Anabolic Diet and Cycling

Nutrition
1

Greetings all,

So I’m in the middle of the induction phase of the Anabolic diet (the 12 day period of high fat, high protein, very low carb) and I have a long cycling event (100 mile ride, I’ll be burning almost 5000 calories over about 7 hours) scheduled for what will be day 6 of this.

Any of you guys that have done cycling realize how big a deal carb intake is for longer rides, and how dumb I probably am to attempt this.

Yes, I’m probably stupid for trying this, I’ll own that. But I’m just curious to see what you think – should I stay strict to the AD during the ride (I figure a lot of string cheese and maybe some deli meat taken with me could possibly work) or is it ok to have a carb day on day 6, given the circumstances?

Thanks,

2

[quote]hankinstien wrote:
Greetings all,

So I’m in the middle of the induction phase of the Anabolic diet (the 12 day period of high fat, high protein, very low carb) and I have a long cycling event (100 mile ride, I’ll be burning almost 5000 calories over about 7 hours) scheduled for what will be day 6 of this.

Any of you guys that have done cycling realize how big a deal carb intake is for longer rides, and how dumb I probably am to attempt this.

Yes, I’m probably stupid for trying this, I’ll own that. But I’m just curious to see what you think – should I stay strict to the AD during the ride (I figure a lot of string cheese and maybe some deli meat taken with me could possibly work) or is it ok to have a carb day on day 6, given the circumstances?

Thanks,[/quote]

Wow, yeah good luck bro. Um… the only thing I can suggest is that you have 30grams worth of complex carbs before you go to bed and then more before the race. Possibly save half of your 30grams for something you can consume during the race.

Also, we have an Anabolic Thread going with lots of info in it and a lot of people that do it regularly. You might just want to piggyback these questions in that thread.

J

3

Yeah, not a smart thing. Anabolic and aerobic don’t mix well.

Bring some sharkies with you. Doing that on you “week end” is best.

4

You must eat carbs during your ride or you won’t make it to the finish line (ever hear of “the bonk”?). Don’t skimp during the ride - 30g won’t cut it - something closer to 500-1000g of simple carbs is more like it. And cheese and meat won’t do squat for glycogen replacement, which is what you need - simple carbs work best. Any carbs you eat during the ride don’t count for your diet as they will be burned for energy.

5

Hi OP,
I would be interested to hear how you mix cycling and weight lifting?
Im about to start cycling a bit more, but still want to lift weights. I think trying to cycle on an anabolic diet is a little bit silly.

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6

You shouldn’t be on low carbs leading up to an endurance event.

7

[quote]pcdude wrote:
You must eat carbs during your ride or you won’t make it to the finish line (ever hear of “the bonk”?). Don’t skimp during the ride - 30g won’t cut it - something closer to 500-1000g of simple carbs is more like it. And cheese and meat won’t do squat for glycogen replacement, which is what you need - simple carbs work best. Any carbs you eat during the ride don’t count for your diet as they will be burned for energy.[/quote]

Thanks, this is probably what I’ll end up going with, and pick the diet back up afterwards, its just bad timing on my part.

[quote]Hi OP,
I would be interested to hear how you mix cycling and weight lifting? [/quote]

I loves me some cycling, almost as much as I love weight lifting. The truth is, I’d do the cycling even if there was no calorie burn, I just enjoy it, although I enjoy heavy deadlifts even more.

As far as mixing the two, I really only do cycling on the weekends these days, usually one long ride, somewhere around 40-60 miles is enough to give me my fix for the week, and then the rest of the week is spent doing standard weight training (right now I’m on a 4 day split, but I’ve also done 5 day splits or 3 day full body routines).

Admittedly, it’s probably better to split it up and do 2 or 3 shorter rides of like 20 miles during the week rather than one big long one, but thats what serves my schedule best right now, plus I ride with some friends and its what they like to do.

Just leave a couple of days between a heavy leg day and your long ride, otherwise pain will ensue.

For me though, weights are the focus, and bikes are just for fun. Because I don’t want to sacrifice lifts for biking, I’m not nearly as fast as the people I ride with, and I don’t do any “training” on the bike (like speed workouts, intervals, hill repeats, etc.) I just go at a comfortable pace for a comfortable distance, and try not to let it interfere with my lifting. It keeps me from being a really good biker, but I don’t care so much about that, it’s just a fun hobby for me. Thus, I keep it pretty sporadic. If I get the mileage too high, it starts to interfere with my lifting (especially squats, deads, and any leg work) and that is unacceptable, but keeping it reasonable (for me, probably 80-100 miles a week or less) is a good amount that doesn’t interfere with the lifts.

Just experiment and find the balance that works for you. It’s definitely fun, and I don’t ever want to stop doing it.

Thanks for the advice guys!

8

Hi Hankinstein,

Only one ride a week? Really that isnt enough to gain any “bike fitness”. IMO you need to be riding atleast 3 times a week to benefit from cycling. I know you ride only for fun, but progression is fun.

I plan to ride 3 times a week, two 20 mile rides by myself finished of with a set of hill sprints, and one 40 mile ride on the weekend with a bunch of other guys. The hardest bit will be juggling timing of my lifting sessions and remembering to eat like a mofo. With these relatively short distances Im hoping for some increase in leg size, and I welcome the additional cardiovascular benefits.

“…progression is fun.”
-theBird

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9

Bird,

Sounds like a great plan, thats probably the level of riding I would do in an ideal world, but right now, I don’t usually have enough time to both lift and ride, so I choose lifting. Riding on your non-lifting days should be easy, I think the only hard part will be if you do any heavy leg lifts.

Good luck!