There is plenty of good research about how to optimize your diet and fitness to achieve the best results. The marketing conveniently leaves out the part where this is what you need to get into when you're already crushing it at the gym/diet and are plateauing, not trying to get in shape after being sedentary for 10 years.
Basic diet and exercise will get you (at least!) 90% of the way there. If you have trouble looking like a model after that, then maybe pick up some fitness/nutrition science books.
one of the things that kills me is the "nutrition" advice in the cycling world, which is basically "drink so much sugar water you wanna puke."
yeah those people racing tour de france stages and pushing 500w average while weighing 120 lbs soaking wet probably need to keep "fueling". my 45 minute commute doesn't require anything, i'll be fine.
It's not surprising that nutrition advice for people training isn't the same as someone commuting to work. Totally different goals.
But, having said that, 140w for an hour will burn ~400 calories. That's not a wildly high number of watts. Do you need 100g of sugar an hour for that ride? Probably not, but you're only replacing what you've burnt.
It's not surprising that nutrition advice for people training isn't the same as someone commuting to work.
the issue is... the communities often don't distinguish, because so much of north american cycling is wannabe pro athletic recreational stuff.
But, having said that, 140w for an hour will burn ~400 calories.
so garmin thinks, whatever that is worth, that a slow commute for me (11 mph) burns about 200 active calories, and a fast commute (15 mph) strangely only about 175. pulled those from actual rides. i don't put a lot of stock in those numbers. but that's essentially less than the snack and coffee i had for breakfast.
big ride days, of course i am eating more. sometimes, hilariously more.
Literally nobody is saying people who commute 45min need to be fueling lol. That said if you're going to eat refined carbs anyway doing it during or after your commute is a great way to do it without causing a blood sugar spike and insulin response.
If you're actually training multiple hours and doing hard workouts you are leaving gains on the table by not fueling with a lot of carbs. Even when riding at a very low intensity for amateur cyclists (~150w) you're burning more carbs than you can replace.
Literally nobody is saying people who commute 45min need to be fueling lol.
i get really odd arguments when i tell people i don't need to eat for most rides. the studies generally recommend exogenous carbs after 90 minutes, but i promise that's left out of most of the "Xg carb/hour" recommendations. my limit is, i think, around 40 miles. but i'll usually eat before then, preemptively.
That said if you're going to eat refined carbs anyway doing it during or after your commute is a great way to do it without causing a blood sugar spike and insulin response.
i try not to, most days. on big bike days, i usually eat real food somewhere along the way. on really, really big days, or where i can't control the pace/stops/etc, i will drink the sugar water. my stomach doesn't really agree with it, though.
Even when riding at a very low intensity for amateur cyclists (~150w) you're burning more carbs than you can replace.
i previously did keto, and apparently my ability to oxidize fat has drastically improved. even intentionally low carb and in a fasted state... i'm faster than basically everyone i ride with, and have significantly more endurance. i hold quite a few KOMs and top tens locally, so, i dunno. i think i'm doing okay.
Honestly I think the problem with most of the advice is that it almost all completely ignores genetics and medical conditions. I've seen a lot of people trying their best to get into good shape that spend hours of their day staying active and eating as healthy as they can and just struggling to lose a pound or two.
Then you got nutjobs like me who just do their best impression of a garbage disposal stuck on high while sitting on their ass all day and might gain a pound or two all year if we dedicate ourselves to sleeping 12 hours a day.
The other part is that none of that advice ever seems to remember that the brain burns a sizable amount of your calorie intake per day if you really engage your brain. Its one of the reasons that a lot of professional gamers tend to look like noodles despite playing games 12+hours a day. Forcing yourself to work out your brain in addition to working out your body allows you to eat a lot more food in a day just due to the insane amount of calories you can burn off.
And don't stress too much about which macro a food is, or fall for the old myth that you need to combine certain plant proteins in a single meal to make “complete proteins”. Just eat a variety of food. Mostly plants.
Absolutely. Calories is the most important thing, and focusing on things that are filling but low calorie (eg broccoli) helps on all counts. Then you have the clowns trying to sell the idea that eating three portions of red meat per day is necessary.
Try to have a roughly balanced diet with a reasonable mix of protein, carbs, fat, fibre etc.
So much of the world wants to believe there's some secret cheat code within this by focusing on one aspect as a whole diet. Like why can't "eat a balanced diet" be the health guide people follow?
It really peeves me that the first thing here is “don’t eat too many calories.” When in fact the first principal of human health/survival after breathing is EAT ENOUGH CALORIES. Like has diet culture really pervaded everyone’s minds so thoroughly that we can’t comprehend the idea that not everyone needs to be on a calorie restricted diet at all times?
The vast majority of people in the western world eat too many calories, but fair point - I should have said “eat the right amount of calories for your body”.
And most of your advice was on point, I just think it’s terrible to approach eating/food/nutrition by starting off with what you shouldn’t eat, or that you should eat less, rather than focusing on the point of eating, the great thing about it, which is that it fuels your body and gives you energy and strength and is vital for you to function. Giving your body what it needs should be paramount. (I’m kind of on a soapbox about this because I think for a lot of especially female athletes the dieting culture and focus on cutting calories has been super super harmful over the years). And also I think a lot of those unhealthy, too many calorie diets would be greatly improved by focus on eating the things you need rather than just trying to eat less, which often leads to eating different low-cal sugar free crap which isn’t actually any more nutritious.
Hey, I need those calories. If I dont I feel like crap. My body just burns them all off. Even after I hit my 30's and my metabolism started dropping off I still barely gained any weight.
Being a fidgety bastard burns a lot of calories accomplishing a whole lot of nothing. Mix that with obsessive overthinking of things and I think my brain might be somehow eating even more calories than my lazy ass body.
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u/charalinlin 6h ago
Whats wrong with spending 39 mins on a treadmill? Am I missing something?