What to Eat While Bicycling or Hiking

Bicyclist

If you plan to take a long bicycle ride, long jog, or go hiking, you should carry some food to keep you feeling energized, instead of lazy and tired. I’m sure you’ve had that feeling before. I just had this feeling last weekend after walking around the flea market for 3 hours. What was I thinking?

Anyway, when going out and doing a strenuous activity such as this, you should make sure to bring food with you. The amount of food depends on how long you’re going to be out, but you should be eating food with high calories so that you aren’t expending more energy without replacing it.

I would suggest about 440 calories per 100 grams of food.

So what should you bring?

Complex Carbohydrates: Dried or fresh fruits and veggies, whole grain breads, and crackers
Proteins: Protein bars, peanut butter, cheese, nuts and dried meats
Others: Plenty of water, grapes, tomatoes, small boxes of milk

Absolutely AVOID foods with refined sugars and empty calories. You may feel a burst of energy at first, but that feeling will wear off quick, and then you’ll be wishing you waited in the car.

Don’t pack too much or you’ll wear yourself out, but if you’re going somewhere where you might become stranded for any reason, make sure you pack enough to keep up your energy.

You also want to make sure that you’re eating complex carbohydrates. Fresh fruits and vegetable are an excellent choice or you can also take along their dried variations. Cracker or whole grain breads will also provide the energy your body needs.

image courtesy of butchgaudy / CC BY-SA 2.0

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