I'll be honest, I got this wrong for years. I was smashing out big training weeks, eating plenty of carbs around rides, but my protein intake was nowhere near where it needed to be. I was probably getting 70 to 80 grams a day when I should have been closer to 130. And I wondered why I kept losing upper body muscle mass every winter despite being in the gym.
Since talking to nutritionists like Alan Murchison and sports dietitians on the podcast, I've completely changed my approach. The research is clear: endurance athletes need significantly more protein than the average person, and if you're over 40, you need even more again because your body becomes less responsive to dietary protein. The target is somewhere between 1.6 and 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 75kg rider, that's roughly 120 to 165 grams spread across the day.
The practical side is simpler than people think. Get 30 to 40 grams at each main meal — a chicken breast, a tin of tuna, Greek yoghurt, eggs — and have a protein shake after your hard sessions. That habit alone gets most riders from chronically under-eating to hitting their numbers without weighing anything or tracking macros obsessively. And the bonus? When you eat enough protein, you're naturally less hungry for the sugary, high-glycaemic stuff that causes the body composition problems most of us fight with.
Key Takeaways
- Aim for 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg of body weight daily — most cyclists are well below this
- Spread it across 3-4 meals with 30-40g per sitting to maximise the muscle-protein synthesis response
- A post-ride protein shake is the simplest recovery habit you can adopt
- Higher protein intake naturally curbs appetite for junk carbs, making body composition easier to manage
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