How much difference does diet make?

[Jonny69]

I was having this conversation yesterday, sparked off on the London to Brighton ride. We rode as a group and were quite amazed at the calibre of people we were passing both on the hills and on the flat; guys taking it seriously with all the gear, calfs like veiny basketballs sucking back gel shots etc, expensive carbon bikes, and there's us passing them on old boneshaker racers with bananas and Mars bars making them look a bit, well, silly. One or two of them even felt the need to pass comment.

It got me thinking about diet. In our group we're all quite fit, cycle and run regularly, but we're also out on the booze quite a lot and don't bother watching our diets. How much difference does diet really make then? If we can get this far without particularly looking after ourselves, what could a better diet do for us other than cut out all the cream cakes and fry ups we love?

 

[burtie]

Sounds like your achieving your goals why bother, the odd treat while working out is not really a problem.

 

[Zefan]

I'd say the difference between eating the right thing naturally and using the products that are marketed specifically for health/fitness purposes is small. In most cases they're for people who don't really know the best foods to eat naturally, having a labeled product means they know it's good for them. The other type of people who use those sort of products are the ones who know their stuff, but are willing to pay the extra for that small benefit that they bring or the added convenience that such products bring.

As for your question about booze, I imagine depends on your discipline/sport. On the whole I'd say yes you would probably be a great deal fitter if you watched your diet.

 

["andy"]

you need a combination which it seems is what you and your mates have

a few fry ups and drinking sessions wont do you much damage when your ride/run it off the day/week after !

if the guys you passed are the type im thinking of then they probably only ride on the sunny weekend of every month

 

[Jonny69]

you need a combination which it seems is what you and your mates have

a few fry ups and drinking sessions wont do you much damage when your ride/run it off the day/week after !

I think you probably hit the nail on the head. I only ask because I see so many people obsessing about their diet, but does it really help them or just deprive them of the things they love?

if the guys you passed are the type im thinking of then they probably only ride on the sunny weekend of every month

Lol, there were a few of those out there

 

['Wes]

Depends on your goals, but a lot of people don't do the research and just buy anything expecting themselves to become Mr/Mrs. Ultra Fit.

 

[Vegeta]

Well it depends whether you want to look good or just be able todo endurance. I doubt you'd have to eat that great to be able to be fit and do long distances but to look good I doubt you could get away with just eating mars bars.

 

[Volcs]

Across most sports, a lot of people spend more time buying kit than getting good at using it.

'All the gear, no idea', or as I prefer it 'All the kit, fully ****".

 

[King Damager]

Your diet is probably not that bad to be honest...

Most decent diets will give you a day where you can relax slightly more on the eating side, have a few pints etc... especially if you're doing large amounts of cardio - running/cycling

I'm guessing you've got a slightly higher amount of body fat than the guys you passed? Which to be honest is probably the only noticeable effect

kd

 

[icecold]

A highly tuned diet isn't that important for just endurance.

 

[Participant]

Lol johnny, you overtake a few old boys on better bikes than you and feel the need to start a thinly veiled 'diet' thread basically asking, 'how the **** am I so awesomely fit?!'.

People ride at their own pace no matter what the gear. As an incredible cyclist I'm surprised you haven't figured this out yet. Do you really look down your nose at people that have a better bike than you yet are slower?

Maybe you overtook people that were fitter than you but didn't feel like trying hard, were out for a relaxed leisure ride, were with slower friends, were carrying injuries or taking a break. Did you think about that? If the purpose of the thread really was a genuine diet question, I fail to see the relevance of you skinning people on better bikes than you.

You were not making them look 'well, a bit silly', they were probably laughing at your furious efforts to take out anyone on a carbon race bike.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Diet is incredibly important for efficient improvements, be it weight loss, muscle gain, injury recovery etc etc.

Riding your bike a fair old distance, is really completely different.

I keep telling people, you need to massively differentiate the two things, fitness/endurance and weight loss/muscle gain are two COMPLETELY different area's, utterly removed from each other.

The same way a super fat guy could actually be ultra fit and run a marathon in good time and a skinny guy who looks quite good due to low body fat, might not be able to run to the corner shop without almost blacking out.

From appearance you can't have a single clue how fit these people are, ride twice a month and have the right gear, maybe they ride 40miles a day, something you would quickly pick up injuries doing if you had a bad diet and not enough repair time. Age, fitness, schedual all mean you can't compare where they were at compared to yourself at all.

Maybe one guy in a group is injured so everyone else is going slow, or its a more social thing so times weren't important and they were just enjoying themselves.

Anyway as said, diet for endurance, not hugely important, enough calories and protein to cover repair and you're pretty much sorted. Diet for weight loss/gain, its almost the entire story. Don't get it wrong though, you can gain muscle on a not great diet and you can lose weight on a not great diet. Mostly people want to get where they are going....... quicker, much like you. You want to get to X strength and Y weight in the best time possible, diet can make a huge difference, doesn't mean you wouldn't get to the same point eventually on a worse diet.

You also haven't said anything is wrong with your diet, fats = not bad, saturated fats = not bad, fry ups = not bad. Too much fat, too much saturated fat, too many fry ups or horrific quality fry ups can be bad for you. Booze, not great, not awful, as for not taking care of yourself, running and riding regularly is more than 80% of the country does, I would say that IS taking care of yourself.

 

[drunkenmaster]

I'd say the difference between eating the right thing naturally and using the products that are marketed specifically for health/fitness purposes is small. In most cases they're for people who don't really know the best foods to eat naturally, having a labeled product means they know it's good for them. The other type of people who use those sort of products are the ones who know their stuff, but are willing to pay the extra for that small benefit that they bring or the added convenience that such products bring.

As for your question about booze, I imagine depends on your discipline/sport. On the whole I'd say yes you would probably be a great deal fitter if you watched your diet.

SO called "supplements" can both be cheaper and easier to take than "real foods". Protein powder/shakes are WAY cheaper than quorn is for instance, infact protein powder, even the highest quality stuff, is incredibly good value for simply an unmatched quality protein.

So I save money, give myself variation in my diet, I could eat 17 incredibly diverse stirfrys every single day, or have a couple high quality multivitamins, I could eat eggs every single day, or some days when I just don't feel like eating eggs, I'll take a little vit b complex.

Supplements are food, simple as that, in many cases cheaper than "real" food alternatives, sometimes vastly higher quality, sometimes just more convenient, sometimes I fancy a nice chocolate shake rather than something else before bed. etc, etc.

I find it frustrating that so many people insist theres always a downside to not eating "real food", its more expensive, or not as good, or you only eat it because its easier.