Fueling for the work required

Nutrition
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Hi everyone,

I am a junior road cyclist (racer) from the Netherlands. I am 184cm and around 61kg. I am very curious what your thoughts are regarding fuelling for the work requiered. My weekly training program consists of around 15 hours of training on the bike and at least once a week in the gym. I am frequently keeping track of my calories because I find it interesting and want to learn more about nutrition and what it does to my body. When I keep track of my calories and macros I eat whatever calorie needs I have on that day (2090cal base metabolic rate plus the calories I burn (usually around 1000 to 3000cal)). On bigger days I am eating around 60 to 70 percent of my calories from carbohydrates and try to aim for 20 percent coming from protein. On rest days I aim for a bigger percentage of my calories coming from protein and lower my carbohydrates intake.

Jonas

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I know exactly what you’re talking about here @JonasdePoorter, but am also unclear as to how to go about this. A lot of this seems like a full time job, and yes it is important, but until something is clearly drawn out on what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat on certain days it’s very daunting.

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2 Likes
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184cm and 61kg is a BMI of 18 and (officially) underweight. So my first question is, have you always been this thin, or have you lost weight to reach that number?

If you’re really eating properly and not going hungry, then perhaps 61kg is your natural weight - after all, a lot of teenagers are very skinny. But if you’ve been losing weight then that would be cause for concern, because you certainly don’t need to be that light.

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That’s seriously lean!