Do Cyclists Need to Cut Calories in the Offseason?

With offseason around the corner for many endurance athletes, the same questions always start pouring in. "How do I lose weight in the offseason?" "How can I not gain back weight in the offseason?" or "Should I stop eating carbs?" No you should not stop eating carbs...

First off, for most recreational cyclists, you don't have to make any enormous dietary shifts in the offseason. If an athlete is racing at a high level, and their training plan calls for quite a few hours and intensity (ex. riding 3 to 6 hours a day on a regular basis), they will need to cut back on their caloric intake when their volume or intensity of training goes down for a few months.

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The Elite Diet

Typically I find the more elite you are as an athlete, the more the offseason is risky from a weight gain perspective. A lot of athletes who train full-time and train a lot of hours and then suddenly pull back on that for a month or so for mental and physical rest, have trouble not eating as much as they have been eating for the entire season. It's a habit.

In the case of an athlete who trains at a high level, they typically can afford to eat a lot when training with a large volume and intensity. You get used to having that luxury. For some it's almost hard to keep up with the calories they burn, as it's a lot of fuel to consume. No one ever said that professional athletes are all "healthy," as a lot of sugar gets consumed on five-, six- and seven-hour rides.

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Eating for the Rest of Us

On the other hand, the more casual athlete who may be training only 60 to 90 minutes a day in season, is likely going to continue to exercise an hour a day in the offseason as well, both for health reasons and sanity.

Often in this case there is a lot less adjusting to do, if any. It's actually a healthy place to be when you can simply eat the same healthy and balanced diet all year. So for the more casual athlete, things can almost remain consistent. Typically there is no "burn out," as you're not running yourself into the ground with stage races, travel and long rides. Again, hopefully this athlete doesn't throw in the towel on 60- to 90-minute rides in the fall.

So what are some changes you can make in the offseason to help lower your caloric intake while getting the nourishment and fuel you need? Let's take a look:

• Athletes are still going to continue to be active. Activity requires carbohydrates. It's the nature of endurance sports.
• Remember, vegetables are carbohydrates too. Offseason is a great time to eat a lot of the veggies and salads that you couldn't eat during stage races and on big-training weekends when you just needed more calorically-dense foods than asparagus and arugula. Veggie chili is also a great idea, especially with the temperature cooling off outside and the crockpot making chili cooking easy.

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I suggest continuing to eat a good volume of food since you're accustomed to this. Making offseason nutrition bearable is key, as no one wants to feel like they are starving during the fun and relaxing time of the year. Simply change what the volume of food is composed of.

Recipe Swapping

Here are some examples of taking an in-season meal and swapping a few things around to make it 300 to 500 calories lower.

Typical Dinner (this would be larger if the athlete was larger etc. I am basing this on 130-pound female athlete eating 2300 to 2500 calories a day, excluding her on the bike nutrition of gels, sports drinks and bars).

More: 10 Ways to Manage Offseason Weight Control

For the purposes of keeping this simple I will not post the entire recipes, rather the foods in the meals and then the adjustments.

Sweet Potato Fries, Blackened Grilled Chicken and Asparagus: 600 calories

• 2 medium/large sweet potatoes cut into wedges
• 3 ounces blackened grilled chicken
• 4 to 6 asparagus spears

Replace this meal with the one below, which is 100 calories less:

Sweet Potato Baked or Mashed, Blackened Chicken and Mixed Veggies: 500 calories

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 3 ounces blackened chicken
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• 4 cups steamed Bok-Choy
• 4 asparagus spears
• ? an avocado with fresh lime juice/salt

So you can see that you will actually be eating more at the "offseason" dinner and consuming 100 calories less. We are upping the fiber and vegetables and taking away the denser calories from the extra sweet potato and olive oil, but still leaving you with good fats from the salted avocado and lime juice.

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Snack Swap

Now you can make similar adjustments throughout the day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Right there is a 300-calorie reduction. If you want to further reduce your calories, half the snack sizes. In season, I tend to make very dense-caloric snacks such as dates and nut butter, date balls, fruit and nut butters. But in the offseason it's easy to halve a 300-calorie snack to 150. Ditch the dates and stick with fresh in-season fruit like apples, paired with 10 raw almonds.

Here is an example of a snack "adjustment" to take 100 calories off the in-season snack:

Medjool dates and almond butter: 300 calories

• 3 medjool dates
• 1 tablespoon almond butter

Replace this with one large fresh fruit and almonds: 200 calories

• 1 large apple
• 1 tablespoon almond butter

More: 7 Tips for Fueling on the Bike

Breaking Breakfast

The last example will be breakfast. I'll take a very typical in-season training-day breakfast and shave it down in calories but not in volume:

Oatmeal/Fresh Berries/Banana/2 eggs/Almond Milk: 620 calories

• 3/4 cups dry oats
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 cup berries
• 1 large banana
• 2 eggs scrambled or poached

Replace this with a reduced-calorie breakfast: 500 calories

• 1/2 a large cantaloupe (emptied and used as the bowl)
• 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
• 1 cup fresh berries
• 1/2 cup dried oats
• 1 tablespoon raw almonds

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You can see that if, over the course of a day, you take 100 calories off each main meal and two snacks, that's 500 calories less per day. When you decrease your caloric density this seems pretty realistic. Of course when working with a client it's much more specific to just how much the calories are reduced and what they will be replacing it with.

However, this is a general example of how to remove extra calories to match a reduction in training. Remember that 500 calories a day is 3500 calories a week, which equals one pound. If you reduce the training and keep those calories coming in, the likelihood is that you will gain weight.

Leaning Tips

Here are some other ways to stay lean in the offseason?

• Make small adjustments to your meals. Keep them nourishing and add produce while removing some of the higher-calorie carbohydrate choices such as dried fruits, regular potatoes and juices that are simple ways to up your carbs when doing a lot of training.
• Replace high-density carbohydrates with lower-density options, which include fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Stay hydrated to help you feel full, and keep busy so that you don't eat out of boredom.
• Continue to fuel normally for the training that you do. Remember that you're not cutting out your carbohydrates, but simply making minor adjustments to maintain weight as you ease into offseason training.

Make this offseason one full of bountiful produce. Keep your body feeling strong and healthy. Rest and off time is not about eating all the junk you can get your hands on after being "good" all season. Rest and rejuvenation requires nourishment and nutrients. This is a great time to heal your body with big salads, lots of produce, hydration and plenty of rest.

More: 8 Tips to Lose Weight From Cycling