My 'healthy diet' goes out the window after a ride, does it matter and how can I avoid post-ride overeating?

We’ve most likely all been there: you’re following a strict diet in the pursuit of an improved power-to-weight ratio, but the evening after a ride, you find yourself raiding the cupboards or – worse – waking up hungry and basking in the glow of a nighttime fridge excursion.

As common as this experience is, it’s likely a symptom of poor nutritional timing, and it can have a bigger impact on performance, recovery, and body composition than many people realise.

Andy Turner

PersonAndy is a sports and exercise scientist. He is a cycling coach at ATP Performance, and also works as a wind tunnel operator and performance consultant at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub. Andy spent three years riding for a UCI cycling team, and will be answering reader questions monthly in our 'Ask a Cycling Coach' series. Got a question? Pop it in the comments for Andy to review.

Post-ride overeating typically happens because you didn't fuel adequately before or during the ride, or because you didn't fuel well right after the session. To understand why, we need to look at a few fundamentals.

When we cycle, we use energy. Power through the pedals is the work we produce, but heart rate tells us how hard we had to work internally to produce this. Most training devices and software will tell us the power and kilojoules, or calories, used during a session; heart rate helps give us an indication of what sources of fuel we are using to produce that energy. At lower intensities, we use a higher proportion of fats, and the higher the intensity gets, the more carbohydrates we use.

Even after an effort, we use more energy than normal as we recover, including after we’ve stopped riding altogether. Elements such as high heat, altitude increases, and fatigue can all increase the ratio of carbohydrates we use at a given relative intensity.

Many riders make mistakes because they are not aware of the volume of carbohydrates they should be consuming. They may also struggle to get the appropriate volume in, resulting in a debt that needs to be paid later on.

An ideal volume would be anywhere from 60 to 120 grams per hour depending upon intensity and nutritional conditioning; pro riders will train themselves to be able to intake on the higher end. That’s between 2 to 4 typical energy gels, or 3 to 6 small bananas. If it sounds like a lot, you’re probably underfueling your rides.

If you’ve been underfueling during rides for years, this might sound like a lot of food. If you’re heading out for a club ride with friends, you may wonder how you could get through this much food whilst still maintaining a sociable conversation. The answer is practice and planning: it’ll take time to train your gut to tolerate adequate volume during a ride, but you also need to find foods that work for you.

Recommended carb intake during the ride

Volumes are not based upon body weight intentionally, gut length does not change with height, a smaller rider putting out more watts will actually require more input.

The upper end of the high intensity bracket would require gut training.

Post-ride, a common guideline is 20-30g of protein, followed by 80-120g of carbs for longer or harder sessions, a 1:4 ratio of protein to carbs. That’s a five-egg omelette and 100-150g of dried white rice; a personal favourite for me was always three eggs, a tin of beans and three slabs of toast.

Whilst replacing the carbs hours later, over a pub lunch or large evening meal, may be more inviting, it won’t work. For those without insulin irregularities, sugars and simple carbohydrates consumed during exercise and directly after it are processed very differently compared to food consumed hours later.

If you consume 100g of sugar at rest, a good amount of this will be deposited as fat stores. If you consume this during exercise, it is prioritised as a fuel source for the work. If it is consumed afterwards, it is generally directed towards replenishing muscle glycogen stores.

Consuming the carbohydrates required during and after exercise ensures you have greater performance during the session, replenishes stores ahead of the next session, and avoids the calories input being directed towards fat stores.

A bonus is that if you fuel correctly, you should have far fewer cravings later on, which means you avoid large intakes of sugar or rich and processed foods, which have a reduced positive impact on training, and contribute to gains in body fat.

So even though refined and processed sugars get a bad rap in the media, when consumed at the correct time, for active athletes these simple sugars are required and highly beneficial. Eating an entire bag of sweets on the sofa at 10pm won’t be good, but during a hard session it will likely have a positive impact on performance and recovery, while reducing cravings later.

It’s about eating the right stuff, at the right time, for the right level of activity. I find many riders I work with are underfuelling until we address the problem, changing these habits tends to have a notable and positive impact on recovery, performance, post-session tiredness and mood in general.