From 71.6 kg to 67 kg without losing any watts: Gabriele Contorni's weight loss journey with FoodCoach
Meet Gabriele, a passionate cyclist who performs at a high level, consistently finishing in the top 10 in Italian Gran Fondo races. Still, the engineer felt something was still missing and started a weight loss journey using The Athlete's FoodCoach app. And guess what? The results have been remarkable!
Why a top-10 Gran Fondo cyclist decided to track his nutrition
Gabriele Contorni is no ordinary weekend rider. He consistently finishes in the top 10 at Italian Gran Fondo races, a category of long-distance mass-participation cycling events known for their scenic yet challenging mountain terrain. He trains alongside a professional coach and consults a nutritionist. Yet despite this professional support structure, something felt off.
As a practising engineer, Gabriele is wired to measure, analyse, and optimise. He applies that rigour to his training load, his power output, his aerodynamics. But nutrition? That was still largely a gut feeling. "As an Engineer, I always strive for precision and optimisation, and I felt that something was still missing in my overall approach." He wanted the same level of measurability in his nutrition that he already had in his training.
Losing weight without sacrificing performance
As a climber, Gabriele knows that weight matters on a steep gradient. Going into the off-season, he set a clear and concrete goal: reduce his racing weight from 71.6 kg to 67 kg — a reduction of 4.6 kg — to improve his power-to-weight ratio on climbs. "I aimed to achieve this reduction gradually and sustainably over several weeks, all while maintaining my strength and energy levels for training."
But the challenge most athletes face is that conventional calorie restriction tends to undermine training quality. Reduce energy too aggressively and you risk losing muscle, feeling depleted during sessions, and carrying fatigue into the next training block. This is exactly the problem FoodCoach's Smart Weight Loss approach is designed to solve.
How smart weight loss works for athletes
Most calorie trackers treat all days the same. FoodCoach is built differently. It's designed specifically for athletes, which means it understands that your nutritional needs on a four-hour ride are fundamentally different from a rest day.
FoodCoach's Smart Weight Loss approach calculates a personalised daily calorie target that fluctuates based on your training load. On heavy training days, your energy needs rise to support your effort. On recovery days, it drops to sustain the deficit. The result: you lose weight consistently over weeks without ever under-fuelling a hard session. This dynamic approach prevents the most common mistake athletes make: eating too little before or after key workouts, which leads to muscle breakdown, poor recovery, and training stagnation.
Gabriele: "In the FoodCoach app you can set your weight goal to 'smart weight loss' and add a weekly target with a fitting daily calorie deficit. I had a calorie deficit of approximately 500–600 kcal per day."
4.6 kg down, training quality unchanged
Gabriele achieved his 67 kg target and is now in a maintenance phase with normocaloric intake, fuelling fully to support the quality and intensity of his race-season preparation. But the number on the scales is only half the story. What Gabriele found most surprising was how he felt during the weight loss period itself.
"What has been most surprising and gratifying is that, despite the calorie deficit, I have consistently felt strong and capable during my training sessions. This was an outcome I had not fully anticipated, but it demonstrates the effectiveness of FoodCoach's approach to supporting performance through the right nutrition plan, even during weight loss periods."
This is the core promise of FoodCoach's athlete-first approach to weight loss: the deficit is real, but it's timed and structured so that it never cuts into what matters most, training performance and recovery quality.
“Nutrition tracking has become for me what a power-meter is for training: an essential tool for monitoring and optimising performance”
"If you can't measure it, you can't improve it"
For Gabriele, using FoodCoach wasn't just a practical decision. It changed how he thinks about nutrition as an athlete. The same engineering instinct that drives him to analyse power data and aerodynamics now applies to what's on his plate.
"Reflecting on this journey, I have come to appreciate the importance of measurement and precision in achieving weight loss progress. As I often tell my friends and teammates, 'If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.' Nutrition tracking has become for me what a powermeter is for training: an essential tool for monitoring and optimising performance."
Gabriele has now shared this approach with teammates and fellow cyclists, emphasising that nutrition tracking doesn't need to be complicated. When it's integrated into a structured plan, it becomes a natural part of the athlete's routine.
Entering race season lighter, fitter, and more confident
With his weight goal behind him, Gabriele is now fully focused on maximising training quality heading into competition. His calorie intake is normalised, matched precisely to his energy expenditure, and his attention has shifted from the scales to the climbs.
"Now that I have successfully reached my target weight, I am transitioning to a maintenance phase. I am excited to carry this momentum into the season and push my limits further!"
Ready to take the same approach?
Get your personalised nutrition plan in the FoodCoach app and start your smart weight loss journey today.
Definitions
- - Gran Fondo races: long-distance, mass-participation cycling events that originated in Italy. The term "Gran Fondo" translates to "Big Ride" in Italian, and these events are typically characterised by their scenic routes, challenging terrain, and festive atmosphere.
- - Power meter: measures your energy output in watts, displaying real-time effort and performance. It is an essential training tool for tracking progress, establishing zones, and optimising workouts or races.
- - Normocaloric intake: energy intake is equal to energy output to keep our body weight constant.
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