[Closed] Food intake when training. more less the same?

Where did your training plan come from, was there no advice regarding food with it?

In practice food intake is going to depend as much on what you're training for as what training you're doing, and "more" will depend on what you were eating before.

For me planning on eating after intense exercise is bad as I crave food (and usually not good stuff) after the fact if I'm under fueled beforehand so find it best to make sure I've eaten properly before (not necessarily more calories just things that will stop me craving later, eg plenty of salt.) Certainly for me the longer rides you mention would be mainly increasing my intake during the ride and eating normally before and after.

For the hard workouts - definitely increase the carbs! You cannot do threshold work unless carbed up. Well you can, but you won’t be able to hit as higher power for as long. More carbs = higher quality (harder) workout = higher net calories burned. More watts is more calories required, more powerful guys burn more calories – win win. I like to eat something like a big bowl of porridge or a sweet potato 2hrs prior (usually mid afternoon), let it digest and get absorbed etc. Some people smash a couple of gels 20mins before though (yuk).

Post workout, I try and time the workout to coincide with dinner time, so just eat a big proper meal. Not a fan of shakes.

If you want to maintain current mass, you will probably want to increase portions. It’s what I have to do too. I don’t want to lose weight, just want to be fit. You will feel so much better overall if you are eating more (good food) whilst doing all this work.

I use a Tanita scale, to check in on current weight, fat, muscle mass once every 2/4 weeks. So you can see what’s working regarding diet. You can see if you are gain too much fat, or conversely if you are gaining more muscle mass.

Overall, eat more - carbs the night before long early-ish rides or turbo sessions, equally carbs and protein afterwards. How much is a complex Q though. Metabolism, adaptation, aims for the training (endurance or crit pace) etc.

I like to eat something like a big bowl of porridge or a sweet potato 2hrs prior (usually mid afternoon), let it digest and get absorbed etc.

I find the trad large bowl of porridge gave me an insulin spike and crash and prevents a good session (usually would aim for 1hr total with ~25-30 mins spent at threshold via 5 mins intervals) as I was feeling low 1.5hrs or so after eating. Had better results from eating well (carbs) night before, doing a session before 10am on 2 eggs and a slice of brown bread - more consistent energy levels and a better session. I avoid large doses of carbs 1-3hrs before rides now and feel better for it.

Another way to do it is to have that large breakfast and modest lunch then train 4pm ish once all levelled off, plus natural / daily cycle energy levels can be better for HIT in the late afternoon. I just preferred to get it done early.

Of course you need to eat more, if you're happy to maintain weight. Otherwise, where does the energy come from to do the riding?

In my simplistic application of nutrition, carbs before and during exercise so you have the energy to get the most out of them and can hit targets; then protein afterwards to help with recovery. However, for short sessions >1hr fuelling up is not so important.

Also good to have several doses of protein throughout the day.

I see your long sessions are zone 1 - I genuinely don't know how you are supposed to deal with that nutritionally as I have no experience. My clubs long weekend rides are a sufferfest where you have to carb up to survive.

cheers all.

My training plan was put together for me by a rainbow stripes holder in MTB, so I have faith in the plan. She has recently had a baby and I've already asked her loads of questions so i dont want to stress her out...

I'm training for a 6 day alpine mtb 'enduro' in june. lots of ascending, lots of descending. The threshold stuff twice a week is about 1 hour - 1 and and half hours, then yes the long rides and gym.  I'm doing the long rides 'fasted' for the first 45 mins to an hour, then a banana, then a few dates or something after 3 hours.   no particular reason other than i'm not hungry / i start at 6am

My typical diet before training was:

Breakfast: Protein powder scoop, almond milk, banana , blueberries rasberries 20-30 gms whoelgrain oats

snack: apple

Lunch: Ham and cheese wholegrian sandwich , greek yoghurt  or say chiicken breast and salad

snack: protein bar / nuts and fruit

Dinner; Fish/ chicken salad, brown rice / butterbeans etc

snack. yoghurt raisens, a few berries.

I was often  a little peckish, but yeah it's good to be isnt it 🙂

I'm finding now this isn't enough.   Threshold training stuff is after work.  Perhaps just more of what i am already eating?

sorry i know it's tought to say!

It depends if you want to lose weight or maintain your current weight I would think ? I used a sports nutrionist for a bit when I competed which was useful and got me on a good path. My coach was hilarious "lose as much weight as you can until you start getting sick then put on a kilo". I got down to 49kg at one point I was going up hills like a rat up a drainpipe. Good endurance too before anybody goes on about that. Ah the days...

I'm not an expert but have read that wolfing down carbs, any carbs, right after endurance ec=xercise replenishes glycogen stores. Protein helps immune system too apparently. Otherwise low GI carbs should be OK for yo?

I’m doing the long rides ‘fasted’ for the first 45 mins to an hour, then a banana, then a few dates or something after 3 hours

That'll make you hungry all the time...

If it's weight loss then a moderate reduction (& I mean moderate as you still need to fuel for all the work you are doing!), if not then you'll probably find you are going to want to eat more naturally with a balanced intake of carbs & protein. Post exercise protein/carb drink is great. This is a good piece on recovery:
https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/torq-recovery-system#section-fillup-3

Also worth a read as it covers a lot of your questions (essentially for those harder efforts you need carbs, for the lower intensity ones less so):
https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/fasted-training-training-low

Sounds like you need to eat more.

IF I were you, I'd eat more when you're most hungry. Worth fuelling up before a session, but you don't want to be eating right before or anything, just not going in fasted unless that's your intent.

What's your weight doing with the training load over time?

You diet sounds fairly well balanced though - i'd be tempted to just eat a bit more of what you already are & see what happens.