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Commuting – Stave off hunger – nutrition advice

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  • September 26, 2017 at 5:04 pm #27677
    Canyon48

    Hi all,

    I’ve started commuting longer distances now that I’ve returned to uni following placement – this has left me feeling REALLY hungry though, I’d like some advice about nutrition.

    I’m 21 and 67kg – fairly fit and, until recently, I’d usually cycle 100 miles per week – 2 x 25mile round trip commute and 2 x 25mile punchy/fast road rides.

    I’m gradually upping my cycling to 3 x 35mile round commute and subsequently reducing to 1 x 25mile punchy/fast road ride on the weekend (occasionally to be replaced by a longer 50/60 mile hard road ride).

    I eat healthily, generally following a Mediterranean diet. At 67kg and 5’11, with a fairly lean physique, I look scrawny enough as it is, so I don’t want to lose much (if any) more weight.

    My problem comes because I don’t want to add any more starchy bread into my diet (about 2/3 slices a day average), but I know I need carbs to replace what I will have burnt cycling. For what it’s worth, my Strava/Garmin are estimating I burn somewhere between 1200 and 1600 calories each day I commute (my perceived effort would make me think it’s less than this).

    I’m not overly concerned about a huge amount of protein intake either, as my commutes are taken at a steady pace, my muscles don’t feel like they have been worked very hard.

    So I’m looking for a food that is reasonably filling, replaces carbs (not sugars) and maybe has a little bit of protein – easy/cheap to home make is a big bonus too! I know bananas fill this criteria (yes, I know I don’t have to make them), but I eat enough of them already!

    I was thinking of rice cakes or possibly oatcakes – any suggestions (preferably not expensive energy/recovery bars)?

     

     

     

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  • September 27, 2017 at 10:14 am #903033
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    Canyon48

    Cheers all, lot of good

    Cheers all, lot of good advice 😀

    Funnily enough, since me and my girlfriend moved in together, we’ve switched to wholemeal grains and we’ve started trying to work out what the heck to do with Chia.

    Flapjack, oatcakes and rice cakes (with some chia and seeds/nuts added in somewhere) sounds like a good solution. Should be easy to batch bake and they’ll survive the trip to uni in my rucksack.

    Probably time do some baking (I mean, uni work…).

    Anyone got any tips for conditioning legs for regular commuting? I can comfortably ride 130 miles in a week for a few weeks in a row (providing I have decent breaks between rides), but with commuting, I’ll be doing 35 miles every other day at least. I am taking it slower, which helps a lot and giving a days recovery, but I know that after a couple of weeks my legs will begin to feel permanently tired and sore.

    I’m guessing I need some stretches as well the appropriate nutrition to keep them going. I’ll also have a few days off the bike if my legs are too fatigued (just waiting for my parking permit to arrive!).

    September 27, 2017 at 10:07 am #903031
    0
    madcarew

    Porridge!! Complex carbs, not

    Porridge!! Complex carbs, not bread. Cheap. Add some butter or cream to it, make it with full fat milk and you will add some protein and fat.

    I’m not sure why or how you think adding a couple slices of bread to your mediterranean diet will mess it up. The proportions of a diet need to be looked at as  a %ge of the calories. At (and taking a few guesses here) a power output of +/- 200W for a 35 mile journey (about 2 hours) is an energy consumption of 720kJ. At an efficiency of about 22% this works out to 3100kJ or 750cal.  

    Now, here’s the useful thing,  If you are averaging below 70% HR, most of your energy supply (85%+)comes from fat oxidation (there are a whole lot of caveats with this, but the point is useful) so you don’t need to look at replacing your carbs, you just need to look at adding some calories into your diet. This could be a couple pieces of fruit and some nuts etc. You don’t have to go nuts on the protein (sorry) at all. Just increase your diet in general to account for the extra calories burned. You certainly don’t need to try to replace the ride calories with carbs. 

    Simply, in answer to your question, just look at adding about 400 – 500 cals to your daily diet from across your diet spectrum and you will be fine. 

    Good luck 🙂

    September 27, 2017 at 9:19 am #903029
    0
    il sole
    Simboid wrote:
    At last week’s Nec bike show I tried ALL the energy bars, gels, etc and came to 2 conclusions: Torq gels are lush (and I don’t really like gels) and Chia Charge make the nicest flapjacks.

    For some reason which makes no business sense the Chia bloke has his recipes online! I have some freshly made sea salt ones on the side right now with peanut butter instead of sunflower seeds, yum! 

    They cost about £2 to make a dozen big ones, around £20 if you bought them. Chia is no fad either, read ‘Born to run’ and find out for yourself. If the Tarahumara can run 100+ miles on it it’s not rubbish. Aldi sell milled chia cheaply.

    Give it a go, it’s cheap enough for you to make a few different combinations and see what you really like.

     

    Can I just say, don’t ever buy ground seeds – chia, linseed (flax) or any others as their nutrients  deplete rapidly once milled. if you want to have ground seeds, buy them whole and grind them yourself in a pestle and mortar. you don’t need to grind them completely, just crack open the outer ‘skin’ so they can be readily absorbed. 

    My advice is to make cheap flabjacks using proper oats from a health shop and add whole seeds or nuts to them before baking. you could also use peanut butter too…

    September 27, 2017 at 7:45 am #903027
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    nniff

    I rather suspect I eat

    I rather suspect I eat garbage, but my 40 mile round trip commute is fuelled by a bowl of shreddies/fruit and fibre in the morning.  During the day, a ham sandwich and a cupasoup with some cheese, a few chocolate digestive biscuits and a big Belgian bun with icing.  Seems to work. I carry a boccadillo in case it goes wrong. The return trip is significantly uphill and that can go badly wrong if I haven’t eaten enough or get involved in the ‘races’.  If I start to get that dreaded clammy feeling I eat the boccadillo quickly or stop for coke and jelly babies. 

    September 27, 2017 at 3:07 am #903025
    0
    dottigirl

    You need fat and protein to

    You need fat and protein to fill you up – just eating carbs will send your blood sugar up for it to plummet to even lower levels.

    I’d suggest whole milk straight after exercise – milk’s really good for killing hunger too. Try to get the unhomogenised Jersey stuff. 

    A stick of black pudding from the butcher is cheap and filling – just takes a few minutes to fry off a few slices. I sometimes cook some sausages the night before, squeeze some ketchup in the middles, and take them with me wrapped in greaseproof paper. Not so cheap though.

    I find a few slices of ham, salami, chorizo etc are great at killing hunger. Add a block of cheese and you could be audaxing. Bag of nuts and that’d be my last audax…

    September 26, 2017 at 9:16 pm #903023
    0
    captain_slog

    Just eat, eat, eat! You’re

    Just eat, eat, eat! You’re young, fit, healthy and active. The only thing to be worried about is not eating enough. When your mum asks if you’re eating properly you may roll your eyes but she’s right (mums usually are). Also remember that it’s not just your legs you need to feed. When you’re studying your brain is using a significant amount of calories: thinking is hard work.

    Listen to your body. If you want to eat more bread then do. The less-processed varieties such as sourdough and wholemeal are better but also more expensive. Alternatives are baked potatoes, risotto, gnocchi, pasta, omelettes, more pasta. Cous cous takes minutes to prepare and is very versatile (mix it with olives, spring onions, toasted almonds and feta, dress with lemon juice and olive oil, chuck in some herbs or rocket).

    Cook porridge, make flapjack, snack on nuts and dried fruit, [url=”https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/08/jack-monroes-honey-peanut-butter-granola-recipe”%5Dprepare your own granola[/url]. Enjoy this great time.

    September 26, 2017 at 7:36 pm #903021
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    sergius

    I had something similar when

    I had something similar when I started commuting to work on the bike (I was doing 16 miles each way + gym at lunch 3-4 days a week).  Having an office I was able to have porridge when I arrived rather than before I left – something that’s likely not as easy for a student to arrange.

    The other thing I used to do was take a few extra marmite sandwiches with me to have mid-morning/mid-afternoon.  Brown bread, about 200 calories per two slices and high in fibre/vitamins etc.  Plain crackers also worked well for me.

     

    There’s no reason to be afraid of carbs… Even now I no longer commute on the bike (weekend warrior) I’ll have 5-6 slices of bread at lunch along with pasta/cous-cous or something similiarly high in carbs for dinner.  I’m 175cms and 62kg, so definately on the skinny side.

    September 26, 2017 at 7:28 pm #903019
    0
    Grahamd

    Soreen malt loaf

    Soreen malt loaf 🙂

    September 26, 2017 at 7:18 pm #903017
    0
    Simboid

    At last week’s Nec bike show

    At last week’s Nec bike show I tried ALL the energy bars, gels, etc and came to 2 conclusions: Torq gels are lush (and I don’t really like gels) and Chia Charge make the nicest flapjacks.

    For some reason which makes no business sense the Chia bloke has his recipes online! I have some freshly made sea salt ones on the side right now with peanut butter instead of sunflower seeds, yum! 

    They cost about £2 to make a dozen big ones, around £20 if you bought them. Chia is no fad either, read ‘Born to run’ and find out for yourself. If the Tarahumara can run 100+ miles on it it’s not rubbish. Aldi sell milled chia cheaply.

    Give it a go, it’s cheap enough for you to make a few different combinations and see what you really like.

    September 26, 2017 at 6:55 pm #903015
    0
    barongreenback

    Oatcakes and a nut butter of

    Oatcakes and a nut butter of your choice.  Keeps me going. 

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