Performance nutrition for cyclists -
Both are great and healthy options in moderation - and maybe not in the form of crisps or fries. Oats are amongst the healthiest grains you can eat, will keep you full for a long time, and are suitable for coeliacs being gluten-free. Oats are also loaded with important vitamins and minerals like magnesium, iron, zinc, and vitamin B3.
Studies suggest that salmon may even benefit weight loss and reduce the risk of heart disease. Not bad at all from our fishy friends. Vitamin E is hard to get elsewhere and not effective when taken as supplements, so this is some key advice right here.
Red meat is the most effective way of doing this and getting a huge helping of protein at the same time. Just keep an eye on those extra sugars. Staying hydrated when cycling is absolutely critical for the digestion of food and to maintain a high level of performance.
Dehydration, even in its mildest form, can really slow you down and leave you feeling ill and with a head-ache after your ride. Generally, bad times. As well as drinking the normal recommended amount of glasses of fluids per day you need to drink extra to match any fluid lost through exercise, which can be lost through sweat and urine both during and after your ride.
So, stay hydrated, kids! Another thing to bear in mind is keeping your body well-balanced with electrolytes. These minerals carry a tiny electric charge and are essential for maintaining a healthy pH balance in your body fluids, as well as balance the amount of fluids you retain in general.
Electrolytes can be easily lost through sweat and urine during intense rides, so ensure that you stock up on pre-mixed electrolyte drinks, add a tablet to your water bottle, or mix up a smoothie to keep yourself balanced.
If you have a sweeter tooth, you can even slurp a small bottle of cherry, watermelon, or orange juice - these fruit juices are rich in electrolytes. A key point to remember, though, is that cycling energy drinks can make staying appropriately hydrated easy and, naturally, we have a range of Veloforte Electrolyte Powders available to make staying hydrated as easy as possible.
For every 0. Also, water alone is fine for short rides in cooler weather but if you are producing a lot of sweat then taking on board a little bit of extra sodium can really help your body maintain fluid balance, and prevent cramps. Your most likely pre-ride or pre-race meal will be breakfast, but the same principles apply at any time of the day.
Your meal needs to ensure your glycogen stores are fully topped up and that you are properly hydrated. It must also be easy to digest - particularly on race or event day when pre-race jitters may make digestion harder.
Look for foods with a good combination of protein sources and carbohydrates. Half fruit juice, half water is a great way to hydrate and the fructose from the juice will also contribute to your carb needs. light sources of protein such as scrambled egg, unsweetened yogurt, nuts and seeds.
Different types of cycling training sessions need fuelling in different ways, here are some examples:. To perform these sessions well and reach the desired high intensities to get a training effect, you need to be properly fuelled for these endeavours.
This is a good test for your nutrition strategy and helps you to know what flavours of bar you like and how your body reacts to different foods, nutrition and fluids and timings. After your ride, whether it is a short and easy one, a tough training session or after a race, your first priority should always be recovery.
The first minutes after finishing exercise is known as the replenishment window or glycogen window. During this time your body is primed to be ready to replenish your glycogen stores and start rebuilding your muscles that have been damaged through hard exercise - all you need to do is give it the blocks and let the builders in your body handle the rest.
The carbohydrate is needed to replenish energy stores in the form of muscle glycogen and the protein is needed to help convert the carbs into glucose and build and repair your damaged muscle fibres.
Our Veloforte Mocha bar is the perfect way to get the mixture of carbs and protein that you need during or after your ride. Naturally sourced from pea and rice protein with a dash of hazelnut and a coffee and cocoa kick, these bars are the perfect pocket-sized way to get the extra protein you need for recovery.
And, of course, you can boost your recovery by swigging one of our tasty Nova or Vita recovery shakes to energise and rebuild your aching muscles naturally. After all, training is meaningless without proper recovery. Cycling is a great way to feel that calorie burn, and therefore excellent for weight loss, however, relatively gentle cycling can actually give you an appetite far in excess of the calories burnt, so be careful When you get home from a ride and feel ravenously hungry, recovery is important of course, but try to eat only a little more than on non-exercising days, stick to healthy food choices and do not super-size your portions.
No Maccies for you! The number of calories you burn on a ride is dependent on your body weight and the intensity of the exercise: lighter cyclists burn less than heavier riders and easy rides consume less calories than hard rides.
A very easy rule of thumb is to multiply the distance cycled by calories - so a mile ride would need an additional calories. You can also get an estimate of calories burnt using your power meter, heart rate monitor or GPS device.
One last final warning: Remember to subtract the calories consumed on the ride, if you are fuelling properly or eating carrot cake at the café stop you may not need as many extra calories as you hoped… And seriously, who can resist that carrot cake?
It's a common misconception that protein will automatically result in muscle mass gain. Protein provides a pool of amino acids that act as the building blocks of muscle repair. After hard training, it is essential to make sure that you eat protein in the hours after cycling so your body has the tools it needs to strengthen and repair damaged muscle fibres.
Protein also plays a role in blood sugar regulation and weight management. Calorie for calorie, protein helps you to feel fuller for longer than carbohydrate alone and slows down the release of glucose into your bloodstream, helping to prevent sugar spikes and crashes.
If you are looking for a healthy snack between meals, protein-rich foods such as nuts, natural yogurt or peanut butter go down well with slow-release carbohydrates such as oatcakes, wholemeal bread, or a simple apple.
What you eat and drink has a huge impact on how your body feels. Natural foods have many benefits over highly-processed or synthetic products. They are naturally richer in vitamins, minerals, and fibre in formats that your body is easily able to recognise and absorb.
Tour de France riders, who are biking and burning upwards of calories per day still stick to natural whole foods for the greater part of their diet, employing team Chefs and mobile kitchens to prepare fresh, natural, and nutritional food from scratch.
Humans love variety after all, and nowhere is this more important than with our tasty treats. Fat often gets a bad rap, but not all fats are created equal. They keep our cell walls supple, are good for our joints and prevent inflammation.
Good fats include both polyunsaturated Omega 3 and Omega 6 fats and monounsaturated fats Omega 9 fats. These can be found in nuts, seeds, avocado, cold-water oily fish such as salmon and oils such as coconut or olive oil. Bad fats to be avoided are saturated fats such as those found in meats, some dairy products, and pretty much every kind of processed foods.
Fat has the highest number of calories per gram of all the macronutrients, so aiming for 20g of fat per day will support good health without adding significant calories to your cycling diet. Eating a full rainbow-coloured range of fruits and veg will ensure that you are getting sufficient vitamins and minerals for good health and to support your cycling.
The NHS recommends three pieces of veg and two pieces of fruit per day, but many medical experts actually feel this is too low and recommend much more - up to seven, or even eleven servings per day. So, we hope you like your veggies! What's important is knowing you're eating these regularly and that they're playing a significant role in your daily diet.
By adding fruit and vegetables to every meal and snack you eat during the day, these higher numbers of fruits and veggies are easy to achieve and your body will thank you for it with a stronger and more resilient immune system amongst many other benefits!
When it comes to training, nutrition plays an important role. A well-planned eating routine helps athletes train hard, remain healthy, and avoid injuries.
These days, all professionals and top amateurs follow strict diet plans to improve their performance both in training and on the big day. Getting it wrong may lead to under-performance and disappointment.
Getting it right can give you the edge you need to succeed. To start, we breakdown each of the macronutrients and then provide you with a basic nutrition plan for your next cycling or endurance event. So, what does the body need to thrive and perform at its best under stress? You consume calories through food and beverages, which fall into one of two categories:.
Macronutrients are the big players for big performance. On the other hand, there are micronutrients. These typically contain very few calories, but contain essential vitamins and minerals.
These are vital for the maintenance of tissue function, regular metabolism, and other key bodily functions. Mineral deficiencies can affect the immune system, and may reduce recovery ability. Aim to get plenty of Vitamin D, Omega 3s, calcium, magnesium, B vitamins, and iron and zinc.
Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables — the more colourful and varied, the better. Okay, now what about the three macronutrients?
How do they work, and why do we need them? When you hear protein, think muscles. Strong muscle tissue is vital for an athlete for obvious reasons. Not only does protein grow and repair muscles, it also protects them. Eating protein-rich foods before and after a race or competitive event ensures that your muscles have everything they need to remain strong under stress and recover quickly when resting.
Protein is made up of amino acids. There are two types of amino acids: essential and non-essential. However, essential amino acids can only be obtained from your diet. Together, they create protein and, thus, muscle. A protein-poor diet is going to affect your performance and your recovery in an unwanted fashion.
So where do you get high-quality protein from? Protein-rich sources are meat, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese. For vegetarians and vegans, there are plenty of plant-based sources such as beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, grains, and soy.
Further, aim to consume protein regularly throughout the diet and with every meal. The body can only absorb approximately 30g of protein at any given time, so spread it out for the best results.
In other words, carbohydrates are petrol. Carbohydrates are digested and broken down into glucose. Glucose is essentially a simple sugar that provides all your energy needs.
But be warned, some sources of carbohydrates are difficult to break down. If consumed at the wrong time, they can actually create problems rather than benefit your performance.
There are simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Taken at the incorrect time may, and probably will, lead to GI Gastrointestinal tract issues, which are not very comfortable and will limit your performance.
The last thing you want during an endurance race is to feel bloated and tired as your body tries to digest as well as perform. Not fun! Examples of simple carbs include bananas and other fruits. Fruits are made up of only 1 or 2 sugar molecules so your body can absorb and convert them into energy quickly.
Although watching someone trying to eat a yoghurt while negotiating a tricky downhill on their bike would be entertaining. Examples of complex carbs include pasta, bread, and potatoes.
Complex carbs contain long strands of sugar molecules, as opposed to the 1 or 2 found in fruits. They also contain dietary fibre — a key player to gut health, regulating blood-sugar and cholesterol levels, as well as regulating toilet breaks.
These should be eaten the day before riding or a few hours before your event so that they have plenty of time to be digested. They are equally important as simple carbs and must be included in your diet if you want to achieve maximum performance. Having a good dietary plan is just as necessary as training when preparing for an event.
The body needs both simple and complex carbs. Surely fat should be avoided, right? Well, not entirely. If carbs are the body's primary petrol, fats are the reserve fuel tank.
Fats are also essential for joint structure and strength, muscle growth, hormone production, and the absorption of vital vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K. For elite cyclists, little training may occur at the height of the competition season because they are continually racing.
Interval training and altitude training may be used to enhance performance. Indoor sessions on rollers or wind or resistance trainers may be undertaken when the weather is unpleasant or specific training is required e. high intensity sprints, starts, technique.
Depending on the specialisation of the cyclist and their role in the team, physical characteristics vary. Time-trialists and sprinters typically have more muscle mass so to generate more power. Time-trials require an ability to sustain high, constant power outputs for the duration of the race.
In road races, a high power-to-weight ratio with low body fat levels is favourable, particularly for hill-climbers as being smaller and lighter makes efforts easier. Some cyclists deliberately under-eat during high-volume training blocks but this is not conducive to performance and increases the risk of illness and injury.
Instead, cyclists need to find a realistic body weight and nutrition plan that can achieve desired body composition without sacrificing health or performance — a Sports Dietitian can help. The off-season and early season allows riders is often used for making adjustments to body composition as this is more difficult once competition starts.
To support the long hours of training for road cyclists, a nutrient rich diet is necessary. Carbohydrate needs should match training loads and timing of meals and snacks should be planned to ensure adequate refuelling, repair and adaption. This is especially when there are multiple training sessions in a day, during high-volume training blocks.
Frequent meals and snacks can help meet energy and carbohydrate needs when requirements are high. Including protein rich foods spread evenly over the day helps to promote adaption and recovery. Athletes with a restricted energy budget should plan the timing of their meals to be able to eat soon after training to maximise recovery.
Recovery snacks or meals should be nutrient-rich carbohydrate, protein and micronutrients — for example fruit, dairy, wholegrains and lean proteins — to ensure that nutrition needs are met within energy budget. Road cyclists should aim to drink enough fluids each day to replace fluid losses, adapting their fluid intake to factors which impact fluid losses such as temperature, wind, sweat rate, training intensity, duration and altitude.
Don't try forr new Performance nutrition for cyclists race day. Always experiment Performance nutrition for cyclists types and timing of food and fluid intake during training. Nutritionn cycling has a reputation for the widespread use of Lentil soup kinds Peformance supplements. Often there is no scientific justification and the supplements are usually not necessary. For advice on supplements for cycling, make an appointment with an expert — an Accredited Sports Dietitian. Road cycling encompasses a continuum of both team and individual events including time trials, criteriums and road races of varying distances, from 10km to km, held as a single day or over several consecutive stages. This Perforjance has limited Performance nutrition for cyclists for your browser. We Perforjance switching to Edge, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox. Spend £40 more for FREE shipping. FREE shipping will be applied at checkout. We get it. So are we!
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