How eating healthy increases cycling performance

Last Updated on 11 September 2021:

While chasing perfection is a fool’s goal, eating as close to perfect as possible will certainly improve your cycling performance. There are many challenges that we face in getting this right, this article will aim to help you through them.

Covered in this blog:

• The basics of nutrition 
  • Macronutrients
    • Fat
    • Protein
    • Carbohydrate
  • Micro-nutrients
  • Quality
  • Common nutrition myths busted
• The best nutrition plan to increase cycling performance 
  • Top ten tips
• The best nutrition plan to lose weight while cycling
  • Common questions and answers
• The psychology of eating
  • Awareness
  • Rhythm and balance

The basics of nutrition

When working with my clients, we focus on three main areas; macronutrients, micronutrition, and the quality of each. 

Macronutrients

Macronutrients are fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. If you pretend your body is like a car, this is like the fuel you put in it. Here’s a brief understanding of each.

Fat

In food, fats are categorised as saturated, unsaturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fats. As well as providing our body with fuel, fats also have other benefits such as keeping our skin and joints healthy. We find fat in both meat and plant sources such as oily fish, avocados and coconut.

Protein

Protein is made up of amino acids and is essential to building muscle mass. We find protein in meat products as well as plant sources such as legumes, nuts and seeds.

Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates (carbs) are made up of naturally occuring sugar, starch and fibre. Carbs make up a large part of how we fuel our body, alongside fats. We find carbs in fruits, grains and vegetables, as well as processed sources such as sugar.

Micro-nutrients

Micro-nutrients are typically found in plants. If you’re still pretending your body is like a car, this is the oil you put in it. You can put the best quality fuel in your car, but without oil, it won’t work very well.

Quality

No matter what food you eat, choose the highest quality version of that food. Do a little research into where your food comes from and note that fresh doesn’t always mean healthy.

Here are my top foods to avoid:

• Man-made fats (hydrogenated oils, margarine, fried foods, crisps, biscuits etc.)
• Refined sugar (syrups, white sugar, artificial sweeteners, soft drinks etc.)
• Processed foods (bread, pastas, biscuits, cakes, cereals etc.)
• Dairy (cheese, milk, yoghurt etc.)
• Poor quality meats (meat that isn’t free range etc.)

Common nutrition myths busted

Bringing back everyone’s favourite misinformed riding buddy, “Dave”, as the inspiration for busting some of these myths, as we all have that one friend who often has an answer to everything, and often that answer is little more than anecdotal ‘broscience’. 

Myth: Specific diets should work for everyone

Not at all. While there might not be much science to specifically tell us why dieting works for some and not others, we can safely say that everyone will most likely experience dieting in different ways. 

Myth: It has healthy written on it; it must be healthy

Total myth I’m afraid. I’m not aware of any place on Earth where the term ‘healthy’ is protected. Without those protections, anyone can call their product healthy, even though it’s the exact opposite. Consider learning to read labels or, even better, not buying food that needs a label at all. 

Myth: Fat makes you fat

Another complete myth and one, thankfully, we are starting to see as general understanding now. Fats are essential to life and will aid in many bodily functions; including maintaining good brain health. 

Myth: A calorie is a calorie

More bull. Simply consider whether you’d ride your bike better if you ate all your caloric intake from fruits and vegetables, or from donuts…

Myth: Supplements are a good replacement food

The two only caveats to this myth are when convenience forces you to supplement (for example when you can’t eat a meal after training) and when you have a mineral or nutrient deficiency that makes supplementing a good idea.

Myth: Water is all I need to hydrate after exercise

Not at all. You lose electrolytes in your sweat and should consider replacing these as well. In fact, adequate hydration can be crucial in recovery from training.

The best nutrition plan to increase cycling performance

Alright, there’s not a one-size fits all answer to this, sorry! Some people have a great experience on the ketogenic diet, some people might have epic results as a vegan athlete, and others might get great results just eating what’s available. Of course, you might be wondering which diet is best for you, which diets are fads, and how to even get started with all this, so let’s start with the same basics I teach my clients.

Here are my top ten tips to utilise nutrition to improve your cycling performance (in no particular order):

1. Focus on eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables (far more than 5-a-day)
2. Eat enough of the right foods at the right time to support your training
3. Eat a balanced diet (focus on seeing all three macronutrients on your plate at every meal)
4. Change only one factor at a time (if you start training differently, wait two weeks before you change your diet)
5. Test everything for at least two weeks
6. Keep a record of what you ate and your performance, for just two weeks, every time you change something
7. Consider where you source your food from (local trumps organic)
8. Implement some form of mindfulness practise (especially focused on noticing when you crave food, but aren’t actually hungry)
9. Focusing on your training, while simply eating healthily, is probably the best (self-coached) way to lose weight, while still building – or at least maintaining – power
10. Get help where needed

The best nutrition plan to lose weight while cycling

The most important factor, when trying to lose weight while cycling, is to remember that you are different to everyone else. What works for one person, might not work for you. Practise mindfulness, listen to your body, try anything changes for at least two weeks, change only one thing at a time, and make adequate notes on what you did, how you felt, and what is working (or what isn’t).

Here are some common weight loss questions that I’m often asked.

Q. Is the best way to lose weight to eat less and train more?

Not really, especially as a long-term strategy, as constantly being in calorie deficit might have the knock on effect of slowing your metabolism; which will mean you keep having to burn more calories (or eat less), in order to see weight loss. Of course, there is the challenge of settled weight theory. Ultimately, you might want to lose weight in stages, dropping 10% of your body weight and then holding that for 2-3 months. This method typically results in a longer and more consistent weight loss, with the added benefit of it staying off longer term too.

Q. Is the reason I eat too much a lack of willpower?

Again, not necessarily. You might crave food for a number of reasons, some psychological and some physiological. If you are training hard, especially longer and more intense rides, you will be burning through and depleting your glycogen stores. Once low enough, your body might start having some pretty hardcore cravings, as it’s your body’s way of signalling you need them. Consider having several different types of fuelling strategy for each different type of ride.

Q. I eat all the right foods and in the right amounts but I never lose weight, how come?

This is an enigma to most people, and probably the best reason to start some form of meditation or relaxation practise, if you’re focused on losing weight. The stress and focus involved in trying to lose weight, is often enough to cause your body to actually hold onto it. If you’re new to meditation, try apps like Calm, Headspace, or Balance – they often have discounts and free trial periods. Also try slowing down when eating. Practise being the last person to finish their meal or, if you live alone, focusing on your breathing while eating (obviously not inhaling both air and food at the same time!).

The psychology of eating

The final piece of this puzzle comes from your mentality around eating. This is something we aren’t often taught when we are younger, so most of us can make great improvements by learning the following factors.

Awareness

This is very simple, but easily missed, ignored, or forgotten. How do you feel after you eat? If you’re eating a diet high in quality ingredients, the hope is you’re feeling amazing. It might be easier to understand the opposite though. How do you feel when you binge on unhealthy food? Probably pretty bad.

A simple exercise to try, if you’ve never really thought about this before, is to just be more present when eating your food. Mentally note how good your food looks, how good it tastes, how good you feel after eating it. Over time, this practise will increase your mindfulness and gratitude towards what you eat, which will in turn reduce stress and increase general wellbeing; a key to unlocking significant performance gains.

Rhythm and balance

Lastly, we want you to be focusing on creating a calm and relaxing environment when you eat, slowing how quickly you eat and enjoying it. With this you’ll be boosting your guts ability to digest the nutrients you’ve provided it.

Find somewhere quiet to eat, either on your own or with your friends and family. Try to reduce noise and just be in good company.