Somehow I totally missed hearing, seeing or reading Dr Michael Mosley’s communications and research about diet until his tragic death in Greece a couple of months ago. 

Since I became aware of his books, I’ve read/listen to several of them, taken an avid interest in several of his key findings about nutrition. Especially those about gut microbial health, keto diets and intermittent fasting.

I hasten to add that I’m not yet adhering to any of his suggested diets such as the Fast 800, 5:2 or Keto, but I have become a lot more active in reducing simple carbohydrates, increasing intake of fermented foods and fibre (kimchi & kefir) and generally being more careful about serving sizes and daily intake, but without yet counting calories. More protein and good fats and less carbs too. Plus lots of greens and veg.
And zero alcohol, though that’s not Michael Mosley’s suggestion. It’s a spinoff of my usual prep for long rides over the past few years.

All this inspired nutritional awareness has me thinking how to better to manage nutrition on future long cycle tours. 

In decades of cycle touring, I’ve not really put much thought or effort into diets and nutrition on tour. To the contrary, I’ve usually just eaten what I felt like, and what was available.

The question is, have others tried to maintain any specific diets on tour? Or is ad hoc eating and drinking your preferred norm on tour? 

I don't follow any specified diet at home or on tour.  I've never cared for ultra-processed foods or foods loaded with unnecessary (and unpronounceable) ingredients, so avoid them.  For example, I don't think I've ever eaten Nutella due to its ingredient list:  Sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts (13%), skimmed milk powder (8.7%), fat-reduced cocoa (7.4%), emulsifier: lecithin (soya), and vanillin, meaning about 70% by weight of it is sugar and palm oil.

If I look for solid dietary information supported by real research, it always comes back to the same recommendations: eat a variety of foods, include plenty of vegetables, and enjoy goodies in moderation.  That makes complete sense to me--and small amounts of Nutella would be fine, but the ingredient list still makes me cringe.  I'd rather eat real chocolate and I do.  In fact, we buy and enjoy meusli and granola with chunks of dark chocolate when touring in Europe; at home, I make my own (without chocolate).

When touring in Europe, we eat in restaurants, buy prepared foods from markets, groceries, or bakeries/delis, or make our own from fresh ingredients.  Food, including restaurant meals, is generally less expensive in the places we've toured compared to at home, where we rarely eat out or order in.  When we do short tours close to home, we usually camp (much less expensive) but camping is usually far from any food source so then we need to carry groceries and a stove.

Food is always a major component of my planning. I want to know what's special where I will be, i.e. capocollo di Martina Franca, pane di Altamura, cheese, wine.   Eat like a local, wherever I am. It doesn't take much effort to maintain a balance in your dietary intake and experiencing culture through food is more important to me than training for a 3300 km bike race. Somehow my fitness still improves throughout a trip.

Jacquie your nutrition strategy makes a lot of sense to me. Especially the avoidance of highly processed foods. 

Interestingly Michael Mosley attributes the dramatic increase in obesity rates to the increase in consumption of processed foods. He describes an experiment where equivalent calories were eaten as processed versus unprocessed foods, and the processed food diet induced a significantly greater increase in body weight.

One of my fondest recollections of cycle touring in Europe, was the easy access to affordable, fresh, tasty and nutritious foods. Especially in their supermarket delis. 

It’s not so good here in parts of Australia. I remember riding a 1200km stretch where I didn’t see a green, leafy salad. Just truck-stop ‘food’. 

Bob I agree that local foods give the opportunity to gain insight into local cultures. I’d add though that junk food and fast food, especially the well known fast food franchises are almost universal nowadays. Especially in regional and rural areas. I know that in Australian regional towns, fast food outlets dominate the diet. There’s an obesity epidemic here.

Another example is that Mediterranean folk reportedly eat almost as much junk food as other people, when the traditional Mediterranean diet is hailed as the healthiest cuisine on the planet. 

The good food is still there, but it takes a bit more time and effort to find it than 30 years ago. 

I'm on a tour right now. This is what I consume most days:

1. Large cheese pizza at the end of the day. Usually from a gas station, but sometimes a slightly higher quality pie from Dominos.

2. At least a half gallon of chocolate milk.

3. Ice cream

4. A liter (at least) of Diet Pepsi (my first choice) or Diet Coke (my second choice)

5. A liter (at least) of Gatorade

6. Salted peanuts

7. Non-diet, non-caffeinated soda pop such as Sprite or 7-Up. I drink this at the end of the day so I won't have too much caffeine at night.

8. Miscellaneous snacks throughout the day: Salted Nut Roll, Cookies, cheese-crackers, glazed fruit pies "with other natural flavors"

9. If I stop at a café during the day: Grilled cheese sandwich and French fries.

Thanks Jeff. I’m taking your post as solid evidence for the affirmative that some cycle tourers can absorb, and burn a very high number of calories in whatever combination of carbs, fats and protein are available in roadside eateries. 

I’m drawn irresistibly to bakeries when cycle touring tour. The great Australian meat-pie plus a vanilla slice is a favourite high calorie combo. 

And I used to crave stout, but for the last few years I’ve managed to not drink any alcohol while preparing for tours, nor while touring. Riding in NZ last year was an exception. Their Pinot Noir is hard to resist.

Here's some data on calories burned during my most recent tour (journaled on this site here), thanks to using the Fitness data from my Apple Watch:

• Jun 15, 4,116 calories, 5:50, 73.5 miles
• Jun 16, 4,140 calories, 6:25, 78.5 miles
• Jun 17, 4,505 calories, 6:41, 85.3 miles
• Jun 18, 3,363 calories, 5:00, 57.2 miles
• Jun 19, 3,243 calories, 4:38, 48.1 miles
• Jun 20, 4,038 calories, 6:42, 70.7 miles
• Jun 21, 4,304 calories, 6:34, 80.6 miles
• Jun 22, 3,827 calories, 6:36, 76.1 miles
• Jun 23, 3,488 calories, 7:12, 92.3 miles

I don't really pay attention to what I eat, and that's probably why I lost about 3 pounds over the 11 days. Mornings, I have breakfast at the hotel breakfast, or if no breakfast stop at McDonalds for EggMcMuffin meal with coffee and hash browns. Lunch is Clif Bar or I'll combine a lunch/dinner with a sandwich and chips or something like that. I do find that after about 3 days I'll need a Clif Bar about every 2-3 hours, and they are 250 calories to provide ongoing energy for the next stage of miles. Plus, I like Clif bars because they are calorically dense for the packable size. And anyone in the early 2000's who has tried to eat a powerBar when it's < 50 degrees out and it feels like you're chewing on leather will agree that Clif Bars represent a huge improvement.

Thanks, Graham.  A few thoughts on All This, about both food & diet overall, and on tour --

Some background: In 2001 and 2009, I had a case of DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in each leg -- Nov/2001 on the right side, Feb/'09 on the left. Luckily, both occurred when & where I had ready access to good medical care. (I didn't match any of "the usual profiles", but then learned from my thrombosis specialist here in Ottawa that my DNA shows a deficiency of C protein, and that usually signals susceptibility to DVT.  That trait is usually passed through the female side of a family, said my guy.  But I share a lot of visual traits with my mum...and with Rod Laver, for that matter, both of us being members of The Spotted Tribe.)

DVT tends to concentrate the mind, esp if it occurs just a couple of weeks before an intercontinental flight, as did mine in Nov/'01.  So, with help from my specialist here, I did some research into diet & nutrition.  I settled on Barry Sears' "Zone Diet" (his response to a heart attack).  This recommends 40% of calories from carbs, 30% from protein, 30% from fats.  The carbs should be concentrated on fruit and veg, the fats unsaturated, and the protein tilted towards fish, chicken, and plant-based sources.  I've followed that overall regimen fairly closely in the 20-plus years since DVT #1, and it's helped me maintain a fairly constant weight of some 84-85 kgs, spread over a height of 1.78 m.  During the day at home, I graze a lot, my favourite snack being dried dates and a handful of mixed nuts.

I've always avoided highly processed "foods", being enuf of a snob that I reckon I can cook meals at home that are better than the prefab stuff on offer. I'm also a fan of Michael Pollan, e.g., his "In Defense of Food".

On tour, there are a lot of variables, but I have some recent experience as a guide.  Last Tuesday, I returned from an eight-day mini-tour of West Québec, done with a friend from the Thorn Forum, who lives in Vancouver.  We did 600 kms in eight days, camping six nights out of the seven, across varied terrain with a lot of hills.  This was a fairly significant test for me, as I hadn't done anything beyond an overnight since the BSE (the Before Surgery Era, prior to Aug/'22).

The overriding lesson reconfirmed rule #1:  drink loadsa water, and do so before you're thirsty.  That meant at least 3 litres while on the bike (usually about 6 hrs each day) plus another litre or more at supper and breakfast.  We had reasonable weather, temps in the high 20s, not too humid, and several showers at night. Usually we both drank Gatorade as well, and in my water I use Hydralyte tabs, which I learned about in 'Straya, and happily, I can find here as well.

I did find myself fatigued at the end of the day -- but that showed itself mainly in the tendency of french verb tenses to go all wonky, and for Portuguese words to pop up instead the French ones.  Don't think I can blame diet for that, though -- more to do with the latter part of the eight decade, I reckon...

We didn't make a calorie count of foods consumed, but we ate well -- this was rural Québec, after after all.  Partly by choice, partly by circumstance, we were biased towards carbs and protein. (See photos below. The eggs benny, BTW, included lobster and shrimp -- can't remember when I had that for breakfast.) I also took along a batch of my homemade energy bars (recipe available) but found myself Desperately Seeking Fresh Fruit.

Cheers,  John

Bob those calorie totals are interesting. Although I’ve not yet paid much attention to counting calories, I can see that long ride tour days like yours certainly burn off a substantial quota of energy; far in excess of what one of Michael Mosley’s fasting diets recommends.

He does mention that his diets aren’t really applicable to people doing large amounts of exercise. He tends to focus on preventing or reversing conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure 

All the best for the tour. I’ll have look at your journal. Thanks for the figures. Impressive.