Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

What do you look for when evaluating nutrition?
Quote | Reply
I figure this may be a pretty basic nutrition question here (or maybe I'm just making nutrition endlessly complicated) but I'll ask anyway.


I've never really given much thought to my nutrition other than "don't eat junk food". My raceday nutrition has pretty much always consisted of honey stinger gels and clif bars. While nothing specifically has gone wrong with my nutrition I wanted to re-evaluate this since I feel like I have very little knowledge in this area. I like to think I know the basics about nutrition... Saturated / trans fats are bad, and I understand the purposes/ uses of Carbs, protein, and sugar.

My question is: What do you look for within the nutrition label? Plenty of other lineitems on there such as sodium, potassium, and other vitamins. While I understand their importance in exercise/endurance do you actually factor these in when picking bars/gels? Do you avoid things like sugar alcohols, erythritol, and other shady stuff listed in the ingredients?



Not trying to start some keto/paleo/carbs debate here I'm just trying to get some ideas for what I should prioritize when evaluating bars/gels etc. And yes, I understand that nutritional plans are very personalized.... just trying to get some ideas so that I know I am not missing anything major while I tailor a plan of my own.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Are you looking for information on everyday eating or race day?

If race day, what distance?
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [jimatbeyond] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
jimatbeyond wrote:
Are you looking for information on everyday eating or race day?

If race day, what distance?

Not really looking for advice on a specific distance, more just your thoughts in general about why you choose X bar/gel over Y bar/gel.

ex: is it what causes the least GI distress? Do you consider fiber content? Do you consider the type of protein? Did you pick bar X because it contained potassium and bar Y did not?


I'm honestly just curious about why you chose the specific bars/ gels that you use.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I would normally not eat a bar or gel, but prefer real food.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Trial and error. I tried reading things but quite frankly it didn't work out.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
What I have found is that ultimately it will be trial and error (as mentioned before). I have also found that it is more about the timing of the intake rather than the specific gel/bar itself. Most of the gels/bars have very similar contents and only marginal differences. The marginal differences have been more of a question in "Will this upset my stomach" instead of "Will this postpone dehydration/nutrient depletion/etc". GU, for instance, I have found will not sit happy on my stomach. Honey Stinger and Cliff tend to fair well for me. Some of my racing mates eat GU like its going out of style. If you are from the Scandinavian region, Dexal has done well with me and FAST not so much. Another consideration is the caffeine content. If you are in evening training, consuming gels with caffeine may impact your sleep. Some, it never phases them.

The method I used to go from "what to do" to "this is the plan" started with my indoor cycling. My wife and I started going to the market and purchased a variety of products with different flavors, contents, brands, and packaging. We then lined up a buffet and would start eating a gel every 20 min during a long, aerobic threshold effort. If one caused a stomach issue, we went to the restroom. No problem. If one tasted like last year's chain oil, we just threw it away and grabbed another. After we narrowed down what worked well on the bike, we then would buy more in that category and would consume 1 or 2 during base runs where we stayed relatively close to the house. Through this process, we were able to spend little money and figure out where to start with the nutrition.

On the timing: After we picked our favorite, we started with the brands recommended dosing. We would spread it out after a couple of runs/bikes and then increase to more often and take notes after each training session. I found that I have to take Dexal more often than I do Honey Stinger. If I eat GU, I will be making a pit stop. The Cliff packets are easier to open for me than most others. FAST, well, was used to lubricate my chain.

Some will tell you to look at what the race venue is offering. This is a great idea. However, I would start with a buffet to figure out what will work for you. If the venue offers something that works for you, fantastic! If not, you'll need to plan around that or see if you can experiment with it before hand.

I hope this helps more than just the "trial and error" answer. I got that answer a lot as well when I was trying to figure things out for my nutrition.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
For race day nutrition (especially for 70.3 and longer), I look for complex carbs (maltodextrin) as the main source of CHO. If the products primary source of CHO is simple sugars (eg; honey stinger), I rule it out and won't even bother trying it.

blog
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
PRICE.

Over the years the cost of this sport has been wearing on me a bit. I have trialed a lot of different nutrition over the years and have found my gut to be pretty flexible. (maybe I am not racing hard enough!) That much being said I have found that I prefer some things over others but I have defaulted to the cheapest things that work. Nutrition over a 10 month season can easily go into the hundreds of dollars. Making my own would probably be the least expensive but I don’t have the time or the desire.

Maybe an angle you weren’t expecting or thought about.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Pretty simple:

Race day nutrition - plenty of easy to digest sugars, some sodium and potassium and other trace minerals if it's long and/or hot race, doesn't disagree with my gut, and a taste that is at least somewhat palatable

Everything else - I try to stick mainly to stuff that doesn't really need a label. Fish, good quality meat, lots of veg, try to get most of my carbs from brown rice or other wholegrains. I try to roughly match my carb intake to what I'm burning off in training. I.e. on a day when I do no training I'll try to have very few carbs, but on a day when I'm doing 2 hours of training and burning maybe 1500 calories off then I'll replace most of those calories from carbs. I rarely have sugary sports nutrition in training though - I find I don't need it unless I'm training >2 hours with a fair bit of intensity and no breaks where I can take on other nutrition, I think it's overpriced, it mostly tastes pretty awful, and it rots your teeth. So I mostly train on water and then replace the carbs afterwards or mid-ride. Would much rather get sugary calories from a slice of cake or a flapjack than from a sickly energy gel or drink.

And of course there are days when all of this goes out of the window. I have a sweet tooth and I like a beer or wine, which for me is one of the bonuses of training a lot in that I can have a few drinks, a piece of cake or a few scoops of ice cream and just burn it off. Everything in moderation, including moderation, is a good motto!
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Just like everyone else said simple whole foods. Now not all wholes foods are equal. Look at sweet potatoes vs white potatoes. Sweet potatoes is a superfood and whites potatoes is like eating sugar(kinda). If you are buying process foods, make sure you know all the ingredients on the back. Also look at the dreaded added sugar that is in everything. If you read the labels you will be able to find foods with sugar being one of the last ingredients. The ingredients are listed in a way that the first ingredient is the most used and the 2nd is the 2nd most used.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Don't make it so hard.

Eat stuff that IS an ingredient, rather than stuff that HAS ingredients. If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [cartsman] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
cartsman wrote:
Pretty simple:

Race day nutrition - plenty of easy to digest sugars, some sodium and potassium and other trace minerals if it's long and/or hot race, doesn't disagree with my gut, and a taste that is at least somewhat palatable

Everything else - I try to stick mainly to stuff that doesn't really need a label. Fish, good quality meat, lots of veg, try to get most of my carbs from brown rice or other wholegrains. I try to roughly match my carb intake to what I'm burning off in training. I.e. on a day when I do no training I'll try to have very few carbs, but on a day when I'm doing 2 hours of training and burning maybe 1500 calories off then I'll replace most of those calories from carbs. I rarely have sugary sports nutrition in training though - I find I don't need it unless I'm training >2 hours with a fair bit of intensity and no breaks where I can take on other nutrition, I think it's overpriced, it mostly tastes pretty awful, and it rots your teeth. So I mostly train on water and then replace the carbs afterwards or mid-ride. Would much rather get sugary calories from a slice of cake or a flapjack than from a sickly energy gel or drink.

And of course there are days when all of this goes out of the window. I have a sweet tooth and I like a beer or wine, which for me is one of the bonuses of training a lot in that I can have a few drinks, a piece of cake or a few scoops of ice cream and just burn it off. Everything in moderation, including moderation, is a good motto!


^^^^^^^^

This guy has it figured out.

Race day nutrition for me is liquids only (after a pretty bland, oatmeal and banana breakfast). No matter what distance I am racing, I try to drink approximately 400 calories of electrolyte/carb drink in the 90 minutes before the gun goes off, making sure I am finished at least 15 minutes before start. If the race is short then I am tanked up and only need a little bit of water. Longer races, I will try to consume 4 to 6 calories/kg/hour of the same electrolyte/carb drink while on the bike and then try to take in 1-3 calories/kg/hour of whatever liquid they are offering on course while on the run. Supplement with whatever water you need depending on conditions and this should keep you racing to the finish line.

I used to race with bars, gels and other solids and invariably, when I got to about the half way point of the run my gut would start to get unhappy. Since switching to the all liquid plan I have done dozens of races without any GI upset. It works for me.

Like cartsman, I am not using a whole lot of sugary drinks while training. I am out of the IM business for now, so it is rare that my training takes me so far that I need calories. If I am setting out for something that will take me two hours or more I always throw a couple gels in a pocket as a rescue plan but it is not that often that I need them. This way I can splurge a little bit on custom Infinit for racing and it will last me all season, sometimes longer.

Daily, I try to eat 10! servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Fill in with some lean proteins. Splurge on cake or a donut if the mood is upon me. Split a beer with my wife with dinner. Life is short. We train hard. Food is meant to be enjoyed ;-)

----------------------------
Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.
Last edited by: wannabefaster: Mar 13, 18 6:36
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
One thing that I've found that is rarely discussed is the water-content of nutrition; I read this a couple of years ago in one of the "Feedzone" books by Allen Lim and it's stuck with me. Most off-the-shelf nutrition will, by necessity due to preservation concerns, be very low in water content so you have to drink fluids with them and they may take longer to digest; home-made recipes are undoubtedly more faff than grabbing a pre-packaged bar, but if I have the time I always find it nicer to eat something "real" and usually easier to swallow and digest.

As for how to evaluate options, once I started cooking my own stuff, I started tracking the macros to see just how many calories and grams of carbs I was getting per portion and comparing this to your pre-packaged bars. On long rides I aim for around 300-350 kcal and 50-60 g of carbs per hour, usually divided up into in 2x portions every 30 mins; I limit each of these portions to a maximum of 5 g of fat and 5 g protein (ideally less, to keep carb content >80%) but almost all pre-packaged options will be within these lines anyway. At the end of the day, pure sugar wreaks havoc on my gut after a short while (again the "Feedzone" books have some good background on why this might be the case with regard to the osmolarity of the stuff hitting your small intestine) so I prefer something proper to eat where possible.

As Ironwolf mentions, the turbo trainer is the ideal place to try this out because you can set yourself up a buffet, try out new things and eating at different time intervals to see what your stomach and tastebuds prefer after a few hours of activity. In terms of the ingredients and macros of the pre-packaged options, I don't think there's a whole lot in it to be honest, they all do a similar job in my experience.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [surroundhound] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Thanks for the responses so far, definitely getting some varied suggestions which is very helpful and gets me thinking about what I should look for. The final step of the process will probably be Ironwolf's suggestion and try to make a controlled environment to try several options.




surroundhound wrote:
Don't make it so hard.

Eat stuff that IS an ingredient, rather than stuff that HAS ingredients. If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it.

Sounds like an advertisement for KIND :). I like their stuff for everyday use, but for training their products seem to be a little "dense" for my liking.
Quote Reply
Re: What do you look for when evaluating nutrition? [grtri] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Have you seen this book? You might find it interesting -- I have to admit, I own it, but have yet to get around to making stuff and training with it. I race entirely short-course these days, so I don't typically train long enough sessions to warrant fuelling. And I definitely don't need anything during a race. If I'm heading out for a long ride, I'll stuff a peanut butter sandwich (on quinoa bread) in my jersey pocket, cut into bite size pieces.


https://www.velopress.com/...feed-zone-portables/
Quote Reply