A personal experiment with Löwenanteil: Well nourished thanks to fitness food

lion's share has identified a fundamental challenge in the lives of athletes with high activity levels: between work, family and training sessions, there is often not enough time to provide the body with a nutritious meal and the nutrients it needs.

Planning meals, shopping and cooking can take up a great deal of time in everyday life. Working athletes, in particular, often cut back on food in order to prioritise their training regime. Quickly boiling a packet of pasta and then heading out on the bike for two hours – that might be fine for a quick fix, but ensuring a diet rich in protein poses a major challenge. Löwenanteil aims to support athletes with a radically simplified diet. We gave it a go.

The problem is: we don’t have time, do we?

I have a full-time job that involves a lot of business travel and long commutes. At the same time, I’m running a household, managing a relationship and trying to keep up with my social life. So this decision has come at a rather inconvenient time: I want to run marathons at a competitive level this year.

Not just any old small event, no. This season, I’m going to tackle some of the biggest endurance challenges a mountain biker can face anywhere in the world. Of course, that won’t be possible without preparation.

Cycling training is compulsory. As I am training for long distances If I’m to train properly, my training rides have to be long as well. On an average working day, I spend around two hours in the saddle. At the weekend, it can easily be six hours or more.

At the office, my lunch usually looks like this: either I go for lunch with my colleagues at the place just round the corner, I pop into the fresh food counter at the nearest supermarket, or I boil some pasta. Burgers and chips, schnitzel sandwiches and pasta aren’t exactly the best thing for my body on a daily basis, of course. But I usually just don’t have the time to cook fresh meals.

I’d already given meal prepping a go – a trend where you cook your meals in advance and combine them creatively so that you have home-cooked food to eat as part of your daily routine. Unfortunately, though, it doesn’t really save time; it just shifts it to another day.

What’s more, the concept requires careful planning. I soon abandoned meal prepping again. With its range of pre-cooked ready meals, Löwenanteil aims to take things a step further and radically simplify the process of providing meals for athletes.

From the glass to the stomach

At Löwenanteil, you can order 16 different organic dishes to suit your personal taste. The selection ranges from meat-based dishes such as Classic Bolognese and chicken fricassee to vegetarian and vegan options, such as sweet chilli or peanut curry.

Each jar contains 570 grams of ready-to-eat food that simply needs to be reheated in the microwave or in a saucepan. Löwenanteil ensures that every dish has a high protein content to nourish the muscles. A high proportion of vegetables and pulses is designed to keep you feeling full.

Prices range from between 7.99 and 9.99 euros per glass. I can’t get a better deal than the lunch special at the takeaway. The prices are also competitive with other organic ready meals. As we all know, taste is a matter of personal preference, but I have to say: I enjoyed all twelve Löwenanteil dishes I tried.

My personal favourite: the spicy paprika chicken. My colleagues were also given a taste and were won over by the concept. There really isn’t a quicker way to enjoy a delicious, hot meal without feeling guilty about your health.

Time required: less than five minutes. Admittedly, the dishes are based on a ‘one-bowl’ concept and, as a uniform mixture, don’t always look particularly appealing at first glance. However, in taste tests, both the flavour and the ingredients have won over even the most critical palates.

5,000 calories? That’s a tough one!

As a cyclist, losing weight isn’t my main goal. I’d rather fuel my body with what it needs rather than let it become undernourished. It’s not that easy. As an endurance athlete who’s 1.90 metres tall and very active, I need a lot of energy to do that.

My basal metabolic rate is around 3,000 calories. On top of that, on a typical working day, I burn around 2,000 more calories during two-and-a-half hours of training. It’s a classic problem for marathon cyclists: to avoid going hungry, I have to eat constantly. One of the most important meals is lunch. It has to make up for the calories burned during the morning’s training and, at the same time, provide reserves for the afternoon’s training.

The Löwenanteil meals are designed as complete meals. According to the website, each jar contains two portions. My chicken with peppers contains 43 grams of protein, 53 grams of carbohydrates and 672 calories per jar.

My requirements are significantly higher, particularly when it comes to the calories from carbohydrates that are essential for cyclists. That’s why I also boil some rice, potatoes or pasta. This makes it easy to combine them with any dish and stretch the portions a bit.

After lunch, I’m always so full that I’m back at my desk in no time and then out on my bike earlier than usual. Even though, as a calorie-guzzler, I don’t necessarily belong to the core target group, I’ve found the benefits to be well worth it in my own experiment.

Conclusion

I’ll admit, I was sceptical: yet another glorified ready meal for the fitness crowd? But after several weeks of eating Löwenanteil, I have to say that the pre-cooked meals are really handy for a cyclist’s daily routine and taste great. They’re definitely the nutritionally optimised, sport-friendly alternative to fast food. Cyclists may need to stretch their meals to meet their calorie requirements. - Jan Timmermann, BIKE editor

Pro

• Great taste, good selection
• very little time required
• organic-quality ingredients suitable for sports at fair prices

Cons

• Calorie and carbohydrate intake may not be sufficient for long-distance cyclists

What do you think: can ready meals help cyclists with their daily training? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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