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  • Starving on my 30-mile ride, what should I do?

    Hey Gale,

    As you know I am adapting to the Fat Burning Machine principles. I just went for a 30ish mile road ride and the last 30min I was starving.  Typically for this distance and time I don't bring food and am not usually hungry.  I had my usual breakfast of omelet, whole wheat toast with butter and coffee. I'm clearly not in mid-season bike shape but found the hunger to be abnormal. I did bring water and was hydrated normally.

    Any thoughts?

    M.R.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Hey M. R.,

    Great question - and many athletes have experienced the same thing. I think it will take you some 3 to 6 weeks to develop the metabolic processes to go 1.5 to 2 hours with just water. That written, I will sometimes experience this even though I'm fat-adapted. For me, now, the experience you describe depends on how much (really how little) I've eaten and what I've done for workouts in the previous few days. So, if I've managed to under-eat (which isn't often) or I'm tired from life or sport, I'll get hungry.

    What to do? I carry a few Clif Bloks and if I get hungry, I'll begin with just one somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes. With only 33 calories it doesn't seem that one tiny block should make a difference. One study showed that simply swishing glucose and spitting it out does make a difference. I think that the action of chewing and initiating digestion, along with exercise does more than science can explain right now. The nice thing about Clif Bloks (or similar made with tapioca syrup) is that the things are stable for weeks. I can eat one block and put the rest in a baggy - they won't go stale.

    So, give this a try and let me know how it goes.

    Gale

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