5% body fat. Which is not anyone I know!!!

[Mark1978]

Isn't that the point of exercise, to maintain your muscle mass when dieting?

All the same some muscle loss is inevitable, you sometimes hear about pro's talking about losing power when they lose weight, or putting on a bit of weight in order e.g. to complete in a flat TT.

[RogerThat]

It's only in extraordinary circumstances when the body will use muscle tissue as a fuel source over anything else. The normal process here is overnight depletion of glycogen, and when that's used up, the body switches to fat as a fuel source exclusively. That's why European professionals prefer it to most 'diet' based regimes, because it's so reliable as a fast fat burning exercise.

It's not really adaptable to people who have more than 5-6kg to lose, but for taking off your 'winter coat' it's ideal as a short term (4-6 weeks) regime.

[Mark1978]

It's only in extraordinary circumstances when the body will use muscle tissue as a fuel source over anything else. The normal process here is overnight depletion of glycogen, and when that's used up, the body switches to fat as a fuel source exclusively. That's why European professionals prefer it to most 'diet' based regimes, because it's so reliable as a fast fat burning exercise.

It's not really adaptable to people who have more than 5-6kg to lose, but for taking off your 'winter coat' it's ideal as a short term (4-6 weeks) regime.

Which is why it's frustrating that the clocks have changed. 6-7am is the only time I'm able to go out through the week and it's just been made dark again

[RogerThat]

Not for long, another month and it'll be light at 5am When I get home from work after an ICU cover!

[Mark1978]

Not for long, another month and it'll be light at 5am When I get home from work after an ICU cover!

24th April apparently before it's back to 6am rising. Which means I can go out riding at that time, getting up at around 5am is a different issue!

[RogerThat]

Anyone else have some good weight loss tips for the active (or not!) cyclists?

[531colin]

How sure are you about all this?
Muscle glycogen is the first energy source, followed by liver glycogen.
When the glycogen is gone, fat (as fatty acids) is metabolised, but the metabolism is too slow to sustain anything except modest exercise, otherwise no cyclist would ever "bonk" unless they were carrying no fat at all......when you bonk, its because you have no available carbohydrates to metabolise to keep pace with the energy demand. I can walk all day without eating, but i can't do the same cycling, and I bet most people are the same.
Is it true that glycogen stores are diminished before breakfast? (I'd be interested in a reference) I was under the impression that exercise before breakfast is a good way to train up fatty acid metabolism, but only because once the glycogen is gone there is nothing in the gut to replace it, and you are down to fatty acid metabolism.
Anybody trying this should be aware that its a good way to induce bonk, which isn't a happy place to be, if you are in traffic and have to get to work.

[Mark1978]

All the videos I've seen about training before breakfast are less about burning fat because there's nothing else to use, but more about training your body to rely on using fat more.

[RogerThat]

How sure are you about all this?
Muscle glycogen is the first energy source, followed by liver glycogen.
When the glycogen is gone, fat (as fatty acids) is metabolised, but the metabolism is too slow to sustain anything except modest exercise, otherwise no cyclist would ever "bonk" unless they were carrying no fat at all......when you bonk, its because you have no available carbohydrates to metabolise to keep pace with the energy demand. I can walk all day without eating, but i can't do the same cycling, and I bet most people are the same.
Is it true that glycogen stores are diminished before breakfast? (I'd be interested in a reference) I was under the impression that exercise before breakfast is a good way to train up fatty acid metabolism, but only because once the glycogen is gone there is nothing in the gut to replace it, and you are down to fatty acid metabolism.
Anybody trying this should be aware that its a good way to induce bonk, which isn't a happy place to be, if you are in traffic and have to get to work.

You'll notice that I wasnt advocating a flat hour 60 min session! The glycogen that remains in the body (overnight its used for other processes) first thing on the morning is probably good for 20-30 mins. After that you're into fast fat metabolism which is good enough for a moderate work, though obviously not full on intensity for 60 minutes. Bonking is actually quite difficult to achieve in such a short training window, and the reason there's an interval session introduced at the very end of the session is simply because it's the end if the workout and it amplifies the fat burning process begun earlier.

You have to think of regimes like this as not caloric deficit related activities, but more in terms of metabolic change. One without the other means weight loss will ultimately be a lot more difficult and longer road.

[MikeF]

It goes on the principle you do your 40 mins -1 hour of (however) intense cycling before breakfast, and more importantly when your glycogen stores are depleted overnight. This basically means your body has very little 'fuel' left in the tank and it's only option is to use fat as a it's predominant fuel. You can obviously do this hour as part of your commute. !

Presumably when you arrive at work you then sit down to breakfast?

Anybody trying this should be aware that its a good way to induce bonk, which isn't a happy place to be, if you are in traffic and have to get to work.

Good point the brain needs a lot of energy to function well, so a poorly function one is not good in traffic.

Which is why it's frustrating that the clocks have changed. 6-7am is the only time I'm able to go out through the week and it's just been made dark again

I know exactly what you mean. I've travelled to work by train. You just get a glimmer of daylight in the morning after the winter darkness only to suffer another month of going to work in the dark.

[RogerThat]

I reckon you'd have to be riding at 90-95% over such a short time window to completely exhaust the energy stores in your body to induce the 'bonk'. If you read the OP I'm not advocating anything like that.

[RogerThat]

Interesting article 'Eat less or Exercise more?'

http://www.active.com/articles/weight-l ... rcise-more