> A new cyclist's guide to fueling a ride before, during and after: evidence-based carb, protein and fluid ranges, plus the Claude prompts I use with Strava.

Source: https://forkmate.ai/blog/how-i-stopped-bonking-fueling-rides-with-claude/

# How I stopped bonking: fueling rides with Claude, Forkmate and Strava

A new cyclist's guide to fueling a ride before, during and after: evidence-based carb, protein and fluid ranges, plus the Claude prompts I use with Strava.

[Shawn Azar](https://forkmate.ai/authors/shawn-azar/) October 1, 2026

- [Endurance](https://forkmate.ai/blog/tag/endurance/)
- [Cyclists](https://forkmate.ai/blog/tag/cyclists/)
- [Nutrition](https://forkmate.ai/blog/tag/nutrition/)
- [Claude](https://forkmate.ai/blog/tag/claude/)

**Short answer:** a bonk is usually a carbohydrate problem you can plan around. Eat a carb-forward meal a few hours before a long ride, take in carbohydrate on the bike once rides pass about an hour (roughly 30–60 g an hour for 1–2.5 hours, and up to about 90 g an hour beyond that), and follow a big ride with carbs plus 20–40 g of protein. I put this into practice by connecting two things to Claude: **Strava’s connector**, so Claude can read my ride, and **Forkmate**, so it can log and read what I ate. Then I ask Claude to put the two side by side.

## Why I built Forkmate

I’m a new cyclist. My first long rides kept ending the same way: legs fine for two hours, then nothing. Heavy, empty, crawling home. That’s the bonk. And the day after, I had no idea whether I’d eaten enough to recover, or whether I was eating more or less than my riding needed while I was trying to get healthier overall.

My Garmin and Strava had all the ride data. What I didn’t have was the other half: what I’d actually eaten, written down somewhere I’d keep using. Every food app I tried wanted me to stop, search a database and tap through portions, and I’d quit inside a week. So I built Forkmate, a free food log you fill in by telling the AI assistant you already use what you ate.

I’ve written separately about the ride side: [your Garmin is collecting data you’ll never read](https://shawnazar.me/blog/garmin-mcp-server-claude-ai-cycling/). “Garmin Connect shows you the numbers. It graphs them.” The food log is the piece that turns those numbers into a plan.

## What “bonking” is

Your muscles and liver store a limited amount of carbohydrate (glycogen). On a long or hard ride you use it faster than you can top it up, and when it runs low your pace drops sharply and everything feels harder. Carbohydrate before and during the ride is how you delay that, and carbohydrate after is how you refill for the next one [S2].

Under-fueling your training for a long stretch, what the IOC calls *problematic* (prolonged and/or severe) low energy availability, causes **Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs)**, which harms recovery, bone health and performance [S5]. That’s why I track: to see whether I’m fueling the riding, not to shrink a number.

## The setup: two connectors in one Claude chat

1. **Connect Forkmate to Claude.** It takes about two minutes; the steps are on the [Claude connect page](https://forkmate.ai/connect/claude/). Forkmate is free.
2. **Turn on Strava’s connector in Claude.** Strava publishes its own official Claude connector, set up from Strava’s settings or from Claude’s connector list. It reads your activity history and training trends, and it needs a Strava subscription ([Strava’s help article](https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/46190267796237)). Garmin users: there are community-built Garmin MCP servers; my article above uses one.

To be precise about what’s connected to what: **Forkmate has no link to Strava or Garmin.** Claude reads your ride through Strava’s connector, and Forkmate only receives the food you ask Claude to log. Forkmate doesn’t count exercise calories either, so it won’t tell you how many calories a ride “gave” you. It keeps an honest record of what you ate, with the source of every number named, and Claude does the side-by-side.

## Before the ride

**The range:** the joint ACSM / Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics / Dietitians of Canada position suggests **1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight, eaten 1–4 hours before** longer sessions [S2]. The closer to the start, the smaller and lower in fat and fibre the meal tends to be, so it sits easily.

For a 75 kg rider, for example, that’s 75 g of carbs at the low end (oats with a banana and honey, say) up to 300 g at the top, which is more like a large pasta or rice meal three or four hours out. A medium banana alone is about 27 g of carbohydrate [S6].

**Fluids:** start the ride hydrated. The ACSM fluid position stand suggests drinking with your meals and, if needed, extra fluid at least several hours before you start, so it has time to absorb [S3].

**The prompt I use the night before:**

>

I’m riding about 3 hours tomorrow morning, similar to my longest ride on Strava. Look at that ride, then help me plan breakfast and on-bike carbs using the ACSM ranges. I weigh 75 kg. When I confirm breakfast, log it to Forkmate.

If you eat the same breakfast before every long ride, log it once and save it as a recipe in Forkmate. After that, “log my ride oats” logs the whole thing.

## During the ride

How much carbohydrate per hour depends mostly on how long you’re out [S1, S2]:

| Ride length | Carbohydrate | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Under 45 minutes | None needed | [S2] |
| 45–75 minutes | A mouth rinse or small amounts may help a hard effort | [S1, S2] |
| 1–2.5 hours | About 30–60 g per hour | [S2] |
| Beyond about 2.5–3 hours | Up to about 90 g per hour, using glucose + fructose blends | [S1, S2] |

Two practical notes from the same papers: the higher rates need “multiple transportable carbohydrates” (drinks and gels that mix glucose and fructose), and your gut needs practice to handle them, so build up on training rides, not on event day [S1]. Recommendations may also come down when the ride is easy, because you’re using carbohydrate more slowly [S1].

**Fluids:** sweat rates vary a lot between people, so there’s no single number. The ACSM aims to keep fluid losses under **2% of body weight** during exercise [S3]. Weigh yourself before and after a ride, without clothes, to work out your own sweat rate. Drinks with electrolytes and carbohydrate can help on longer or hotter rides [S3].

**Logging it:** I don’t type on the bike. When I’m home I log the ride food in one line:

>

Log my ride food to Forkmate as a snack: two gels, a banana and two 500 ml bottles of sports drink.

Forkmate shows each item with where its numbers came from. Restaurant figures are labelled as the restaurant’s, and if Claude estimated something, it’s saved as an estimate rather than passed off as a database value. Got it wrong? Change it in the diary, or ask Claude to fix it.

## After the ride

**Carbohydrate:** if you’re riding again within about 8 hours, or have a hard day straight after, the joint position suggests **1.0–1.2 g of carbohydrate per kg per hour for the first 4 hours** [S2]. After an easy ride with plenty of time before the next, your normal meals usually cover it.

**Protein:** the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests about **0.25 g of protein per kg of body weight, or 20–40 g, per meal**, spread every 3–4 hours across the day [S4]. The ACSM joint position gives a similar 0.3 g/kg after key sessions [S2]. Over a whole day, the ISSN range for most exercising people is **1.4–2.0 g/kg** [S4].

**Fluids:** replace what the scale says you lost. The joint position suggests drinking about **1.25–1.5 L for every kg of body weight lost** over the following hours [S2].

For the same 75 kg rider: about 19–23 g of protein at the per-kg rate, so a 20–40 g serving covers it, and, if riding again that day, about 75–90 g of carbohydrate an hour for the first few hours.

**The prompt:**

>

Pull my ride from this morning on Strava. How long was I out, and given the ride food I logged in Forkmate, roughly how many grams of carbs an hour did I get, against the 30–60 g/h range? Then help me plan a recovery meal with about 30 g of protein and log it to Forkmate when I say yes.

## Am I eating enough across the training week?

This is the question I really built Forkmate for. One day tells you very little; a week tells you a lot. Once a week I ask:

>

Read my Strava rides from Monday to Sunday and my Forkmate diary for the same days. Put them side by side: ride time each day, then calories, carbs and protein. Point out any day where a long ride sat next to a low-carb day, and tell me my average protein per kg. I weigh 75 kg.

Claude reads your rides through Strava and your diary through Forkmate, and does the comparison itself. Some things to look for:

- **Long-ride days with low carbs, or a low day after one.** That’s where bonks and slow recovery tend to come from. Compare your carbs with the daily ranges: about 3–5 g/kg on light or easy days, 5–7 g/kg on moderate days (around an hour), and 6–10 g/kg when you’re doing 1–3 hours a day of moderate-to-hard riding [S2]. Outside your key rides, the same paper notes carbohydrate intake can be chosen to suit your energy goals [S2].
- **Protein spread.** Whether you’re near 1.4–2.0 g/kg a day, in a few servings rather than one [S4].
- **Your trend, not one day.** For weight goals, Forkmate’s week chart shows each day’s total against your goal line; read it over two to four weeks, alongside how your rides feel. One heavy or light day is just a day.

Forkmate doesn’t adjust your goal for exercise, and I’d rather not pretend otherwise. What it gives you is an honest record of what you ate, which is the half your bike computer can’t see.

If the numbers ever start to feel heavy, Forkmate’s **calm mode** hides them everywhere while still keeping what you log.

## A note on safety

These ranges come from position statements written for athletes in general. They’re starting points to adjust to your own gut, body and riding, not prescriptions. Forkmate is a general-wellness tool, not medical advice. If you have diabetes or another medical condition, a history of disordered eating, or specific performance goals, work with a doctor or a registered sports dietitian.

## The recap

1. **Connect Forkmate and Strava’s connector in Claude.** Forkmate logs the food; Strava’s connector lets Claude read the ride. They never talk to each other directly.
2. **Before:** a carb-forward meal, 1–4 g/kg, 1–4 hours out [S2].
3. **During:** about 30–60 g of carbs an hour for 1–2.5 hours, up to about 90 g beyond that [S1, S2]; drink to keep losses under 2% of body weight [S3].
4. **After:** 20–40 g of protein [S4], and carbs at 1.0–1.2 g/kg/h if you ride again soon [S2].
5. **Weekly:** ask Claude to lay your rides next to your diary and look for under-fueled stretches.

[Open Forkmate and log your pre-ride breakfast](https://app.forkmate.ai/). It’s free, and you’ll make an account when you save it. Then [connect it to Claude](https://forkmate.ai/connect/claude/). Running too? Read [fueling a long run with Runna, Strava and Forkmate in Claude](https://forkmate.ai/blog/fueling-a-long-run-with-runna-and-claude/). Planning a big day out? See [what to eat before, during and after a long ride](https://forkmate.ai/blog/what-to-eat-before-during-after-a-long-ride/), or [how to fuel for a PR on your local route](https://forkmate.ai/blog/how-to-fuel-for-a-pr-on-your-local-route/). More on training-day nutrition: [calorie tracking for runners and cyclists](https://forkmate.ai/blog/calorie-tracking-for-runners/) and [Forkmate for athletes](https://forkmate.ai/for-athletes/).

## Sources

- **[S1]** Jeukendrup A. *A step towards personalized sports nutrition: carbohydrate intake during exercise.* Sports Med. 2014;44(Suppl 1):S25–33. [PubMed 24791914](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24791914/). About 1 h: mouth rinse or small amounts; 2–3 h: about 60 g/h from a single carbohydrate source; ultra-endurance: about 90 g/h from multiple transportable carbohydrates; lower when intensity is low.
- **[S2]** Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. *American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and Athletic Performance* (with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada). Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016;48(3):543–68. [PubMed 26891166](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26891166/). Pre-exercise 1–4 g/kg 1–4 h before; during 30–60 g/h (1–2.5 h) and up to 90 g/h (over 2.5–3 h); speedy refueling 1.0–1.2 g/kg/h for 4 h; 0.3 g/kg protein after key sessions; 1.25–1.5 L fluid per kg lost; daily carbs 3–5 g/kg (light), 5–7 g/kg (moderate, about 1 h/day) and 6–10 g/kg (1–3 h/day of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise) (Table 2).
- **[S3]** American College of Sports Medicine; Sawka MN et al. *Exercise and fluid replacement.* Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39(2):377–90. [PubMed 17277604](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17277604/). Prehydrate several hours before; prevent more than 2% body-weight loss; individual sweat rates from pre/post body weight; electrolyte-carbohydrate drinks can help.
- **[S4]** Jäger R et al. *International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise.* J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017;14:20. [PubMed 28642676](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28642676/). 1.4–2.0 g/kg/day; 0.25 g/kg or 20–40 g per dose; every 3–4 h.
- **[S5]** Mountjoy M et al. *2023 International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs).* Br J Sports Med. 2023;57(17):1073–97. [BJSM](https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/17/1073).
- **[S6]** USDA FoodData Central, *Bananas, raw*: a medium banana (118 g) has about 27 g of carbohydrate. [FDC 173944](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173944/nutrients).

## Keep going

[Connect your AI assistant Add Forkmate to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client in about a minute.](https://forkmate.ai/connect/) [Switch from MyFitnessPal Bring your whole history over — free, no re-estimating your numbers.](https://forkmate.ai/migrate-from-myfitnesspal/) [Forkmate vs MyFitnessPal How the AI-native approach compares, honestly.](https://forkmate.ai/vs/myfitnesspal/) [Get your calorie goal A 60-second starting number before you log a thing.](https://forkmate.ai/quiz/)

[All articles](https://forkmate.ai/blog/)

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