What Is the Optimal Diet for Cycling Performance? The Science
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- čas přidán 9. 01. 2021
- What does the science have to say about which diet is the best for improving cycling performance?
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Studies I used in this video:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...
link.springer.com/article/10....
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
academic.oup.com/ajcn/article...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... - Sport
After watching one of Dylan's previous videos, I modified my regular diet to include more veggies, veggie juice, and fruits and it worked for me. Lost 20+ lbs since June without being hangry all the time. Riding 7k miles also helped. I'll admit still eating a bag of tortilla chips, small box of gourmet cookies, and 8 oz of good chocolate per week, but have been practicing grabbing an apple or small bag of almonds when I want a snack.
Good job! It's important not to strive for a "perfect" diet as that makes it a lot more difficult to keep up your healthy lifestyle in the long run. One approach is to eat mostly sensible meals with basic foods and lots of fruits and veg but allow yourself one silly meal each day (or, if you like to eat larger meals with many hours in between, do half healthy-half silly). The silly meal is not bigger or smaller than the meal you would normally have at that time, but includes some less healthy, delicious foods. Maybe you'll have one slice of cake with your coffee on Monday, ice cream as dessert on Tuesday, a small bag of chips on Wednesday, sugary cereals for breakfast on Thursday, Pizza on Friday, Croissants and orange juice for breakfast on Saturday, and a large steak with a glass of wine on Sunday (or whatever is delicious to you). If you're feeling especially hungry, do fill up on low energy foods before going for your indulgence of the day, to help you choose a reasonable portion size. That sounds like a lot of high energy foods, and it will make you feel like you're treating yourself, but if all your other meals are healthy and fairly low in energy density, having a small indulgence every day is a good way of keeping your relationship to food normal and avoiding over-eating at a later time. Once this pandemic is over and we start going to birthday parties and dinners with friends again, having a strategy for incorporating such events into a mostly healthy diet will come in handy.
Add grains and legumes dude!!
As long as doing the bulk of it right then we can enjoy our fav snacks from time to time with no issues, perfect balance 👍
@@SamuelBlackMetalRider 100%. Black beans, chickpeas, lentils, oatmeal, brown rice, etc. Those are key.
I was really expecting backwards-hat-Dylan to be more vocal on this one. He didn’t even mention the carbs in the post ride beer. Come on BHD, i thought you had my back?
thinking the "producer" of this Video must have had brain fog at the time due to macro's in-balance :)
Arent You dylans dad? You also raised the bhd!
@@JasonDBike certainly old enough to be, but no!
Oh s*ht! Sorry!
I think he just gave up.
For a brief moment, Dylan and BHD were so close together in opinion, I thought they were the same person 😯
They also look similar.
Can always support him on Patreon
Wife is a 2X Olympic rower. She traveled the world with a juicer in a carry-on bag (more important than clothes). Made a big difference for recovery. Particularly, carrot juice - tastes good and you can drink large quantities w/o gastro side effects. Her problem was keeping weight on. Late training season, she had to eat nearly every moment she wasn’t working out to stay above 10% (min) body fat.
If she was mainly juicing it’s not really strange that she had problems keeping weight on:p
I used to drink carrot and pineapple juice every morning. I noticed it reduced onset of muscle soreness on long ride, like fondo and above. I suspect it has something to do with beta caroten in carrot, which is a kind of anti oxidant. I didn't notice weight gain with drinking juice, I always has difficulty putting on weight, body fat is around 5-7%, visceral fat 1-2%.
I have recently read about a study that proofed the optimal diet should mainly contain food! I tried it out and feel great so far. Mindblown!!
I hope beer qualifies as liquid “food”.
@@matoberry yes. I checked with my dr. We good
Yes, a balanced diet with mostly whole food is the way to go. That's what I always believe. My buddies keep arguing tons of bacon and no pasta is the only way.
This channel has become the holy grail for endurance cycling training. I have been adopting many of Dylan's advices since early last year. And see significant improvement of my overall performance.
Dylan the only website I've seen that uses statistically significant data to present his discussions. He's good 👍
Great video as always. Your science based information is always spot on!
Great video Dylan. Was looking forward to one like this
Insanely valuable. I look forward to your videos every week. Thank you!
Outstanding. Please keep in coming!
Love your science based approach to both training and diet. Many thanks!
Nicely done, Dylan!!😎
This was really helpful and clear breakout. Thank you!
Greatly appreciate you breaking something down that manifested as a full understanding in my mind of what I had already been doing... FEELS GOOD to see folks with a sense of what the digestive tract wants... it is not that hard.
This was great Dylan!
Another great video. More Backward-Hat Dylan!
Dude! SPOT ON!!!!!!! Well done. Thank you as always! This is my favorite CZcams channel. Wish I could afford to hire you as my coach!
This info so helpful bruh. Just did a big effort yesterday and feeling depleted. Thinking lots about nutrition. Thanks Dylan!!
This such a great video !!! And so much truth on it !! Thanks again
"Crush goals in a D race on Zwift...” 😆😆😆😆🙌🏽
COBRA KAI!!!!
It’s Crushing SKULLS
Good info! Like always! Ride On
Thanks for your research, Mr. Johnson!! Rgr
I like it when Backwards Hat Dylan get's something right. It#s like he is the true genius
Excellent work! Perfect video to share with all your friends who are on some impossible to follow "diet". Also interesting is the age of a few studies.
"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." - Michael Pollan
Broken down nicely without being condescending, thank you very much for the great content
Always fun to see Francis Cade's footage in the background.
Very helpful, thanks!
Excellent summary of the optimal nutrition for endurance athletes.
Thanks for making the content digestible(no pun intended) for the people! Keep it up!
The best. Sensible advice. Thanks.
I knew the major points of this video already but I needed to hear them again! Thanks for all the knowledge nuggets, I am certainly going to decrease my intake of meat and increase plant based proteins to replace it.
Good video 🙏
Hey Dylan, could you do a video about the effect of blood donations on cycling/endurance performance? I regularly donate blood and also run and cycle quiet a lot so that would be an interesting topic!
This is a good Q.
500ml drawn will reduce your performance by around 10% for at least 6 weeks.
Good stuff!
Thanks Dylan!
thanks for the information
Great content. Keep it simple- whole foods is definitely the way to go.
Well explained!
You look sharp Dylan!
For the record, I love your videos. When I sent this one to my wife to influence her I need to incorporate these ideas into my/our diet, she said, "I tried to get through it (video) but just couldn't." lol
Cool video! Is there already a video about indoor vs outdoor riding concerning efficiency, performance improvements, etc?
Great video 📹 👍
At least one online cycling coach who understands the power of science. Like the focus on systematic reviews, instead of on single studies (which may or may not have bias).
I was browsing last night for bike parts to restock , I’m a mobile ebike mechanic in Southern California, Doran’s Mobile Ebike Repair, and some titanium bolts caught my eye. I looked at my beautiful race bike and thought, there’s one thing I haven’t done to lighten it, then I thought about how I could lose about 70 lbs of fat! Certainly that would be better gains!😊
Good job💪💪
0:40 was more than enough for me to drop a thumbs up on the video.
Spot on! In the past two years I took off 65 lbs. and even just participated in the Gran Fondo Hincappie in SC. Filling up on low calorie density foods is the way to go. Harley Durian is entertaining but .....
Can you do a video on the impact of bike setup (saddle height was the main one I was thinking) on performance / injury prevention? Love the videos 👍
Low calorie density - my 2 favourite Fitness CZcamsrs aligned #Coach Greg and DJ rock 🤘
Greetings to a fellow circle!
Great video. I was hoping to hear more about meat and dairy because they are very many types with different benefits yet some controversy. For example, I find that including non-sweetened yoghurt really helps my gut.
I appreciate your use of science. As far as counting calories I don't think it's a bad idea for athletes to do it once in a while (maybe a few days a month) to make sure they have a concept of how much food they should be eating. Anecdotal but I have been counting calories and staying within macro ratios I set with my wife (she has been into this for a while so more experienced in nutrition) since March 2020. Not only did I lose 20lbs and went from Dadbod to super lean, but my FTP also went from 250 to 275 over the course of the weight loss. I credit this to being fueled for my daily rides and especially my Tue/Thur harder trainer workouts. FYI for anyone reading we don't prioritize protein too high and I take in only .6g/lb of bodyweight. Carbs are what has helped the most IMO. I am now just maintaining this healthy weight, and I keep getting faster - no racing sadly with covid but taking lots of local KOMs :) A tip that works for me with all this is I eat the same thing for breakfast and my two lunches daily. Oatmeal (double serving) with a scoop of whey in AM, 400g of roasted sweet potato with lean ground turkey for one lunch, and a simple turkey and cheese sandwich on some yummy Dave's Killer Seed bread as my second. For dinner, my wife always home cooks a sensible dinner for the fam. Another FYI, I do not count any calories taken in during workouts or rides. - Cheers and thanks for the content
No vegetables?
Yes, yes, and yes! ...and a "barley soda" now and then. :)
Idea for a video, what’s the best pre and post ride routine? I’ve seen your warmup video but what about post ride, stretches etc?
Thanks Dylan, it may seem daft but I would love to see you link to some specific recipes that are your regular go-tos. I struggle to come up with simple, affordable and tasty recipes. Whenever I google for vegan meals I get horrendously complex/fancy recipes designed for Instagram looks and not practical and easy preparation when in a rush - I don’t have much time during the week to spend an hour cooking
Hi Dylan, I saw awhile ago on TrainerRoad channel that they were saying to avoid antioxidants within 12 hours of exercise. Their logic was that oxidation is what causes fitness and anti-oxidants undo the oxidative stress from the workout; and thus undo some of the benefit of the workout. What are your thoughts on this? I will try to find the video, but it was over a year ago and I'm not sure which video it was.
Yep, Love it, brother! I’m so glad that you avoided the hype of so many diets and just kept it at a very simple level. I totally agree with the Whole Foods approach. And one other obvious benefit with high-fiber is it so much better for your overall gastrointestinal tract.
Zero pros eat a whole food diet. You WON'T get enough carbs. You WILL flop. Try eating a banana and riding up a climb at 450w. You NEED refined sugar. NOTHING is as important food wise.
@@durianriders are you talking about race nutrition or general eating even on non-race days?
@@matoberry Well I only climb at that power when racing my balls off. A banana will be fine for the social ride.
@@durianriders Adam Hansen is a pro cyclist who eats a whole foods plantbased diet 😂😂 Almost all the pros eat rice cakes during a race. Who TF eats banannas during a race?
Well, what do you understand here with whole food? He describes pretty much a vegan diet even if he doesn't say it. ^^
Great job, Dylan! After watching this video, I'm feeling pretty darn good about my consumption of low-sodium V8 juice before and after every ride. Not sure about the 6-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon I also have to "rinse my palate." 😲 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
mmmm love me V*8 juice
@@2321brendan 🤣
Great video overall! I have to remain skeptical about the "fuit juice" studies. First of all they conclude cherry juice/blueberry is associated with muscle recovery and anti-oxydation, unlike what you said, they are not that establishing any real causality links. Second, their description of "placebo" is not precise enough ; if that placebo doesn't contain carbs, then we have a very big flaw on our hands since we know carb intake, especially directly post exercise has a massive impact on recovery, mostly through the promotion of glycogen resynthesis, but maybe other ways too. Since fruit juices post exercise will promote both glycogen resynthesis and anti-oxidation, without a placebo containing equal amounts of carbs it's a very far stretch to conclude that anti-oxidation is the important factor for muscle recovery and performance ; you can't even conclude that it has any impact on recovery.
I am a type 2 diabetic so it's really tricky to get the right amount of carbs in my diet. Fortunately my races are a little over an hour long so usually 1clif bar before will do. For longer rides I take along my b/s meter and wear a sensor on my arm. This gives me instant results. I also take along additional Clif bars just in case of a b/s drop.
Love your "pompadour" now you don't need a hat ! ;-) have a great year !
Another great video. I was wondering as you age would you need to put more emphasis on certain macros such as protien to help maintain muscle?
Hi Dylan. Could you make a video on braking-down, why having a personal coach (like you, for example), or individually developed training plan is better than, for example, planning everything on your own, based on information, which you present in your channel?
I think is not really better to have a coach. You just Safe insane amounts of time which you would need to spend to get all the information yourself.
@@saftschubse9575 For some it's also helpful to stick to a routine and stay motivated if there's someone monitoring/following your workouts.
Just selecting a random training plan is simple, the hard part is following through.
Hi Dylan, great vid as always. A few points and questions.
Nice to see something about spices and dried herbs for anti oxidants, I try and sneak them in lot of my meals. Cinammon and tiny bit of tumeric goes in my overnight oats (when I have them).
Q1, What are you thoughts (and what does the science studies say) about BCAA supplements for running and cycling?
Q2, What are your opinion (and studies...) about exercising fasted? I see alot online about body builders and I am doing more for fat adaption and better for longer rides. I just ran 5km at medium pace after a 16 hour fast and I feel pretty good for it. Sometimes I also (~1 hour indoor) cycle after 16 hour fast and feel good for it. I understand that fuelling and carbs are important for high intensity or longer efforts.
Thanks for your videos.
You are a smart man 👍👍👍🚴♂️
People should do a lab test before and after to monitor which macronutrients to eat for optimal heath and performance. Whole foods is a minimum. I do 10% carbs, 30% protein and 60% fat. I have plenty of energy and optimal for health according to biologic age calculator. Everybody is different and nutrition is a very confused discussion. Like you have done, your recommendations are based on science but we need to be cautious and critical of each study to support our optimal strategy. Thanks again for a well prepared video.
Great video. Plant based for over a year and 5kg lighter. Would love a video on how to lose weight on a plant based diet without losing power. Cheers :)
I have not found lack of power to be an issue. In fact I feel like I have more energy and can push to the limit easier.
Do a video on your 24 hour solo races. Eating, pacing strategies training and light setup.
Dylan, thank you. Hugely helpful as per usual. Would be great to get your opinion on alcohol consumption as a competitive cyclist. How many glasses of wine/beer can we have - let's say weekly/daily - before it becomes detrimental? Also, where do things like treats/desserts fit in? Cut them out all together, one small treat a day, ? Any help here would be excellent.
Can you do a similar review of science/literature on effective liquids and hydration requirements? I’d love to see BHD with a gallon of water to drink.
I generally crush 6-7 ipas after each ride ..gotta stay hydrated!
Lots of carbs too. Isn't alcohol a micronutrient?
@@Traditionalforestpr maybe I should switch it up and crush six ipas before the ride and then have a screwdriver as a post recovery drink
@@Traditionalforestpr wait a minute scratch the screwdriver I'll have a bloody Mary
Dylan, can you do a video on intermittent fasting and endurance athletes?
Have a look 👀 at Vegan Cyclist Tyler Pearce videos mate, if not already checked out!🤙
This is awesome, as almost every one of Dylan's videos are; however, it would have been great if the video could address the fact that low calorie dense food is almost always high fibre density. For some of us, eating a low calorie dense diet is not a challenge because we miss eating meat or because we don't like the taste of vegetables but because of the gastric stress of too much fibre. Any scientific studies on this?
@12:11 Blueberries Rock!
two questions, neither closely related to this video though. first, I regularly commute by bike to work, what should I avoid and what should I try to be doing with the opportunity for a twice daily workout? is it just a matter of fueling properly during the day? or how should I structure my way home and my way back? and second, cycling performance is heavily dependent on watts per kilo. how does one know when they should be focused on losing weight vs building power? or are those two things mutually inclusive? sorry for the long comment :) eager to hear your input!
One dislike, must be Olie from GCN 🤣
Or Hank who is going Vegan for Jan ! Following Jeremy already critiqued by DJ
“But I just love eggs” 🤣
@@marcdaniels9079 Haha just an experiment for Hank, he will soon be back to a normal diet when he’s weak as a kitten on the bike drip white.
@@marcdaniels9079 What did Harley say about him?
Thanks. Honest question. I fully subscribe to your thoughts and eating whole foods. But how do you get in enough calories during the whole day, when you're burning 2-2.5k on your rides? The sheer volume is a big challenge.
Hi Dylan, I appreciate your videos. As far as using nutrition for racing, I have seen SIS and Bonk Breakers energy bars being sold out or not available at this time. Do you recommend any other energy bars for supplements? Thank you.
5:45 , "Hold up, Dylan" guy forgot his backward cap. Seriously, though, good video. Pretty well summarizes the many available studies. The keto diet question comes up often so I'll just refer 'em to this video.
Incidentally, a friend who has gone pretty much full carnivore (he doesn't care about "keto") has made some interesting arguments in favor of a mostly carnivore diet, and against the notions of "magical" foods that are rich in anti-oxidants, etc. Basically it boils down to: "Wouldn't humans be genetically adapted to survive and thrive on *any* available food source? So why would we do better if we consumed fruits and vegetables that cannot grow naturally in some parts of the world?"
While I sort of agreed with his argument, I think it overlooks the fact that for various reasons -- migration forced by warfare, drought, natural disasters -- some people ended up in societies located in inhospitable locations where some crops and food animals cannot thrive. It also overlooks some evidence that people tend to adapt to limited diets over millennia, but that doesn't mean that their restricted diet is optimal for everyone.
Anyway, the folks I know who have gone to full or nearly full carnivore diets seem to be doing very well. They've lost body fat. They feel better and say some items they used to eat -- often related to the nightshade group -- literally made them feel sick, but they didn't realize it for years. But they are not athletes. They are active in terms of doing chores to maintain large homes or rural properties, walking, etc. And they may be genetically adapted to a carnivore diet. But they aren't engaged in activities that would quickly deplete glycogen and rely on carbohydrates to replenish. If they get tired they slow down and rest.
I've tried vegan and carnivore diets for a few months at a time. I cannot digest legumes, including vegan protein powder based on legumes, and even digestive enzyme supplements offer only limited benefit. So perhaps I'm genetically unsuited to a vegan diet. And while I did fine on the carnivore diet, I got bored with meat meat meat eggs eggs eggs cheese cheese cheese. It was fine for long, low to moderate effort workouts, but not great for high intensity. So I resumed eating stuff like bananas, oatmeal or grain-bars, etc., before rides and workouts. And I switched from jerky and meat bars back to Clif bars, gels, even cheap carbs like cookies, for snacks during high intensity rides and workouts. Seems to suit me. No idea whether my subjective impressions match reality because I can't afford a specialty lab to test my methodology.
@@theparalexview785 Just as you say, humans can adapt to lots of diets, but while you don't fall over dead with most diets it's hard to find the one that actually works best for you.
Regarding the carnivores: as long as their diet makes them avoid especially unhealthy habits like having to much high density carbs throughout the day, it's easy to see how they could lose some weight with that. They could have achieved the same result (or maybe better) result with a different diet.
any chance you can do a video about weight gain? Not talked about a lot in cycling and I think it'd be beneficial for people who want to become more explosive or maybe just have a bit more power onboard.
Love the videos
Ride less and lift heavier.
Use same dosage the fast guys use
SUPER!!!!!!!
it would be interesting to see pictures of the dishes that you eat in a typical day
Great content, you did not address the increased protein needs for senior athletes. Any thoughts there?
The local guys here who lo-carb pretty quickly end up agro and moody and so slow they can't do what they used to do a few months earlier. You need to fuel races and interval sessions, this video is spot on point. Leave the fasted rides for the go-slow crew. When they can do 300 watts for 3-5 hours I'll take notice.
One can't escape the need for fruits and vegetables. As an RD to be, this was refreshing to hear compared to what I see or hear in popular media.
Hey Dylan! Do you know Jesse Inchause's Glucore Revolution theories? Take a look at the book ;)
Do you think the tips shown to avoid glucose and insulin spikes could affect an optimal diet for cycling? Do glucose and insulin spikes have actually something to do with actual nutrition (a.k.a. giving your body what it actually needs for cycling)? Or are these tips just good practices for your daily life? 🤔🤔🤔
Thanks for your content. Great video, as usual 😉
Good one! I just try to buy most of my food from the outside /perimeter of the grocery store (fruits & veggies) and less from the middle (processed stuff). Pretty simple and it works.
Also, steel cut oats are the bomb.
That's a good way of thinking about it! I'll steal that one if you don't mind.
@@emmamemma4162 definitely Emma!
Nice!
Hi! This is an older video but I simply had to put my input here
I am an American cyclist who competes at national rank and will be able to soon compete in UCI (I’m just at the cutoff for the age limit so I’ll be old enough next year)
I used to be overweight, but I was trying to loose weight by restricting calories, and counting macros and then I reached a weight plateau and I simply could not shred the body fat, I could NOT perform at full comapacity as I went low carb and low fat, and felt like crap going to train, it stressed me out and I found myself getting extremely fatigued physically on all aspects
However, I watched your videos as I decided, screw macros I’m going to do more research on low ED foods, I started buying my own food (my household is unfortunately a fan of processed food) which mainly consisted of fruits and veggies, which had the carbs I needed, and incorporating legumes and the amount of protein I needed rather than consuming outlandishly high whey protein after whey, and that’s when my plateau broke. I also started focusing on body fat rather than what I see on a scale…and holy crap I’m happier and healthier than ever! I’m at a good body fat percentage for an athete, and I don’t feel my energy horrendously low anymore during training and unable to sustain my training!
Thank you Dylan, sincerely
How about the antioxidant vs super compensation after training stress. Doesnt antioxidants ruin the super compensation, like inflammatory painkillers???
God I love Dylan's channel and focus on endurance.. ... (Disclaimer: I mimic Eddie "The Beast" Hall's recovery eating techniques, lol).
Can you do a video on supplements??? Baking soda, B-12, Beta Alanine, Creatine, Citrulline Malate, Iron, Magnesium, Nitric oxide, Pre workout, Beetjuice, Zinc, etc.
I remember you already did one on caffeine.
all you need is the hyper gain beast mode supplement
@@ea21411 I know, but it only comes in cupcake flavor. I need it to taste like STEAK!
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL OUR BUSINESS" backwards hat dylan is the man
I've always wondered wether there is any science behind the statrment that organic food is more healthy. Maybe you could make a video on that subject?
Crush Skulls in a D Race on Zwift.. had me chuckle as we all know that is going on....
Great vid as always..unfortunately had to put down my donut to make this post
I am not even a cyclist but this was a very well done video
Out of topic, but do you need to train at a specific time of the day? Like what I mean is does time in the day affect your performance?
Good advise matches my 1st and 2nd string PhD Nutritionists Except -- 2 eggs on toast for breakfast, at least for me.
I would just add that weight loss isn't always the best, expecially if you are already pretty thin
True but very few Americans will reach below 20 bmi I guess. Maybe people prone to eating disorders can
Same here. I can't get enough calories and I'm 50 yrs old 135 lbs, lifting weights like a strongman contest and I still top off smoothies with protein supplements and honey.
@@scottswygert7165 yes I have the opposite problem. I have challenges dropping below like 174lbs. I do about 10 hours cardio a week with 3 days lifting. Its easy to go back to bad habits and overeat or undereat( in your case), unless you are very short and that is excellent weight for you
@@KrazyKrzysztof i'm blessed to be 5'-8" -almost. At 174 lbs. Sounds like you might be a sprinter?
@@KrazyKrzysztof My bmi is 19, but I'm 16 year old and not american hahaha (just joking)