Best Cycling Snacks

One of the most important things that you can focus on outside of building your Zone 1 and Zone 2 Aerobic Insurance is your best cycling snacks that you choose. The reason being is that no matter how physically in shape that you are, failing to reload on snacks when you are on a long ride is a recipe for disaster.

When you don’t reload, you simply will run out of gas and bonk. A bonk is not simply a feeling of being tired. It occurs when you don’t have any more carbs and sugars in your body to convert to energy.

Your body begins to convert body fat into energy. This process is not nearly as efficient and the maximum wattage output from this energetic conversion is far lower than the carbohydrate and sugar energy conversion.

A bonk is painfully mentally and physically, and is also simply not great for the body. Make sure to choose the best cycling snacks to keep your body moving and your legs pedaling.

In this post you will learn about some of the best cycling snacks to eat before, during and after your ride. When you eat enough food during your ride, this helps the aerobic system to turn on and begin converting energy.

When you eat the correct foods and snacks during, this allows the body to continue functioning in the way that it is prepared to – without stopping. Snacking while cycling is not only important, but imperative if you want to go further distances faster.

Why is eating while cycling important?

If you do not eat while you are cycling there is not much that you can do when your body shuts down.

A bonk, or “hitting a wall” is defined when the cyclist runs out of carbohydrate fuel and begins converting body fat to energy.

This may sound like a great opportunity to lose weight by cycling to those that are looking to target belly fat, however, if this occurs midway through a long endurance ride, this occurrence can be extremely painful.

You will begin to lose your balance, your eyesight will lose and regain focus, and mentally you simply will lose a lot of your marbles. In my early days, I have bonked quite a few times before understanding what the best cycling snacks are, and it may have made me stronger mentally, I don’t recommend anyone intentionally go through it to feel strong.

Best Cycling Snacks

There are plenty of great snacks to eat while cycling. What’s important is to have a good selection and variety of sugars and carbs. After you finish cycling, protein is important too.

When I am riding, I like to eat different varieties of cereals, dates, bananas, oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and more. Some other options are oranges and other fresh fruits.

Are cycling gels worth it?

When you are cycling and you are looking to increase your endurance, cycling gels are a great option to increase your performance. However, knowing if cycling gels are right for you are largely dependent on your goals.

Cycling gels are not 100% necessary for the absolute hobbyist cyclist. I personally did not get into cycling gels until I had single rides that were 60+ miles and 6000+ feet of elevation gain when I was training for my first century.

However, at that point I had to completely overhaul my nutrition habits. I shifted from zero artificial sugars, and vegan to pescatarian, and the use of cycling gels.

The biggest and best thing about cycling gels are the increase in energy that you feel about 5 minutes after eating the gel and this energy is sustained for hours.

I personally do not use caffeinated gels because I am fairly strict on my caffeine intake (none), but it is true that although these gels are not 100% needed to cycle, the top, fastest and most competitive cyclists all use gels – and from riding and using them for 2 months in training, the affects are clear and you can easily see the results.

What foods to avoid before cycling?

Cycling is a sport just like all others where you do want to take care of your body in the best way possible before you engage in the activity.

There are certain food that you may want to avoid in order to lower your chances of bloating before-hand and maintaining peak performance.

Some foods that I typically avoid when cycling would be many forms of heavy dairy like cheeses, milk and yogurt. I also tend to avoid artificial sugars right before a ride.

Artificial sugars tend to cause large spikes in energy followed by very fast crashes. They’re great when you need a 30 minute pick up towards the end of a race, though right before a 6 or seven ride it may cause a problem for your long term endurance.

I will focus on eating as much carbs, proteins and natural sugars (fruits) as possible beforehand. Oatmeal I have noticed is great for eating right before as well, or 2 eggs and a piece of fish or shrimp. These are all great sources of protein and carbs, and do not cause bloating.

What not to do after cycling?

You typically do not want to eat artificial foods and sugars directly after riding. The artificial foods and sugars will give you energy, so you will feel good directly after the ride, but your body will not be able to repair itself afterwards.

You should not do anything that would cause further physical stress to the areas that you have trained like heavy squatting, or cleans. You would be mixing the types of exercise in the same day and your body would not know exactly in what function to repair the muscles.

It’s important to focus on what to do correctly after cycling. Of course if you follow these instructions, typically, you will be fine.

Typically you want to stretch, rest the legs and allow the body to move from an active pattern to a relaxed pattern.

This can be in ways like running a Epsom salt bath or an ice bath, or stretching the body for a cool down.

It is important to eat protein to help the body rebuild it’s mass that needs repairing.

Conclusion: Best Cycling Snacks

The best cycling snacks are foods that are high in carbohydrates, and natural sugars. This can include oatmeal, eggs, cereals, fruits like bananas and oranges, rice and bread.

You also want to make sure that you are giving your body enough protein to build itself and repair after a ride. This is included in foods like nuts, fish and eggs. There are a lot of good types of fats in nuts and fish oils to which you should gravitate towards.

Always try to stretch and relax the body so that your body is ready for the next send-off.