How can I preserve my hard earned muscle mass on endurance days? How do you eat and refuel on those days?
I like going for multi day hikes, bike tours and raves. I do not know how to fuel my body properly. I am at the end of a cut and I am afraid I will lose muscles on those days. Hence, I'd like to be prepared for the future.
My naive approach is to roughly calculate the kcal it takes and eat that more on that day. E.g.
C = kph * hours
where C is the total calorie consumption and kph stands for kalories per hour.
I think this is too naive. I read that people eat gels during marathons. Is that also the way to go for this? Is there something comparable that is natural? I am not sure which source is good and trustworthy and which source is just pseudo-science.
E.g. this post from muscleandfitness which states
additional calories burned are replaced using a macronutrient ratio of 75% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 5% fat
Or racecast writes
- Start fueling at 40–45 min — not when you feel tired.
- Target 60–90 g/hr of carbs for marathons (30 g/hr if you're new to fueling).
- 90 g/hr requires dual-transport fuels (glucose + fructose) + 4–6 weeks of gut training.
- Chase standard gels with water, never sports drink.
- Hydrate to thirst — 400–800 ml/hr is typical; heat raises this.
- Caffeine gel at 45–65% of race time for peak effect at miles 18–22.
It depends a lot on how intense your activities are. 6+ hours easy pace where you are not out of breath and can maintain conversations means a lot of energy can still come from fat burning, so you can fuel more easily in a few large wholefood meals with some candybars or snacks in between. The gels and stuff come in when you go more intense for long durations as you use more carbs and when carbs are depleted you start using protein for energy.
I make my own gels with 100 gram maltodextrine, 50 gram fructose and a bit of pectine, in 100 ml liquid (boiling water or water+flavoring like espresso/lemon juice). You can put them in refillable babyfood pouches and store in the fridge for a few days. My gut likes them because they are easy to absorb and don't contain unusual flavorings and chemicals. For 6+ hour efforts I would stop at 60 grams/hour just because the longer duration makes it harder to tolerate high sugar amounts for the gut, but that's personal and can be trained.
The gel recipe came from a youtube video.. if I find it back I'll add the link.
Meaning, just go the naive route and fuel with gels for high intense sessions and muesli bars and fruits for light tours?
Pretty much yes. And listen to your body in how different foods make you feel on the bike. For me headaches and low appetite/mild nausea after a ride were the big indicator I hadn't eaten enough.
Just eat a big bowl of pasta the night before.
That works up to a point, but not on multiday rides and definitely not when doing high intensity stuff. And "carb loading" is recommended to be done for 2-3 days, not just the night before.
Fancy sugar is not going to address lactic acid in muscles for long rides. Internet cyclists love sugar intake, yet somehow I avoided this my entire life.
Well done you.. meanwhile sport science and the experience of most amateur cyclists I know, including myself, say fancy sugar is actually extremely helpful.