The teenage athlete diet

What should teenagers eat for sport?

A healthy meal

Most teenage athletes that I coach have done some sort of healthy eating course at school. My 2 children are at Primary School and they have had lessons on healthy eating too.

Why then are teenagers unable to transfer this into practice?

I recently asked some young athletes to fill out food diaries to see what they actually ate. I also asked them to write down what they thought was a healthy meal. It makes interesting (and alarming) reading.

Teenage boys’ healthy meal plans

• Boy#1  2 poached eggs, cous cous, pasta.

I asked if he could cook that meal, he said you don’t have to cook it! Then he said yes to poaching the eggs, boiling the pasta and “you don’t have to cook cous cous, it comes out of the fridge“!

When asked how to improve it, the other boys said add some veg. So he wrote down turnip and seafood cocktail sauce.

• Boy #2  grilled chicken, white rice and jacket potato.
• Boy #3 Sea bass, broccoli, rice, new potatoes.

The two most glaring things from this are the absence of vegetables or fruit and the doubling of carbohydrates at each meal i.e rice and potatoes.  I will keep their sport secret otherwise it is obvious who they are, but there is no need for this carbohydrate overload.

Remember, they were asked to write down a “healthy” meal.

Teenage girl’s weekly food diary (7th-13th Dec)

However, they were paragons of healthy eating compared to this girl from their peer group. I have put in bold the sugar/ junk items on her menu. This girl wants to be a professional athlete.

Monday

Breakfast- coco pops and glass of orange juice

Snack- cookie and packet of baked crisps

Lunch- cheese and pickle sandwich, 2 oranges, grapes, breakaway, twirl

Snack-

Dinner- beef stew with broccoli and a glass of water

Snack- ice cream

Tuesday

Breakfast –cocopops & orange juice

Snack-cookie & crisps

McDonalds meal plan

Lunch- cheese & pickle sandwich, 2 oranges, grapes, twirl

Snack- none

Dinner- McDonald’s

Snack-none

Wednesday

Breakfast – cocopops, orange juice

Snack- crisps

Lunch- cheese & pickle sandwich, cookie, slice of Yule log, grapes

Snack- /

Dinner- burger, corn on the cob, sweet potato fries and a Diet Coke

Snack-waffle with Nutella

Thursday

Breakfast – cocopops & orange juice

Snack- cookie & crisps

Lunch- half a hoisin duck wrap, crisps,

Snack- other half of hoisin duck wrap, slice of Yule log

Dinner- rump steak, stir fried vegetables, mashed potato

Snack-chocolate

Friday

Sugar overload

Breakfast – cocopops, punnet of raspberries

Snack- cookie, crisps

Lunch- burger, sweet potato fries

Snack-waffle

Dinner – 2 slices of pizza

Snack- ice cream

Saturday

Breakfast – cocopops

Snack-

Lunch-hoisin duck wrap, crisps, and raspberries

Snack-

Dinner- chicken breast burger, corn on the cob and chips

Snack-

Sunday

Breakfast – cocopops

Snack- chocolate

Lunch- toasted cheese sandwich

Snack-

Dinner- pasta with broccoli, sweetcorn and carrot

I am being generous and thinking that the burgers are grilled and come from a butcher.

As Sy Wiggall told me “Your body is made up from things you put into it“.

Change your eating habits now

In all my coaching, I am only interested in action and results. In education, filling out a folder, or cutting and pasting material are deemed “learning“. Remember that these athletes are supposed to be motivated and want to train/ play full time.

What are those teenagers eating who are inactive?

Fresh produce

This was a useful exercise as it gave me an understanding of where those kids actually are, rather than them giving me answers they think are right.

This same group of athletes will be asking about supplements: without even considering changing what they put into their body.

The 3 steps I recommend you take are:

1. Record what you are actually eating over 3 days.
2. Eat more fresh produce: set a target based on what you are currently eating. Every meal or snack should have this.
3. Reduce sugar intake. This is a real problem. The free change4life programme is excellent and has a new sugar swap app.

Here is an example of a healthy eating plan for an adult who trains an hour a day.

Further reading

• What should I eat for breakfast?
• What are the best vegetables to eat?