Jumbo Foodcoach App – Build your own nutrition plan for cycling and running

Jumbo, a Dutch supermarket and sponsor of the Jumbo-Visma Cycling team who are competing in Le Tour de France 2020, released the Jumbo Foodcoach App.

The Foodcoach App helps you to customize and build your own nutrition plan. For now only cycling and running are supported, while team-sports and fitness are in development.

Overview Jumbo Foodcoach App for Android

Jumbo already had an app for Google Android and Apple iOS for online purchasing your groceries. With the same Jumbo account you can login to your Jumbo Foodcoach app. Initially the only sport available was cycling. Running has been added this week, while other team-sports and fitness are still profiles in development.

For cycling power output and/or efficiency are often W/kg (watts per kilogram) so the combined weight of athlete and bike are important to increase this ratio (increase power or bring the weight down). So a solid nutrition plan what to eat and when in relation to your training is really important. Check out my book review of “The Secret of Cycling – Vroemen, Van Dijk, Van Megen” that gives insights in a more scientific and calculated approach to pacing the human engine during cycling.

So let’s get back to the Foodcoach App, the structure and the initial setup/installation.

Initial setup of Jumbo Foodcoach App

You simply download and install the application from the Google Play Store on your Android phone. By launching the application for the first time you need to create a Jumbo account or use your existing account credentials. Personally I encountered a minor issue with mobile password reset, but could perform a workaround.

During the initial setup you need to start building your physical profile and choose the sport of your likes. The variables you need to enter are:

• Date of birth (to calculate your age);
• Length;
• Weight;
• Type of work and hours of work;
• Activity-level;
• Sleep hours;
• Sport;
• Functional Threshold Power (FTP);

All variables from your profile are used to calculate an average energy consumption per day (and the distribution in carbohydrates, fat and proteins). With this information your are set and done to start planning your training and daily nutrition plan.

Structure Jumbo Foodcoach App

The look and feel of the Jumbo (groceries) App and the Foodcoach App are of course very similar and seem to be build on the same technical base. 🙂

The structure is fairly easy in 4 tabs:

• Training
• Planner
• Service
• Profile

In the training tab you can see your training/training-planner on a specific day, the daily energy intake required (and the distribution in carbohydrates, fat and proteins) base level plus additional energy for the training.

You can add both training blocks the yellow button in the upper part of the screen and you can plan/add your meals in the lower part of your screen. By clicking the add training button you can add a training, the timeslot of the training in relation to your meals, training duration and the training intensity (in watts).

By clicking on the add meals button, you will navigate to the Planner tab, where you can select your meals (breakfast, lunch or dinner) from a database with healthy meals. When you add the meal to your day, you will see the recipe and required ingredients. When you add a meal to a day, the ingredients are added to your shopping cart. So it seems like there is a sort of integration with the Jumbo groceries app (backend).

In the service tab you see the frequently asked questions (FAQ) and references to sports nutrition specialists.  The final tab labelled as profile gives you the overview of variables entered during the initial setup. So in case the FTP value or your activity levels change, you can updated these fields.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

I learned about the Jumbo Foodcoach App on the Wielerflits website and read the press release on the Jumbo corporate website.

Jumbo is a supermarket chain in the Netherlands and Belgium, so the Foodcoach app is now only available in the Dutch language (despite my English review). No strategic need to support other languages if you ask me.

I’m not a professional cyclist, but I’m interested in data and how some parameters change when your fitness increases. So I use the Foodcoach App mainly to have an idea of my average daily energy intake (the base level) and its distribution. In addition I like the database with over 600 healthy meals, to provide me with ideas for lunch and dinner.

Please check out my other cycling related reviews and check the Jumbo Foodcoach website as well. Please leave a comment if you would use the Foodcoach App or what other nutrition planning tool you use. 😉