Nutrition in cycling: What are the advantages and disadvantages of calorie tracking?
Carola Felchner
· 08.11.2025
Cycling is one of those disciplines in which a few kilograms more or less body weight can make a big difference. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who was already very slim, lost four kilograms before the Tour of France 2025, sparking discussions, but won the Tour de France Femmes. Former professional cyclist Dominik Nerz was advised by the team doctor of his former Italian cycling team in 2011 that "it would be good if I could lose a bit more weight", as he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio in 2023.
Various studies have shown that lower weight can have a positive effect on cycling performance, including one from 2012 that looked at the data of all Tour de France finishers between 2002 and 2005. Logically, a lighter body requires less energy to move, which improves endurance performance and therefore the ability to cover longer distances. That's why the number on the scales is also an issue for amateur cyclists. "In my experience, they are often even more restrictive and have a more distorted perception than top athletes of how much they eat - or are allowed to eat," confirms nutritionist Daniel Hofstetter. The Swiss is an ambitious cyclist himself, was a professional triathlete and advises both elite and recreational athletes on weight management and healthy eating.
Nutrition in cycling: the energy deficit
He considers calorie counting to be a useful component of weight control because: "If we want to reduce our weight, we need a negative energy balance." This means that we need to burn more energy than we consume, and to do this we need to know how much that is. However, the nutrition expert cautions that it doesn't work for endurance athletes to simply eat drastically less. Because if an athlete's body is permanently depleted of energy, it will lose muscle mass. This is because muscle mass consumes energy even when we are not moving and therefore becomes an unwanted "energy guzzler". What needs to go is the fat, and for this it is necessary to eat in such a way that although there is an energy deficit, we do not lose performance.
Daniel Hofstetter considers a deficit of around 500 kilocalories per day to be sensible in order to lose weight without damaging the muscles. In order to achieve this and also if someone simply wants to maintain their weight, the daily requirement must be known. This is made up of the basal metabolic rate, i.e. the energy that the body uses at rest, the energy consumption for physical activity and factors such as age, weight, height and gender. According to estimates by the German Nutrition Society, an unathletic adult man needs an average of 2100 to 2400 kilocalories, while women need around 1700 to 1900 kilocalories. The additional calories consumed through physical activity can now be measured using numerous gadgets such as sports watches, fitness trackers and power meters. However, Daniel Hofstetter points out that, in his experience, only precisely calibrated power meters can reliably measure energy consumption: "You can't calculate consumption based on exercise duration and heart rate, as sports watches do," he says.
Attention, calorie trap!
In general, the nutrition expert sees calories as a guideline rather than an absolute figure. On the one hand, because he does not want to "establish compulsive eating behaviour" in which athletes meticulously weigh every component of their meal and avoid going to restaurants because the energy content of the food cannot be accurately measured there. Secondly, because a calorie is not the same as a calorie, even if the (mandatory) nutritional information on food packaging suggests otherwise. A calorie is initially nothing more than a common unit for heat energy, because the body ultimately gains energy through a combustion process. The calorie content - or calorific value - of food is determined on the basis of standardised conversion factors specified by the authorities.
But when it comes to the question of how much energy the human body can actually obtain from a food, more factors play a role than just the calorific value determined. Put simply, the metabolism influences how much energy the organism can extract from food. It encompasses all biochemical processes in a cell; among other things, it breaks down nutrients, converts them into new metabolic products and synthesises them. The speed at which the metabolism works is genetically determined. However, it can be boosted by exercise, regular protein- and fibre-rich meals and sufficient sleep. If you consume too little energy over a long period of time, on the other hand, your resting metabolism slows down, your weight stagnates and your body goes into a kind of survival mode.
The food matrix
Secondly, the type of food we eat is relevant in terms of calorie intake. The proportion of energy we can actually obtain from the food we eat depends crucially on factors such as the food mix we eat or the composition of the meal. For example, the body can obtain more energy from 100 grams of ground almonds than from the same amount of unpeeled kernels, wrote the Pharmazeutische Zeitung in 2023.
The reason: the undamaged cell walls of whole almonds allow them to pass through the digestive tract largely unchanged, whereas the cell walls of ground almonds are shredded and the nutrients are more accessible. A 2019 study published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism also found that eating highly processed foods leads people to eat around 500 kilocalories more per day than they would with unprocessed foods of the same calorie content.
Nutrition in cycling: a feeling for the right amount
The most important tip that nutrition expert Daniel Hofstetter can give cyclists who want to keep an eye on their weight is therefore to eat as little unprocessed food as possible. And plenty of it. Because there is often a lack of sufficient energy and macronutrients such as carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats, as a study by Brazilian scientists with amateur cyclists from 2023 showed, who on average consumed too few carbohydrates and fibre (men and women) as well as fats (women). "Many of my customers are amazed at how much they can eat, or that they can eat more after the consultation and still lose weight," reports Hofstetter, explaining that hunger regulates itself to a healthy degree if the body gets enough unprocessed food with sufficient muscle-maintaining protein, energy-giving carbohydrates and satiating fibre.
"Many athletes are amazed at how much they can eat, or that they can eat more after counselling and still lose weight." - Daniel Hofstetter, nutritionist
This intuition, the feeling for the right amount, can be trained, for example, by first weighing food such as noodles or tofu in a certain bowl and then filling the same bowl with it after a while by eye and without using a scale, the expert advises. The "plate method", in which around 50 per cent of the plate is filled with vegetables, 25 per cent with proteins (meat, fish, vegetarian alternatives) and 25 per cent with carbohydrates (pasta, rice, potatoes), is also a good way of eating a balanced diet without meticulously counting calories. Not only do studies show that even consistent calorie monitoring typically only leads to a moderate loss of around two and a half to five kilograms over three to six months; according to various scientific studies, a fixation on calorie counting apps also increases the symptoms of eating disorders - and the risk of developing one.
The healthy balance
However, the apps can be credited with encouraging test subjects in studies to exercise more and eat less sugar and fat. And that's what weight management is all about: regular physical activity and a balanced diet. Calorie counting can be a useful tool - especially if you are planning a structured and well thought-out weight loss programme that takes both performance and health into account. However, it is not a panacea, because inaccuracies in the recording of calorie consumption, differences in their utilisation or the psychological burden that too strict a dietary restriction can cause must also be taken into account. Calorie counting is not the only tool for weight control, but one of several. "It is necessary to lose weight. But it's not right for every situation or for every athlete," summarises Daniel Hofstetter.
Calorie tracking
They are called "Yazio", "MyFitnessPal" or "LifeSum" and all promise to make healthy eating easy. These smartphone apps act as a kind of diary in which users enter their meals by weighing and manually listing the individual components, scanning the barcode or taking and uploading a photo of the meal. The app then calculates the calorie content, macro and often also micronutrients and often gives tips on how to improve nutritional behaviour. So far, so useful. However, in addition to the advantages, scientific studies have also identified some disadvantages of such apps.
Advantages
- Apps can help you to get an overview of your food intake over the day, week and month.
- They can help to reduce the intake of fatty, sugary or highly processed foods.
- They sometimes increase awareness of portion sizes and the composition of meals.
- They can motivate people to take a closer look at nutrition.
Disadvantages
- Often inaccurate calorie calculation and determination of macronutrients for many foods and dishes
- Manual input required in many cases, which is time-consuming and error-prone
- Often recommended to lose weight too quickly (more than one kilo per week); this harbours risks such as malnutrition and loss of performance
- Danger of psychological stress and eating disorders due to constant monitoring
