I am planning to reduce my regular calorie intake (with the same amount of riding) to hopefully shed a little weight...My question is: Would a reduced calorie intake decrease my energy when riding? And by the way, I ride only twice a week (about 115 miles), one is a fast training crit every week.

I am planning to reduce my regular calorie intake (with the same amount of riding) to hopefully shed a little weight...My question is: Would a reduced calorie intake decrease my energy when riding? And by the way, I ride only twice a week (about 115 miles), one is a fast training crit every week.

Probably not, but then again it depends on how much caloric reduction you're talking about. For example. Yesterday, I did a 4 hour ride on the following food items that I consumed in the hours before riding: 1 bagel, 1 salad with grilled chicken, 2 fig newtons. I didn't get tired during the ride, and didn't eat anything during the ride either, just drank water. So yeah, it depends.

I am planning to reduce my regular calorie intake (with the same amount of riding) to hopefully shed a little weight...My question is: Would a reduced calorie intake decrease my energy when riding? And by the way, I ride only twice a week (about 115 miles), one is a fast training crit every week.
Depends on how much you're eating now, how much you plan to reduce and what your activity level and BMR are.

I was thinking that, say, I have a goal of reducing my calorie intake by about 20%, It would be better if I do it gradually, rather than doing it instantly. I think my body will respond better to it..What do you think...

I was thinking that, say, I have a goal of reducing my calorie intake by about 20%, It would be better if I do it gradually, rather than doing it instantly. I think my body will respond better to it..What do you think...
gradually is best. too extreme and your body will go into starvation mode which lowers your metabolism...the opposite of what you want to do. You should be able to judge if you are lowering your intake too much by your mood and energy level when you workout. I wouldn't suggest dieting before a long endurance event or occasion where you want peak performance though. Just getting out and riding more will create a caloric deficit without having to significantly change your diet.

Yes, that is a good point. Riding more will give me the same results. I have tried reducing what I normally eat during breakfast before rides and I could definitely feel the difference during the ride. I just thought that my body was just adjusting to what I was doing at that time.

Unless they are slow low intensity stuff (12 mph or so). If the intensity is higher than that you have to be taking food (energy) in after an hour and a half or so of riding because you will deplete your energy stores. The body can only convert fat to a useful fuel only so fast (approximately fast enough to maintain a speed of 12 or so Mph) After that 1.5 hours you will have to take almost as many calories in as you are spending to stay on top of the fuel / energy curve.

More frequent shorter rides may be more helpful. You can finish up the ride before you deplete your glycogen energy stores and then recharge those energy stores offline (by converting fat). long very slow rides could work also.

And yes, any type of serious diet will have an effect on your energy level to some extent.

I did the southbeach thing a year and a half ago (offseason). During the first two week no carb phase I had no energy to ride. Then once I worked whole grain carbs into the diet I had the energy to ride for up to an hour and a half (but not at real high intensity). Once I got the weight off I worked more carbs into the diet and the energy level was good. I still avoid pigging out on high glycemic carbs and have kept the weight off.

I am planning to reduce my regular calorie intake (with the same amount of riding) to hopefully shed a little weight...My question is: Would a reduced calorie intake decrease my energy when riding? And by the way, I ride only twice a week (about 115 miles), one is a fast training crit every week.

I have tried reducing what I normally eat during breakfast before rides and I could definitely feel the difference during the ride.

You want to cut calories after the ride, not before it. The trick is to go to bed hungry.

We could do the math . . .

3,500 Calories in a pound of weight loss. (A calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. A Calorie, equals 1000 calories, and is called a "kilocalorie.")

Docs, nutritionists, dietitions, trainers all recommend that you lose weight at the rate of one to two pounds a week. That's a 500 Calorie deficit a day -- or 1,000 per day if you're going for the two pound loss in a week.

The good news is that serious cycling burns Calories like crazy. The tricky news is that hard cycling burns glycogen, and you want to burn fat. Fat metabolism is optimized at about 60% to 70% aerobic capacity. I'm 57 and tend to ride "seriously/comfortably" in the 85% range. I'm not burning fat, but I'm getting fit and burning calories. I can live with that. Getting fit automatically results in a loss of body fat -- basic body physiology.

Serious riding burns off the Calories, but the fat metabolism is much more efficient in less intense exercise regimens. Walking and swimming are the less intensity workouts I do.

Your daily requirement for caloric intake varies with age and activity. The good news here is that active people, people who are fit, get to eat more than sluggos sitting on the couch. Your best strategy for losing weight and maintaining an optimal BMI (body mass index) is to get fit.

If you're riding hard and not taking in sufficient calories, you'll "bonk" -- You just plain run out of glycogen to burn as fuel. When you do this, the body tries to switch over to fat metabolism, but fat metabolism is really not efficient for aerobic exercise. The end result is that you slow from a swift and comfortable riding pace to an uncomfortable crawl.

Eating food will take care of this "bonk" in about 15 minutes.

If you want to lose weight as part of your training regimen (I want to lose weight!) your best strategy is to get fit, reduce caloric intake to a deficit of about 500/1000 per day under your caloric consumption, and focus on healthy food choices, active exercise, and long term weight loss through fitness.

Covert Bailey in "Fit Not Fat" outlines this strategy better than any "diet guru" on the planet.

Combination of "Fat Myths" #1 & #2. Though I basically agree on what you said, it somewhat implies the first two myths.

Myth #1 - You burn more fat at a lower intensity. - You burn a higher percentage of fat at a lower intensity, but you burn more calories, and therefore more fat, at higher intensities. This assumes the same time period.

Myth #2 - Burning a higher percentage of fat results in more fat loss. - When you eat, your body replaces whatever you burned. Whether that was carbs or fat makes no difference. Lower calories results in more fat loss.

"The good news is that serious cycling burns Calories like crazy. The tricky news is that hard cycling burns glycogen, and you want to burn fat. Fat metabolism is optimized at about 60% to 70% aerobic capacity....

Serious riding burns off the Calories, but the fat metabolism is much more efficient in less intense exercise regimens. Walking and swimming are the less intensity workouts I do."

TF

Reduced caloric intake fom my experience is the only true "diet". Of course, you could eat what you do now and just ride more as has been mentioned.

However, while I am not medically trained, experience has held that there are a few things to look out for:

1)Fat burning. In any ride I have ever had, I do not recall my body ceasing to function due to the source of a calorie. Oh my, that calorie came from a dorito, lets get that one...... :rolleyes:

2)I found that my body fat percentage changed due to the duration,amount of time and intensity of the activity I engaged in.From 33% to about 11% (+ or - 3% now. 2 kids less riding). That using water and impedence to measure. The above is useless unless you also know that a majority of the fat loss was weight loss, not changing my body composition at some static body weight. I lost 110 pounds versus, I weighed 195 the whole time etc etc So, if its weight loss then, yes, do more, eat less OR do lots more and eat the same

3)Arbitrary reduction, (hey pick a percentage) is a bad move. Consult with a doc or get an estimate as to what you eat (track calories) and what you do. 3500 cals kills a pound (of fat), so after a few weeks, you should get a fair idea. OR, you get hungry, irritable and gain it all back in a few weeks.....

Good luck and ride safely

I found that eating well before a ride and eating at the end of the ride (I eat a bar on every ride over 1.5 hours) on the way home during cooldown reduced my tendency to binge eat when I got home.

Many small meals. I have lost half of a pound per week over the last 10 weeks of base and build.

You want to cut calories after the ride, not before it. The trick is to go to bed hungry.

I understand the concept of going to bed slightly hungry, but do you want to reduce calories after a ride if you train multiple times a day, and first thing in the morning. I tried that I after a hard ride at night had trouble finding energy for a bright and early workout the next morning. Recomendations?

As Kerry pointed out, don't cut back on early or pre-ride meals. You will burn all that intake during a normal day or while riding. Your rides are too long to skimp on a pre-ride meal. You'll end up bonking or be forced to slow down.

Our society has made this type of eating really hard. Everyone rushes in the morning, skimps on breakfast. We are too busy to eat right during the day. Then we return home and dive into the fridge. We end up stuffing our faces all evening thinking it's allright because we starved ourselves all day. Your body spends the night putting all those late-day calories into long term storage.

TurboTurtle has it right. In practice, a fit endurance athlete can burn around 200 calories per hour from fat metabolism. If you ride slowly enough (around 12 mph on the flats), you can get nearly all of your energy from fat burning, but you won't burn any more fat per hour than if you were riding at 25 mph (actually a bit less fat burned at the slower speed). How much you eat after the ride to replenish your energy stores will determine whether you lose or gain weight.

For ttug and Hardy Cyclamens, the bonk comes when you run out of glycogen and are left with pretty much only fat to burn - that's about 12 mph! While your body does not cease to function, you sometimes wish it would. The feeling can be that you just want to lie down by the side of the road. A hard bonk CANNOT be remedied in 15 minutes by eating. At that point, your body chemistry will have shifted to strongly favor fat sparing, and any calories ingested will be diverted in that direction, not available for the muscles. However, IME if you ingest some really fast carbs (3 Musketeers is my favorite) just as you start to get light-headed, you can feel it kick in just a few minutes :)

I 100% agree that they are false for the first 1.5 to 2 hours of intense riding. During this period your body is burning both glycogen and converting fat to useful fuel. However, once the glycogen that is stored in the muscles and liver is used up, the only energy stores left are fat and protein. (forgive me for not knowing the detailed chemistry on how fat and glycogen is converted to muscle contractions) The body is only capable of converting fat to useful fuel at a relative low rate, I've read at a rate that allows you to go 10-14 Mph on a bike (low intensity). If you want to go faster or harder than that after the glycogen is burned off you have to take in calories to supplement the energy the body can convert from fat or bonk. If you continue forward at high intensity in a bonk you will do the body a lot more harm than good. The body will start converting muscle proteins on a large scale to fuel the effort (If you have the mental fortitude to go forward in such a state).

The point is after the 1.5 hours or so of intense riding you may as well do the low intensity stuff. If you try the high intensity stuff after this point, your going to have to eat the additional calories your body requires or you risk significant muscle damage and reduction of muscle mass (really not what you want to be doing in a training program). After this 1.5 hour or so time period the calorie deficit between low intensity work and high intensity work and eating will be about the same.

One last point, you really don't want to be doing the high intensity stuff every day. It will lead to a lot of problems.

What works for me is to do a 1.5 hour high intensity session 3 times a week and then long slow easy rides the rest of the time. I might eat a small something before the intense ride but not the easy ride. I normally eat a normal meal after any of the rides.

I had been doing intense cycling for years, I could get the weight down to a certain point with just the intense cycling but could not get any lower than 180-185 (@ 6'-0"). It was not until I did some serious dieting in the off season that I was able to get down to 160. Most of this reduction occured when I was not excercising as intensely nor as much as when I was at 185. Without a focused diet I was finding I was going on feeding binges after I got off the bike and would continue to eat all evening because my body was screaming for fuel.

Combination of "Fat Myths" #1 & #2. Though I basically agree on what you said, it somewhat implies the first two myths.

Myth #1 - You burn more fat at a lower intensity. - You burn a higher percentage of fat at a lower intensity, but you burn more calories, and therefore more fat, at higher intensities. This assumes the same time period.

Myth #2 - Burning a higher percentage of fat results in more fat loss. - When you eat, your body replaces whatever you burned. Whether that was carbs or fat makes no difference. Lower calories results in more fat loss.

"The good news is that serious cycling burns Calories like crazy. The tricky news is that hard cycling burns glycogen, and you want to burn fat. Fat metabolism is optimized at about 60% to 70% aerobic capacity....

Serious riding burns off the Calories, but the fat metabolism is much more efficient in less intense exercise regimens. Walking and swimming are the less intensity workouts I do."

TF

I appreciate everybody that replied to my post. I would definitely consider to eat more "normal" after rides because I do have a strong tendency to eat too much after hard and long rides. I think that I have that "I have room to eat more because I just worked out" mentality. Maybe it is just a bad habit that I developed unknowingly over the years..

I understand the concept of going to bed slightly hungry, but do you want to reduce calories after a ride if you train multiple times a day, and first thing in the morning. I tried that I after a hard ride at night had trouble finding energy for a bright and early workout the next morning. Recomendations?
You can't beat physics. It's simply calories in vs calories out. There is nothing magical about reducing calories at night vs daytime. You just aren't doing as much work while sleeping so it's probably more manageable to do it that way. That said, you could take the calories out at other times of day and lose just as much weight. There is no magic formula...you just have to find out what works for you. For me certian foods cause cravings so I try to avoid or limit those foods when I can.

In the last century it has been one of the most fluid fields imaginable. You would think all the formulas, figures and theories it would remain static. Wrong! Every year you find out everything you know is wrong. Every year an even smaller partical is discovered and all the formulas and theories have to be re-written to explain it. Then some test somewhere has an abnormality, then another university halfway across the world is able to duplicate the same abnormality and walla again all the formulas are wrong. The average halflife for a theory or formula to explain the physical structure of an atom or the universe is a year or so at best.

We are in the age of quantum mechanics, where absolute determinism is dead. This is the world of field probability theories and the nature of matter being nothing more than a crap shoot and maybe life being nothing more than a random occurance and blip in the cosmic sense of things.

Sorry to digress. When I was a child I thought anything and everything could be explained with math and science. The more I learned, the less I knew. What's funny is Physics has change from an exact science to a metaphysical one. Thank god computers came along and got us thinking in 1s and 0s again. All that gray area was hurting my head.

You can't beat physics. It's simply calories in vs calories out. There is nothing magical about reducing calories at night vs daytime. You just aren't doing as much work while sleeping so it's probably more manageable to do it that way. That said, you could take the calories out at other times of day and lose just as much weight. There is no magic formula...you just have to find out what works for you. For me certian foods cause cravings so I try to avoid or limit those foods when I can.

Oh I know there is a huge mental component and all food is not created alike, but all diets work because they make us stuff less fuel down the pie hole than we burn. The rest is semantics.