Eating before you’re hungry

[Nothereforafasttime]

There’s a written rule somewhere which states that it’s important to eat before you’re hungry. I have real problems getting food down especially when I’ve been cycling for a while and I get hot which then leads to me bonking as I haven’t eaten enough. Does anyone have any tips on what to eat and when?

[Kim]

Mk 1 cheese sandwich.  Stop and have a couple of bites every hour.

It's not necessarily enjoyable, but it travels well, is readily available and seems to work reasonably well as a bike fuel strategy.

[hellymedic]

People vary enormously.

Some find fat difficult.

I like plain cake but others find it too sweet.

Sweet milk drinks like Yazoo/Frijj suit some but others don't tolerate milk.

Try to avoid getting too hot, eat smallish portions of what you crave and fancy.

EAT whenever you suffer a puncture or mechanical, before you get your hands dirty as food is better absorbed when you're NOT pedalling.

Consider eating 'pudding' before a 'main course'.

[freeflow]

Inability to eat or lack of hunger is often a sign of dehydration so make sure you drink plenty.

[hellymedic]

If you feel really full, it's possible your stomach is not emptying and extra food won't be absorbed and may make you feel or be sick.

If you're in that situation, it might be best to slow down or stop and only have small amounts to eat.

Some people have liquids and gels but some find  they too make them feel 

[Kim]

If you feel really full, it's possible your stomach is not emptying and extra food won't be absorbed and may make you feel or be sick.

If you're in that situation, it might be best to slow down or stop and only have small amounts to eat.

I've had to abandon rides because of this (often following an IBS flare-up, when my digestive system is non-specifically pissed off).  Sometimes the only thing you can do is stop and wait for your digestive system to reboot, and that's not really compatible with audax type riding.


I find that cycling suppresses my appetite, so I either have to force myself to eat by numbers, or not ride for more than about 3 hours in one go.  I'll generally become hungry an hour or two after I stop riding.

[hellymedic]

It is well-known that intense exertion impairs gastric emptying.

You might find choosing flatter, 'easier' rides gives you the opportunity to 'train your gut to absorb food whist on the move.

Whatever else, don't attempt to climb a long or steep hill immediately after a greasy, heavy lunch.

A Solero ice lolly can cool you and supply some sugar, fat and water, which is nice but might not fuel you for long.

[Kim]

It is well-known that intense exertion impairs gastric emptying.

You might find choosing flatter, 'easier' rides gives you the opportunity to 'train your gut to absorb food whist on the move.

I tend to find the more riding I've been doing, the longer I can go on less carbohydrate, which makes the whole digestion thing a lot easier to manage.

Grease is strictly an end-of-ride thing for me.  Fry-ups should be the destination of a FNRttC, not an accompaniment to an audax o'clock start IMHO.  Chips are sometimes necessary, but should be treated with caution.

I do find that milky, sugary things can work to make me feel more enthusiastic about eating something more substantial.  It's like once my immediate need for water and sugar is satisfied, I can start to feel that real food with plenty of electrolytes might be an attractive option.  Eating backwards is generally a good idea, even if I'm not concerned about time.

[telstarbox]

I tend to solve this problem by planning food stops into the ride - either the designated controls on an Audax or additional stops if it's more than say 40km between two controls. Usually seeing a range of tasty food is enough to persuade me to buy and eat something there and then, but if not I buy something anyway and eat it on the next leg.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I find fruit yogurt good as an appetiser and the sugar gives some energy. Also it's easy to swallow!

[Oaky]

If you feel really full, it's possible your stomach is not emptying and extra food won't be absorbed and may make you feel or be sick.

Exactly this happened to me on the second day of my first 600.  Increasingly uncomfortable stomach during the day, but I kept trying to eat, being paranoid about not getting enough fuel.  Late afternoon, feeling increasingly  I chucked up everything, breakfast included, (in the loos) at a Biggleswade petrol station.  It seems like nothing I'd eaten that day had left my stomach in the intervening 9 hours.

[L CC]

I think eating before you're hungry is a sure recipe for putting on weight, just like eating when you're not hungry, whether you're on a bike or not.

I'm in lousy shape and very carb dependant at the moment, and because of this, day 2 of the weekend's 600 was fuelled on orange juice. Anything I tried to eat just sat in my belly doing nothing. A lot of cyclists obsess about getting fuel on, and you don't necessarily need to- well, not more than you get from fruit juice or milk shake, which have the advantage of hydrating too.
There's a lot of evidence that muscles don't pack up- your mind tells them to, it really is all in your head.

Real racing is obviously different.

[Chris S]

Gastric Distress during endurance events is a thing; something like 60% of athletes who take part in Ironman events report some level of issues.

The best thing to do is not eat. Train your body to run on its fat reserves. You do this by reducing your dependence on insulin. You do that by fasting or staying off sugary, refined carbs, over an extended period of time, and training whilst fasted.

Long distance cycling is different to running; it's less intense, but has a tendency to last a lot longer, so the mechanisms at play are probably different (runners have that whole mechanical stress thing going on in their lower gut - even on the shitiest [sic] road surfaces, cyclists don't get that) but the effects are often the same, as Oaky mentioned.

[citoyen]

I've found I have far fewer gastric difficulties on long rides since I've reduced my intake of bulky, stodgy carbs like bread, pasta, chips and cake. I tend to prefer savoury flavours and fat/protein-based nutrition - favourite ride snack is a bit of cheese and salami or chorizo. AIUI carbs are easier for the body absorb quickly, but as fboab says, if you're not riding hard you don't need to top up your energy levels that quickly. When you read nutritional advice for cyclists, you often hear figures like "60g of carbs per hour" bandied around, but they're generally talking about intense racing efforts and most of us don't need anything like that amount of fuel. I know I certainly don't - especially as I have quite a lot of stored fuel to call on at the moment...

Had a revelatory moment on Sunday afternoon, 530km into the 600. It was hot and sunny and the very thought of eating solid food made me feel queasy, but I needed something. I stopped at a pub to get my bottles refilled and decided to order something to drink while I was there. Wasn't sure what I wanted - nearly went for a J2O but then I noticed they had bottles of Big Tom spiced tomato juice in the fridge behind the bar and I knew instantly that was just what I needed. It was amazing. Tasted great and most importantly, went down really easily and didn't put any more stress on my stomach. Probably really good from a nutritional point of view as well - tomatoes and spices contain lots of useful micronutrients.

[T42]

I noticed they had bottles of Big Tom spiced tomato juice in the fridge behind the bar and I knew instantly that was just what I needed. It was amazing.

In that line, when I was feeling cold and queasy on the second day of a Brevet Montagnard years ago I "knew" that the instant lemon tea at a control would do the trick. It did, too, yet I'd never tried it before.

[hellymedic]

Instant lemon tea is mainly flavoured glucose powder, isn't it? Will check...

ETA Did check - yeah glucose and dextrose, with tea, flavourings, citric acid and Vit C.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/lift-lemon-tea--reduced-sweetness-150g

[T42]

Delicitron, this one was: sugar, dextrose, citric acid, black tea extract, vitamin C, powdered lemon concentrate etc etc. Pretty disgusting in normal circumstances.

[citoyen]

I don't mind instant lemon tea on rides - at least it's not fizzy, and it usually doesn't taste as sickly sweet as Coke or similar.

Another hit from this weekend was the can of coconut water I got from the Turkish supermarket in Spalding. I know a lot of claims are made about the health benefits of coconut water but I don't care about those, I just like the taste. Probably packed with sugar.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Coconut water in India – top sliced off a green coconut, drink that then scoop out the white flesh – was the most delicious refreshing roadside snack. Not so many coconut plantations in Britain, but you've got to balance that against the cleaner air.

[hellymedic]

Eating before you are hungry only makes sense for carbohydrate-dependent people who are exerting themselves close to their maximum capacity.

If you can wean yourself off carb dependance, great! You need only feed at longish intervals and run on body fat.

Likewise, somebody who sits around all day, like me, can afford to go many hours unfed between meals.

I was highly carb-dependant during my mileating years and efforts to eat less resulted in MUCH reduced performance. Being unable to shift a bike at >8mph on the flat was incompatible with completing an Audax.

Having a very low aerobic capacity meant my paltry pace could only be sustained by constant carb stoking.

[Nelson Longflap]

Nice to know this is a known problem; there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer, but the experience of others is really helpful. It's a problem that seems to be getting worse for me. Stage 1 is no longer fancying any sort of food (although liquids, often milk shakes may be acceptable for longer). Stage 2 is throwing up  My stomach contents at this stage may extend back a few meals, or may be negligible. I then find I can ride a long time in comfort on a completely empty stomach (I don't seem to be carbohydrate-dependent), although on a 600 last June I experienced Stage 3 (?) feeling really cold (possibly a consequence of having no food to burn?) and shivery on a not particularly cool evening.

I'd say causes of the syndrome are multi-factorial. For me sleep deprivation may have a role ... when all I really want to do is sleep, my digestive system seems to switch off.

The kind of food I eat doesn't seem to have a role, but I'm normally careful about my diet.

Pushing even slightly harder than usual is another negative factor. I've experienced stage 1 after spending 100 km or so chatting along with somebody who is riding maybe 0.5 kph faster than my normal pace. The difference is so slight it's barely perceptible, but does tell over a distance.

In discussion with my GP, we considered that blood flowing to feed leg muscles may deprive the digestive system of the blood it requires and switching over can take time.

On some rides none of the above happens; I eat what I like mostly at controls, have loads of energy to spare, and can happily share with the pace of others. The trouble is I can't predict how things are going to turn out. On the recent Fenlands 600 I got to stage 1 (not fancying food) at Sleaford, tried to fix the problem by riding easily, but that didn't work so, for safety's sake, I abandoned at Gainsborough rather than risk stage 2 (throwing up) striking me down on a damp night in the remote reaches of the Fens with no escape easily available. I caught the train from Gainsborough, and felt completely fine again after an hours rest and a pannier-conditioned cheese sandwich.

To deal with the problem I'm trying to ride at my own pace (even at the expense of being anti-social), not worry too much about taking on food as fuel, but eat regularly nevertheless, and try to start events well-rested.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I have doubts about this idea of being 100% carb non-dependent.

AFAIK, the body requires (a small amount) of carbohydrate in order to be able to utilize fats, so you will need to intake some small amount of carbs. Just about everything you can eat has some carbs in it.

[hellymedic]

Try not to miss any meals in the 48 hours before a long ride.

I don't think 'carbing up' is necessary or wise but starting on nearly empty seems unwise to me.

Many rides start quite early in the day, when you may only have had the time and appetite for a modest breakfast. Having ordinary, sensible meals on the preceding days will help get you off to a good start.

I drink very little alcohol myself anyway but know that alcohol suppresses glycogen formation in the liver, so might be best avoided.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I reckon audax o'clock start times are not good for digestion or generally for eating much.

[Kim]

I reckon audax o'clock start times are not good for digestion or generally for eating much.

Agreed, largely due to the sleep deprivation thing mentioned upthread, though I'm sure some people thrive on them.