Nutritioninterview

HOW CYCLISTS CAN GET LEAN & STAY LEAN FOREVER | ALEX LARSON

with Alex Larson

44:45·16 December 2024

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ALEX LARSON

Alex Larson is a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist working with endurance athletes and cyclists internationally. Through her practice she has built a reputation for helping serious amateurs lose body fat without collapsing their power numbers, focusing on body recomposition rather than scale weight. Her approach blends evidence-based protein dosing with the kind of practical, behaviour-led coaching that survives a 60-hour work week.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The goal isn't weight loss — it's recomposition. Lower body fat while protecting muscle and power. Losing 5kg by losing 2kg of muscle ruins your watts/kg even though the scale moves.
Protein 1.5–2g per kg of bodyweight, spread across breakfast / lunch / dinner / snacks. Masters athletes sit at the upper end because absorption efficiency declines with age.
Don't diet on the bike. Skipping gels to "save calories" or going fasted on hard sessions compromises performance, blunts recovery and triggers compensatory eating.
Front-load calories earlier in the day — substantial breakfast, structured lunch — to prevent evening grazing. Most failed cuts die between 8pm and 11pm, not at the dinner table.
Carbohydrates should periodise to training load, not drop blanket. More carbs on hard days, less on rest days. The deficit accumulates without you fighting it.

TOPICS

CHAPTERS

Getting lean doesn't mean starving yourself or sacrificing performance—it's about strategic body recomposition. Alex Larson breaks down the exact approach to shedding body fat while maintaining strength and training quality, from protein targets to the biggest mistakes cyclists make when trying to lose weight.

Key Takeaways

Prioritize protein intake (1.5-2g per kg of bodyweight) to preserve muscle and strength during a calorie deficit—this is the foundation of any body composition plan.
Fuel your workouts properly and don't count those calories toward your daily macro targets; the deficit should come from your rest-of-day nutrition, not by underfueling training.
Front-load your nutrition earlier in the day—eating more at breakfast and lunch naturally reduces evening cravings and prevents the late-night binge cycle.
Track your current eating habits for 7 days to establish a baseline before making cuts; understand where the excess calories are coming from (discretionary items, alcohol, portion sizes) rather than guessing.
Masters athletes (35+) need slightly more protein than younger athletes because protein absorption efficiency decreases with age—aim for the higher end of the range if possible.
Alcohol has a compounding effect: it's empty calories, it disrupts sleep quality and recovery, and it makes poor food choices more likely the next day.

Expert Quotes

"When your performance and your workouts suffer they feel like crap you finish the workout feeling absolutely exhausted and like garbage. But also intuitively as well, do you know how many athletes you ever trained with that you're way overweight because they eat too much on the bike? I've just never come across that."

"I don't think our body can identify 'oh this is wild-cut salmon versus farm-raised salmon.' The placebo effect of you just feeling like a man, like 'oh it's some elk and buffalo'—possibly."

"When you are ravenously hungry, there's nothing—like you're never making any good decisions with food. Your body is in survival mode and it's going to say look for the sweets, the candies, the high fat foods."

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

EXPERT
Sports nutritionist Alex Larson recommends a daily protein intake of 1.5–2g per kg bodyweight for cyclists pursuing body recomposition, distributed across all meals and snacks rather than front-loaded into a single sitting.
Source: Alex Larson, interviewed on the Roadman Cycling podcast
STUDY
Larson cites research showing that protein absorption efficiency declines with age — masters athletes therefore need to sit at the upper end of the 1.5–2g/kg/day range to maintain net protein synthesis.
Source: Sports nutrition / aging research, summarised by Alex Larson on the Roadman Cycling podcast
EXPERT
Larson specifically warns against "dieting on the bike" — fasted hard sessions or skipped on-bike gels — on the basis that the resulting performance drop and compensatory eating typically wipe out the intended deficit.
Source: Alex Larson, Roadman Cycling podcast
EXPERT
Larson's tactical recommendation against evening overeating is to front-load calories earlier in the day (substantial breakfast, structured lunch) so the body's hunger pressure is already neutralised by 8pm rather than peaking at 10pm.
Source: Alex Larson, Roadman Cycling podcast
EXPERT
Carbohydrate intake should be aligned to training load — higher on hard sessions, lower on easy or rest days — rather than reduced uniformly across the week as a "cutting" strategy.
Source: Alex Larson, Roadman Cycling podcast

RESOURCES MENTIONED

KEY QUOTES

“anywhere from 1.5 to 2 g of protein per kilo is usually the range that we look at um but we'll also kind of see like what are they currently eating for protein or do they need to be and do we have a really big gap okay then let's start kind of slowly working their way up because if they're going to all of a sudden overnight increase their protein greatly that might be a little overwhelming for them”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

“what we found in the research is that um you know in our 20s we tend to absorb protein really efficiently um whereas when we get into more of those Masters athlete category and you know above we will um see that we don't absorb that protein quite as well so you might need to consume just a little bit more to account for that”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

“we will make sure that they're not dieting on the bike they're not dieting in their workouts um where they will think oh I'm going to do this fasted and see if I can like burn more body fat or um I'm going to skip this gel because I'm going to save those calories cuz I'm trying to like drop some pounds I find that that often really backfires significantly for athletes because when your performance and your workouts suffer they feel like crap”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT4 SECTIONS

Welcome back to the podcast today's guest is Alex LaRon Alex is a…

Welcome back to the podcast today's guest is Alex LaRon Alex is a sports nutritionist and dietician whose specialty is figuring out how to get athletes lean without compromising performance and that's exactly what I want to talk about today how can you shed those unwanted kilograms but also give yourself the fuel needed to keep making those training adaptations welcome to the podcast Alex LaRon Alex welcome to the Rob my podcast oh thanks for having me Anthony Alex I want to try and figure out how to guess lean as in I or hypothetical person has some weight to currently lose no point in hiding behind the hypothetical person I got some physiological testing data doing with John Wakefield from Bor Red Bull testing data we'll cover that another day it was so so threshold was actually decent what I was shocked with was my body weight and my body fat percentage so my body fat percentage was in the 20s I think it's like 22% and it was 84 kilg bernam was racing at 68 kilg now a couple of years since I stepped on a scale I've been having a few too many quries occasional late night beers and so now going back training for next year under the uh management of John I need to figure out how to take off weight while also performing so that's kind of my overarching goal for this conversation so when it comes to getting lean what's the first areas that a cyclist should focus on oh that's a good question um well keep in mind that when it comes to body composition with endurance athletes it's a very highly individualized process so I mean anything that I'm going to say here is not going to be like a blanket advice for like every single person that's going to work but from what we typically see with athletes that we work with um we will usually start with making sure while that they're getting enough protein uh we want to make sure that when we do put them at a little bit of a calorie deficit that we still are getting enough protein to maintain that strength um because a lot of people when they restrict and try and diet to lose weight they will um often see their strength and performance decline during that process and then they get kind of frustrated and they're in this cut up yo-yoing a roller coaster of trying to lose weight and perform well and so making sure first and foremost that we're seeing uh adequate protein throughout the day breakfast lunch dinner snacks we're trying to get in enough protein to maintain if not help build some muscle during this process too um cuz sometimes when people have taken you know an extended period of time off of from racing uh maybe they've seen some waking but they also might have lost some strength as well so um anywhere from 1.5 to 2 g of protein per kilo is usually the range that we look at um but we'll also kind of see like what are they currently eating for protein or do they need to be and do we have a really big gap okay then let's start kind of slowly working their way up because if they're going to all of a sudden overnight increase their protein greatly that might be a little overwhelming for them and we kind of need to work with them in what's doable first and then kind of build up to what's optimal then um the other thing that we might look at is timing of nutrition uh a lot of athletes tend to um not eat enough during the day and what we find is that they end up kind of binging or not making the greatest choices later on in the day in the evening hours when they're more tired yeah Netflix they're they're just kind of feeling the munchies and they're kind of grazing throughout the evening and so if we can really nail down a good routine during the day um I I had a cyclist just yesterday who um had a really uh significant like breakfast and lunch and you messaged me in the evening he's like yeah I'm not really that hungry this evening I'm like it's probably because you've already like pretty much hit your your nutrition needs for the day and you're just satisfied and ready to go to bed and and relax for the evening so I think frontloading that nutrition is another U common one that we work with our athletes on uh because earlier in the day we tend to make a little bit better choices and um during the day is when we're most active so we're able to actually use that energy that we're taking in um to fuel our day as well so would you classify this as a like a body recomposition or is it a quot or does that classification even matter uh I tend to just use the term like body composition um because I don't like the term weight loss it kind of has a negative connotation to it Associated that with like dieting and restricting and I like to think of especially for athletes as like okay when you say you want to lose weight what you mean is you want to lose that body fat you want to lower that body fat percentage and you want to maintain if not put on some muscle and so we really are adjusting that that body composition um first and foremost before we actually Focus necessarily on just weight loss itself so the second part you mentioned was protein intake and I think you gave an upwards limit of 2 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight how does that F into the overall macronutrient distribution for the day is that like 25% is it 50% what does it look like usually it's usually around 25% give or take a little bit in there um typically is what we see anywhere from like 25 up 30% um we can go that route but we'd also have to make sure that they're getting enough carbs to support their volume of training you know if you're in more an offseason we can lower the carbs a little bit but if you're in that higher you know volume training we want to make sure that we're getting adequate carbs as well just to support performance so there's a bit of a fine balance there and we might work on timing of things like if you're on more of a recovery week we can dial things back a little bit there versus you know in a really like Peak training week where you're having some pretty heavy long hard training blocks um we'd want to make sure that we're not stressing out the body or putting yourself at risk or injury in in that as well so we can get a little strategic with timing that makes sense and that protein range you mentioned from I think it was like 1.4 to two gram what determines if I'm sitting at the top end or the bottom end of that range should I be looking to hit higher to that range closer to the top of the range if I'm doing a gym session that day if I'm doing a bike session that day as opposed to a recovery day yeah I think it's nice to have a range so that you're not trying to shoot for like an exact number where you're like obsessing about your food um sometimes I'll just kind of look at like what's 1.8 and kind of shoot for like that bll Park um but if you're at like 1.5 and you're trying to you know improve that body comp you're trying to put on some muscle I would try and see if you can increase it up to 1.8 to two um but it's certainly like like I said it's it's kind of one of those things like what's most doable for you to to be consistent with it like if you really struggle to do 1.8 to2 and it's just not consistent for you then don't beat yourself up about that like don't like give yourself anxiety because you feel like a failure and you feel like you're not successful like 1.5 to 1.8 is still great um so that's where I kind of it depends on the athlete and what's doable for them in their schedule and we have a changing protein need as we age if you contrast an athlete in their 20s 30s 40s 50s yeah yeah yeah um what we found in the research is that um you know in our 20s we tend to absorb protein really efficiently um whereas when we get into more of those Masters athlete category and you know above we will um see that we don't absorb that protein quite as well so you might need to consume just a little bit more to account for that I've just slid into that Master's category myself did you I didn't realize it was 35 and up so when I looked at it like I don't know it was about a month ago and I go oh [ __ ] I'm in the Master's category like the past two years it was a gut check yeah so given that I am I'm sliding into this Master's category like is there anything that I can take to enhance my protein uptake absorption was um I think with I uh there's there was a research study done on like plant-based protein and we actually don't absorb all of the protein from like plant-based sources because of all of the F like the fibrous like Matrix of um plants um our body isn't able to fully break those down and get all of that protein so if you're more of a plant-based eater um you might need to especially up that protein intake for sure like 2 grams per kilogram which is tough for like vegan vegetarians um but you might not be absorbing all that protein from there just because of the the the complex like that Matrix of the plant itself is hard for our body to break down and digest R man I'm going to 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CC and check out their amazing range of Kit and experience this feeling for yourself and I remember chatting to someone I can't remember if it was off air on air before but if you look at humans so you take uh someone that plays Halo on the couch all day they eat Cheetos they're human but they're a bit of a SL lot right they haven't got their muscle composition is terrible they're overweight they can't really they struggle to walk down to the stairs to get the takeaway you contrast them at one end of the spectrum to some of the top athletes at Pacha Usain Bolt whatever like they're the same species but are they the same species they're like almost totally different is protein like that if I have a factory farmed salmon who's just in there sloting around with another 10,000 Salmons swimming on them there's surely a difference that I'm wondering how we measure it between that and a wild cut salmon who's fighting off predators and who's swimming against tides and currents and figuring out how to survive in Darwin's world that he set up for survivals quite tough and Only the strongest survive what's the difference between eating those two types of proteins on our body uh honestly I don't I mean I don't know if there's really that big of a difference in the protein itself I mean with the farm raised fish I know that they're given a little bit different diet so they might be raised a little bit differently but I don't think our body can identify like oh this is a wild cut salmon versus have you ever eaten like wild elk or something like it's you don't feel the same after it like it you feel like this is something that's been fighting for generations to stay alive like effect I don't know I don't know if I've ever ever felt that way ever ever had I don't know if I've had elk uh I probably have had elk before but like I've had vanison before um like deer meat and I don't know if I've ever felt that I want to see the data on this I want more we're we're going to get more studies on this the placebo effect of you just feeling like like a man like oh it's some elk and buffalo yeah possibly possibly actually that's an interesting segue to that around testosterone like cuz testosterone is such a key performance indicator especially for ale cyclists is there particular Foods we can eat which support the production of testosterone uh I I don't know of any specific Foods uh in research that's not like something that I have looked up recently but I do know that in terms of like Hormone Health that just adequate nutrition in general of like eating enough getting a good variety of nutrition getting plenty of protein um good micronutrients all of that can play a very key role I think both for female and male Hormone Health like for sure like just um instead of honing in on like what foods like specific Foods I think people should be eating I overall look at like hey let's just make sure you're getting enough in a great variety because that is going to offer you a much more benefit to do that consistently over time than it is seeking out any like specic specific unique like crazy food that might be out there in the world yeah I seen that that being like a positive energy balance is one of the the main things for hormonal health absolutely yeah and as soon as we start to see people in a really big calorie deficit we see that those hormones deregulate um it it impacts sleep it impacts I mean there's and there a lot of releas of like those stress hormones I mean it's just not a it's not a healthy thing to be constantly in that dieting especially when you're already putting all the stress on your body when you're training as much as cyclists do so how do we balance that known information that we've just stated with the need for calorie restriction when getting lean yeah well one area that we look at with our athletes is we will make sure that they're not dieting on the bike they're not dieting in their workouts um where they will think intro workout we're talking about yeah like or even like before workout like oh I'm going to do this fasted and see if I can like burn more body fat or um I'm going to skip this gel because I'm going to save those calories cuz I'm trying to like drop some pounds yeah I find that that often really backfires significantly for athletes because when your performance and your workouts suffer they feel like crap you finish the workout feeling absolutely exhausted and like garbage um but also intuitively as well like do you know how many athletes you ever trained with that you're like they're way overweight because they eat too much on the bike like I've just never come across that it's like yeah maybe pass on like the fort helping of dessert like that could be your problem not the extra handful of hurry I feel I feel like it's the day-to-day nutrition where we see the we can make the biggest improvements and then fueling the workouts really well is where we tend to see people still perform well while seeing that body composition get leaner over time so we have to be in this mindset of like no this energy that I'm taking in it's going straight to my muscle it's getting used as energy I'm going to feel great in this workout and then you're not going into the rest of the day in this massive deficit and then kind of fighting with your body of like well I'm hungry cuz I'm like way behind nutrition cuz you I biked for you know 2 hours today but I didn't get enough during that bike and so you that way the rest of the day you actually feel decent and you're able to still make decent food choices instead of having this like battle with your willpower yeah I cycled in an era where Sports Nutrition was totally different where you would literally fall in the door after six hours I rode for a French team and a lot of the te was around fasted rides and they went up four five hour depletion rids we'll call them where You' have have no carbohydrates the night before no carbohydrates in the morning and then do the session on just water or water and salt tablets and you would fall in the door and I continued that when I stopped racing fulltime into kind of my amateur period And what I found was and anecdotally when I observed friends that exhibited the same behavior we massively under fueled during the session and then massively over fueled after the session I wonder is there data to show the quality of your decision making post when you fuel adequately versus don't fuel adequately in session yeah I don't know if I've seen any research but I would say anecdotally in my experience as an athlete and working for athletes it's like cognitively when you are like ravenously hungry like there's nothing there's like you're never making any good decisions with food yeah it's your your body's just like I need the fastest quickest easiest most high calorie energy possible right now now because I am needing to like it's in this survival mode you know our bodies are very keen on living and so it's it's going to say like look for the sweets the candies the high fat foods like the peanut butter jar with this and grab a spoon and be eating you know peanut butter from the Spoonful I mean that's where people specul tast that speculo what is that you know what this is oh my gosh it's going to change your life you're going to you're going to abandon your career in Sports Nutrition and just go fulltime eating speculo speculo so I found it in Belgium when I was racing there first so it's the little tea biscuits you get on the side of a coffee in Europe you know the little brown tea biscuits you get it's all of those mashed up in a blender and mixed together so it's a paste like Nutella that's like served at breakfast time in Belgium and France and I used to literally bring home tubs and sell it to friends when I was racing out there like it will ruin your life well I for a long time I had never had Nutella and then uh recently re introduced it to my a few years ago and I'm like oh my God this is the best but it is crazy how fast you can take in a large amount of calories with not just those pastes and spreads but like an ice cream if you sit down and eat like half a tub of Ben and& Jerry's it's crazy how many calories that is whereas like you could easily get through 500 calories but to get through 500 calories of I don't know potatoes or pasta like that's a lot of eating the very should I get through 500 calories of apples and like your jaw is kind of give up first yeah that's a lot fiber you're going be very full so I I think like if we can fuel on the bike really well and then make great choices the rest of the day that is really going to setep people up for success in seeing that body composition improve while also feeling really great in their performances cuz like I said that's where most people they start dieting and then they like can't finish their workouts they're failing their workouts they're having to cut them short they don't want a workout anymore because they don't have the energy for for it and it's like that's not what we want we want to have the best of both worlds so we have to balance that would it be fair to say we need to make a restriction somewhere like if we're fueling well on the bike we need to have some sort especially for I don't know pigeon Hall everyone listen to the podcast I'm sure there's some guys who are working in construction and Super Active during the day well a lot of us now our our lifestyle is migrate is to quite sedor Zoom calls you know long periods in office and cars commuting like what's our caloric need for the rest of the day's activity how do we go about estimating that and then by virtue of that start to understand how much of a deficit we can make and on what is yeah well I think it gets a little tricky when people start asking me like oh how many calories should I be eating because I'm like well how many are you eating right now um because if you don't understand like how much you're taking in like what's the point in even calculating how much you need right so I think there has to be some sort of understanding of like okay where are there gaps in their your nutrition are you under fueling right now or are you are you in a calorie Surplus like where are you at before we even calculate someone's needs um I had sorry to across would you Baseline that with a 7 Day like my fitness pile yeah yeah like a a weekl long diary if as long as it's pretty standard to what you typically eat you can kind of get an average of how much you're ticking in or sometimes they see athletes that are just wildly inconsistent where some days they're in a really big caloric Surplus and some days they're like taking in maybe a thousand calories a day and so it's like that is a big problem too where you're get having no consistent consistency with things and so we work on just building a nice Foundation where you're eating a consistent amount of nutrition day in and day out and that kind of puts our body in a nice happy spot too to get ready to lose some weight okay interesting so we have our Baseline after after 7even days we're starting to see okay I I understand why I'm 10 kg overweight cuz I'm eating a baseline of 3500 calories off a modest amount of activity where do I start to think about making Cuts yeah I would first make sure are you getting enough protein like I said that that was like number one um and then looking at okay like where are we getting too much calories is it like are we just going way overboard in carbs are is it you just have like a really high fat intake and so that might be an area where we could just choose some leaner options trim those calories down but still make sure that we're getting enough carbs to support performance and energy and protein to support that muscle um so looking at where um we can make some some um improvements there also looking at discretionary calories too so discretionary calories would be like the calories that um you're like desserts alcohol um it's not that you can't have them I think I need to stress that like it's not that those things are off limits I think it's just like volume and frequency of like how many um like bites and nibbles of things throughout the day that are accumulating and adding up and just kind of putting you over in calories whereas like we could optimize protein and timing of nutrition throughout the day and making sure you're getting enough during the day that you're not even tempted to have like those types of things um and alcohol is seems to when I've been having a lot of conversations with athletes lately how about is alcohol um it's not going to offer you any benefits and it's does have quite a few calories in there so if if People's desire is to get leaner and it's a pretty high priority of them I'm like okay then let's talk about how much you're drinking and how of like how often and can we reduce that just to kind of save some calories that way cuz in order to like get you at a deficit we'd have to cut out food and then that's not going to really help you um improve that body comp if you're drinking 3 calories a day I know I wouldn't be a huge drinker but like especially when I'm abroad and you're in the S you kind of go after dinner it adds up when you look at it at the end of the week and you're like oh I had one beer after dinner there I had one beer and I wore my whoop for all of October a couple of months back for sober October and I looked at the data from September mber versus October versus November and I noticed about a 5% difference on average in my heart rate variability with zero alcohol for October and also about a 7% difference in My Sleep Quality over the month and the only noticeable change was the alcohol so it definitely got me wondering and wanting to explore more like how bad is alcohol obviously nutritional is one lens we can look at it true but I also wonder does it leave you more vulnerable to making bad choices the following day if you've had five beers at night who has a healthy breakfast the next day yeah not very many people cuz you just feel terrible well and alcohol also impacts sleep so not only did you drink that amount that night before but you probably slept really poorly so you're waking up feeling very groggy um probably not real great and so you're not going to want to like make yourself a really nice breakfast um to start off the day so yeah and like recovery too if you're I mean I'm okay with having like A celebratory beer after a race but if you're you know hitting the bar afterwards and like drinking you know like I'd say you know two plus three plus drinks that's really going to impede your recovery it's going to dehydrate you it's going to make you bouncing back from that race or even that hard workout a a lot more difficult like you're going to feel crappy for days um versus if you really prioritize that recovery you're going to bounce back quickly and ready to go um and train the next day or you know that later on that week and I see a lot of people who are trying to lose weight and they're super good for six days a week where they're running a slight deficit of like 100 calories 200 calories like a very sustainable deficit six days a week but then on the seventh day of the week it could have been the Saturday night they'll go out with friends they'll have 10 beers and a kebab on the way home but they'll run more of a surplus on the one day than they did deficit for the six days so they're in a weekly caloric Surplus not deficit and then they're wondering oh I've been so good I wouldn't say I mean I've seen that for where athletes are like oh I had a terrible day and and it ruined everything and I'm like well I don't think it necessarily ruined the entire weeks like of good eating that you did but yeah when you're going out a on a bender like that like it's it's going to take you days to recover from that and that's where it's really going to impact you more than it's not going to erase all of the work that you did the week prior if that makes sense even if you take zero alcohol beers what's the impact of having that elevated blood sugar going to bed um I I think what's interesting is that people really get like bent out of shape about like blood sugars and an insulin response and I mean it it's the dose is the poison right so it's like it depends on how much you're eating before you go to bed um and what you're having with it you know if you're having some carbs and a bedtime snack and you're having some protein with it that blood sugar rise and fall is going to be pretty gradual and it can really help with like recovery overnight when you're resting um I like to see in terms of carbs um if we can get more carbs early earlier in the day I think that's better um but if you're still coming up like short on carbs at the end of the day I'm not against people having a bedtime snack with some carbs just maybe pair it with some protein to help with um 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I mean there's going to be some protein in that milk as long as you're doing like a a regular milk or a fair life milk or a um like a soy milk or pee protein milk um like you do almond milk it's only got like one gram of protein in there so you'd want to pair something else with that um sometimes I like to do um like cottage cheese and some fruit or like a greatek yogurt or um trying to think of what you else you could do like some oatmeal would be great too um something that's just going to give you a little bit more sticking power versus like a like that if you can certainly do ice cream but sometimes kind one athlete can think of that she loves ice cream every she has ice cream every single night and she hasn't taken me up on this but I keep offering I'm like can you just blend that ice cream with maybe a little bit of protein powder uh make yourself a little milkshake um just to help boost that protein in the evening because we're really working on her protein intake um and that way she's still getting like that ice cream sweetness and flavor but she's getting that added protein in there as well but is there an argument for just going 100% protein going to bed like you know these proteines and stuff you can do that I would just um sometimes it's nice to have just a little bit of carbs in there um because I find with a snack if you just have protein it's just not quite satisfying enough like people are just like I still feel a little hungry I'm like yeah we can just add a little carbs in there and it kind of helps kind of satisfy um people's app appetite a little bit more so we had the just circling back to try and give sort of a complete uh dietary picture for people we had the recommendation for protein for the day how do we gauge our recommendation for carbohydrates based on activity if I have a two-hour session we'll take a hypothetical person that has a metabolic rate of 2500 calories now I have a 2hour zone two session that evening how should I adapt my carbohydrate intake for the demands of that session yeah this is kind of where um we we we're a little or unorthodox with how we work this with our athletes and this is just like over time we've found that this is the easiest way to do it is um so we will have kind of a carbohydrate Target for the day but in terms of like fueling uh before and during workouts we don't count those carbs towards they're like um carb Target for the day if that makes sense so um if they need carbs for that workout take that but we're not going to count that towards um like if they're maybe let's say like macro DET trat wise like 50% carbohydrates for their calories of the day uh we won't count the carbs that they're taking in on the bike towards that that way they're still fueling their workouts well and then we're still keeping those carbohydrates in check the rest of the day how how B how far do you extend this discount do you extend that discount to the meal just before their ride um if they're having like a snack right beforehand I'll I'll I'll say yeah we don't need to count that but if they're having like a meal like um an hour or two hours before I'm like well that's like your breakfast or your lunch or we're going to count that meal but if you're like 15 minutes out and you're taking you know some Energy Chews or um some crackers or some sort of carbs to fuel that workout then I'm like yeah we don't need to count that but I I try not I try not get to like heavily detailed if that makes sense because I want nutrition to also feel not um like very strict I want it to feel like free and flexible and not like this regimented diet for people I guess there must be a tip and point though like if I'm say a Saturday morning ride and you know now I'm going out for a five hour Saturday ride that's got to impact the breakfast I'm having pre ride yeah that's that's sometimes the problem with those long and I just had this conversation with a athlete yesterday who rode over his lunch hour and so I like okay we going to have to make up that nutrition that you didn't get from lunch elsewhere in the day so we were doing it through breakfast some snacks and dinner um but then we still had them fuel that that ride really well um we didn't count that nutrition towards his targets but we just made sure that elsewhere in the day we were being strategic um and if you're going for a 5H hour ride um I would make sure that we're trying to get in a really decent breakfast beforehand um and then trying to optimize recovery nutrition the rest of the day but you still might come up short and that's why the rest of those days afterwards are so important for making sure you're nailing that nutrition so you can help yourself recover really well was your is your terminology around breakfast deliberately vague to keep it simple like I think you said a decent breakfast is that like what's decent to me might be different than what's decent to you and decent to Joe yeah so um decent breakfast would be like 30 gr of protein good amount of carbs um if you get some micronutrients to like some fruit and or vegetable um that sorry push on this now what's a what's a good amount are we 40 grams 120 gram for carbohydrates oh let's see if you oh gosh it would depend body weight dependence like if you were I guess my confusion on this is I've seen a recent vlog which a lot of people are seeing cuz I got I 300 400,000 views with Remco getting ready for a 5our training ride and the volume of food remco's a 66 kilogram Rider the volume of food that he ate for breakfast it's like something from a competitive eating contest it's more food than I'd eaten the entire day and he had for breakfast and he's literally forcing it down himself glass after glass of orange juice oatmeal cereal Bagels scrambled egg and then he's into sports specific stuff like bars and stuff and he hasn't even got on the bike at this point yeah well um I think I mean I've done before a race I had a trail run end of September and from the time I woke up at 5:00 a.m.

To the time I started the race at 9:30 I probably had 1670 GBS of…

To the time I started the race at 9:30 I probably had 1670 GBS of carb that morning um and I felt great during the race um I didn't really plan on taking that I didn't really realize I was taking that much until afterwards when I added it up and I was like oh I actually took in a really decent amount of carbs so if you're going out for a 5our ride I would say at least 100 grams of carb but if you're going out for an hour ride then you could do something like 60 yeah it's it's going to vary depending on the glycogen demand that you're looking at needing in that ride so what was your decision making framework for that ultra run yeah for the tall to taken in 170 grams of carbs yeah I didn't really like pick a number I was just thinking like okay I'm getting up at 5:00 a.m. I've got a tour or drive I'm going to have little breakfast beforehand I love um pancakes and syrup is always like a pre-race routine for me so before I left I had some pancakes and syrup and then on the drive there because it was going to be a really hot race for fall here in Minnesota um and I'm a very salty sweater I put some couple scoops of scratch and um I think a packet of liquid Ivy or something or no I think it like pris Precision hydration tab in there like the 1500 um tabs and then um drank that on the drive plus a Morton bar and then I had some like Energy Chews like 15 minutes before I started so um yeah it ended up like adding up throughout the morning but you know when you're getting up at 5:00 a.m. and your racing until 9:30 um I was like I'm just going to take in the carbs gradually throughout the morning and it set me it set myself up nicely for the Run cuz I had just started started training for like 68 weeks so I wasn't really great about my intra running nutrition so I didn't take as many gels as I probably should have during the race and so that pre-race carbs really uh saved my butt and how do you handle pulse race nutrition in a way that supports kind of our overarching goal for the podcast of supporting fat loss while maintaining recovery yeah I think it's good to go in with a mindset of like okay I got done with this work or got done with this race and I need to make sure that I really help my body uh bounce back from this so your muscles are tired they need to get fed they prefer carbohydrates when to reload those glycogen stores so making sure you're getting a good dose of carbs I would say within like 30 45 minutes if you can get some sort of carbage snack with some protein that'd be great but if you're already due to have a meal trying to get a meal in within one to two hours afterwards would also be excellent how much carbs and protein do we need to get in and that recovery if period if you can get in like 20 g of protein and 60 to 80 GS of carb would be great three to four to one ratio yeah yeah three to three 3 to one or four to one somewhere in there dep and it's going to depend on the race like if it was a short race you can do 20 grams of protein you know 60 grams of carb if it was a you know 5 six hour on Race then you'd want to do more carbs cuz you're like kitchen soures are going to be really depleted after those longer endurance rides I've seen some pro athletes playing around with caffeine posteroid as well to help increase absorption of carbohydrates is there any Merit in that oh I don't know if I've heard that one I'd have to look I mean I I mean we take a lot of caffeine like before and during I think there's definitely lots of research in the benefit of that I don't know if afterwards necessarily maybe I'd have to look we are so excited to announce that we are partnering with whoop whoop are changing the game when it comes to wearable technology and health monitoring whoop is a wearable health and fitness coach that provides you with feedback and actionable insights into your sleep your recovery your training your stress and your overall health Sarah and I have been using [ __ ] for years and we love the insights it provides into our body's inner workings it really gives us a look under the hood and you're going to see mat vanderpol Richard carass and other Elite level cyclist wearing whoop but it isn't just for those Superstars all the data is personalized to your unique physiology and fitness levels if you're interested in taking control of your health and your Fitness so that you can excel in all aspects of your life you have to go and check out whoop go to the URL now which is join.

Whoop.com for/ roadman I'm going to pop that in the description below…

Whoop.com for/ roadman I'm going to pop that in the description below and you're going to get a free month's access to whoop membership on me I promise you won't regret it supplement area is interesting because it's constantly changed and it's so marketing driven as well like we're seeing key toones like you have a big marketing push in the last 24 months and is that an area you've looked into the research is really mixed like some show that there's benefits to ketones and some show that actually hindering performance so uh for me I'm I'm not on board with that I'm going with the carbs cuz we have years and Decades of especially how expensive the keton are it's and like they taste terrible I mean I've heard I've never tried them but I've heard they taste absolutely horrendous I'm like why would you do that like when carbs are delicious and any other supplements you're recommending as a staple for athletes creatine uh you know I've kind of gotten on board with creatine this year um I started taking it myself um there's this a little bit of fear of the water retention uh people saying like their weight go up a little bit um but I find that you know performance- Wise you have strength um benefits to taking creatine if you get into your you know main season and you want to go off it for a little while just so if you're worried about that water retention I think that's how about water retention it's like like especially if you're micro do I have friends who are bodybuilders and they macro do it and yeah I've seen water retention there but with like yeah if you're taking the recommended dose of like 3 to five grams a day um you might see like a kilo of of water retention if that um I think what the research has shown is like 08 kilos okay it's retention it's definitely not zero I I definitely have seen good data as well on even cognition benefits of taking creatine yeah which is interesting in a world where you know one and three of us is now going to have Dementia or Alzheimer's when we're over you know doing more research um for creatine for Alzheimer's as well which is really cool uh is there something link with caffeine and Alzheimer's as well i' seen something popping up I'm a bit of a headline reader so I'll need to dig into that possibly I I don't know if I've seen that one uh so I I think I've got a good picture of what I need to be doing and what I don't need to be doing heading into the next 6 to 12 months of my training so I'm sure I'll think of many more questions and we'll get you back on for round two but I think for now I've really enjoyed this thank you start with this advice and then like I'll come back in a few months and see how you're doing and then we'll we'll go to the next level discussion but but honestly like if you're struggling with it it might be just the best route to like work oneon-one with a dietician cuz then we can really like hone in and optimize that body comp nutrition while you're still performing well like that's that's where I think sometimes like if you're just struggling to do it on your own um because I'm even in my own little body comp Journey now that I'm back um to training again and um I've done having kids I'm like all right I want to get back down to like um you know like a a race physique and so um sometimes when I'm like with my own nutrition I'm asking like my team my team member Mary um who's a dietician I have to get two dietitians on my team I'm like hey here's my numbers can you just like help me with this and she's like well if you were my client this is what I tell them I'm like perfect okay it just needed someone to tell me that even though I work with athletes on a daily basis on this when it's your own nutrition sometimes it's just hard there's this mental block and it's nice to have someone else kind of come in and be that like guiding voice for you 100% and I'll drop your contact details in the description below so if anyone wants again to with it they can awesome Alex thanks for your time than thank you if you enjoyed this conversation please click up here there's another video I know that you're absolutely going to love and click over here and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any of our amazing upcoming guests

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How much protein should cyclists eat to lose weight without losing power?+

Alex Larson recommends 1.5 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This intake should be spread across all meals and snacks to maximise muscle retention while reducing body fat. Masters athletes need to sit at the higher end of that range because protein absorption efficiency declines with age.

What is body recomposition for cyclists and how does it differ from weight loss?+

Body recomposition means reducing body fat while preserving or building muscle mass, rather than simply making the number on the scales smaller. Alex Larson argues this is the correct goal for cyclists because losing muscle alongside fat erodes power output and performance. The aim is a better power-to-weight ratio, not a lower body weight at any cost.

Why do cyclists overeat in the evenings and how do you stop it?+

Evening overeating is typically caused by under-fuelling during the day, which creates a calorie deficit that the body tries to correct at night. Alex Larson recommends front-loading calories earlier in the day, meaning a substantial breakfast and a well-structured lunch, so hunger is controlled by the time evening arrives. This single adjustment removes the late-night grazing that derails most attempts to get lean.

Should cyclists reduce carbs to get lean?+

Carbohydrate intake should be matched to training load rather than blanket-reduced. Alex Larson stresses that cutting carbs on hard training days compromises performance and recovery, which ultimately undermines the recomposition process. The practical approach is to eat more carbs around and during intense sessions and pull them back on easy or rest days.

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Key Takeaways

Prioritize protein intake (1.5-2g per kg of bodyweight) to preserve muscle and strength during a calorie deficit—this is the foundation of any body composition plan.

Fuel your workouts properly and don't count those calories toward your daily macro targets; the deficit should come from your rest-of-day nutrition, not by underfueling training.

Front-load your nutrition earlier in the day—eating more at breakfast and lunch naturally reduces evening cravings and prevents the late-night binge cycle.

Track your current eating habits for 7 days to establish a baseline before making cuts; understand where the excess calories are coming from (discretionary items, alcohol, portion sizes) rather than guessing.

Masters athletes (35+) need slightly more protein than younger athletes because protein absorption efficiency decreases with age—aim for the higher end of the range if possible.

Alcohol has a compounding effect: it's empty calories, it disrupts sleep quality and recovery, and it makes poor food choices more likely the next day.

Expert Quotes

"When your performance and your workouts suffer they feel like crap you finish the workout feeling absolutely exhausted and like garbage. But also intuitively as well, do you know how many athletes you ever trained with that you're way overweight because they eat too much on the bike? I've just never come across that."

"I don't think our body can identify 'oh this is wild-cut salmon versus farm-raised salmon.' The placebo effect of you just feeling like a man, like 'oh it's some elk and buffalo'—possibly."

"When you are ravenously hungry, there's nothing—like you're never making any good decisions with food. Your body is in survival mode and it's going to say look for the sweets, the candies, the high fat foods."

KEY QUOTES

“anywhere from 1.5 to 2 g of protein per kilo is usually the range that we look at um but we'll also kind of see like what are they currently eating for protein or do they need to be and do we have a really big gap okay then let's start kind of slowly working their way up because if they're going to all of a sudden overnight increase their protein greatly that might be a little overwhelming for them”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

“what we found in the research is that um you know in our 20s we tend to absorb protein really efficiently um whereas when we get into more of those Masters athlete category and you know above we will um see that we don't absorb that protein quite as well so you might need to consume just a little bit more to account for that”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

“we will make sure that they're not dieting on the bike they're not dieting in their workouts um where they will think oh I'm going to do this fasted and see if I can like burn more body fat or um I'm going to skip this gel because I'm going to save those calories cuz I'm trying to like drop some pounds I find that that often really backfires significantly for athletes because when your performance and your workouts suffer they feel like crap”
Alex Larson — Sports nutritionist and dietician

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How much protein should cyclists eat to lose weight without losing power?+

What is body recomposition for cyclists and how does it differ from weight loss?+

Why do cyclists overeat in the evenings and how do you stop it?+

Should cyclists reduce carbs to get lean?+

HOW CYCLISTS CAN GET LEAN & STAY LEAN FOREVER | ALEX LARSON

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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