Some more specifics

Decreasing and increasing body weight

• Weight and fat reduction should be done with slight deficits (app. 200 Kcal). Weight increase vice versa with slight overloads (app. 200 kcal per day). Significantly higher deficits make it difficult to maintain muscle mass or avoid fat increase.

• Especially if you are interested in maintaining muscle mass, I can recommend to spread your meals (5 to 6 meals including ‘snacks’) over the day and have solid portion of protein (appear. 30g) in each meal. In my experience intermittent fasting or keto can be good solution for weight and fat loss - yet muscle mass goes down with it.

• I start slightly below my base consumption (as stated in my Garmin watch). If my bodyweight falls within two weeks, I know I am in deficit. In the first weeks (highly dependant from the starting point) I see half a kg to one kg of reduction per week. Once I stagnate I reduce a bit more. I repeat this until my targets (body fat, weight, optics) are achieved.

• Especially if I struggle (usually on the reduction side) I made the best experiences in noting down the calories and the macros (carbs, proteins and fats). Counting calories is cumbersome but it gives immense insights into hidden calories, portion size and strongly supports your gut feel (educated gut feel is needed in the longrun to sustain your achievements and avoid a cumbersome and nerdy lifestyle).

• One way of tracking can also be to make progress pictures. They are also quite motivational if I have a phase of loosing track (see: motivation - waking up in the ditches or grinding along)

• I also made good experiences with having a professional bodybuilding coach (they have the best experience in loosing fat while maintaining muscle). A good coach can take away a lot of the guess work and also can be the necessary ‘kick in the butt’. Also the experience with different body types and developments is something that is very difficult to gain own knowledge.

Most important meals are breakfast and your food around the workouts

• Morning routine: Two glasses of good water. Maybe some morning sport (yoga or cardio). Then breakfast with oats, fruits, proteins (skyr or yoghurt and whey on top) and the majority of health supplements

• For pre and post workout I use a solid load of carbs and proteins

  • Pre work out: Rice pudding, fruits, protein isolate, colagen (roughly one hour before workout)

  • Post work out: Classic is corn flakes, whey protein and an apple. I personally find it more practical to go with an all in one formula directly after workout in the locker room (get it in asap to avoid open window effect)

Eating while extensive cardio

• One of the biggest mistakes is to do extensive cardio (above 90min) without suitable calorie supply! First of all you can get insane hunger attacks that end up in binge eating and second regeneration and muscle mass are negatively impacted

• I add roughly 50% to 80% (the longer the tour the more I add) of the calories burned while on the bike and a post workout shake with some fruits after the ride (avoid hunger attack and open window effect). I try to keep this always below the calories burned to save a bit for some ice cream or alike :-). Or in more serious terms - of course I hope to burn some fat while riding and my reserves clearly allows for body fat reduction ;-)

• Nutrition Planner for long rides

Rest days

• On rest days pay special attention to lower the carbs and avoid sugars.

One observation I made in exchanging with successful athletes (young and old) - they all pay attention to nutrition. So nutrition for me is not a topic to shy away from or to neglect. There might be genetically more gifted people but I am not amongst them.

With these guiding principles I can steer my nutrition with limited effort and discipline year round. Inbetween strength focus (Winter) and endurance focus (Summer) I can move fairly planned within a 8-10 kg range in the teens in percentage of body fat. And actually I am oftentimes the smiling one who enjoys a desert or an icecream with best concious.

Basic health supplements

I have a my bloodwork done every 6 month and dose my supplements based on the results (where ever this correlation works).

What I always supplement (independent from season or physical activity level):

• Fish Oil

  • Rational: One of the blood values I never brought into the normal range is the good cholesterol (HDL value). With daily dose of Fish Oil I got this values into lower normal range. If am generally healthy my other cholesterol levels and triglycerides are actually a simple function of exercise amount (not intensity), clean eating and no alcohol.

  • Brand recommendation: Norsan - I honestly think they are really above the level of many other brands

• Vitamin D

  • Rational: One of the blood values I never brought into the normal range without supplementation. With supplementation I am in a comfortable range, yet was never at a high level.

  • In speaking with doctors and trainers this seems to be true for a vast majority of us

  • If values are fairly low, I kick start with a high dosage oil based tablet 20.000 I.U. (in Germany a prescription is needed). Otherwise I just have a daily dose 1.000 - 2.000 I.U..

What I use if I have a mid to high level of physical activity level (almost year round and for sure in the cold season):

• Antioxidants: Vitamin C, Q10, Curcuma

  • Rational: My experience on fairly high dosage is very positive with respect to regeneration and improved immune reaction

  • I dose fairly high (e.g. 1000mg Vitamin C per Day

  • For this I don’t use bloodwork. I just drink enough water to make sure unnecessary overdose finds its way out ;-)

  • Little note on Ashwagandha: I actually get really strange dreams if I take it. I tried it several times to avoid misinterpretation. So if I have some from time to time, I rather take it in the first half of the day

• Zinc

  • From time to time and more in the cold season I add some Zinc. On Zinc my blood levels are usually ok with slight tendency to high

• Lecithin

  • From time to time I add Lecithin for gut health

My personal choice is to combine these ingredients individually. Allows me better induvidual dosage.

Supplements

Will come soon

How I calculate carb-intake for long bike rides

The daily eating routines can change significantly when extensive endurance training is included. If I bike more than 90min I try to match my calories burned with calorie intake to a certain degree. This should allow for better biking, avoid hunger attacks and prepare for fast regeneration.

But how should I know before I start how many calories I will burn? What food and drinks should I prepare to take with me?

One way of calculating calories to be burned is the Metabolic Equivalent of Tasks value (MET)

• Calories to be burned = MET x weight in kg x hours

  • Based on my tours driven my MET ranges are

    • Easy tours: 4

    • Intermediate tours: 5 to 6

With the following calculator I can approximate the calories you will burn on a given bike ride.

I would usually try to replace a good bit of these calories on the bike and directly after (avoid the open window effect). In general I think a deficit of some 100 calories is possible without a heavy hunger attack.

So far this is pure theory on my side. I will test this in the coming months especially with respect of hunger attacks and performance while biking.

Take a look at my nutrition planner for long cycling tours. This goes a bit more into this topic with calculating your MET and food suggestions and more theory around foot in endurance sports.

THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS, so bear with me in case of bugs and alike