What foods do you consume after biking to retain energy? I am a vegan and I bike around 10 miles to and fro from office everyday. After biking to office, I find myself in a low energy state which persists all through the day. I tried having couple of bananas right after I reach office and although it does improve a bit, I still feel low in energy. Also I am losing weight steadily. What sort of foods do you eat before/after biking to ensure that you are in high energy state all through the day?
Unfortunately, I don't feel able to talk about food QUALITY, since even "vegan" can mean a lot of things these days, and this understanding varies from person to person. Just to illustrate, I'm not sure to suggest cheese, honey, milk and eggs, although I do find these to be excellent heavy-fuels for cycling.

Now what I do feel sure to advise, being an everyday commuter that likes to eat and sometimes get burnt-out or otherwise energy-deprived due to hunger, is about AMOUNT and TIMING.


I cannot ride to work without having an at least a decent breakfast, otherwise the weakness manifests itself as soon as I start to pedal. Usually, this is enough to allow a morning of productive work until lunch time;
At lunch, I am always hungry eat a very substantial amount of food.
When I go home for lunch (50% of the times), sometimes I feel the power to pedal is not so good due to hunger. This only improves some 20 minutes after I start the meal.
During the afternoon, about two to three hours after lunch, I start to get hungry. Then I take a snack, otherwise when it's time to go home (by bike) I am already starving.
I get home ALWAYS starving, this is the time of day my internal clock demands food, and usually I take some sweet stuff (bread with jam, milk, and other breakfast-related foods). I'ts a requirement, for myself, that I eat until I get totally satisfied, otherwise I cannot be in a good mood (my family knows it best than I do).


Even though, and I have to agree, this seems like a nutritional abuse, my health is fine, and my weight is steady. That was not so in the beginning of this lifestyle (bike commuting every day), but one tends to get used to lifestyle changes eventually.

Of course I would not suggest you to do the same, but I'd suggest the following "general principles":


If you commute by bike, you simply HAVE to eat A LOT. There is no magic here: your increased energy consumption demands this energy to come from somewhere;
Most regular bikers have a diet that could turn sedentary people ill, due to the amount of calories and what I call "heavy-fuels". Vegan heavy-fuels would be coconut, nuts in general, avocado, lots of bananas, etc.
Since the demands are not just caloric/energetic, but also constitutional (you need to rebuild cellular methabolism overloaded by effort, high turnover, exposure to pollution, exposure to climatic factors). So the QUALITY of the food is also important, but since you'r vegan, that should be for you to judge.
(EDIT!) Sometimes what you eat just after commuting matters less for your well-being than what you've eaten in the hours, or even days, before the ride. If one is "well fed", it's possible to endure vigorous exercise and be able to bear some hours of fasting until the next meal, specially if you do everything (ride, eat, work) more or less at the same time of day, everyday.


At last, you said you're losing weight. If you were overweight, that might be the expected thing to happen. Now if you were normal weight, and are at the same time losing weight and feeling burnt-out, that is a very serious warning sign. If self-management of food intake alone doesn't solve it, perhaps you should see a professional.

Hope this helps!