Finding Balance, Not Restrictions: How The FoodCoach App Changed My Approach to Fuelling

There has been a lot of talk in the cycling media since the Tour De Femmes about riders weights and I think this is the perfect time to write this. Sports and food can become a super unhealthy relationship, I managed to find a really good one.

I used to think I had my diet figured out. Healthy meals, a good mix of carbs and protein, nothing too indulgent. But looking back, I was mostly guessing, especially when it came to fuelling my rides. That guesswork caught up with me after I went through Epstein-Barr virus. I gained around 4kg during recovery, and more importantly, I just didn’t feel like myself when I got back on the bike.

This is where The Athletes FoodCoach App came in. I wasn’t looking for a “weight loss” tool. I was looking for a way to understand my body better and find a healthier, more sustainable rhythm with food one that supported my training, not worked against it.

No Off-Limits Foods — Just Balance

What stood out right away is that FoodCoach isn’t another restrictive calorie-counting app. There’s no black-and-white list of “good” or “bad” foods. Instead, it focuses on balance, the right ratio of carbs, proteins, fats, and fibres your body needs to perform and recover.

That approach made it easy to enjoy the foods I love without feeling guilty. If I wanted pizza after a long ride, it was fine. I just understood how it fit into the bigger picture. It stopped being about rules and started being about awareness.

The Eye-Opener: I Was Under-Fuelling

Here’s the big one for me. I thought I was eating enough to support my riding. But once my workouts synced with the app, I could see exactly how many calories I was burning and how much I was putting back in.

The truth? I was under-eating and not just a little. On big training days, I was falling short by hundreds of calories. No wonder I was feeling sluggish on climbs and slow to recover. I tested this before to see what the balance was and If I was looking after myself.

Once I started fuelling properly, the difference was huge. My endurance improved, I could sustain power for longer, and the dreaded “empty tank” feeling late in rides became a lot less common.

Fuel for Every Ride: How Recipes Fit the Training Flow

One of the smartest things about FoodCoach’s recipes is how they’re matched to training demands. It’s not just a list of “healthy meals” it’s fuel with purpose.

On big training days, I’ll go straight for the higher-carb recipes. Think rice- or pasta-based meals with plenty of lean protein and a mix of vegetables. The app makes it easy to filter for these, so I know I’m topping up glycogen stores before the ride and replacing them after. It’s the difference between feeling solid on the final climb and running on fumes.

For mid-ride snacks, there are options I can prep in advance, like oat-based bars or energy bites that tick both the taste and nutrition boxes. I used to just grab whatever was in the cupboard like gels, but now I’ve got things that actually match my fuelling plan.

Although it’s not in the app, using “normal food” other than gels is something I wanted to get away from. So now one of my go to bits of ride fuel now is Pan De Leche. €1.70 from the super market, you get 20 of them and each one has 20 grams of carbs.

On rest or recovery days, the recipes shift the balance, still giving me enough carbs for daily energy, but leaning a bit more on protein, healthy fats, and fibre to help repair muscle and keep me feeling full. It’s a subtle change, but it adds up over the week.

The best part? There’s no guesswork. I’m not just eating what I think is right, I’m eating what my body actually needs, based on the training I’ve done.

More Than Weight Loss

Yes, I dropped the extra weight I’d put on during my illness. But honestly, that’s the side effect, not the headline. The real change has been in how I feel on the bike, stronger, more consistent, and able to train harder without burning out. I’ve gone from fatigued at 200w ftp to 283w ftp in 2 months, whilst dropping weight but not in a dramatic way.

It’s also made me more mindful off the bike. I think about food in terms of how it will help my body perform and recover, not just in terms of calories or portion sizes.

Key Takeaways for Riders

• Balance matters, carbs, protein, fats, and fibre all have their place.
• You might be under-fuelling without realising it, especially if you train hard.
• Tracking isn’t about restriction , it’s about understanding your needs.
• Performance improves when your nutrition matches your output.

Using The FoodCoach App has been a bit of a reset button for me, not in the sense of starting over, but in finally getting the pieces to fit together properly. If you’re serious about your riding, it’s worth knowing exactly what’s going in and how it’s helping you on the bike.

Because until you measure it accurately, you’re just going blind.