The "Drip"

TapeW

Think it’s better to focus on eating a “normal” healthy diet – one designed to keep you going for an endurance sport like cycling – fads are fads are fads, they never seem to be effective in the long term, and can be harmful in the short run, and long… It’s not too hard to surf/find and come up with all kinds of info on research that has been done on the 4:1 carb/protein ration you have mentioned. Mostly though it is suggested the “magic” ration is helpful with recovery and glycogen uptake to the muscle, etc. I’m not going to try and quote these articles by memory – but I will list a book that can lead you to a whole gang of other info… The Preformance Zone – Your Nutrition Action plan for greater Endurance & Sports Performance, John Ivy PhD & Robert Portman PhD – The book if you find it is a quick read – worth borrowing, but not worth owning

HR

High5 have just brought out a 4:1 formula in supplements haven't they?
take a look at it, read what it's function is, but as above, the healthy diet is the first step to anything not just chowing down on supplements...

Thanks Hooky, I will try and locate a copy of said book. Perhaps one of the key things that caught my attention in relation to this was the fact it was not replacing any part of a normal health diet but is done in conjunction. I too am a little wary of some of the amazing claims by various supplement companies.

I think one of the key points of this "diet" is that the digestive process is working almost for 12 or more hours continuously. This is one of the points about it that raises my concern.

The other concern is that with such a ready supply of food into the body does this go to work against training the body to use fat as an energy source? Or is this in fact a better alternative to suppling the energy needs of the body whether exercising or not? Would this also make you more susceptible to "bonking" if you failed to eat or take in this energy at the correct intervals?

Lots of questions!

I'm not sure of the intentions of the cyclist since I have not read the article, but for myself I have what I call 8 meals per day. Some of those "meals" are liquid. There are a few reasons that I do this and I will name only a couple.

Time Constraints
I use a fast absorbing protein / carb drink immediately following training since there is normally too long of a span of time between training, commuting in a metro area and then to the home or office where I can begin to eat solid meals.

The second reason is that my solid meals are clean and bland tasting, which take me time to get them down as I work. I work in a high stress career that also involves impromtu meetings. Sometimes I will quickly down a drink before I have to go to a meeting rather than skip a scheduled meal.

When I competed in bodybuilding my meals would run together. By the time I finished one it would be time to start the next. As my metabolism has increased since upping the intensity of cycling training along with resistance training (I am not a competitive cyclist) I find that I need more calories and rather than fill those calories with "wasted calories" I would rather up the calorie intake with liquid meals between the solid food meals.

Again I would not speculate as to why the cyclist mentioned follows this program, but I can list why I do and that I have had success following this program for the past 15 years. I do want to say that I believe in following the traditional meal schedule using solid natural foods, but I have to juggle my career with training.

When I was cycling at Fort Lewis "the drip" was spoke of and used for athletes who were looking to lose a little bit of weight coming onto a big event.
I remember Cody Pederson and Tom Danielson "dripping" right before 2003 Nationals... It is a good way to keep the metabolism going and monitor caloric intake. It is not advised to be using it year round though