Cycling on type. 2

tirth

Member
Messages
22
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Diet only
Any advice for me when I go on 45 mike bike rides. What should I eat before to give me energy?

in my preference liquid diet is the best !! aa it regulates the body temperature
 

CL_in_NZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
86
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Fat works once you are adapted but you do need to adapt. Once you are it is awesome. I did a 4 day tramp a couple months ago. On day two I walked 20ks with a 15kg pack. I felt great after that and the weather was good so after we go to the hut I dumped my pack and ran another 9ks/700m elevation gain for the view. My legs were a little tired but I felt great. 25ks the next day with the pack and I still felt great, I was really missing a shower though so was getting a bit ripe :) I was having less then 30g carbs a day on that trip.

My cholesterol is to quote my GP "excellent" HBA1C is 37 and BP is getting low so I am going off meds. LCHF is night and day for me.

To the original poster, who is trying to manage through diet you can absolutely do it but you need to cut the carbs.
 

woodenone46

Well-Known Member
Messages
75
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Well I run at age; 71; 26km a week on a Ketogenic Diet. Some of these runs I do after a 12 hour fast before I have any more food. Your body will learn to burn fat as fuel. I also think but am not definite on this but Chris Froome, who is also an asthmatic, eats a low carb diet.
The best way to find out is to cycle a shorter distance see how that goes & then slowly increase the distance.
When doing run training we are advised to inrease distance by no more than 10% do that distance for 2/3 weeks then increase by a further 10%
Hope all goes well
 
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steveis36

Well-Known Member
Messages
206
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I have some carbs when i go out as my bgs drop .
But i didn't find that with running/walking
 

bruciebonus

Well-Known Member
Messages
74
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Steveis36, if you have gone keto because you are lchf your BG level can be very low because you burning ketones not glucose.
 

Bigbassett_

Well-Known Member
Messages
59
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I don't do low carb high fat. But I do prepare for that distance in a hilly area of Wales with sausage egg and beans or similar. High blood sugars will leave you feeling fatigued and not performing well from my experience.
I bring a peanut bar or two with me and blood monitoring kit.
I'm lucky I've always been OK cycling. Running I've dropped below 4 and felt weirdly awesome but couldn't run straight.
 

Rosalie_900

Member
Messages
17
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Well, I'm not hot on tables, (unless it's a weighbridge lol) but looking at your tables, the biggest fat number in bacon or eggs is eggs chicken yolk boiled, so I guess that's the fat to go for?
Ignore the bacon, crack on for boiled egg yolks for the ride, you recommend?

What I do is add just a few cherry tomatoes (3-4) fried gently in a lot of butter with just a few walnuts added at the last minute - served in a small bowl so I don’t lose the butter. I also have a half avocado with about 15-20ml home made salad dressing of olive oil and cider vinegar. Then I add a boiled egg (could be fried) or cheese. I avoid too much protein as it is bad for you.....and add plenty of salt. I also have organic decaf coffee with cream. The butter, olive oil and cream are very sustaining.
 
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Ross.Walker

Well-Known Member
Messages
291
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
sprouts, evil things
hi

I have done that sort of distance, if you keep control well and do not dump a load of sugar/energy/fat in before you start you will run out at some point, pack foods you know will pick you up without spiking, i do take a ribena, tastes sickly sweet nowadays but it works. Peanuts, crisps etc for fatty snacks. and a pork pie (because I want more people in the world to cycle with pork products, it makes me giggle).

First time I did not do this and ended the race on 2.2. Not a glorious finale. now I can end on 4ish, ready for a good lunch and not in danger.

please make sure you do not make hypo mistakes, like drunk mistakes they can be bad.
 

1979Danny

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Other
I’m type 2 and just increased my insulin medication to 12ml at night to 16ml morning. Big issue when I injected 16ml in morning before 45 bike ride
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
In the summer I regularly cycle around 50k (which is around 30 miles) and usually just have my morning coffee/cream/butter which sees me through.

As others have said, if you are adapted to mainly burning fat for energy then you should be able to sustain exercise for longer without "hitting the wall" because there is a limit on how much glucose your body can store, and also a limit on how much it can take in and process over a period of time.

A bit like the traditional bath tub arithmetic; you run the taps to fill it and take the plug out to empty it. In the case of glucose the taps can't run fast enough to keep it filled and after a while the bath tub empties. Then you have no energy, legs turn to jelly, mind goes away with the fairies. The wall.

I can't find the figures at the moment for the maximum amount of energy the body can store as glucose and fat, but you can carry way more fat around than you can glucose. So if you are adapted to burn fat then (in theory) you have a much larger energy supply available.

For this to work properly you do have to be adapted to burning mainly fat.
 
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bulkbiker

BANNED
Messages
19,576
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
In the summer I regularly cycle around 50k (which is around 30 miles) and usually just have my morning coffee/cream/butter which sees me through.

As others have said, if you are adapted to mainly burning fat for energy then you should be able to sustain exercise for longer without "hitting the wall" because there is a limit on how much glucose your body can store, and also a limit on how much it can take in and process over a period of time.

A bit like the traditional bath tub arithmetic; you run the taps to fill it and take the plug out to empty it. In the case of glucose the taps can't run fast enough to keep it filled and after a while the bath tub empties. Then you have no energy, legs turn to jelly, mind goes away with the fairies. The wall.

I can't find the figures at the moment for the maximum amount of energy the body can store as glucose and fat, but you can carry way more fat around than you can glucose. So if you are adapted to burn fat then (in theory) you have a much larger energy supply available.

For this to work properly you do have to be adapted to burning mainly fat.
I have no idea if this is accurate but...
https://www.quora.com/How-many-calories-are-there-in-the-average-human-body
This is one of the main reasons that endurance athletes especially are turning ketogenic.
2,400 cals of carbs .. significantly more if you can access your body fat for fuel. From other pages the 88k may be a little high and I think there is some thought that total available from fat may have a daily upper limit which thinking about it makes sense because once your glucose is gone and you are burning fats then obviously there has to be a self limiting mechanism.
 

jcbman

Well-Known Member
Messages
263
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
2,400 calories from the dreaded carbs then?

So, does every one start fat burning if they don't eat for a day or so?
'Cos I know I've skipped meals for longer than that, so do I turn keto or something?
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
2,400 calories from the dreaded carbs then?

So, does every one start fat burning if they don't eat for a day or so?
'Cos I know I've skipped meals for longer than that, so do I turn keto or something?
Everybody burns a bit of fat nearly every day.
If you lose a pound in weight then normally you have burned off some fat.
The big difference is between burning a bit of fat, fasting for a day (when you burn more fat plus stored glucose) and eating very little carbohydrate for a week or so.
Your body prefers to burn carbohydrate when it is freely available.
It takes a couple of weeks to switch over from burning carbohydrate plus fat to burning mainly fat. This is keto adaptation and it can easily go back the other way.

Think of it as a Summer and Winter thing - back in the day before we had Tesco.

In the summer we ate anything we could get our hands on including fruits, roots, shoots and grains. Plus any meat we could catch. The aim was to put on as much fat as possible while lots of food was available.

Running on carbohydrates as much as possible to save that wonderful fat.

Come Winter and all the fruit is gone from the trees, everything is covered in snow, nearly all the plants have died or are hidden in the frozen ground. Then we hunkered down and started burning that stored fat to see us through the winter.

So we lived two lives; carbohydrate guzzler and fat storer then fat burner.

Fat was so precious that the body would refuse to switch over to fat burning immediately and only really start burning fat after a couple of weeks without food.

Then along came Tesco and now you can have high energy carbohydrates all the year round and store up loads of fat.

Still takes that couple of weeks to switch over to burning all fat, though, and doesn't take long to switch back to burning glucose from carbohydrates.

So if you are off carbohydrates for a couple of days then you are only on the first step to going keto.

At that stage a lot of people get "carb flu" where they aren't getting the carbs they are used to but aren't managing to burn fats properly.
 
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MartinCH

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Negatives
A very useful explanation for a dummy like me! Thank you for taking the time for the simple approach for laymen.
 

jcbman

Well-Known Member
Messages
263
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Everybody burns a bit of fat nearly every day.
If you lose a pound in weight then normally you have burned off some fat.
The big difference is between burning a bit of fat, fasting for a day (when you burn more fat plus stored glucose) and eating very little carbohydrate for a week or so.
Your body prefers to burn carbohydrate when it is freely available.
It takes a couple of weeks to switch over from burning carbohydrate plus fat to burning mainly fat. This is keto adaptation and it can easily go back the other way.

Think of it as a Summer and Winter thing - back in the day before we had Tesco.

In the summer we ate anything we could get our hands on including fruits, roots, shoots and grains. Plus any meat we could catch. The aim was to put on as much fat as possible while lots of food was available.

Running on carbohydrates as much as possible to save that wonderful fat.

Come Winter and all the fruit is gone from the trees, everything is covered in snow, nearly all the plants have died or are hidden in the frozen ground. Then we hunkered down and started burning that stored fat to see us through the winter.

So we lived two lives; carbohydrate guzzler and fat storer then fat burner.

Fat was so precious that the body would refuse to switch over to fat burning immediately and only really start burning fat after a couple of weeks without food.

Then along came Tesco and now you can have high energy carbohydrates all the year round and store up loads of fat.

Still takes that couple of weeks to switch over to burning all fat, though, and doesn't take long to switch back to burning glucose from carbohydrates.

So if you are off carbohydrates for a couple of days then you are only on the first step to going keto.

At that stage a lot of people get "carb flu" where they aren't getting the carbs they are used to but aren't managing to burn fats properly.

Still not getting it.

Say I use 2400 calories a day.

My body (conveniently) has 1 day of energy.
Keto adapted bodies have zero days, ie, no carbs/low carb in the diet.

But day two, both bodies are running 100% on fat.
Then
If either eat carbs, I start burning carbs again.
Keto body is thrown out of keto, and starts burning carbs again?
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
Still not getting it.

Say I use 2400 calories a day.

My body (conveniently) has 1 day of energy.
Keto adapted bodies have zero days, ie, no carbs/low carb in the diet.

But day two, both bodies are running 100% on fat.
Then
If either eat carbs, I start burning carbs again.
Keto body is thrown out of keto, and starts burning carbs again?

I don't think that it is quite as simple as that (nothing ever is).

You have 2400 kcals of glucose stored.
You start to burn through that, but your body also burns some fat.
Burning triglycerides frees off some glycerin which is turned into glucose.
Your body also generates some glucose from protein (your own muscles if nothing else is available),
So your body doesn't go 100% glucose -> BANG -> 100% fat.
As far as I know you are never 100% glucose.

If you are running on glucose and just stop eating your body is usually not very happy and does all sorts of strange things including breaking down the muscles to try and cope with the emergency. It tries to hang on to the glucose because the brain and the blood need some.

So by day 2 you haven't used all your stored glucose, and you aren't running on 100% fat. You probably aren't burning 2,400 kcals either because your body will be in panic mode. You will probably feel like **** and have low energy levels.

Starvation can force you into fat burning keto mode far quicker than just a gradual change in diet, but it does kick of all sorts of emergency reactions and you aren't likely to feel good or enjoy it very much.
 

jcbman

Well-Known Member
Messages
263
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I've lasted a while without eating, I feel more tired when I'm stuffed to be honest.
 

Guzzler

Master
Messages
10,577
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
I don't think that it is quite as simple as that (nothing ever is).

You have 2400 kcals of glucose stored.
You start to burn through that, but your body also burns some fat.
Burning triglycerides frees off some glycerin which is turned into glucose.
Your body also generates some glucose from protein (your own muscles if nothing else is available),
So your body doesn't go 100% glucose -> BANG -> 100% fat.
As far as I know you are never 100% glucose.

If you are running on glucose and just stop eating your body is usually not very happy and does all sorts of strange things including breaking down the muscles to try and cope with the emergency. It tries to hang on to the glucose because the brain and the blood need some.

So by day 2 you haven't used all your stored glucose, and you aren't running on 100% fat. You probably aren't burning 2,400 kcals either because your body will be in panic mode. You will probably feel like **** and have low energy levels.

Starvation can force you into fat burning keto mode far quicker than just a gradual change in diet, but it does kick of all sorts of emergency reactions and you aren't likely to feel good or enjoy it very much.

Yup, carb flu is quite unpleasant. I would have made out a will if I had had the strength to pick up a pen.
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
I've lasted a while without eating, I feel more tired when I'm stuffed to be honest.

Yes, we are designed like that.
Feast and famine used to be part of everyday life.

I think the big thing is that going without food for a day or two (depending on how your body works) can be no big problem. However it usually takes more than that to become fully fat adapted.

If I understand it correctly you start out by creating and using ketones (going into ketosis) but this is a temporary thing and full fat adaptation can take 2 or 3 weeks.

Emergency measures compared to a lifestyle change.