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.

If you're not an athlete and start doing short bursts of intense exercise like sprinting or HIIT, your body gets better at burning fat while you work out—after about a month, you’ll start seeing this effect, and it keeps improving a little bit each week after that.

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.

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 not an athlete but want to burn more fat while working out, doing short bursts of intense exercise—like sprinting or pedaling hard—on a bike or treadmill can help, and it works better on a bike based on current research.

If you're carrying extra weight, your body burns fat faster during short, intense workouts like sprinting or interval training than someone who's at a normal weight — like burning 3 times more fat per minute.