When you eat protein before a bike ride, your heart beats faster than if you hadn’t eaten — but you don’t feel like you’re working harder, and you still ride just as hard.

If you're a trained cyclist and want to burn more fat during a moderate ride, eating a protein snack before you start works just as well as riding on an empty stomach — but eating carbs before you ride cuts down on fat burning.

Eating protein before a hard bike ride doesn’t make your body produce more harmful stress molecules than eating carbs or riding on an empty stomach — your cells aren’t more damaged.

Whether you eat carbs, protein, or nothing before a bike ride, you don’t feel hungrier during or after the ride — your appetite stays about the same.

Whether you eat carbs, protein, or nothing before a hard cycling workout with short bursts of maximum effort, your power output stays the same — your body can still push hard regardless of what you ate beforehand.