If this is accurate I’m UNDER eating quite a bit! Protein seems spot on, but overall calories seem a bit high if I want to slowly lose weight (.5-1.0 lbs a week).
Those 3hrs hard, are they indoor workouts?
Yes all indoors.
In short, what ChatGPT thinks (which I’ve been tracking all my training and nutrition).
Bottom line
Protein: acceptable. Fueling principle: acceptable. Calorie/carbohydrate targets: wildly inflated and not usable. Best short summary: good ideas, terrible numbers
ChatGPT’s version for me
.
Is this helpful? It seems like a good place to start. I see this as a good starting point for lots of folks.
Do the targets seem reasonable? Yes, but high. I have worked with two sports nutritionists recently and the rapid recommendations are in line with their recommendations for maintenance. Do age and gender not fit into the metric? Also, I have been finding overall calorie target a moving target with workouts and have found it easier to track workout calories and base calories seperate. This feels more in line with the X carbs/hour messaging that is everywhere right now.
Is anything unclear? Yes, I did not see the link for helping calculate body fat.
Does it work on your device? Yes, PC with Chrome, no problems.
Can you have a look at the kcal consumption of your last three 3hr hard sessions and post up the values please?
They won’t directly map but it should be a useful yard arm
For me, according to my scales my BMR is ~1800kcal
Monday I did a vo2 indoor hour, vo2 run intervals outside, and then steady 200m repeats in the pool. TR and Garmin add that up to 1800kcal, so 3600 total. TR recommends 4,000.
Tuesday I did 1hr easy solo ride where 341kcal were estimated so ~2150kcal is the simple maths. TR is recommending 3,000kcal.
So I’d say it is ‘over’ for me on a moderate weight loss, but the maths isn’t that straightforward is it? A lot of calories are needed for the repair and recovery, no?
I should just mention that I don’t believe in CICO, but we’re assuming the calculator is based on that principle…Is that correct @Jonathan ?
This is interesting, and I like the visual display of the suggestions.
I’m doing a master’s TR plan, so 5.5 hours a week (3.5 hours of intervals, 2 hours of endurance). I did a DEXA scan, and I know my RMR is 1543 cal./day. This is suggesting 2600 calories on my recovery/rest days and 3300 on my 1-hour hard days. The difference between the two is equal to the calories burned on those TR workouts, so it does make sense.
I guess I’m just surprised by the 1,000 extra calories each day over my RMR. I know that I burn more than that with daily life, but on recovery days, I focus on recovery.
Though I’ve been eating 1800 calories a day (plus the estimated amount of my ride that day) and have had no weight loss, so something is off on my current plan.
- Yes, I think it is useful.
- The target calories seem high to me. I’ve been tracking calories and all the food I eat for about a year and a half. I would probably gain rather than slightly lose weight if I consumed this many calories per day.
- Not confusing at all
- Worked fine for me in chrome on a mac
Might be useful to add a description of easy, endurance, and hard.
Also, would be good to have a well-moderated thread on the nutrition forum for people following the guidance.
Need to consider age and general activity. I am 63, retired and don’t do much more besides bike riding and walking the dog. I would be pretty plump consuming the recommended calories.
At age 66 I know there is no chance that I can eat that much.
Context: F/56 kg, 26% BF (dexa), improved body comp (not radical!!)
Useful: YESS!! I’ve been using an app called FDDB and basically I just checked and intuitively this is what I target each day (with variations depending on the schedule). I use the FDDB for tracking mainly my macros and specially protein (lifting for years and protein lover and can’t help it haha). If I’d eat what MyFitnessPal & Co. suggest, I’d definitely go into RED-S.
Targets: yes. See above.
Nothing unclear and yes, it works on my pixel 8 pro.
Open questions:
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Would it make sense to also add blocks of nutrition periodization depending on the training plan phase?
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Adding gender if preferred and only optional , mainly for female cycles, pre and post menopause. I am not an expert and could be totally wrong but from personal XP, I believe some days the female hormones are ramping up my hunger like crazy!! and some days I feel fine eating a bit less (follicular phase).
Looking forward to seeing this embedded into TR calendar 
I put the suggestions into perplexity, and it came up with:
“Yes, TrainerRoad’s 2518-calorie plan with 160g protein, 90g fat, and ~267g carbs aligns well with your measured RMR of 1787 and RBR of 2144 calories, plus your three weekly hard rides. It provides a performance-focused intake above your baseline burn while supporting gradual weight loss from 175 lbs.[1]
Macro Breakdown
This splits as 25% protein (640 cal), 32% fat (810 cal), and 43% carbs (1068 cal), which is carb-moderate for cycling but protein-forward to aid recovery on a vegan diet.[2]
Calorie Fit
At ~2600 calories (prior TrainerRoad rec), this matches your training-adjusted needs (RMR × 1.4–1.6 PAL ≈ 2500–2680 cal), avoiding RED-S risk from your prior 1600 cal base. With 600 cal ride burns 3x/week, average daily deficit stays mild (~250 cal) for 0.5 lb/week loss.[3][4][5]
Protein Assessment
160g equates to ~2g/kg at 175 lbs (79kg)—higher than standard 1.2–1.6g/kg for endurance but feasible vegan via tofu, lentils, and tempeh; TrainerRoad often pushes elevated for body comp goals.[5][6][2]
Suitability for You
Fat at 90g (1.1g/kg) covers essentials without excess, leaving room for carb fueling around rides; track energy and weight weekly, adjusting +150 cal if needed. This upgrade from your old intake prioritizes training quality over aggressive deficit.”
Not that I should trust any AI not approved by Coach Jonathan, but it’s interesting that even though my “gut” says the suggestions by this calculator was way too high, it may not be.
I can help here as I’ve been tracking consistently for over a year!
The generated nutrition plan seems on the high side for what I’ve become used to:
Particularly the hard sessions seem to be a long way out.
My BMR seems to be 2000ish and I try to smooth the intake out so I’m not starving on Mondays. My workouts are pretty consistent: hard days and endurance days both seem to use about 700cal per hour. Tuesday - Friday I’m doing 8-9 hours. 5600-6300 extra required across the week.
So that should be roughly 1100-1200 on top of BMR per day. Total: 3200ish per day Mon-Fri.
Saturday/Sunday are longer days so I eat the extra demand, which is somewhere between 2000-2500 depending on the ride. So total 4000-4500 intake.
So TRs estimate is roughly 1000cal high on almost every day compared to my real world experience.
I’ve had a few periods over the last 18mons where I’ve eaten closer to the numbers suggested by the TR calculator and gained a kilo pretty quickly. I then end up having to eat less to lose the weight again and training suffers for a brief period whilst doing this. The intake I’ve been working with seems to work well for me.
My main observation was that when adding training time there wasn’t much nuance - I often do a combo of hard + easy sessions on a day (90mins hard, 30mins easy) as part of commuting.
Other comments: the protein goal is about where I’ve landed. Although I often have a little more (closer to 150g)
Testing context: I used the default values and said I didn’t know my BMR as I wanted to come in like a novice user (most likely to benefit). Happy to re-run with different settings and see how it compares.
To answer your questions more specifically:
- Potentially, yes. It would need to be supported by tracking.
- No: the intake suggestion is significantly higher and would result in substantial weight gain over the long run.
- It’s very easy to use
- Worked perfectly on Android using the Chrome browser.
If I have a hard workout on Tuesday morning, shouldn’t I be loading carbs on Mon evening?
so my calorie intake would be higher on Mon because of this and a little lower on Tues as i am not loading for a hard workout on Wed.
I’m pretty sure I picked up this logic from one of the podcasts.
So long as you’re not starving yourself on Monday, it doesn’t matter much. The exception being for a big event or particularly long ride.
You’re aiming to replenish glycogen stores
Another voice to add that having to opt into marketing emails is a big turn off for me. I’m already a TR member and don’t want to have to delete/unsubscribe from emails selling me something I’ve already bought.
I was thinking about this today. I had the same reaction that everyone seemingly has, “the calories are too high”. It made me think of carbs and a few years ago anything more than a gel every 45 minutes was crazy high and riding fasted improved our performance when we did take a gel. My buddy still thinks that way.
So my thought on this calculator is not that it’s wrong, but much like the new AI FTP, we all just need some background on why we’re all under-fueling (according to this). I’d love a podcast with Alex Larson and Dr. Kyle Pfaffenbach taking about RMR and RBR and the impact that cycling plays on it and RED-S.
Feedback: The RMR value of 45 Cal/kg FFM seems too high to maintain body composition. My experience and intuition (not a nutritionist, etc) has the 35 Cal/kg FFM more in line with maintaining. I’m sure you have a source for these values, but it might be worth double checking the literature (is there some factor missing?).
The incremental training fuelling requirements align well with the energy consumed in my workouts.
Neat tool overall. Like the look. Like the macro breakdowns. Like the incorporation of the navy circumference method. Don’t love the email.
I’m not sure I’d trust the numbers at all in this tool. If I ballpark the numbers, it looks about 800 to 1,000 calories over what I’m eating per day to keep the same weight. How can I be under fueling if my weight is stable and I’m not feeling run down or depleted for workouts? Adding that many calories per week can’t be positive for my bf%