Common sports nutrition mistakes cyclists make

Cycling Sports Nutrition

Interested in a personalised online sports nutrition consult? Contact emily@thenutritiondoctor.com.au

Follow us on instagram

There are TWO common mistakes I see cyclists make over and over again when it comes to cycling nutrition. I am also going to share with you one of my favourite go to cycling food recipes.

First, let’s begin with some facts:  

FACT 1: When exercising at low intensity (you could still comfortably talk while exercising), the body uses mainly body fat and a bit of stored carbohydrate in the form of glycogen as fuel for the exercising muscle. As the human body is really really good at storing fat, cyclists (or any other sports player), don’t need to eat food sources which contain fat.

FACT 2: At higher intensities of exercise (it would be much harder to talk while exercising here), the body uses mainly carbohydrate as the fuel source for your exercising muscles and little fat. These carbohydrate stores only last for an hour or two, so if you are exercising for longer than this, you would need to make sure you are eating carbohydrate containing foods. If you don’t, then performance is impacted upon which can range from a slight barely noticeable reduction in ability, to a “heavy muscles” feeling and at the extreme end, a full blown feeling of “hitting a wall” and movement stops. None of these situations are ideal.

Now that we have covered the facts, let us get into the common mistakes people make when selecting foods to eat while cycling.

COMMON MISTAKE NUMBER 1: Eating nuts while cycling- as nuts are mainly fat and protein, this is not a good food choice while on the bike. Your body has enough fat so you don’t need a food source to provide this when you are doing low intensity exercise and there is little carbohydrate in nuts so this is not a good food source during high intensity exercise either.

COMMON MISTAKE NUMBER 2: Eating protein bars while cycling. These are usually low in carbohydrate and therefore not appropriate.

So what are some great food choices to eat? Fresh dates as they are small and super portable, vegemite sandwich on white bread to aid in speedy digestion, and bananas. While gels and sports confectionary are an option, I am an advocate of food because well…who doesn’t like food?!

I wanted to share with you one of my favourite recipe ideas- I like this because it is simple and tasty! The star of the dish is potatoes and as most Australians do not enough vegetables, this is a great choice that provides you with energy for your muscles and to help you meet your daily vegetable intake.

There are 5 key steps to making this snack.          

Step 1: Boil potatoes with water and a stock cube.

Step 2: Mash them! Exciting stuff.

Step 3: Place in ziplock bags.

Step 4: Bring with you to use for training sessions lasting longer than an hour. They are easy to carry in the back of your jersey

Step 5: Tear off the end of the bag and eat (just like you would a gel!).

Super easy, right?!

If you have a recipe idea that you would like to share with the The Nutrition Doctor community or a sports nutrition question that you would like answered, send them in to emily@thenutritiondoctor.com.au or fill in our “Contact Us” form.