Thread: Drinking pop and bicycling

Biking works your legs and lungs mostly, your upper body and torso are pretty stationary. Soda is just plain bad for you, there is nothing good about it. It's okay to have it once in a while, it's not going to do you any harm, sometimes your body needs a sugar / caffeine rush. Just remember that caffeine is fairly addictive, it rots your gums and teeth, and don't drink it then exercise, the carbonation will give you a terrible stomach ache.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Biking works your legs and lungs mostly, your upper body and torso are pretty stationary. Soda is just plain bad for you, there is nothing good about it. It's okay to have it once in a while, it's not going to do you any harm, sometimes your body needs a sugar / caffeine rush. Just remember that caffeine is fairly addictive, it rots your gums and teeth, and don't drink it then exercise, the carbonation will give you a terrible stomach ache.

Listen to him. >_>

Soda also causes me to break out in acne if I drink it frequently, but I don't know if that's just me.

I would say the worst thing about pop is the caffeine. Caffeine is highly addictive and through the withdrawal you can have headaches, become tired (obviously), and possible depression.

It's okay to drink it once in a while, of course.

How is your heart? If you drink a highly caffeinated drink while exercising it may quicken your pulse to an uncomfortable level.
Other than that and the points already mentioned, I don't see there being any trouble.

Also, pop/soda boosts your metabolism. So if you're not eating correctly after exercising (in this case, bicycling) you'll be doing yourself more harm than good.

I speak from experience: when you stop drinking caffeinated beverages, you will miss them. After awhile any desire you had for caffeinated beverages ceases and when you go back to drink them you will wonder why you loved them so much. I only drink water, orange juice (the real kind, not the kind with a shitload of added sugar), and organic milk (or milk that is labelled not to contain bovine growth hormone). I only drink soda once every couple of months and that's only when I go out to dinner. Even then, I usually order water.

What about fast food? Is it alright to have every once in a while?

Originally Posted by slayer

What about fast food? Is it alright to have every once in a while?

Generally speaking, try to avoid it. Fast wood is highly processed with a shitload of additives, I can't even consider it real food. If you're the kind who eats it frequently, cut it down gradually. That's what I did. I find (for me) it's very hard to cut down something completely just suddenly. So begin by trying to avoid it, only eat it when there's nothing else. (e.g. on a road trip with family, nothing else to eat) But yeah, I definitely recommend not eating it at all. If you know you're going to be in a situation where there won't be anything else to eat, pack something. I nearly always carry some type of light snack when I go out.

Once you stop eating fast food for a while, you'll find it hard to go back to eating it even once. Only been a few months for me, and I can't even stand the thought of taking one bite.

If fast food is such a necessity to you, then I guess it depends on what you mean by "once a while." And the kind of fast food.

Oh, pah! Food is supposed to taste good, not just give you a perfect rainbow coloured burst of vitamins and minerals!

If I want extra health that my average food consumption doesn't provide, I'll drink vitamin pills or just stuff myself full of vegies and fruits when I'm not eating a full meal. But when I am...all boundaries are off. Well, within reason, of course. Even a mountain of carrots will cause you problems.

Oh, but aye, I think I had a point. Which is...sure, it's probably a good idea to stay away from highly processed foods and the like when you're a professional athlete striving for physical superiority above and beyond the call of duty, but if you're just trying to get yourself into average healthy shape, all the "don't eat junk food or fast food and stay away from soft drinks" banter is nonsense.

It isn't in the interest of the corporations producing said products to cause harm to anyone. Not to mention that practically everything can harm you in enormous amounts. Hence, don't pig out endlessly, but don't listen to all the "eat healthy" garbage! If it doesn't taste good, it's not worth eating!

Ok either something is really wrong with me, or I am just very out of shape...

I took my bike down to Sonic today and when I got there, I was very very tired. My legs felt like jello. I decided to order a small water because I knew Dr. Pepper would have upset my stomach (it's what I usually get at Sonic), but instead I decided to get a meduim water but ended up ordering a large :/
I also got some mozzerela sticks. I ordered my food and sat down on a bench breathing deeply (not surprising really). Well, I sat there with my eyes closed waiting for my food. I opened my eyes and everything was nearly black. You know when you stand up real fast and sometimes everything goes black for a second? Well that's what my vision was like and it was like that for a little while...I closed my eyes again and when I opened them, everything was really really bright. I don't know why it was like this. But I got my food and ate it and drank my water and I felt much better.

My legs feel like jello now...I'm probably going to tell my dad about me going to sonic if it's something really serious.

But right now I'm just sitting at my computer drinking some bottled water.

That's just exhaustion. Darkening in the eyes like that is typical if you exhaust yourself terribly after having been out of shape and not exercising in ages and end up abruptly stopping and sitting down/getting up. Something heart-related I believe. As long as it isn't happening to you on a regular basis without physical exertion (like when getting up after an hour of relaxing at the PC/TV), you're fine.

To be blunt: grow a spine. Endure the discomfort. Train and become stronger.

Also...don't eat before/during exercising, unless you like your food coming back out the way it came in.

Ok good, it's not happening on a regular basis. That's the first time it's ever happened to me.

Originally Posted by Merlock

As long as it isn't happening to you on a regular basis without physical exertion (like when getting up after an hour of relaxing at the PC/TV), you're fine.

Oh scheiß.

Also, if you're really out of practice and out of shape, build up your exercise routine slowly. If, you haven't biked for awhile, don't go off and ride for a couple miles.

I have totally canceled out all carbonated beverages from my diet because of the frequent training I do. It gives me terrible stomach aches and the HFC isn't good at all for your despite the several new AD campaigns that say otherwise.

If you feel like you are needing an extra boost in your step I recommend trying coffee or tea. A lot of people will claim that caffeine is a horrible substance that does no good but it has been found to increase both energy and pain tolerance during workouts. It also has been found to promote good recovery after workouts in some studies.

However, if caffeine is something that you are thinking you should stay away from then you could always try supplementing in a B vitamin complex. This provides you with possibly the cleanest source of natural energy and there is no risk of crashes. I think 5 hour energy is a certain beverage that comes to mind that has tons of B6 in it. I think somewhere around 2000% of your daily value, so that could be a suggestion for an alternative to coffee and tea.

Originally Posted by slayer

What about fast food? Is it alright to have every once in a while?

Until they start selling caviar at fast food places, it is not a very good idea to eat fast food often. I try and limit myself to fast food once a month. I used to eat it once a day for lunch, then cut down to once a week, now once a month. Pretty soon I'll have cut it out altogether.