Nutrition for young athletes and children training for sports

In terms of your learning outcomes from the Advanced Sports and Exercise Nutrition course, the science and also how to build personalised nutritional plans and competition diets applies to athletes aged 16 and above.

Now, in terms of young athletes aged 15 and below, some of the fundamental principles for older athletes would apply with some tweaks here and there.

While there’s been relatively limited scientific research performed with young athletes, it is possible to adapt nutritional guidelines for children and adolescents to the specific demands of exercise and sport as well as use some of the research on older athletes.

DAILY CALORIES

The caloric expenditure for young athletes can also be calculated based on their PAL (see PAL definition in Module 1).
Here’s a chart so you can identify a young athlete's PAL: (Image: 12-01-2015 20-34-56)
In the chart below, look for your the young athlete's weight and personal PAL to see how many calories he/she should be consuming daily: (Image: 12-01-2015 20-35-17)

And here’s the calories a 33kg child would normally spend per half an hour of activity: (Image: 12-01-2015 20-34-42)

EATING TIMES:

The same eating times for adult athletes apply (e.g. pre-exercise meal 2 to 4 hours before exercise, so make sure to revisit your course materials).

In practice, the exact timing of the young athlete's pre-exercise meal will probably depend on constraints such as school hours, travel, homework and training session times, but you can try to plan meals as best you can around these commitments. If there isn’t time for a meal, then the young athlete should have a healthy snack 30 minutes before training, as well as a drink. The food eaten should be easily digestible – high in carbohydrate, low in fat – such as toast, a cereal bar or a juice drink.

SUGAR:

We often see young athletes eating sweets and chocolate bars and drinking sugary drinks before training sessions in the belief that sugar will aid their performance. In fact, the opposite has been shown to hold true – consuming sugar before exercise does NOT improve performance or stamina.

Eating lots of sugar triggers high levels of insulin in the bloodstream, which transports sugar out of the blood stream rapidly, leaving the athlete with less available energy. This rebound effect can make athletes feel tired, weak and lightheaded.

Instead, encourage them to eat a healthy meal based on potatoes, pasta or bread. If they need a pre-training energy boost, it’s safer to choose foods, such as bananas, dried fruit, and cereal bars that won’t play havoc with blood sugar levels.

CARBS:

Young athletes training between 1 and 2 hours a day would need around 5 to 7 g carbohydrate for each 1kg body weight a day. And if they train more than 2 hours, they would need 7 to 10g per kg body weight a day.

As a rule of thumb, young athletes should be able to meet their carbohydrate requirements by eating (per day):

• 4 to 6 portions of grains / potatoes,
• 3 to 5 portions of fruit/ vegetables and
• 2 to 4 portions of dairy products

You can check your Training Food Pyramid from Module 2, Unit 2, to see what constitutes a portion.

PROTEIN:

There are no published values for young athletes – only for adult athletes – but it is estimated that they need more than non-athletic children, around 1.2 to 1.4 g per 1 kg body weight a day (vs. 0.85 to 1 g per 1 kg body weight a day for non-athletic children).

Including 2 to 3 portions of protein-rich foods (e.g. lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products, beans, lentils, tofu, quorn) daily makes it relatively easy for young athletes to meet their daily requirement. Again, check the Training Food Pyramid to see what constitutes a portion.

FAT

The International Olympic Committee and International Association of Athletic Federations both recommend athletes focus their efforts on getting enough carbohydrate and protein. The remaining of their calorie intake should come from fats – ideally polyunsaturated (like Omega from oily fish like salmon or Omega 3 fortified eggs) and not from trans fats (e.g. all fried foods contain trans fats, which are detrimental to the child's brain, and baked goods made with hydrogenated vegetable oils or margarine).

You should not be over-concerned about a young athlete’s (healthy) fat intake. Remember that they have higher energy needs – and therefore fat requirements – than most adults as they are growing and developing as well as training.

HYDRATION

It is impossible for young athletes children (and adults!) to perform at their best when they are dehydrated. Even small degrees of dehydration can cause a drop in performance and make them feel unwell. If the warning signs of dehydration are ignored, youngsters can overheat rapidly and develop more severe symptoms that could result in heat-related illness.

There are no official guidelines for fluid intake, although many health professionals advise drinking 1 ½ litres per day as a general guide. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommends children aged 9 to 13 years drink 1.3 to 1.5 litres daily; those over 14 years between 1.4 and 1.8 litres.

These recommendations don’t take account of exercise.

See the Hydration Module in your course (Module 7), the same principles apply (training length, types of drinks, dehydration biomarkers, etc.).

For example, water is fine to hydrate young athletes with during activities lasting less than an hour. For training sessions lasting longer than an hour, a drink that provides carbohydrate (such as squash, diluted fruit juice or sports drinks) is a better option than plain water as it can increase endurance and improve performance.

Also, to get a more accurate idea of fluid losses, you can weigh young athletes before and after training. Each 1 kg of weight loss is equivalent to 1 litre of fluid. This is what we call “weight fluid loss”. So, say that the young athlete losses 800 grams of body weight during training, then they should try to drink at least half of this amount during training, the rest afterwards.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that athletes should lose no more than 2% of their body weight during exercise. Young athletes will lose extra fluid through sweating during training, more in hot and humid conditions, and will certainly need to drink more than non-active people. They should drink little and often throughout the day, and must not ignore thirst, no matter how busy they are.

In addition to hydrating throughout the day, young athletes should drink about 100-200ml 45 minutes before training, half of their “weight fluid loss” during training and the other half afterwards. During training, they shouldn’t drink all at once – 75 to 100 ml every 15 to 20 minutes is a good range for young athletes.

REFUELLING AFTER TRAINING

See the refuelling timings in your course materials (the same apply to young athletes). But encourage young athletes to get into the habit of taking a recovery snack with them to their training session. That way, they can begin refuelling immediately.

Delaying refuelling longer than 30 minutes may delay muscle recovery.

Here’s some refuelling snacks and drinks ideas (consume within 2 hours of exercise):

• 250ml to 500 ml flavoured milk
• Half (or one) banana plus 250ml to 500 ml of milk
• 1 or 2 pots (each 150g) of fruit yogurt
• Half (or one) cereal bar plus 250ml to 500 ml semi skimmed milk
• A smoothie – bought or homemade (e.g. blend 150g yogurt, 1 banana and 150ml fruit juice in a blender)
• A cheese sandwich (2 slices bread; 40g cheese)
• 30g to 60g raisins fruit and 25g to 50g nuts
• 2 to 4 rice cakes with 10g to 20g peanut butter plus 100ml to 200ml orange juice

The above options are particularly good because they contain carbohydrate and protein in the ideal 4:1 ratio, which is optimal to rebuild, repair and grow muscle.

The post-training meal should contain carbohydrate to replenish depleted fuel (glycogen) stores, as well as protein to repair and rebuild the muscles. Research suggests that consuming such as meal promotes faster recovery and speeds muscle repair.

Here’s some refuelling meal ideas for young athletes (in addition to those in your course lessons, which you can also use!):

• Pasta with tomato pasta sauce with grated cheese and vegetables
• Jacket potato, chicken breast, broccoli and carrots
• Bean and vegetable hot pot with wholegrain rice
• Rice with grilled fish and steamed vegetables
• Lasagne or vegetable lasagne with salad
• Fish pie with vegetables
• Chilli or vegetarian chilli with rice and vegetables
• Dahl (lentils) with rice and vegetables
• Chicken curry with rice and vegetables
• Mashed or baked potato with grilled salmon and salad

All of the above cover the key principles for young athletes.

ATHLETICISM

Finally, if you're interested in the early development of elite athletes, here's a great video with David Epstein, a sports science reporter and author of The Sports Gene, explaining early selection and sports specialization: http://youtu.be/TncyQ8o0rx4

CHILD AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

If you'd like to learn more about child nutrition, take a look at our advanced certification: Advanced Child and Brain Development Nutritional Advisor Certification

This training will give you further insights into the developmental aspects, which are also key as they underpin anything that has to do with physical activity, IQ, performance, skills building, and learning capacity.

Go HERE to get the full curriculum.

AUTHOR: Alex Ruani, Research Director

Updated on: 29/10/2026