article by Pav Bryan
In my coaching philosophy, training is only accountable for around 15% of the gains you will see in cycling. Mentality, another subject entirely, accounts for around 50%, with nutrition making up the other 35%. Even if I’m out fractionally you can see that all your hard work training is worth far less than the time you put into your nutrition.
In this article I’m going to coach you through how to make the most of that 35% and turn you into your own Nutritionist!
How to Eat…
It’s not how much you eat, it might not even be what you eat, but the answer to the statement ‘I do everything I’m supposed to but never see any results’ might lie in how you are eating.
In my blog How to Eat… I explain exactly what might be lacking in your approach to eating, fuelling and/or weight loss. This is incredibly ‘out-of-the-box’ but also is a lot of common sense!
I’m not talking about what you are eating but the method in which it gets from your plate and into your belly. Slowing down and relaxing might speed up your body’s ability to assimilate food and in turn this might actually speed up your weight loss and your cycling!
How to Fuel for Performance
Fuelling for training, both on and off the bike, can seem like a dark art. But the truth is, cyclists can get caught up on the detail without truly nailing the basics. When we’re in heavy training, good fuelling isn’t just important in the saddle. We’re in recovery mode for much of the time, so our day-to-day eating habits become a critical factor in improving performance.
In my article How to Fuel for Performance I aim to coach you on how you can really optimise your recovery through fuelling efficiently. Whether you aim to compete or just complete there might be something in here which you can utilise to make your cycling simply more enjoyable! Your enjoyment might come from not suffering on a longer sportive to being able to suffer even longer…
Ultimate Ride Fuel Guide
If you’re a completer, someone who is in it more for the fun and thrill of a sportive, then your ride fuel may look much different to someone who is a competer, someone who is in it to win it!
The enjoyment of riding might also include eating whatever you want, for the completer category. I’m not going to lie, the closer you get to perfection with your fueling, the more effective you will be on the bike. But my coaching is about you, do you really want to sacrifice eating how you want? If you don’t then I won’t make you! I will, however, remind you that your goals will be easier to achieve the closer to perfection you become.
My Ultimate Ride Fuel Guide should help anyone who is looking to get the most from their rides or training and isn’t sure how to fuel or hydrate for it. For more resources just like this, including recipes, weight management guides and much more take a look at our Nutritionally Fit program!
Ultimate Busy Persons Guide to Nutrition
You get up early, too early to make a nutritious breakfast, perhaps too early to even make any breakfast at home so you get something on the way or even skip the meal entirely. Sound like you? You work far enough from home to not make the commute back from the office, perhaps there’s no refrigerator so you can’t take it anything that might spoil, you either have to eat something that is high in preservatives and additives, eat out or again, miss a meal. Sound like you? You get tired in the mid-afternoon, the lethargy comes on strong and makes you sleepy, you interpret this as a need for high or quick sugar snacks or even a coffee, you grab the nearest sugar filled snack, or coffee, and devour it. Sound like you? You get back late, the commute was long and tiring, you haven’t had time to eat a decent meal and training is calling, you put in an attempt to get it done but deep down you know it’s not as good as you could do and you blame your busy schedule. Sound like you?
If you’ve said any of these things to yourself this guide will really help you out! Perhaps you’ve not said any of these but have similar issues. Maybe you could even pick up a few tips from this guide that’ll help you save more time. Read on to find out!
In my article The Ultimate Busy-Persons Guide to Nutrition I aim to coach you to make all this fit in around your busy life…
How to Tell the Difference Between a Real and Fad Diet…
In the search for quick wins it is very easy to get conned, maybe it’s just time that you lose, but it could be your money or, even worse, your health.
With so much desperation and so many ‘success stories’ being bounded about from those who have either fluked a quick win or have been paid to say they have, it is entirely understandable why someone would look for something that another person may feel is ‘too good to be true’.
There are some obvious warning signs, they range from being costly to having no scientific evidence. There are of course some exceptions to the rules and having a coach or professional is useful in reaching your nutritional goals.
In my article How to Tell the Difference Between a Real and Fad Diet I will help you diagnose and determine which is a ‘real diet’ which will help promote recovery, increase your energy, reduce time lost to injury and sickness, plus make you a healthier person. And the ‘fad diets’ which will leave you, in perhaps, the exact opposite.
Pros & Cons of High Fat Diets
You might have heard about keto or paleo diets? They typically, keto especially, promote you eating a much higher percentage of your daily intake from healthier fats rather than carbohydrates.
Based on the argument that even the body of a World Tour Rider might have several days of stored fat fuel, whereas only a couple of hours of store carb fuel.
In theory, if you can get your body to run more efficiently on its own stores then you’ll be able to train longer and get more from each session.
In my article The Pros and Cons of a High ‘Healthy’ Fat Diet Among Cyclists I go further in depth into why fat won’t make you fat, but it might make you a better cyclist…
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