What afternoon snack to power an evening ride?

A bowl of cereal about an hour before you ride. Or a decent sized lunch.

A plain banana 30mins+ before ride, or chuck it between some white bread with some peanut butter; jam; marmite; cheese.

If you want to lose weight then just MTFU and eat when you get back.

A bowl of cereal about an hour before you ride. Or a decent sized lunch.

I eat what I think is a decent sized lunch, but I guess not enough. I also eat at midday for various reasons so quite early really. Cereal is a good shout though.

A plain banana 30mins+ before ride, or chuck it between some white bread with some peanut butter; jam; marmite; cheese.

Also great shout, thanks.

If you want to lose weight then just MTFU and eat when you get back.

I mean I do but also I'd like to enjoy my ride so maybe I'll keep that one for if times get really desperate.

I always ride better after El Paso Fajita's. YMMV.

I think a bit of Soreen Malt Loaf is good for this - just with a little bit of butter. Nice and squishy / fairly quick release etc.

Just don’t carried away hacking a lot off - I tend to weigh a lot of my food these days - 75 grams is what I’d usually go with pre or during a ride (whack some in foil in the side pocket of my Camelbak)

Cereal generally wouldn’t be my main thought - you can consume lots of empty calories with that very quickly. I’d suggest porridge might be better than most cereals - I weigh out 50g of oats / 15g of sultanas and make it mostly with water - just with a splash of milk to make it a bit nicer (50-100ml).

My current meals look something like:

Breakfast:
Porridge with whey, or toast + protein shake.
[commute into work by bike]

Lunch:
[lunchtime ride, 70-80min Z2]
Packet of lentils/grains from aldi, + protein yogurt/pudding.

Mid Afternoon:
Protein bar

Pre-exercise:
Banana, bit of chocolate, leftover crumble, basically anything that'll give me a bit of a boost. I'm not struggling for slow release energy, just that little boost to get me going (caffeine would do it, but I try and avoid that after about 4pm or I won't sleep).
[rides - 60-90min of Z2-3 with either all out sprints or 5-minute uphill efforts, or weights for hypertrophy]

Post exercise:
Big meal of the day, prepped beforehand so all I need to do is cook some pasta, rice, re-heat mash, etc to go with it. Another protein shake in the evening if my muscles feel dead (or if dinner was vegetable based rather than veggiemince/quorn/tofu to make sure I've hit the MPS threshold).

The key for me seems to be eating small meals more often, the protein bar for example has very few calories (~100cal of protein, ~100 of carbs and fat), it just makes me feel like I've eaten something. Then all I need pre-ride is a bit of sugar to get me in the mood to put some effort in.

Toast with jam/marmalade can work well IME

Or with something savoury which isn't gonna repeat on you. Maybe a single egg on toast.

I mean I do but also I’d like to enjoy my ride so maybe I’ll keep that one for if times get really desperate.

What about eating your main meal at 6/6:30 then riding after? That's actually what I do in summer, or even eat a little earlier at 5:30. Can always have a light supper in the evening.

What about eating your main meal at 6/6:30 then riding after? That’s actually what I do in summer, or even eat a little earlier at 5:30. Can always have a light supper in the evening.

That unfortunately coincides with peak child bath/bedtime, so is currently impractical. I think the ideas above of bread/toast/fruit/malt loaf are the winners. TINAS obviously rides his bike a lot more than I do!

We found kids post nursery play/bath/bed was pushing our main meal well after 8pm. As we wfh a lot we moved ‘dinner’ to the middle of the day, usually around 12.30 / 1pm. This has meant that I can now get out at 7pm for some exercise without needing food, and that takes me nicely to a light tea when I get back.

Anything you like if it’s an easy spin, carb heavy if you’re looking for max performance. Both around 3hrs before.
T minus 1 hour to T minus 15 mins is best avoided as will spike your insulin and inhibit fat burning.
Something sugary just as you set off will top off your blood sugar but because exercise then automatically opens the muscle-cell glucose transporters, you don’t get the insulin spike.

On chaingang or midweek race evenings, I usually have 2x scrambled eggs on 2x toast *and* cereals 3hrs out.
That’s normally 3x wheetabix with 2x tablespoons of sugar and one of nesquick powder to make it a proper carb bomb 🤣 It’s quite sickly even for my sweet tooth but is like a PED.
Not so good for the diet as that lot plus the egg on toast and a coffee has wiped out the ride calories before you set off 🤣
Legs feel AMAZING on it though 🚀 🦵🏻

Pre-chaingang for me (an hour before ;-P ) is a stack of Kallo rice cakes.

I always ride better after El Paso Fajita’s.

I'd be making sure I'm riding at the back after eating that pre-ride snackage. Parp.

A slice of toast. Usually buttered with a slice of cheese. You don’t need much just enough so you dont feel hungry

Don’t you lot eat tea with your kids?

Peanut butter on toast is my go-to. Having some now infact before tonights ride..then proper tea/supper when I'm back.

Sometimes we eat together as a family, sometimes we don’t 🤷🏻‍♂️
Literally none of us care either way if we are doing fun stuff to eat around instead 😀

(Three nights a week the boy will have a hot meal at school and then have a packed lunch on his way straight from school to pony lessons/rally’s etc.).

Wow, you guys and your sugar bombs again 🙁

Have been on keto for a while now. I haven't been hungry since xmas. Lost two and a half stone whilst increasing my muscle mass though.

If you really need some fuel for an evening bike ride, then you should have it a couple of hours before and not make it pure rubbish carbs (what's the point? we should be eating for nutrition). You could have a small baked potato, with tuna & sweetcorn and some full-fat mayo, with a side-salad. Or an omlette with some veggies in there. But if you're eating like a "normal" person anyway then you don't need to be carb-loading. Your glycogen stores are good to keep the average person going about 90 minutes at full lactate threshold. Will you be doing that of an evening? If you're going out for a longer ride it makes sense to eat a bit during the ride (maybe homemade flapjacks with fruit & nuts in them, rather than just sugar-soaking) but other than that, try to get yourself a bit more fat-adapted.

Once I hit my target weight (I'll lose another half a stone) I'll start bringing carbs back in. I miss the top 15% of my performance - when you're pushing hard you have to burn carbs. But I'll not be happy that "hunger" will return - nor will I be happy about planning food into rides as it's a bit of a PITA. Right now I can go all day on zip - just slow and steady.

I think it's been really beneficial to go ultra-low carb for a bit. This is the second time round for me so I didn't even get keto-flu - my body had clearly retained it's low-carb adaptations from last time I did it about 6 years ago. And added to that we didn't have to "learn" what was OK and what wasn't to eat - because we already knew it and knew what to cook.

It means that if I'm out on a big long ride and I'm nowhere near an eatery then I never bonk. That in and of itself is pure gold.

A typical chaingang evening is 2000kcals. Can often be over 1000kcals an hour. I don’t fancy doing that on fat 🤣

If you fuel your work and raise your power zones- then your power at fatmax gets higher anyhow. I am 100% on the carbs at the minute but would be more than happy to set out for a day-long ride on just water- I’d just have to cap my intensity up the climbs to meter out my glycogen stores.

I worked my way up to 6hr fasted mtb rides in 2021 but I can go way harder now fully fuelled.

Even on a keto diet, your body can make and store glycogen and then once you are in the process of exercising- you can actually consume quite large amounts of carbohydrates without knocking yourself out of ketosis. (Peter Attia mentions the exact amounts he was able to eat whilst cycling a lot in keto and it was quite a lot!).

Keto is a handy way to lose weight for sure. But a lot of that weight is glycogen and the 4g of water per g that goes with it- Ie fuel and water that can help you ride harder.

Interesting deep dive:

(Conclusion- Peter ate 1200kcals of carbs one day and stayed in ketosis because he had used it already cycling.)

https://peterattiamd.com/ketones-carbohydrates-can-co-exist/

Yeah, you can carb cycle and stay in ketosis as long as you're burning the amount you're taking on board. Benefits there on keeping your power up whilst staying on keto. Negative being that you're not burning that additional fat off if you're using keto for weight loss.

Having a good level of fat burn in your bank is all good though - and if it's just for a casual evening ride, then no need for snacks 🙂

Edit: Ta for the link btw 🙂

For sure- completely agree but you can get there by just ‘being fit’ too 😃

Early 2021, after breaking my legs and starting from scratch, I was doing threshold workouts at 200w on Trainerroad 😱
Last Saturday at Dirty Reiver I did 9h40 at 196w 🤣

My power at fatmax has literally doubled without altering my diet.

humous on whole grain toast, yum 😋

Another vote for PB on toast (seeded sourdough so I can pretend it's low GI)

Don't have the time to go keto, so low GI is my attempt to be sensible. But out on a long hilly session there comes a time where a gel is the only thing that gets you through

Munching on trail mix during the afternoon is always enough to bridge the gap when riding in the evening. A flapjack would also work for me.

@susepic:

Don’t have the time to go keto

? I don't get that. It's eating. And you have to do that anyway.

In fact, it saves you time on easy rides as you don't have to bother with food. (Although I admit, learning the diet takes some time up).

Peanut butter on crumpets

Anyone suggested eggs?

Eggs and spinach set me up for exercise well. Nuts as a snack, nuts and dried fruit on the trail. Yoghurt, nuts and fruit for breakfast.

I'm trying to lower carbs but from the other way, actually trying to eat nutrient rich food and less of it.

Have felt faster rather than stronger, but no weaker.

When I eat carbs, like bread, always have it with a lot of salad, fish, beans etc so that it slows down the burn (I think, still learning).

@chevychase it's more about the fact that it'll probably take a season to get thro keto, and in that time I'm training for something, and I can't do the training and the keto

Maybe next winter I should just go for it and see if I can get keto'd. Losing a few kg would be pretty useful for climbing days after all.
But beer doesn't fit a keto regime does it....🤔

Anyone suggested eggs?

Eggs and spinach set me up for exercise well.

I suggested egg on toast, but yesterday I had a two-egg omelette with mushrooms and wild garlic prior to my evening MTB ride.

Did about 2.5hrs with 800m climbing and felt pretty strong throughout, with one gel.

humous on whole grain toast

This has worked well for me in the past too.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

For my purposes there's no structured training involved, no chain gangs and no racing, I'm just heading out for an hour and am aiming not to be starving but also hoping to avoid unhealthy sugar highs and the like. Seems like for my purposes just some toast and fruit a couple of hours before would fit the bill.

Munching on trail mix during the afternoon is always enough to bridge the gap when riding in the evening.

This has also got my interest.

[Tough love]

An hour? I know I said cereal, but I thought you were going to be out for a while. FFS, just go for a ride and eat when you get home.

[/Tough love]

Tinned mackerel in spicy/tomato sauce on toasted seeded batch. Season with black pepper and Hendo's/Lea & Perrins. Just had it for breakfast

Tinned mackerel in spicy/tomato sauce on toasted seeded batch.

I love this, but as a post-ride filler.

Having it beforehand, I'd be tasting it all the way round 😀

[Tough love]

An hour? I know I said cereal, but I thought you were going to be out for a while. FFS, just go for a ride and eat when you get home.

[/Tough love]

Yeah I'd agree with this! An hour's ride is fine, as long as you ate breakfast and lunch there is literally no need to pre fuel for one hour. Just wait till you get home and eat dinner. You're overthinking this.

Tinned mackerel

Not sure i'd want that repeating on me going up Streat bostal mind...

[edit:] Beaten to it by Cha****ng

Just have your tea before you ride??
With kids tea is earlier so no issue. I eat with my boys and then ride at 7

Eating a relatively big meal shortly before a z4+ interval ride inside or out has rarely worked for me, not an issue for z1/2 ride.

What time do your kids eat, Could you eat dinner with them? That's what I did when my kids were young enough to be in bed by 7pm.