Fuelling post 40: use these six tips to tweak your cycling nutrition for your age

Your body changes over time, and so do your nutritional needs - but it’s easy to adapt and stay strong, here's how...

Male cyclist who is aged over 40 fuelling on the bike
(Image credit: Future)

Midlife tends to be the busiest and most demanding period of our lives. For many of us, work demands are high, we have children who need our attention and support, and (especially now with lockdown restrictions lifting) our social calendars are busy – the days are long. We’re not yet old but nor do we have the boundless energy of youth. We feel tired more often, it takes longer to recover after cycling, and we seem to gain weight more easily, especially around the middle. Is this simply the ‘new norm’ we have to accept now we’re on ‘the wrong side’ of 40? Or can we carry on chasing lifetime best performance while maintaining optimum health? 

The good news is, most of the challenges of midlife have less to do with our age, far more to do with our changed lifestyles and bad habits that have crept in over the years. Maintaining cycling performance and holding off the effects of ageing can be helped enormously by eating well and looking after your body while making a few allowances for the fact you’re not as young and sprightly as you once were. As a performance nutritionist who has been working with clients at all levels of sport over the past 20 years,  I have compiled six simple cycling nutrition rules to help you stay fit as you age, cycling into your 40s, 50s and beyond.

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Performance nutritionist Dr Marc Bubbs is the author of ‘Peak 40: The New Science of Mid-Life Health for a Leaner, Stronger Body and a Sharper Mind’.