You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
For almost a year we've cut out sugar and cut out beige carbs and feel a lot better for it , but ive started cycling a lot more and think i need more than just electrolyte tablets to fuel 2hr plus rides .
So what fuel can i use without loading up on the sports drinks , gels and energy bars that are full of sugar
What you putting in the night before and pre ride as that should be doing a chunk of it and carbs will play a part of it.
The only thing you can burn fast enough for high wattage activity is glucose.
You can get this in many forms and it doesn't have to be out and out sugar like jelly babies and those horrible gels.
I tend to use oaty and nutty breakfast type bars.
Flapjack. If you make it yourself, you can add whatever sugar you like; golden syrup for the win...
Cake...maybe bananas too but mostly cake
Err.....Haribo
Peanut butter and jam on brown bread sandwich.
Flapjack though I do have an adversion after one 100 plus mile event
Nut bars with chocolate
Sainsbury's fizzy fangs vegetarian ones
I tend to take breakfast/oaty/nutty bars... A sandwich maybe.
In the old days they stuffed their pockets with sausages. Whatever takes your fancy really.
Banana malt loaf bars and jelly Babies, and porridge before cycling on those colder days.
Coke.
And hookers, obvs.
Ive done fully loaded century rides fuelled by jam sandwiches.
too much sugar is obviously bad, generally, but you do need some sometimes, like on a long ride.
eating a jam sarnie on a long ride is very different to eating it sitting on a couch.
Hartley's Jelly - the rubbery cube stuff. Far cheaper than Shot Bloks and almost the same (OK, less complex carbs / more sugar but )
12x11g cubes for 55p
Typical Values
Per 100g as sold
Energy 296 kcal</td>
Fat 0.0g</td>
Carbohydrate 68.5g
of which sugars 57.4g
Protein 5.5g
Salt 0.4g
Shot Bloks Pack = 6x10g cubes = £3
(per 100g)
Energy - 320kcal
Fat - 0
Carbs - 80g
Sugars - 40g
Protein - 0
Salt - 0.46
naked bars are good, they're mostly dates and nuts. I'm not sure if the kind of sugar in dates is in or out of fashion at the moment though.
OH and are you hitting the gels etc out of habit or because you need them?
The other answer is if you are fuelling properly before and running out get this read the intro and pick your food
https://feedzonecookbook.com/portables/
I used to do the carb loading thing and eat a gel or bar every half hr like the sport drink sites recommend but having stopped that its made no difference what so ever to my fitness or speed ,and in all the years of cycling ive never hit "the wall" so i must be good at using fat as fuel... but its the getting hungry bit that bugs me so maybe a peanut butter sandwich is the future
Veloforte - likes to think of itself as the Rapha of energy bars but bloody lovely!
So what fuel can i use without loading up on the sports drinks , gels and energy bars that are full of sugar
When you say you've cut out sugar, what do you mean? Refined sugars, High GI foods? And to what end? This will largely dictate what options are open to you.
You can just eat normal food. High GI is better for intense exercise and short bursts but you can fuel lower intensity exercise on less sugary food.
Most cake, flapjack, malt loaf, fruit based things will be high in simple sugars.
In the past I've tried mini baked potatoes, potato cakes with cheese, rice cakes, peanut butter sandwiches. Non amazing but better than jels and sweets.
My default these days is just cereal bars. Nothing wrong with sugar if you are exercising. Gels and drinks saved for racing - more because I can't chew on the rivet and need to be able to eat fast.
Feedzone book is good, many of those ideas can be found online now too. There was a few pages available for free?
Get fitter? My commute is 25miles and I usually do it on an empty stomach or a couple of slices of toast at most. And another couple when I get to work. That's almost two hours, and I am VERY unfit!
One of the adaptations your body makes with exercise is to improve how much glycogen it can store, so if you want to ride for 2 hours without food, have a decent meal the night before (no need to go crazy, just have some carbs if you normally have none) and go ride it, then again a few days later, and again until you can ride for a couple of hours without resorting to junk food.
Whilst cycling your body burns fat and carbs. So you don't need to replace the calories 1:1 with sugar (assuming you have 'some' body fat at all to burn). On top of that a lot of "cycling burns XXX calories per hour" (including what the cycle computers, heart rate monitors and garmin's say) are wildly optimistic for the average weekend warrior (roughly your calorie intake is equal to your kJ output, so an hour at an FTP effort of 300W (a very fast roadie) burns 1080 calories. An hour to do follow the dog at Cannock doesn't, so you don't need to follow the gel manufacturers instructions and eat one every 15-20min, that would probably rot your teeth and give you diabeties!
Typical roadie club run, 5 hours with a stop for a generous portion of cake and milky coffee halfway. I'm tired by the end, but just have a normal-ish lunch when I get back. Racing is different, and people who race competitively don't have much fat to burn so have different needs to 'normal'.
peanut butter jelly sandwich, banana, few grumpy bar as a pick me up on 6hrs plus outing.
Has been said breakfast of porridge, this is rocketfuel, light the blue touch paper and go.
I could go into a hugely complicated answer about carefully balanced diets, but the reality is that Haribo and Jelly Babies have saved my ass on more occasions than I care to mention and are now a staple part of my back pocket kit on a long ride, even if I also take other stuff. And for riding distance with kids, they are pretty much mandatory!
Sorry, I know this doesn't help a great deal 🙁
Tin of Sardines
or
B&M Flapjacks 29p
Apple, Banana and a Satsuma.
Nutrigrain bars
and as above...^^
Porridge for breakfast with a handful of blackberries chucked in.
Loads of water... but that is obvs.
You can have sugar. There is nowt wrong with it. The problem comes when you have too much of it, like alot of us do these days. So if your diet is pretty good with a low sugar content, then fuelling with the odd sugary snack during vigorous physical exercise is not going to be a problem for you. It's about having the right 'tool' for the job. FlapJacks and the like are great for a one off during a ride, or when you want to load on complex carbs that will release energy over time, but contain the wrong type of carb for a quick hit (golden syrup or honey excepted but how much of it in a flapjack?), and I for one don't like eating heavy stuff like flapjacks when on the bike, they're way too bulky and make me feel crap, though everyone is different - if you can take flapjacks on the bike then go for your life, whatever works for you. I find them fine if I stop for a break, like lunch or something where it gets time to digest and get off my gut, but when on the bike I need something alot less bulky - I'm not eating because I'm hungry, I'm eating because I need fuel.
I have banana's for the slower release energy and sugary stuff for quick hits and keep back a gel or two for emergencies.
You've cut out beige carbs in your diet, but the reason why you're feeling better might not necessarily be because you've changed they type of carbs you eat, it's probably because you've simply improved diet as a whole, so having the odd sugary snack is unlikely to be a problem...in fact your body is probably better prepared and capable to deal with it.
I've been doing keto since January and I can do all day 10+ hour rides on nothing but my body fat and water, and finish still not feeling hungry.
Top 15÷ of my heart rate, real red-line stuff is not really a goer (so I go slower on those ups) but other than that I could walk out my door now and ride until I dropped dead of boredom before I really needed to eat.
Did Cromford>Edale by a mixture of the high peak trail, pennine bridleway and limestone way on Saturday (bout 40 miles in the heat) and only stopped off once to have a caprese salad starter in the Royal Oak in Hurdlow.
Carbs are for losers 😉
Carbs are for losers
Pizza for winners
I subscribe to the school of thought that says if you are outdoors it doesn't count, so if you are up a hill or on a bike or whatever then just get tucked in. Pork pies, malt loaf are the current fuels of choice. Tesco jelly beans are 3 bags for a quid and have got me out of bother once or twice (or maybe even three times...)
I think probably the answer to your question is take actual food with you rather than gels and all that crap. Just eat what you like eating.
Always ride within pushing distance of a kebab shop?
Dairylea Barm, Malt Loaf, any combination of peanut butter, jam and cheese you fancy.
Minstrels in the summer, Maltesers in the winter.
Peanuts and raisins.
Bananas.
Banana and natural yogurt in porridge for breakfast, then home made malt loaf when out and about.
Breakfast of a champion?
Sainsbury's jelly babies (only because they're cheapest I've come across at 95p)
Peanut butter, reduced salt yeast extract and jam sandwich
Banana just before setting off
Porridge for breakfast
14 SiS Go Gels?
Would not want his bowels after that!
2 hours plus?
Breakfast. Usually a bowl of some chocolate flavoured cereal as couple of hours before I go out. I'm a bit of a plodder so 2 hours is about 30 miles if solo or a a bit more on a club run. If I have remembered anything then sometime after that its whatever muesli bar that I found in the cupboard. That see me to about 50 miles. More than that, another bar. Might chuck a few glucose tabs if to get me home if I bonk. Generally that's not the case and a few miles of grovelling doesn't do any harm in the same way that running out of liquid 10 miles out doesn't.
Ive not gone full keto but have read lots about it and Apparently even the slimmest of cyclists has around 40,000 calories of energy stored as fat to tap into if needed .
Belvita breakfast biscuits do the trick for me. One pack gets me through about 3 1/2 hours riding with a fair amount of climbing.
As others have said, porridge is the one. I tend to go 50g of oats, half water / half milk, topped with a handful of walnuts broken up, big dollop of honey and some fruit such as blueberries or banana, and a teaspoon of cocoa.
You can do a similar thing with overnight oats, which are great as can just be left in the fridge and eaten quicky if it's early and you're in a rush to get out.
I can't bring myself to use energy gels. They're a bonk emergency only.
Malt loaf, and jam and peanut butter on rice cakes are my in ride choice at the moment. After the first hour I start nibbling every half hour or so.
I tried asking a similar question, but due to my phrasing, didn't exactly get the most useful answers.
In case you're wondering, I'd been reading "Feed Zone Portables".
Malt loaf (with jam), flapjack, haribo are my ride staples, and if there is a cafe stop then cake obviously.
Big plate of porridge for breakfast, then 4 Snickers bars per 200km does me, plus a bag of jelly babies in case of desperate need.
Flapjack, rice bars, bananas, jelly beans, jam butties, dates.
I don't mind gels, but save them for races only and not for anything over 4hrs.
Malt loaf is my favourite backed up with bananas plain choc coated raisins plain oatcakes for long days might take couple wholemeal rolls with cheesespread well compacted - breakfast as much muesli as can stuff in and a couple of slices wholemeal toast - I'll carry something like a cliff bar or similar in case run out of food and in a real emergency knock back a coke from a filling station - eat well in advance and regularly during a ride then gels aren't essential can't remember last time had one...on a full day out do quite like a cafe stop but don't actually like cake!
got given a copy of Michael Hutchinson's book Faster at xmas - though not about nutrition has some easily readable stuff about processing food when riding - not seen the feedzone book suggested above - obviiously more relevant will check it out - cheers
Ambrosia semolina. Drink of champions. Also porridge in freezer bags. Make mine with Bradley apple. Tuna and rice before. And also in freezer bags. I use sticky rice
I cant chew food when riding, so swallowing thick fluids is the way for me. Dry bars are an absolute no no
Oats to go porridge pouches are fantastic. 60g of carbs per pouch. If you want something more robust in your pockets.
You really need a sugar fix for a 2 hour ride? I'm T1 diabetic - even I can manage 2 hours moderate exercise without needing to boost my sugars! Porridge gives me uber bad guffs. Usually take a banana, fluids and some high glucose jelly beans, maybe a lunch of a couple of wraps or similar if I'm out on an all dayer and then a pint and a pub meal on the way home so I don't hypo while driving home.
How many gels would a TdF rider use on an average stage? (100km +?)
Sugar and 'white' carbs are bad in normal life because they are high GI BUT when you are exercising a lot, high GI is good. Most of the literature about exercise nutrition covers people spending an hour in the gym and doing maybe half of that exercising moderately. Four hours of sustained exercise is beyond what most non-cyclists do, so most of it doesn't apply.
The reason high GI is good whilst you are exercising (and immediately afterwards) and bad when not is that it stimulates the production of insulin. When your glycogen stores are low, this promotes the cells to take glucose from the blood and store it. When your stores are not low, this has to be then converted to fat. If you cycle three or four times a week with reasonable intensity, and are trying to limit your carb intake from meals, your glycogen stores will probably be low all the time.
I've found that when restricting carbs (or eating low GI carbs which ends up being similar) I need to keep up the intake of carbs whilst riding. I found the best thing is plain maltodextrin powder. It's cheap at £13 for 5kg and there's very little functional difference between it and energy drinks. However on its own it doesn't really taste sweet and whilst it is a type of long chain sugar, it's not sucrose, so it's not moorish. I flavour mine with squash. I lost the most weight when I was doing a fair amount of high intensity riding, chugging this stuff whilst riding, and having recovery drink just afterwards; but keeping the carbs really low at other times. If you don't recover your carbs you'll end up a mess.
You really need a sugar fix for a 2 hour ride?
Depends on the ride. 2 hours flat out XC race simulation is different to 2 hours on the big bike sessioning the local DH trails.
It also depends on your physiology. Some people are good at burning fat and riding all day, some are good at using up all their glycogen in 90 minutes. I'm willing to bet that track sprinters don't do low carb.
Banana, malt loaf. Hydration - short stuff might be water, or a zero tab, but longer 2 hour plus it's a carb powder - I use Decathlon's endurance drink powder - does contain glucose, but also vitamins and minerals. Just 2 scoops per 500ml and it's not sweet and it doesn't leave your teeth all furry. You can get a massive bag for £20
Froome takes about 14 on a stage. I take about 1-2 an hour plus other food when racing.
How many gels would a TdF rider use on an average stage? (100km +?)
Chris Froome got through 14 on a 5h stage of the Giro (roughly around the 1 per 20 min mark)
I got through 16 on a 9h running race over the weekend, plus other food and energy drinks.
Fuelling for a bimble / commute to work and fuelling for racing are very different animals. At a slower pace, you can probably go for most of the day burning your fat stores; at a faster racing pace you've only got around 2 hours of glycogen stores before you bonk / hit the wall.
EDIT: Just beaten to it by TiRed...
and that is the difference really, gels for me are either race fuel as part of a proper plan or emergency get me the hell out of here boosts. The pro's won't be hoovering them down on all their rides, they also have carbs and sugar in there in the diet as your body likes to use that too.
Only ever used a gel when I've hit the wall. Not really a fan. Used a couple when I ran marathons.
Much prefer a decent breakfast and then something light on the ride.
As said in other posts, gels are best left for HI / race level output, so there's loads of options to keep going on steadier rides after that first 2hrs. If it's not over-processed crap, has 5% fat or less and the carbs aren't all from sugars then it'll work well. Jam or savoury butties, Soreen, cereal/breakfast bars etc. After ~6hrs some fat and protein isn't a bad thing but keep it under 10-15% fat ideally othewise it seems to block up your digestion as fat is slower to process (and is processed before carbs etc can be, I think I read). I'll eat higher fat high protein stuff on very long rides or multi day stuff but that's more about recovery while riding than fueling.
The trad large porridge breakfast gives me a spike then crash feeling, too much carbs in one go creates insulin peaks then troughs. Less porridge is one answer but I find 2 -3 slices of dark rye bread and a 2 egg omellete the best start for a longer ride. Rye bread is lower GI than most porridge and the protein in the eggs might help or change how it's digested. High GI is OK once I'm a couple of hours or more into a ride, within reason.
it's really not difficult - brown bread sandwiches with whatever filling you like that doesn't explode in your jersey pocket (I use those little brown rolls from the supermarket because a chunk of cheese in the middle of those holds together nicely and can be eaten one handed without splurge)
a small soreen (ready wrapped for ease)
a banana
a mini pork pie
racer bars from aldi (imitation snickers that are smaller than a full bar so go in the pocket nicely)
choose from the sample above. take whatever drink works for you 🙂
timing is pertinent also - if you go out straight after breakfast you may only need a banana but if you leave the house at 10am take more because it's easy to get to 12ish without realising and you need to eat because it's lunchtime in the real world so it's ok to take and eat more then
Is 2hrs plus meaning 2-3hrs, 5hrs or what?
As others have said there's also a difference between riding steadily and something akin to racing. Assuming I've had a decent meal 30mins to an hour before heading out I'll get by with nothing except water for a 2-3hr ride whether that's at a steady or fast pace. Longer rides (for me that means at least 5hrs, usually 8hrs or more) and I'll snack on things like nuts and raisin mix, I tip everything into a plastic bag and just grab a handful from time to time.
I used to do the carb loading thing and eat a gel or bar every half hr like the sport drink sites recommend but having stopped that its made no difference what so ever to my fitness or speed ,and in all the years of cycling ive never hit “the wall” so i must be good at using fat as fuel… but its the getting hungry bit that bugs me so maybe a peanut butter sandwich is the future.
I'm the opposite as I'm now coached including nutrition advice. I used to eat nothing with the exception of an energy powder in my drinks during a ride. I moved to an "on the bike" calculation of fuel ( a more day to day version of Froome's) through breakfast, then energy drinks and gels. Yes, I sometimes stop for coffee but eschew Cake for poached eggs on wholemeal toast unless I can't.
The difference this has made to me is finishing long rides with a shit load of ability (think lead outs & sprints or powering top climbs) with little desire to cram my face with carbs after a ride vs previously having not much left and needing a massive sandwich/cake/crisps afterward. Gels & drinks are also very low fat. Flapjack is very bad for you, but does the job in the short term.
In general this has reduced the crap from my diet and my (measured) metabolic fat, lactic, carb and glycogen usage all show positive increases as appropriate. I use MFP to keep an eye on these inputs.
And no, I'm not perfect, I like beer and pizza as much as the next man.
I use Tailwind in my bottles which is a great way to get some carbs on board through liquids and very kind on your stomach. It's become very popular in the ultra running world for that reason. Then I take some Chia Charge bars which are great and not crap in them.
But as above, for under 2 hours if doing steady riding you shouldn't need much additional fuel. Beyond 2-3 hours of steady riding then yes start adding. Obviously if doing some hard efforts that may be different.
Have a read of Renee McGregors books on fueling is a great place to start for advice from someone qualified to give it.
2 hours?
I don't take anything for such short rides, just a light breakfast or lunch beforehand.
This is what the pros eat
If going longer than 2 hours (nothing extra needed for this duration), say 3 hours plus, then I'll make my own with this glucose powder plus maybe a bit of salt. So no fructose like sweets\sugar contain, and not very sweet tasting either.
Stoats Porridge bars
Peanuts
homemade marmite flapjack
pepperroni
Dorritos are pretty good too
make a change from sugary stuff
A decent breakfast, porridge with sultanas or scrambled eggs on (home made bread so no excess crap in there) toast before we set off, maybe take a couple of cheese sandwiches and some fruit with us across a couple of bum bags, and pint of Amstel or Moretti in the pub on the way home will do us for a steady away four hours/40-odd miles 🙂 And water/juice (no sugar) as well, obvs. Basically, just take what you like to eat normally 🙂 'Raw' bars from Aldi are nice, they only have two ingredients (cashews & dates) in them.
We binned sugar and processed food off a few years ago and it's great.
Don't buy shit with palm oil/fat in it either.
2 boiled eggs and 2 rice cakes cw peanut butter and marmite.
Bingo
Baby bel for the ride
Lard.
Body fat. And a banana if my blood glucose gets low.
Cake at the end is nice.
I'm confused.
What the hell would you do if you were out for 4, 8, 16, 24 hours, or for multi-day rides???? Eat food. You know - the stuff you buy from shops, cafes and pubs. 2 hours is a spin around the block - I don't see why you would need anything at all other than your normal daily nutrition.
I don’t see why you would need anything at all other than your normal daily nutrition.
But......But.........But,........ the SIS marketing man says I need to eat three of their products every hour! And they're £1 each so they must be good, surely?
Next you'll be telling me that dressing up in lycra to commute is only essential for fetishists and weirdos and I can ride a bike in normal clothes!
But……But………But,…….. the SIS marketing man says I need to eat three of their products every hour! And they’re £1 each so they must be good, surely?
Do they actually? Or do people assume they are hard hitting race pace athletes and get confused.
Next you’ll be telling me that dressing up in lycra to commute is only essential for fetishists and weirdos and I can ride a bike in normal clothes!
Damm, I'll be commuting in the lycra so I can take it off and wear clean clothes at the end and be comfy on the bike
Got a recipe for the marmite flapjack please?
Or do people assume they are hard hitting race pace athletes and get confused.
It's not necessarily about 'race pace' but your pace compared to your cruising pace ? Even if my fast pace is only 15mph, if that's up from 10mph which is my normal pace, then it's still very high.... so would likely require fuel earlier in the ride ?
Bananas
so would likely require fuel earlier in the ride ?
But not at the full sis (other gels available) race rate though. The guys I know who are hitting that rate have their bikes packed away and are showered by the time most are back.
Anyway fueling before the ride is as if not as important
I snort a dextrose / salbutamol mixer. If it’s good enough for team sky it’s good enough for me.
I could go into a hugely complicated answer about carefully balanced diets, but the reality is that Haribo and Jelly Babies have saved my ass on more occasions than I care to mention
Amen to emergency haribo.
I tend do tend to need a refuel after around 1 1/2 hr but this is reasonably hard effort not pootleing around and try and plan to hit somewhere for a cake and cofee sohrs sorta make it a nice day out as this is fun, carry flapjack/banana if no cakeshop in this timeslot.
I also grab full sugar coke from garages ,supermarkets and the ocassional pastry in flight but this again is when pretty much pushing it. (The secrets not carrying tons of stuff which heats up and gets nasty)
Gels and haribo back pocket emergency when the cake shops shut - until you've bonked you don't really get it.(or trying hard enough:-))
Do see a lot of people pootling about knocking back the gels like theyre going out of fashion which I do find kinda funny the whole point is enjoying the ride it and the coffee stops server a purpose of refueling and enjoyment, gels are emergency and races.
Next you’ll be telling me that dressing up in lycra to commute is only essential for fetishists and weirdos and I can ride a bike in normal clothes!
Yeah but the feel of tight lycra next to the skin 🙂
@dudeofdoom - pretty much that. Depending on length of ride, distance from shops/cafes, weather, I might have one or two gels for emergency use. Usually I get home and they are still unopened. In this hot weather I'll avoid foodstuffs that melt, like chocolate.
It doesn't take long until you know where the cafes in the surrounding area are and how long it takes to ride between them 🙂 Heck, if you've a GPS with OSM mapping loaded then the cafes and pubs are already marked so there's no excuse!
For most of us, most of our rides are at the pootling level or slightly higher, no need to over-think things or fall for the marketing hype aimed at "sports" riders.
The benefit of taking carbs whilst riding has nothing to do with how fast you are, it's to do with how hard you are trying. So a pro doing 20mph may not want any, but a crap Weekender doing 18mph might benefit.
If I have sandwiches or malt loaf or whatever on a 4-5 hour hard (for me) ride I get terrible indigestion. Carb powder in the bottles though is fine, if mixed about 2/3 full strength. The reason for this is that the powder is easy to digest. When you are riding hard your body is diverting energy from your bowels to your legs, so digesting things is harder. Therefore you will find it easier to fuel with carb powder.
I dunno about most of us being pootlers. I may not be top of the Strava leaderboard but I give it all I've got. But that's apparently for losers, according to this. Also it seems anyone averaging under 20mph has to put up with flappy loose clothes because Lycra is only for pros. Also cafe stops are mandatory for anyone under cat 2 even if you want to crack on or have to get home for something.
Seriously though, having carbs on a hard ride means you aren't depleting your glycogen stores so much, which means you don't get raging hunger later. This goes for any carbs of course, but like I say powder is cheaper than food and easier to digest. Not branded gels though, they are a rip off.
Who is this Bradley Apple? And do you think he would come round and help me with my porridge 🤣
My method tends to be a couple of bottles of water with electrolyte tabs in, and a couple of emergency gels in my back pocket in case i i feel a bit woo. Then if i feel knackered whilst passing a cafe, i stop for coffee and cake or get a mars bar from the shop when passing. More often than not a half way coffee stop on a 60 miler with some hills thrown in requires no additional 'treats'. That said i do have plenty of timber to burn if you catch my drift!