how much to eat
- Thread starter zaskar
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you need to eat as many calories as you expend each day so if you burn 1000 calories on a ride then you would eat the same amount so your weight stays the same.
try eating to replace the calories in the couple of hours after your ride and eat a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein
as to the difference between Kcal and cal...
strictly speaking 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius.
a Kcal is 1000 calories BUT on food labels and when people talk about "calories" they are almost always referring to Kcal since 1 cal is an insignificant amount of energy.
So what this means is that a ride that burns 1000 "calories" (Kcal) has strictly speaking burnt 1 000 000 calories and needs 1000 Kcal of replenishment.
food labels will state 100 calories or whatever but they actually mean 100 Kcal
Hope that doesn't make you more confused, if so just ask and i'll try to explain it a different way
try eating to replace the calories in the couple of hours after your ride and eat a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein
as to the difference between Kcal and cal...
strictly speaking 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius.
a Kcal is 1000 calories BUT on food labels and when people talk about "calories" they are almost always referring to Kcal since 1 cal is an insignificant amount of energy.
So what this means is that a ride that burns 1000 "calories" (Kcal) has strictly speaking burnt 1 000 000 calories and needs 1000 Kcal of replenishment.
food labels will state 100 calories or whatever but they actually mean 100 Kcal
Hope that doesn't make you more confused, if so just ask and i'll try to explain it a different way
Originally posted by Duckwah
you need to eat as many calories as you expend each day so if you burn 1000 calories on a ride then you would eat the same amount so your weight stays the same.
try eating to replace the calories in the couple of hours after your ride and eat a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein
as to the difference between Kcal and cal...
strictly speaking 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree celsius.
a Kcal is 1000 calories BUT on food labels and when people talk about "calories" they are almost always referring to Kcal since 1 cal is an insignificant amount of energy.
So what this means is that a ride that burns 1000 "calories" (Kcal) has strictly speaking burnt 1 000 000 calories and needs 1000 Kcal of replenishment.
food labels will state 100 calories or whatever but they actually mean 100 Kcal
Hope that doesn't make you more confused, if so just ask and i'll try to explain it a different way
I think you explained it well. Have you ever seen the calculation which proves that you can lose weight by eating ice cream frozen at 0*F? The equation shows that it takes more calories for your body to warm the ice cream up to body temp than it contains in food energy. So, the more you eat, the more you lose.
Unfortunately, it only works if you fail to realize the "calories" listed per serving on the carton are really "Kcal", but it's a great thought.
Dan
Theoretically drinking lots of cold water will marginally increase your energy expenditure ie
Drink 1 litre of water at say 4 degrees C and the body has to heat it up to 37 Deg C which is 1 cal x 1000g x 33 Deg temp raise = 33 Kcal
but no one wants to lose weight by drinking 5 litres of ice water a day
Drink 1 litre of water at say 4 degrees C and the body has to heat it up to 37 Deg C which is 1 cal x 1000g x 33 Deg temp raise = 33 Kcal
but no one wants to lose weight by drinking 5 litres of ice water a day
Try counting kcals over a week and measuring weight at the start and end of the week. If there is a significant change in weight then this may be due to eating too much or too little (or changes in water with dehydration and glycogen depletion).
Long term trends in weight gain and loss, will give you a good idea if you eat too much energy (kj or kcals) or not.
Long term trends in weight gain and loss, will give you a good idea if you eat too much energy (kj or kcals) or not.
generally caloric balance (kcals in vs kcals out) will determine weight gain/loss in the medium/longer term. Daily fluctuations can be a function of caloric deficit or surplus and hydration, as well as how much exercise you've done on the day (particularly if you're doing strength work - muscle repair involves some degree of fluid retention).
In addition to your exercise consumption of calories you need to consider your BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - how much energy it takes to keep you alive, breathing, digesting, heart pumping etc for a day. This will depend on your height, weight, gender, general level of movement etc.
If you burn 2000kcal on a ride, and eat 2000kcal during the day, you will still be in caloric deficit because your basic body functions also consume energy
As a cyclist doing 3hours a day, you should also consider the source of calories (6 twinkies or 4 big macs might get you your 2000 kcal, but will probably not give you the balance of other nutrients you need).
In addition to your exercise consumption of calories you need to consider your BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate - how much energy it takes to keep you alive, breathing, digesting, heart pumping etc for a day. This will depend on your height, weight, gender, general level of movement etc.
If you burn 2000kcal on a ride, and eat 2000kcal during the day, you will still be in caloric deficit because your basic body functions also consume energy
As a cyclist doing 3hours a day, you should also consider the source of calories (6 twinkies or 4 big macs might get you your 2000 kcal, but will probably not give you the balance of other nutrients you need).
That your assessment of "livng" calories burned may exceed what you think... For us cyclists, after workouts, our bodies will have higher temperatures so we burn more calories just sitting around, we have often preexhausted muscles, so duties such as walking or climbing stairs will often have elevated caloric burn rates, our bodies are often in a constant state of recovery, in addition so, we burn more than the typical calories of joe schmoe. I would think that we often have a higher % of muscle mass to fat... so keep these things in mind and dont underfeed your body. For the most part, I think cyclists diets most commonly are deficient in protein... by a lot. The reliance on carbs and drinks for energy and long term energy often falls short in the protein... focus on getting more protein especially during and after rides, it not only will help you build and recover... it will help you maintain.
Just my two cents.
Chris
Just my two cents.
Chris
Carbohydrates, Water, Caffiene (only a little for starting the journey...)a bit of sugar helps too. I usually do an average of 40km per journey, and this is all I have ever needed to keep me going...
Dead right - protein for recovery, and it's widely accepted that metabolic energy demand be elevated for several hours after exercise, particularly if you ride in the early morning before breakfast, so your BMR is likely to be higher than for a sedentary person of your age, height, gender, weight...
Originally posted by Duckwah
world ceasing to turn, ice forming in hell, pigs flying....OH MY GOD its a completely logical discussion that hasn't degenerated into a flame war full of completely false information.
Yeah, I'd noticed that. Go Aussie go.
Originally posted by Duckwah
world ceasing to turn, ice forming in hell, pigs flying....OH MY GOD its a completely logical discussion that hasn't degenerated into a flame war full of completely false information.
I hope I don't trash the discussion but I was wondering how someone would go about tracking daily calorie intake. How do you guys keep track of how much you eat? If the information written on the products we buy sufficient for calculating the calorie value of a complete meal?
I'm curious because I'd like to be able to quantify the calories that I take in each day and perhaps modify my habits if I'm too high or low ?
it's probably close enough. Here in OZ we have a couple of excellent publications available that give fat,calorie & protein details for a pretty comprehensive variety of foods, including the unlabelled ones like meat, fish, veg, fruits, breadstuffs etc. There must be similar publications where you are. It's a bit of a pain looking everything up at first - I keep a food/exercise diary and after a while i've built up a kind of "database" of meals and their content. it's not super precise but it's a workable guide to input. For output I use the calorie estimates readings from my heart rate monitor - again, probably not supre precise but a pretty good guide.
Here are a couple of techniques I use to keep consumption in check...
By far the easiest technique I use is following a day of poor eating like a session in the pub, going out for a meal, fast food, hagan daz, etc. I take two days where I eat healthy food and hld back on calories. This way you get a good balance over a week or longer.
My girlfriend has a list of meals that all add up to 300 kcals; all the meals are based on low calorie dense foods (i.e. lots of volume few cals) so that the volume of each meal is maximised. When dieting she will eat 4 of these meals a day + 1 for every hour of exercise. I always eat with her as I don't normaly get to each so much food (do you know how much food can make up 300 cals!). Other examples of meals include soups, bagels + topping, beans on toast, baked potatoes/sweet potatoes, etc. She also exchanges a 300 kcal meal for something else of similar value if she wants too, like a choclate bar, etc. She alows herself to eat as much fruit as she wants and only drinks water and diet drinks (tea total).
Yes, its probably the best/only source of info you will find. you need to take into account all of the ingredients in every meal and realise that cooking may change their composition. Either calculate the composition using a calculator multiplying the energy per 100g (or 1g) for the amount of food you are going to eat or 2. eat the servings recomended on the packet as these usualy have the composition listed on the packet. Finaly, I don't often use scales instead I estimate the amount. If you have a 500g bag of pasta and want 100g, its easy to guess what 20% of the packet is.
Unfortunatly it takes a bit of practice, recording and lots of calculations. Make a record over 7 days and save the nutritional info for everything you eat. Calculate what you have eaten at the end of the week.... you could even publish the results here for feedback. Its important that you eat your normal diet over the record period. If 7 days is too long do it over three continuous days (with one weekend day). Check the results against a nutrition book (if your a normal person) or a sports nutrition book (if you consider yourself to be very active).
No you have to take account of how much exercise your doing. I'd still eat healthy food and just eat a little more to take into account the extra exercise I've done. That way 'holding back' is relative.
There are lots of elites that don't eat very well and some that survive on junk foods to get enough energy in when training very hard. This is particularly true of the youngsters. I wouldn't get hung up about cutting all of the junk from the diet, just keep it for times when you really want it or eating it makes life easier! Although I do think those junk eating elites might go quicker if they ate better.
I haven't stressed about eating badly since the first 6 weeks of university. Where it was pizza, pizza, pizza. I'm a veggie now and that helps with staying away from processed foods (sometimes).
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