What to eat before, during and after a long ride

Short answer: for a ride of a few hours, eat a carb-forward meal 1–4 hours before (1–4 g of carbohydrate per kg of body weight), take in about 30–60 g of carbohydrate an hour once you’re out longer than about an hour, up to about 90 g an hour beyond 2.5–3 hours, drink enough to keep losses under about 2% of body weight, and follow it with carbs plus 20–40 g of protein [S1, S2, S3, S4]. The ranges are the easy part. Turning them into food you’ll actually carry is where Claude helps: with Strava’s connector and Forkmate both connected, Claude can read your recent rides and what you usually eat, then build the plan.

Before the ride

• Carbohydrate: 1–4 g per kg, 1–4 hours before [S2]. The closer to the start, the smaller and lower in fat and fibre. For a 75 kg rider, 75 g at the low end is about two slices of white toast with a tablespoon of honey and a medium banana, plus a small extra [S6]; a large rice or pasta meal 3–4 hours out moves toward the higher end.
• Fluids: about 5–10 mL per kg in the 2–4 hours before (about 375–750 mL for 75 kg), which leaves time to absorb it and to pass any extra [S2].
• Nothing new. A long ride is the place to practise what you’ll eat before an event, not the event itself.

During the ride: carbs per hour

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, from glucose + fructose blends	[S1, S2]

The higher rates need “multiple transportable carbohydrates” (products that mix glucose and fructose), and your gut needs practice with them, so build up over several rides [S1]. An easy, steady ride may need less than a hard one [S1].

What 60 g an hour looks like: a 500 mL bottle of a drink with 6 g of carbohydrate per 100 mL is 30 g, and a gel is often 20–30 g, so a bottle plus a gel an hour is about 50–60 g. A medium banana is about 27 g [S6]. Check the label on what you use; products vary.

A habit that helps: start eating in the first 30–45 minutes rather than waiting until you’re hungry, and eat a little every 15–20 minutes. That’s common practice, not a rule, and it’s easier on the gut than a lot at once.

Fluids and sodium

• Fluids: sweat rates vary widely between people, rides and weather, so there’s no single number. The ACSM aims to keep fluid losses under 2% of body weight [S3]. Weigh yourself before and after a long ride, without clothes, to estimate your own rate: each kg lost is roughly a litre of sweat not replaced.
• Sodium: sweat contains sodium, on average about 35 mmol per litre (about 800 mg), with a wide range between people (10–70 mmol/L) [S3]. On long or hot rides, a sports drink with sodium helps replace some of it and helps you hold on to the fluid. The ACSM suggests drinks with about 20–30 mmol of sodium per litre, roughly 460–690 mg [S3].
• Don’t over-drink. Drinking well beyond your sweat losses can dilute blood sodium (hyponatremia), which is rarer than dehydration but more dangerous. Gaining weight over a ride means you drank more than you lost [S2, S3]. Feeling bloated, puffy, sick or confused after drinking a lot is a reason to stop drinking and get help.

After the ride

• Carbohydrate: if you ride again within about 8 hours, or have a hard day straight after, about 1.0–1.2 g per kg per hour for the first 4 hours [S2]. With more time before the next ride, normal meals usually cover it.
• Protein: about 0.25 g per kg, or 20–40 g, at the next meal, and spread every 3–4 hours through the day [S4].
• Fluids: about 1.25–1.5 L for every kg of body weight lost, over the following hours, with some sodium from food or drink [S2].

Putting it together in Claude

What’s connected to what

• Forkmate is a free food log you fill in by telling Claude what you ate. Connecting it takes about two minutes; the steps are on the connect page. Through it, Claude can read a day (get_day) or a date range (get_range) of your diary, see your most-logged foods (get_usual_foods) and log a meal when you ask (log_meal).
• Strava publishes its own official Claude connector, under Customize → Connectors in Claude. It’s read-only, needs a paid Strava subscription, and gives Claude your activity history and fitness trends (Strava’s help article).
• Garmin has no official Claude connector. If your rides upload to Strava, Claude sees them there; otherwise, tell Claude how long and how hard the ride will be.

Forkmate has no link to Strava or Garmin. Claude reads your rides through Strava’s connector, and Forkmate only holds the food you ask it to log. Forkmate doesn’t count exercise calories or change your goal for training.

Example: “What should I eat before, during and after my long ride?”

This is an illustrative example: a fictional rider, Jordan, 75 kg, with made-up numbers. It follows the shape of a real conversation, not anyone’s real data.

What should I eat before, during and after my long ride? It’s Sunday, about 100 km. Look at my recent rides on Strava and what I usually eat in Forkmate.

Here’s what Claude did, in order:

1. Sized the ride. Through Strava, it found Jordan’s longest recent ride: 85 km in about 3 hours 20 minutes. So 100 km would be about 4 hours, and the forecast was warm.
2. Set a carb target. At about 4 hours, the ranges allow up to about 90 g an hour, but only with practice [S1, S2]. Jordan said they hadn’t eaten much on past rides, so Claude suggested 60 g an hour, and moving toward 75–90 g on later rides if that sat well.
3. Built it from Jordan’s own foods. Using get_usual_foods, it saw bananas, white rice, toast and a brand of sports drink Jordan logs often:
   • Breakfast, 3 hours before: about 1.5 g/kg, roughly 110 g of carbohydrate: toast with honey, a banana and a bowl of rice with eggs, in Jordan’s usual portions [S2].
   • On the bike: a bottle of sports drink each hour plus a gel or a banana, about 60 g an hour. Water in the second bottle, and more sodium from the sports drink because of the heat [S3].
   • After: rice, chicken and vegetables, with 30–40 g of protein [S4]. Weigh in before and after to see how much fluid to replace [S2].
4. Checked the day before. Through get_day, it saw Saturday’s food was only partly logged, so it didn’t assume anything was low; it suggested a familiar, carb-forward dinner.
5. Logged it when asked. After the ride, Jordan said “log my ride food: four bottles of sports drink, two gels and a banana”, and Claude logged it to Forkmate as a snack. Using the labels in the log, it noted that came to about 50 g an hour, close to the 60 g plan.

Over a few weeks of long rides and logged meals, Claude can also put your rides next to your diary and point out where a long ride sat next to a light day of eating. That’s a way of using Claude with two connectors, not a Forkmate feature.

Under-fueling training for a long stretch, what the IOC calls problematic low energy availability, can lead to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs), which affects recovery, bone health and performance [S5]. If your intake next to your training looks low week after week, that’s worth raising with a doctor or a registered sports dietitian; REDs is assessed clinically, not from a food log [S5].

Copy-paste prompts

Use these in a Claude chat with both Forkmate and Strava’s connector turned on.

What should I eat before, during and after my long ride? It’s [day], about [distance or hours]. Look at my recent rides on Strava and the foods I log most in Forkmate. I weigh [X] kg. Give me a carb-per-hour target and a list of what to carry.

I’m riding [hours] tomorrow and it’s forecast to be [temperature]. Plan fluids and sodium for the ride using the ACSM ranges, and remind me to weigh in before and after.

Pull today’s ride from 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? Then plan a recovery meal with 20–40 g of protein and log it when I say yes.

Read my Strava rides and my Forkmate diary for the last 4 weeks. Put long-ride days next to the day’s carbs and protein, and the day after each. Leave out partly logged days.

More on fueling rides: how I stopped bonking: fueling rides with Claude, Forkmate and Strava. Going for a time on a shorter loop? See how to fuel for a PR on your local route.

Setup steps, Forkmate’s built-in fueling prompts and a free Claude Skill: use Forkmate with Strava or Garmin.

A note on safety

These ranges come from position statements written for athletes in general. They’re starting points to adjust to your 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. If the numbers ever start to feel heavy, Forkmate’s calm mode hides them everywhere while still keeping what you log.

The recap

1. Before: 1–4 g/kg of carbs, 1–4 hours out, and start hydrated [S2].
2. During: about 30–60 g of carbs an hour for 1–2.5 hours, up to about 90 g beyond that with practice [S1, S2].
3. Fluids and sodium: keep losses under about 2% of body weight, with sodium on long or hot rides, and don’t drink more than you lose [S3].
4. After: 20–40 g of protein, carbs at 1.0–1.2 g/kg/h if you ride again soon, and 1.25–1.5 L per kg lost [S2, S4].
5. Plan it in Claude with Strava’s connector and Forkmate, from foods you already eat.

Open Forkmate and log your pre-ride breakfast. It’s free, and you’ll make an account when you save it. Then connect it to your AI app. Running instead? Read how to fuel for a 10K. More: Forkmate 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. About 1 h: mouth rinse or small amounts; 2–3 h: about 60 g/h; over 2.5 h: about 90 g/h from multiple transportable carbohydrates; gut training; lower when intensity is low.
• [S2] Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM. American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2016;48(3):543–68. PubMed 26891166. Pre-exercise 1–4 g/kg 1–4 h before; prehydration 5–10 mL/kg 2–4 h before; during 30–60 g/h (1–2.5 h), up to 90 g/h (over 2.5–3 h); refueling 1.0–1.2 g/kg/h for 4 h; 1.25–1.5 L per kg lost; hyponatremia risk from over-drinking.
• [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. Keep losses under 2% of body weight; sweat sodium averages about 35 mmol/L (range 10–70); drinks with about 20–30 mmol/L sodium; weigh before and after; hyponatremia from over-drinking.
• [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. 0.25 g/kg or 20–40 g per dose, every 3–4 h.
• [S5] Mountjoy M et al. 2023 IOC consensus statement on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). Br J Sports Med. 2023;57(17):1073–97. BJSM.
• [S6] USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy): Bananas, raw, FDC 173944, 22.8 g carbohydrate per 100 g, so a medium banana (118 g) has about 27 g; Bread, white, commercially prepared, FDC 174924, 49.4 g per 100 g, so a 28 g slice has about 14 g; Honey, FDC 169640, 82.4 g per 100 g, so a tablespoon (21 g) has about 17 g.