Cycling Nutrition: 7 Tips for Fueling up Before, During, and After a Ride

Whether you’re a road biker or ride indoors, your body is essentially your bike’s engine. Just like a car’s engine can’t run far—or as efficiently—without much gas, your muscles can’t perform at their peak without proper fuel. 

Cycling nutrition is vital to consider as you prepare to ride. Eating and hydrating effectively is crucial for maintaining enough momentum and energy during your ride, and it’s key for promoting recovery after you clip out. Plus, jumping into a tough workout without enough fuel puts you at higher risk for bonking, or depleting your body’s glycogen stores.

Ahead, dietitians dish up cycling nutrition tips that will help you rock today’s ride—and feel revved up and strong to conquer the next one. 

1. Time Your Fueling Strategically

As you consider your overall cycling nutrition strategy, it’s helpful to note that there isn’t a set prescription for every individual—or even every ride. 

It isn’t absolutely mandatory to eat before you start moving, especially if you’re truly not hungry and are doing a shorter ride (say, 30 minutes or less) or if you had a meal within the last three hours and are still satisfied, explains Kelly Jones, RD, a board-certified sports dietitian.

In fact, it’s wise to wait at least two hours after consuming a large meal before you exercise to give your body enough time to digest and utilize the nutrients you ate. If the food we consume isn’t broken down prior to the time we clip in for a ride, it won’t be integrated into our “energy reserves,” says board-certified sports dietitian, Cynthia Sass, RD.

But if you don’t have hours to spare before your ride, smaller meals and snacks take less time to digest—and they help top off your body’s energy stores before moving. Even if you’re not ravenous, “a small snack 30 minutes beforehand can make a big difference in energy levels as well as hunger levels after the session,” Jones says.

This is especially true if you’ll be up against wind and hills outside or if you have your sights set on a longer ride, explains Jena Brown, RD, a sports dietitian and owner of Victorem Performance Nutrition.

Experiment with your pre-ride cycling nutrition strategy to see what timing works best for your body. Start with a small, carb-focused snack 30 minutes before exercising, and if that doesn’t land well in your stomach, try playing around with the snack type before shifting it back to 60-minutes pre-ride, Jones suggests.

2. Customize Your Pre-Ride Meal Based on Your Workout Length

Specific pre-ride calorie and macronutrient needs will vary from person to person, as well as due to factors like body size, age, sex, fitness level, and activity the rest of the day, Jones says.

“Regardless of the length of the ride or a person’s physical characteristics and activity levels, carbohydrates are the body’s primary fuel source, so this should be the macronutrient of focus in snacks and meals heading into activity,” Jones adds. 

Again, while everyone’s nutrition needs are unique, Sass coaches her clients to follow this template for their pre-ride cycling nutrition plan:

3. Lean Into Easy-to-Digest Carbs Before You Ride

You’ll notice that we didn’t mention protein or fat, the other two macronutrients, as recommended parts of a pre-ride nutrition plan.

“Since cycling involves less impact and bouncing than running, many people can tolerate higher amounts of fat, protein, and fiber before and during a ride than a run,” Jones says. “Still, fat can cause digestive discomfort in some, and for satiety and muscle synthesis, many people are working on spreading out their protein intake throughout the day. Some fiber is fine, but it also slows digestion and can cause GI distress in excess, so save very high-fiber foods like legumes and vegetables for other times of the day and limit them in the two to three hours prior to a ride.”

Everyone’s body is different, but it’s also generally a good idea to avoid fuel that checks any of the following boxes before and throughout a ride, Sass and Jones agree:

Your safest bet is to seek out easy-to-digest, nutrient-rich, whole-food carbohydrates, which are easy for the body to utilize for energy and essentially act like “rocket fuel” for our muscles, according to Sass. (Think: a baked sweet potato, dried figs, and a banana.)

“Carbs that supply antioxidants, like fruit, can also help minimize exercise-induced cell damage, which can support post-ride recovery,” Sass adds.

4. Refuel 1 Hour In If You’re Still Cycling

Unless you’re performing “two-a-days,” or training twice in the span of 24 hours, most people will not need to refuel during rides lasting an hour or less, according to the dietitians we spoke with. 

But when the clock hits 60 minutes into your ride, if you plan to keep pedaling, it’s time to top off your reserves. This is of particular importance if you anticipate high-intensity sprints, big hills, or if you are preparing for a race, Brown advises.

“A ride that’s longer than an hour will typically require refueling at the start of the second hour,” Sass says. “Just like within the immediate pre-exercise period, it’s a good idea to limit protein, fat, and fiber during exercise to help keep the gut happy, optimize absorption, and maximize the delivery of fuel to working muscles.” 

Once again, carbohydrates are the star of the show here: After conquering the first 60 minutes of your ride, researchers have found that refueling with about 30–60 grams of carbs per hour is a good goal to aim for.

The more intense the ride, the faster the carbs are burned. The lower end of the range may be adequate for a more moderate and steadier pace, while the higher end is likely best for a more challenging ride, Sass explains. 

Because it may be difficult to carry and eat solid food as you cycle, Sass says that the best mid-ride refueling options include the following:

5. Consume a Balanced Recovery Meal or Snack Within 1 Hour Post-Ride

“A post-exercise recovery meal should replenish fluid and nutrients lost during exercise and provide the building blocks to heal from the wear and tear training puts on the body,” Sass says. 

Ideally, soon after your cooldown, you’d eat something within 30–45 minutes. Some research suggests that this is when our muscle cells are more sensitive to insulin, meaning they can rapidly absorb glucose to be stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver to power your body the rest of the day.

“Waiting just two hours after activity to eat can reduce the amount of carbohydrate stored as glycogen by up to 50 percent, which may impact both progress towards fitness goals as well as body composition in the long run,” Jones says. 

That said, this certainly doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck or won’t score any benefits from eating outside of that window, and some experts say that the timing of your after-exercise fuel isn’t as vital as we once believed. There’s no need to make perfect the enemy of good: Adequate nutrition overall is what’s most important.

But what types of food should you aim for after your cycling session? Since your muscles were challenged on the ride, now is the time to layer on the protein—but don’t skimp on carbs, either.

“As long as adequate protein is consumed over the course of the day, what’s actually most important post-ride is adequate carbohydrate intake,” Jones says, due to the glycogen drain from your cardio workout. “By pairing carbs and protein within an hour of exercise, you promote energy replenishment, muscle recovery, and satiety.”

According to recent recommendations, Brown explains that a post-ride meal or snack should contain at least 0.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and about 0.8 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight. Using that framework, a 150-pound athlete would benefit from a post-ride nosh that contains about 20 grams of protein and about 55 grams of carbohydrates. One 6-ounce carton of plain Greek yogurt with ⅓ cup granola and 1 cup fresh blueberries would fit the bill.

6. Hydrate Before, During, and After Your Ride

Sweat loss varies significantly between athletes, so an individualized hydration strategy, including fluid and electrolyte replacement, should be used before, during, and after rides, Brown says. 

The easiest way to determine your hydration status is to monitor your urine; it should be pale yellow if you’re consuming enough water. Since hydration plays such a major role in performance, heart health, kidney health, and overall well-being, it can be helpful to pair that visual cue with some rough numbers, courtesy of Sass: 

So how do you determine your pre- to post-ride weight? Jones recommends peeing, then taking your weight naked before and then again after your workout (so long as you feel comfortable doing so). There’s no need to do this every single session; “do it once per season for each length of ride you tend to take so you can estimate your losses and post-ride needs,” Jones suggests.

If you know that you sweat heavily, if you ride for 60 minutes or more, or if you’re cycling in hot and/or humid conditions, Sass recommends combining your water with an electrolyte powder packet (with 110 milligrams or more of sodium per 8 ounces, as well as some potassium and magnesium) to replace the electrolytes you lost through sweat.

7. Don’t Forget About the Rest of the Day

As important as pre-, mid-, and post-ride food and hydration are for your performance, the most vital consideration in your cycling nutrition strategy is your overall eating pattern, Sass says. Solid nutrition and hydration habits, as well as adequate rest, are key elements of staying healthy and progressing towards fitness goals. 

“Even if someone has an optimal recovery meal, they can easily fall short on daily calorie, protein, nutrient, or fluid needs or sleep—and may not recover optimally,” Sass says. “It’s important to meet daily calorie and protein needs and consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods throughout the day, including veggies, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices, and to aim for proper hydration.”