Fueling strategy is rarely one-size-fits-all, and more carbs don't always mean better performance. We tested underfueled, optimally fueled, and overfueled states on a 100km ride with nutrition expert Yuri Carlson to show you exactly what happens to your power, heart rate, and gut—and reveal where most cyclists are getting it wrong.
Key Takeaways
- Your gut can pull water from your bloodstream into your stomach if you consume more carbs than your body can use, causing GI distress—this is why 120-130g/hour can feel worse than 60g/hour on a zone 2 effort.
- Replace 50% of your hourly calorie burn with carbohydrates as a baseline starting point, then adjust based on how you feel, your RPE, and actual performance data rather than relying solely on theoretical calculations.
- Don't double-count your basal metabolic rate: your base metabolic for the day should exclude the hours you spent on the bike, since those calories are already accounted for in your ride data.
- Sodium in your hydration products actively helps water absorption across the small intestine—plain water alone while sweating dilutes your blood electrolytes and compromises performance.
- Intuitive eating for athletes means eating based on practical hunger and your daily needs, not just emotional hunger; your calorie and carb requirements change day-to-day based on training, so rigid meal plans set you up to fail.
- When trying to lose weight, fuel your workouts fully (pre, during, post) and create a small deficit outside training windows—cutting calories across the board triggers metabolic adaptation and storage rather than fat loss.
Expert Quotes
"More isn't always better. You can fool yourself."
"If you lose more than 2 to 3% of your body weight, that's when dehydration starts to happen and that's when we start to compromise our performance."
"When we're looking at big box diets and you know a I should have this many calories and this many macros every single day no matter what we're doing, there's a huge disconnect there that shouldn't be happening and it sets people up for failure because we're not doing the same thing every single day."