i always have to have a few energy bars on a 3-4 hour ride, but i ride with people who dont eat a thing and hardly have anything beofre they go out.

We all ride at the same pace and i can keep going for hours if i have a few snacks, just wondered why some people can manage with nothing. I've been riding for years so dont know if its a fitness thing or not.

Different metabolism, maybe?

Psychological reasons too.

I tend to eat nowt, but drink a lot..

Could be 'cos I've got a fair bit in reserve mind… 😳 😳

cos we are all different?

ah ok i thought someone was going to tell me some scientific explanation about energy stores and endurance training to increase them! But 'we're all different' will do 🙂

I'd put at least some it down to being psychological too. What are you eating beforehand? Nice slow-release stuff like porridge or sugary cereals which make your energy dip a while later?

Interesting article on the relationship between food and exercise in Time this week: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html

Also it affects recovery, if you want to ride day after day you need to be eating. If you are not riding the next day it is easy to get away with it.

Heavier – so they burn more energy to cover the same ground?

I ride day after day and tend not to eat or drink much. I did 3.5 hours hard on the MTB on Saturday having had a piece of toast, took a 500ml bottle of energy drink and no food, was a bit knackered at the end mind. That was on the back of 2 hours on the road on Friday night, and another 3 hours on Sunday, I just don't really seem to need much!

Why does everyone drink so much and eat so little? I tend to eat a fair bit but drink next to nothing. I hate drinking while riding.

And yet if I did what njee did, I'd be in pieces about 1hr in when I bonked. It's a pain but as above, we're just different. Presumably it's something to do with the amount of energy we can store in a readily useable form.

You need to drink if you eat in order to actually absorb the food and to avoid dehydration (food with no water will eventually lead to dehydration)

Why does everyone drink so much and eat so little?

Because at the end of a ride, i'm a kilo lighter from sweating rather than shitting.

Heavier – so they burn more energy to cover the same ground?

Doesn't work for me…. I'm pretty light, and need to eat a lot.. imo tt's other way around, heavy/fat people (everyone is fat compared to me) don't need to eat as they have loadsa reserves on them already.

I eat loads, generally 3-6 meals a day. On a ride I'll take jelly babies, flapjack & usually a few more things on a long ride.

As I have no reserves what so ever I need food before I ride and plenty during or I really struggle 20 or so miles in. You need the water to burn the food, forgot the word hydro-something, this is what creates the energy.

It's because they're all much fitter and faster than you, so not burning enough energy to need to eat 😈

Your body stores about 2000 kcal of easily accesible energy. After you burn that – 2 hours or so – you need something else. By riding long regularly and eating little your body becomes better at metabolising fat earlier in the ride and more efficiently.

Think there's a bit of disparity between need and want here. Yep some people in certain situations will bonk without a shedload of food but plenty of people just eat a lot cos they want to (nowt wrong with that) or have bonked once and never EVER want to go through that again so over compensate. I've done some big long rides on my own just munching on a couple of flapjacks as I ride but when I do shorter social rides I tend to eat more. Handing round jellie babies at gate/map stops, a stop or two for food, maybe a pub stop too. Mind you I went out for a ride last night without any food and started getting that fuzzy low blood sugar feeling halfway round fortunatley junkyard had brought plenty of food 🙂

Oh and I'd go without food way before I'd go without water, dehydration affects me quicker and worse in most cases than lack of food.

I tend to eat a fair bit but drink next to nothing. I hate drinking while riding.

weirdo

Even a thin person has loads of reserves, when you look at fat. Take a 70kg person, 10% body fat (pretty low), that's 7kg of stored fat. 1kg of pure fat contains 9000 kcals. That's a lot of energy.

Limiting factor is stored glycogen – this is needed to either burn directly (at higher intensities) or trigger the fat burning reactions (lower intensities). Your mates who don't eat on rides are running down their glycogen stores without replenishing them. If they were riding constantly for many hours, they would almost certainly run out of stored glycogen. You are keeping your levels topped up, so you would run out later.

When you finish, how do you feel? And how do they feel? They might be stuffing their faces with pies after rides due to hunger triggered by low glycogen levels.

There are lots of other factors too – fitness, efficiency, intensity, how frequently you are riding. I know that if I'm doing a high volume week (e.g. 12+ hours) I need to be eating carbs before, during and after rides. If I don't I'll have nothing left at the end of the week.

i eat loads and carry loads (Lowey jokes I should have butler follow me round on rides to serve me at every stop)
No idea why but I just eat loads on rides.
I dont tend to drink very much though unless very very hot.
Even on short rides I always have flapjacks , trail food (dried fruit , nuts, chocolate, seeds type thing) with me but have done 2hour + local rides without water though 😳 but never food.
Guess we are all different?

I've often wondered this too. Personally I tend to get through a fair amount of food (energy bars, jelly babies, cake, soreen, monkey sticks, etc) and water (or Torq) whereas others (even those the same size/fitness as me) don't.

Plus I've tried all the slow release goodness of things like oats, porridge, etc, as a preloader, but it just doesn't work for me. I tend to function better when I'm actually full, as opposed to having eaten something supposedly "healthier". Hence why a grilled full English seems to power me up on a weekend ride far more.

The only thing I would say is it's good to be in the habit of eating whatever's best for you before the ride, and then snacking before getting hungry, and drinking before getting thirsty, i.e. little and often.

SM

I don't tend to drink or eat a lot on rides. Most exercise has an appetite supresssing effect for me (when doing longer days I have to force myself to eat). Don't tend to drink much because I don't like the sloshy feeling afterwards.

I go for about 2 hours then start to fade. If I eat every 30 mins I'm fine.

I actually think my problem is drinking – I don't like to drink while riding. I think dehydration disrupts my energy production.

At the moment, i'll hit the wall at about 4 hours of hard graft … eating on the go ( however much ) only seems to push that about by about 1 hour or so. I'll still hit the wall either way.

and thus my point is proved.