Nutrition

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?

Holiday Cycling and Eating Your Cookies Too!

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 cookies
The holiday season brings family and friends together over meals and as cyclists we love to indulge in copious amounts of food, and treat ourselves to some (or lots) of festive drinks.  However with all the rum and eggnog, and mashed potatoes and gravy it is all to easy to pack on some unwanted weight in a short amount of time.  It is important to maintain some holiday cycling so you can treat yourself to your family’s traditions, but there are some ways to help make sure you aren’t overzealous and end up with a muffin top heading into the new year!

Holiday Cycling Plan

It can be easy to let your fitness and exercise regime go by the wayside when company arrives and you have to organize dinners and events.  However there are some tips to help you maintain some of you cycling fitness over the holidays.

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Try to get in 30-60 minutes of activity each day.  This will keep your body used to the exercise stimulus.

Set your bike up on the trainer  downstairs or in a garage where it won’t bother your family and watch an episode of a show, or the news each morning.  That way your holiday cycling is done for the day while everyone else is slowly rising and you can spend the remainder of the day visiting with the family.

Shoveling snow is a great strength workout and good for the upper body and core.  Offer to shovel your street for your neighbors as well!  They will appreciate it and you will get in a strength workout.

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Go to the Gym.  Hitting the gym is a convenient way to maintain fitness as well as bond with family members.  Go as a group and get your sweat on together so you can enjoy the turkey later.

Head out for an outdoor ride or commute to satisfy your holiday cycling.  If your town isn’t too covered in snow, it is a good option to commute for errands to maintain some cycling fitness.

Holiday Eating

Everything in moderation is usually the way to go at all times of the year, so keep it going through the holidays.  Treat yourself to that piece of pie, a beer and butter and gravy on your potatoes.  You deserve to participate in your family’s feast and not to feel guilty while doing it.

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Avoid going for seconds.  Most often loading up the plate multiple times is the pitfall for weight gain.

Enjoy the desserts and rich drinks, but these are calorie dense so bare that in mind when going for drink 4.

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Eat and drink slowly.  This will fill you up, and allow you to properly taste and digest the food.

Enjoy it!  Don’t feel guilty, food is good for you and ultimately will be used for your holiday cycling fuel.

Try to relax and enjoy the holidays. Do not stress if you miss and training ride, or have one too many drinks.  Try to maintain some holiday cycling, and that way you can enjoy all of the delicious treats that come with this festive time of year!

TORQ USA-Why Should I Fuel

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*This Article was contributed by TORQ USA whose products are based around science and natural ingredients for optimal performance. You can find their products in our I Love Bicycling Shop.

To help you better understand the fueling process, we’ve strung together a series of short animations to demonstrate exactly what happens to your body when you exercise without ingesting any carbohydrate (0g per hour), compared with some carbohydrate (30g per hour), significant carbohydrate (60g per hour) and optimal carbohydrate consumption (90g per hour)…

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After working through this short section, please take the time to read through the TORQ Fueling System background  where we explain how the optimal delivery of carbohydrate (90g per hour) is only possible if all of the carbohydrate you consume during exercise consists of 2:1 Glucose Derivatives:Fructose. That said, the animations below clearly demonstrate that ‘any’ carbohydrate consumed during exercise will benefit performance. The question is, how fast do you want to go, or how long do you want to last?

Firstly, it’s important to understand the differences between ‘Endogenous’ and ‘Exogenous’ carbohydrate:

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Endogenous (ENDO) refers to carbohydrate that is stored in your liver and muscles – called ‘Glycogen’. Even on a diet rich in carbohydrate, the most you can expect to store is around 500g or 2,000 kCals (and that’s if you’re a well trained athlete – the less conditioned you are, the less you can store). When your stores are full, they’re full – so continuing to ingest high degrees of carbohydrate in the hours approaching exercise will have no effect on your stores if they’re already saturated. To clarify this point, it would be like leaving the tap running on the bath – once the water level reaches the overflow, the bath will get no fuller however much water you keep pouring in. This is a vital concept to understand and it’s where many people go wrong when it comes to fueling for optimal performance. One final and very important point to note about endogenous carbohydrate stores is that when they run out, your metabolism will grind to a halt and your pace will drop off dramatically. This is called ‘Bonking’ in cycling or ‘Hitting the wall’ in running.

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Exogenous (EXO) refers to carbohydrate consumed during exercise and this can be in the form of energy drinks, gels, bars or chews if you consider the Fueling System items from the TORQ range. Any carbohydrate consumed during exercise, even if it’s a banana or a candy bar, is still considered exogenous carbohydrate. This carbohydrate enters the blood stream and is burnt preferentially over your endogenous stores. Exogenous carbohydrate isn’t stored, it’s used straight away and the more you can get into your blood, the less of your stored carbohydrate you need to use. It’s important to note that for high intensity endurance activities, it’s impossible to supply sufficient exogenous carbohydrate to halt the depletion of your endogenous stores, all it will do is slow down the regression. The TORQ Fueling System section of this website explains how all exogenous carbohydrate sources are NOT the same and how 2:1 Glucose Derivatives:Fructose formulations have been proven beyond doubt to deliver at a faster rate and higher volumes of carbohydrate than any other.

Play the short clip above. This demonstrates how a cyclist relying entirely on endogenous stored carbohydrate quickly drains his/her stores and becomes fully glycogen depleted after 1 hour and 20 minutes. Note that the exogenous needle doesn’t move at all, because the cyclist isn’t consuming anything whilst exercising. All of these animated clips assume a very high intensity effort, >70% VO2, (the effort is exactly the same in each example) and you may have to play each of them a few times to gain a clear understanding of what’s going on.

In the clip above, we demonstrate how every time 30g of carbohydrate is consumed, the use of exogenous carbohydrate slows the burn rate of the endogenous stores, the overall benefit being, the maintenance of pace/performance for a longer time period. In this example, the cyclist lasts another 10 minutes as a result of low level fueling.

The clip above demonstrates how consuming 60g of carbohydrate per hour extends time to exhaustion further still through the greater preservation of endogenous stores.

And finally, if you play the clip above, notice how much longer the cyclist can sustain his/her performance when consuming 90g of exogenous carbohydrate per hour.

The clip above summarizes the 4 different strategies of 0g, 30g, 60g and 90g exogenous carbohydrate consumption per hour and hopefully this makes our message crystal clear when you see all 4 cyclists exercising together.

As well as explaining why you should fuel, hopefully these examples have made it very clear that the greater the exogenous carbohydrate absorption per hour, the better your performance will be. Not all energy products are the same, because a number of factors can affect carbohydrate absorption/delivery rates. You will only be able to consume 90g carbohydrate per hour if you consume fuel that consists of 2:1 Glucose Derivatives:Fructose and this is backed extensively by a significant number of peer-reviewed published research studies.

Incidentally, just in case you’re wondering, if we were to run a series of animations showing what happens during lower intensity endurance exercise, the results would be exactly the same in relative terms. In each example, the cyclist would last longer, but the same principles would apply – the greater the exogenous fuel intake, the longer the cyclist would last.

In the final clip above, we pull all of these principles together and demonstrate how fueling ‘affords’ a higher pace over a given time. In order for the athlete consuming 0g of carbohydrate per hour to be able to sustain a consistent pace for a 2 hour effort, his/her pace needs to be moderated downwards to avoid bottoming-out the endogenous stores and bonking – this means riding slower. On the other hand, the athlete on 90g of carbohydrate per hour can afford to push on at a far stronger pace, cover a larger distance and still finish with fuel in the tank. In this example, the well fueled rider covers 10 more miles over the same time frame and still has 25 to 30% of his/her endogenous stores remaining at the end of the effort. The fact that the endogenous stores are less damaged despite a higher intensity effort is actually fundamental to understanding the principles of the TORQ Recovery System. If you fuel diligently, you will not only have performed better and created a bigger training stimulus, you will also have kick-started the recovery process.

It’s not just better fuel, it’s better fueling.

We have partnered with TORQ USA to offer you their high profile line of products to help you achieve your cycling goals and objectives.

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Cramping, Electrolytes, & Hydration…

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*This Article was contributed by TORQ USA whose products are based around science and natural ingredients for optimal performance. You can find their products in our I Love Bicycling Shop.

Cramping and hydration are two subjects that many people consider to be inevitably linked (like Fish & Chips or Gin&Tonic), but this isn’t necessarily the case. Dehydration can cause cramping for sure, but you might want to look at a few other things first…so lets…

WHAT LEADS TO CRAMPING?

The most commonly overlooked cause of cramping is actually ‘over-exertion’. You could be doing absolutely everything right from a hydration perspective, but it’s just that you’ve asked your body to do more than it’s used to doing. It makes sense really doesn’t it? If you’re calling upon your body to do stuff it’s just not used to doing, it’s going to say ”Look mate, you’ve asked a lot of me in the past, but this is new territory. You must be joking, thus I’m going to punish you with pain…” (queue titanic contraction of hamstrings and calves).

The solution is simply to introduce some harder, more focused riding into your week.  The more riding you do, the higher your cramp threshold will become, so in short, you need to build up your fitness. Bizarrely, if you fuel and hydrate yourself properly (which will be discussed later on in this article), this will allow you to maintain a higher power output on the bike for longer, which in turn will put your muscles under more strain, which can then lead to cramping! I do think it’s very important not to get ‘cramp hang ups’ though, because cramping due to over exertion has to be a good thing. It’s a clear indicator that you’re overloading your muscles and causing adaptation. When I get to the point in my ride/race that I’m getting little twinges of cramp, I know that I’m breaking into new territory and pushing the boundaries. Once I’ve rested up afterwards, I’ll be stronger for it, so the rewards will be sweet. The diagram below shows how short term over-exertion will bring rewards in fitness providing you give your body sufficient time to recover.

 

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Remember that over-exertion comes in two forms, duration-based and intensity-based. If you can ride for hours, but cramp up on climbs or in races, you need some more intensity in your training, so think about doing some intervals or shorter harder rides. On the flip side, if you’re good at the fast stuff, but cramp on longer rides, you need more endurance, so try to get out and ride for longer (i.e. base riding).

A BIT MORE ON DEHYDRATION…

With this said, dehydration can’t be ignored as a cause of cramping.  Quite simply, if fluid and electrolyte intake doesn’t equal fluid and electrolyte loss, you will start to dehydrate, so you need to address high perspiration rates by putting more fluid and electrolytes back in to your body. Normal table salt is made up of Sodium and Chloride (2 of the electrolytes), but you will also need Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium – 5 ‘core’ electrolytes all together. Electrolytes are necessary elements for muscular contraction, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you start to lose these valuable salts, your hardware’s going to start coughing and spluttering. And no, there is no one magic bullet electrolyte, thus we cannot overstate this, you need to sufficiently maintain adequate levels of all core electrolytes as well as some other nutrients. A bit further into this post we get into electrolytes in more detail.

The diagram below demonstrates the potentially catastrophic effects of dehydration.  For every 1% of bodyweight you lose through dehydration, you get a corresponding 5% drop in performance.  This is a huge performance loss and by way of putting some figures to it, a slightly dehydrated individual who usually kicks out 300 watts at threshold (time trial effort) will drop off to around 285 watts.  Suffice to say that races are won or lost by much smaller differences in power than this.  If dehydration reaches 4-5% of bodyweight, performance drops a whopping 20-30% and a fluid loss of 9-12% can be fatal.

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The physiological effects of dehydration are interesting.  The fluid losses cause blood volume to drop and as your blood plasma loses water, it becomes thicker.  This decreases blood pressure, which then reduces blood flow to the muscles and skin.  As less blood reaches the skin, thermoregulatory efficiency (the control of body temperature) is reduced and heat is retained within the body.  The worse the dehydration gets, the more pronounced this cycle becomes.

PREVENTION…EVERY RIDE/RUN IS DIFFERENT

In order to prevent dehydration, you’ll need to consume fluid, as well as fuel sufficiently. For the purpose of this post, we will focus on the hydration part.  So, how much fluid you take on board will depend entirely on the environmental conditions that you’re exercising in.  If you’re exercising indoors or in dry or hot conditions, you’re going to lose more fluid than in cooler or more humid conditions.  The paradox is that you actually feel like you’re losing more fluid in humid conditions when actually you’re not.  Sweat drips off you, but because evaporation rates are lower, you won’t actually perspire as much and your thermoregulation systems will be much less efficient at driving heat away from your body.  So as not to confuse the matter though, let’s make this assumption: You will perspire more and have greater fluid losses in hot than cold environmental conditions: You will perspire more at higher than lower exercise intensities and finally: You will perspire more in dry than humid environmental conditions.

When perspiration rates are high, you should aim to consume as much fluid as possible.  Pure unadulterated water will not hydrate you as quickly as an energy drink mixed at a 6% concentration though because of the osmolality (potential to diffuse) in the gut.  Sports drinks that are marketed as ‘Isotonic’ are designed for this use, but providing your energy drink is mixed at 6% (60 grams of carbohydrate per liter or 16oz H2O) it will be in balance with your body fluids and will hydrate you rapidly.  Hint hint…check out TORQ Energy…it’s really good at knocking two birds out with one stone…

As an aside, it’s a little known fact that we are actually self-hydrating organisms.  Through our metabolism (oxidative phosphorylation), we actually produce water as a bi-product and according to Wilmore & Costill, authors of ‘Physiology of Sport & Exercise,’ during rest we actually produce 150 to 250ml per day.  In addition to this, a 155lb cyclist will also produce about 150ml of water per hour during intense exercise.  During very cool weather, this would help to explain why one has to get off the bike to have a pee every now and then.  It’s a combination of this canny self-hydrating mechanism and perhaps drinking a little too much for the environmental conditions.

ELECTROLYTES, WHATEVER THEY ARE, GIMME GIMME GIMME…

Last and by no means least, lets get a little deeper into electrolytes.  These are dissolved salts that are capable of conducting electricity, so are vital for muscle and neural (nerve) function.  They also play a major roll in maintaining fluid balance within the body.  There are 5 electrolytes: Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Magnesium and Calcium.  The last one is less important than the other four and by far the most important are the first two.  Having electrolytes in your energy drink has the following benefits:

  • They help to replace electrolytes lost through sweating (in case you hadn’t noticed, sweat is salty). Sodium and Chloride help to maintain the volume of the blood and also help to transport nutrients into cells so that they can be used for energy production, tissue growth and repair.  Potassium is present in much higher concentrations in the muscle cells than in the blood, so losses through sweating are much lower than with Sodium or Chloride.  Potassium deficiency would typically be symbolised by muscle cramping.  Low magnesium levels are linked to muscle fatigue and cramping too, but again losses through perspiration are less substantial than with Sodium and Chloride.
  • Electrolytes help prevent hyponatraemia. This is a rare condition that affects ultra endurance athletes and is also referred to as ‘water intoxication’.  If you consume water-only or an energy drink without electrolytes over a long period of time, the combination of sodium chloride loss through sweating and the dilution of the remaining salts in the blood steam with the fluid you’re taking in can cause headaches, cramping, loss of strength and nausea.  If left unchecked, this could become quite a serious condition.

To summarize, Ed Burkes’s book ‘Serious Cycling’ makes the following recommendations with regard to the amounts of electrolytes that should be present per liter in an energy drink, so check yours (check out details on TORQ Energy hydration & fueling mix here):

  • Sodium: 400-1,100mg/l          [TORQ Energy: 550mg/l]
  • Chloride: 500-1,500mg/l        [TORQ Energy: 940mg/l]
  • Magnesium: 10-100mg/l        [TORQ Energy: 12mg/l]
  • Potassium: 120-225mg/l        [TORQ Energy: 130mg/l]

Note that TORQ Gels also contain all 5 core electrolytes. Following our TORQ fueling system, you can hydrate and fuel with 2x 500ml bottles of TORQ Energy mix (2 TORQ Units), and 1 TORQ Gel per hour to achieve optimal 90g carbohydrate per hour, as well as be fully topped up on fluids and electrolytes for even the worst conditions.

So, in summary, when perspiration rates are high, do not consume bars or gels, just drink an electrolyte-containing energy drink mixed at 6% carbohydrate – and drink as much as you can (up to a little more than a liter per hour).  This is the quickest way to hydrate and you’ll be fueling yourself adequately by virtue of the fact that you’re consuming significant quantities of this 6% solution.  When perspiration rates are low, drink less or you’ll be taking numerous ‘comfort breaks’ and satisfy your energy needs through more concentrated ‘dryer’ forms of energy like gels and bars.

So, enjoy the heat and stick it to summer. You’ve got this. #Unbonkable

TORQ’s assortment of products to help you achieve optimal performance, not bonk, and stay hydrated for your ride can be purchased by clicking the image below.

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TORQ USA Sports Nutrition Products Now Available to Our Readers

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We at I Love Bicycling are proud to introduce our partnership with TORQ USA to bring you the highest quality sports nutrition. We want to provide our readers with insightly articles as well as quality products to fuel your cycling endeavors. Whether you are a novice rider or professional, TORQ Nutrition products can help enhance your performance on (and off) the bike. Nutrition products should be able to work with your body to make riding easier, not make your stomach and body work harder. This is the backbone behind TORQ Nutrition. Their line of nutritional products including: energy bars, gels, chews, and both active and recovery drink mixes are made with no artificial ingredients. The only ingredients you will find in these products come from natural sources. This allows your body to easily process the carbohydrates so your body is ready for whatever riding you put it through.

With many different nutritional products available to cyclists on the market, it can be hard to sift through which products will work best. TORQ Nutrition backs their products with proven science and an underlying philosophy that they will not compromise on the ingredients used in their products. Therefore we hope you can join us in utilizing TORQ Nutrition in your cycling adventures too! It’s time to say goodbye to upset stomachs due to artificial flavors and sugars, and hello to fueling your body with sustainable natural energy.

Check out this “Cramping, Electrolytes, & Hydration…” article that gets into some of the details of TORQ Performance Nutrition and why it works.

TORQ Nutrition products will be available to readers through the I Love Bicycling Shop.

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