Nausea and appetite loss

[duncdan]

I did a few days in Scotland last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etxrNaDKqlY

Unfortunately i had to cut the trip short due to knee pain (shoe problem) and also severe loss of appetite and nausea. The knee issue I can sort but the loss of appetite although it may have been caused by a virus this time is something that i have suffered with before and is a known phenomena (d du de de dm) on long events.

Has anyone found a good way to manage the appetite loss on multiday events? I tend to load on butter and rice/quinoa morning and evening and eat oat cakes, fish and nuts with a couple of flapjacks in the day. I dont eat much sugar as that makes it worse.

[Chew]

I tend to load on butter and rice/quinoa morning and evening

Think that would make me feel nauseous too

Back to being serious, I generally lose my appetite in the first couple of days of a trip. You just get into the habit of eating and shoveling it in.
Your body will often tell you what you need via what you crave. That could be a big lasagna, pork pie or a salad. Just go with that.

[Moder-dye]

Lack of appetite and nausea is a big problem for me on longer days and multiday thing for sure. Sadly Its certainly never a problem in every day life!

I put it down to tiredness and stomach shutting down. Knowing I need to eat but finding it hard to get stuff down creates a downwards spiral .

Last 3 day trip I couldn't eat a proper meal after half way through the first day, couldn't finish a proper meal on days 2 and 3 so relied on small regular snacks trying to get savoury stuff in as the thought of sweet stuff was awful.

Any ways around it would be appreciated as it definitely detracts from the experience , but I think in my case a lot is probably accountable to overall tiredness.

[gairym]

I went through a long period (probably two years in total) of appetite/stomach issues which culminated in a day of both-end-hell (the Etape 2015) after which I completely overhauled my eating habits during long and multiple days on the bike.

I now eat only regular food and not one energy bar or gel etc... will ever pass my lips again.

If I need more​ sugar I'll buy some jelly sweets, more protein I'll go for nuts, meat or tinned sardines etc... and for carbs I have sandwiches, wraps or a nice hearty meal when I stop.

I now always feel like eating when I need to and have no problems digesting everything as it's all just regular food.

I'm sure this wouldn't be as appropriate if I was 'racing' and needed to refuel much faster and efficiently but for my low-paced tootles it works perfectly.

[Jurassic pusher]

I too regularly feel nausea after long days in the saddle, the trick I use is to eat fruit when nothing else appeals that tends to kick start my appetite.

[duncdan]

Its reassuring that its not just me. I used to go all day on energy drink but cant touch it anymore, perhaps things change with age? Fruits a good call, ill try that, no quick fix though. Ta

[Moder-dye]

So as the weathers nice I took today off work and did a personal distance best on road of 204km/127mile. 10hours total, 8.5 moving.

The last 2 hours were a real struggle with nausea, drinking OK, but even putting something in my mouth made me retch. Until the last 2 hours I felt OK.

Didn't have fruit!

What I did have was:

3x 800ml bottles with weak hi 5, 2 coffees and a coke, 2 double deckers, 1 mars bar, 1 wiggle bar, 1 sausage buttie, one chicken panini. All fairly even spaced out through the ride.

Seemed about right energy wise, I think nausea was just the prolonged effort??

[GregMay]

Simple answer to a reasonably common ultra-exercise problem.

Drop the intensity. Feeling of hunger will return. Eat food. Return slowly to previous intensity. If dropping the intensity means stopping, do so. Easier to stop for 30 minutes and eat, returning faster; than push on slowly for 3 hours and bonking.

Lovely Irish saying, "Is maith an t-anlann an t-ocras" Hunger is a great sauce, get used to riding with less intake of any energy sources. Multiple benefits, but it does tend to reduce palate fatigue as well as make food slip down easier.

Lastly, if you're not able to take on solids, take in fluid based calories. My daily stop routine on the Divide - 1.5 L Gatorade, 1L Starbucks Frapachino, 1L water, a Coke. Let that settle, then start smashing the food in.

Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

[Moder-dye]

Cheers for that info.

I did try to keep the intensity reasonable spinning hills and easy pedalling downhills if not free wheeling, but yeh I could have dropped it more as my av speed was nearly 24kph. I guess I didn't want to be out too long lol!

Yeh I didn't actually wait until I felt hungry as I thought it was best to eat little and often to avoid a bonk. But I do know on my regular rides up to say 80k I don't need a lot.

Fluid was fine as you say so maybe a fridji or yop type thing would be good? And a flattened the coke before drinking.

Anyway managed to scoff my tea down now and I've done my mileage challenge for the year, so alls good

[Richard G]

I always carry some "real" food, even if it's just a few bites worth. There have been times even when bonking badly that I couldn't face any chocolate, gels, shot blocks, tangfastics etc (I flat out wouldn't eat them), but I can generally always face a bit of a sandwich, or some feedzone portables or suchlike.

I tend to keep some almonds and salted peanuts on hand for the same reason. I'll always eat savoury, no matter how little I feel like eating.

(YMMV obviously)

[GregMay]

I always carry some "real" food, even if it's just a few bites worth. There have been times even when bonking badly that I couldn't face any chocolate, gels, shot blocks, tangfastics etc (I flat out wouldn't eat them), but I can generally always face a bit of a sandwich, or some feedzone portables or suchlike.

I tend to keep some almonds and salted peanuts on hand for the same reason. I'll always eat savoury, no matter how little I feel like eating.

(YMMV obviously)

Skittles and Pearsons Nut Rolls. Withouth them, I am nothing.

[Moder-dye]

Yeh some savoury towards the end might have gone down but there were no shops then. Will have to pack some nuts or mini porkpies in future

[Mariner]

Mini pork pies and a huge block of industrial cheddar cheese are my default foods to carry.
The cheese I can eat in small quantities with fruit or wrap ham slices round a chunk.
The one thing I have discovered and thoroughly recommend is the John West Creations pouches. Heavy to carry, probably not calorie efficient but can be eaten hot or cold and delicious. The down side is when eating out of the pouch my hand gets covered in oil because the cheap spork I was using refused to lock so handle kept collapsing as I dug in.
And the side effect is you wouldn’t share a sleeping bag with yourself the next day.