Hunger!

[amcgltdchix]

I've been seriously biking for a few weeks now and I can really tell a difference in my appetite. I am hungry ALL the time.

Is this NORMAL???

[Blueberry]

Yep. At least it is for me. I'm trying to ride and calorie restrict (no, not too low, but I can't eat everything in sight and lose weight.....)

It's HARD. I end up moving part of my calories for the day around so I can eat when I get back from riding - to re-build and re-plenish (and to make sure I'm not starving for hours). Also lots of fiber (filling) and lean protien (sticks with me) plus many servings of fruits and veggies.

It's particularly bad the day after a longish bike ride - it's like my body says *hey - you just burned all that fuel - you'd better feed me*.

[CyclaSutra]

How much is "seriously" biking? Are you eating during rides?

If you think about it, depending on how much you weigh and what heart rate you're at, you can easily burn 500-600/calories an hour with a good bike ride. THat's TWO of those little frozen Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice frozen meals. (Sorry, I suck at cooking, so that's my comparison.) That's FOUR skim 16-ounce sugar-free lattes. That's a lot of calories.

You certainly don't have to take in all the extra calories you burn, if you're trying to lose weight, but your body needs enough calories to build muscle and feed your brain.

I don't eat on easy rides or anything under 90 minutes, but if I'm gone 2 hours there's Cytomax (Gatorade-y stuff) involved, and longer than that, I'm eating 200-300 calories an hour via gel or cookies or nuts, etc. And if I commute an hour to work, I almost always calorie-splurge on that skim milk latte.

Eat to ride, ride to eat...

[amcgltdchix]

[QUOTE=CyclaSutra]How much is "seriously" biking? Are you eating during rides?

I bike every other day for at least 2 hours at a time, and on the weekends for about 3 hours (I drag a 2 year old with me and still manage 17mph!)

The other days I'm either in dance class or weight lifting. I take 1 day off for rest.

But boy, last sat I was waiting for dinner and the pain of hunger was unbelievable. And I tend to eat every 3 hours regardless.

But no, now that you mention it. I do not take a snake with me on rides, and I should. *brain fart*

[SadieKate]

From Arnie Baker's Bicycling Medicine,

Calories consumed per hour were said to be (0.046 x V x W) + (0.66 x V3), where V=velocity in miles per hour, and W=weight of rider and bike in pounds. 22 additional calories were said to be used per 100 ft of elevation gain for a 176 lb rider and bike. By this formula, a 110-pound woman, riding a 20 lb bike and traveling at 12 mph, would consume about 190 calories per hour. A 150-pound man, riding a 20 lb bike and time trialing at 25 mph, would use about 1,200 calories per hour. These figures are quite approximate. With the same expenditure of energy, aerodynamics and bicycle mechanical efficiency can make a difference of several miles an hour in bicycle speed.

Based on this formula, I would burn 3,700 calories on a 62 mile course with 3,000 ft of climbing and an avg of 15 mph. If it were a completely flat course, calories burned are lowered to approx. 1,360, a lot fewer. I personally think these numbers are a little high but it probably has to do with lean muscle mass (weight to power ratio). Pudge does not burn calories.