Monique;
I am a 46 year old Masters (Cat 3) and weigh 153 pounds Following a periodization program, every three to four weeks I plan on a “recovery” week, dropping my training hours by 50 to 60 percent.

In order to maintain my weight, do I need to decrease my caloric intake during the recovery week? For example, if I decrease the training by five hours, nominally at 700-800 calories burned per hour, should I decrease my caloric intake that week by 4000 calories? Or will my body’s “weight memory” keep my weight relatively static?

Thank you, -- MK

Dear MK;
That’s a very good question as many cyclists and triathletes now work with coaches and have periodization training cycles that also include tapering for a race. While your questions focused mainly on calorie intake (which is important), endurance athletes should also be concerned about carbohydrate intake. Over a few days time and perhaps even a week, if you do not keep up with your carbohydrate and calorie needs, you may experience the symptoms of glycogen depletion such as muscular fatigue. Carbohydrate intake is a central theme of your diet for several reasons:Running low on muscle glycogen can impair your training.Your carbohydrate intake is directly linked to the amount of glycogen you store.Even with the proper diet, your glycogen stores are relatively limited.On certain training days and weeks, your require large amounts of carbohydrate. On other days and weeks you require less carbohydrate to replenish your glycogen stores.So how do you know how to balance your carbohydrate and calorie needs? Basically, you can try to estimate your training needs based the amount of exercise that you perform. Training can be categorized at light, moderate, high, and very high.

Activity level	Calorie requirements	Carbohydrate requirements
Mild- total rest or no exercise	12-14 calories per pound body wt	2 gm per pound body weight
Moderate- 45-60 minutes of moderate exercise	15-19 calories per pound	2.25-3.0 g per lb.
High- 1-2 hours of moderate intensity training	20-25 calories per pound	3-4 g per lb.
Very high- 3-4 or more hours daily	25-29 calories per pound (or more)	4-5.5 g per lb.

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For a 153-lb. athlete such as yourself a high amount of training would require that you consume 3060 to 3825 calories and 460 to 610 g of carbohydrate. If you had a more moderate day planned in your training cycle, you would require less at 2300 to 2900 calories daily and 340 to 459 g carbohydrates. Keep in mind that these are ranges, and when replacing muscle glycogen stores, your diet should be at 60 percent carbohydrate, though this could increase to 65 percent. Aim for the higher end of the range when you expect to train at moderate to hard levels the next day. These carbohydrate amounts can also include what you consume during training.

Keep in mind that recovery is built into your training program, and in order to recover you need to eat enough. So while your carbohydrate and calorie needs may dip down during certain training cycles, you do not want to get too restrictive with your intake calorie and carbohydrate intake. Adequate fuel ensures that you are ready for an upcoming race or heavy training week.

Keep in mind that the calorie levels suggested above are estimates, and do not account for different measurement of resting metabolic rate among individuals. But you can appreciate that your calorie and carbohydrate requirements do vary from day to day and from training cycle to training cycle. --Monique

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Monique Ryan, MS, RD is author of the "Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition,” and “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes” from VeloPress. She is a regular columnist for Inside Triathlon and VeloNews magazines and is founder of Personal Nutrition Designs, a nutrition consulting company based in the Chicago area. Ryan regularly counsels athletes on performance and health-related nutrition concerns and offers services through her website at "www.moniqueryan.com.” She has consulted with the Saturn Cycling Team since 1994, and has also worked with Volvo-Cannondale, Trek-Volkswagen, and USA Cycling. Ryan offers answers to reader’s questions each Wednesday in this weekly column. Readers are welcome to send questions directly to Ryan.