Do you have any teenagers at home, or know any teenagers? Have you ever thought that it must be nice to be a teenager, so that you can eat whatever you like, without gaining body fat? That aspect of it might be nice, but remember: just because you look fine on the outside, doesn’t mean that bad stuff isn’t happening on the inside.

In this article, I’ll describe teenage athlete nutritional needs, for speed/power sports. What do I mean by “speed/power” athlete? This specifically applies to sports that are based on very short bursts of energy. These include football, baseball, volleyball, sprinting, weightlifting, etc.

Original source: here.

            This does NOT apply to endurance athletes (I define that as any activity that lasts over 2 minutes), and it also does NOT apply to athletes in mixed sports (that is, they combine an element of endurance, with an element of explosiveness. Examples would be basketball, hockey, soccer, etc.). These athletes have different requirements, and may be topics for future newsletters.

Specifics of Teenagers 

Teenagers in general have a higher tolerance for food. That is to support growth. However, just like not all adults are created equal, not all teens are created equal either. You want to provide the right amount of fuel to provide for growth, good energy levels, and superior performance, but not so much that it spills over into fat stores. After all, extra fat is dead weight that really slows you down in power sports.

For instance, take 10 pounds of fat off your frame, and you might be able to drop your 40-yard dash time by 0.1-0.3 seconds. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the difference between losing a game and winning it.

Specifics of Speed/Power Sports 

Because speed/power sports tend to involve short bursts of energy, and long rest periods, they tend to be very neurologically demanding (ie they take a lot out of the nervous system), but less metabolically demanding (compared to endurance and mixed sports).

So the requirements for carbohydrates and calories overall is quite a bit lower than for mixed and endurance sports, but requirements for protein are a bit higher.

What Should the Teenage Speed/Power Athlete Eat? 

We start with this general template: one third of the plate should be veggies. One third of the plate should be protein (preferably meat, fish, or seafood), and the remaining one third should be a starch, like potatoes or rice. Somewhere in there, there should also be 1-3 teaspoons of a healthy fat (that’s things like avocado, olive oil, grapeseed oil, butter, etc.)

This is the basic template, and it does get modified based on each individual person’s response to this template. Are they losing body fat, gaining muscle and improving performance on this template? If yes, then we keep them as is. If no, then we make modification either to the proportions or the overall quantities. This comes back to a theme throughout all my speaking engagements and these newsletters: if you’re not assessing, you are guessing. So it’s important to quantify and measure things like body composition, and performance in specific markers that are relevant.

But I digress.

Let’s break it down, and see what each component of this template does for the teenage speed/power athlete.

The veggies provide important nutrients and help speed up recovery in between workouts. Better recovery means less soreness, and it means you can exercise more frequently. More frequent exercise means enhanced performance. After all, if you can recover 20% faster than before, then instead of 15 workouts per month, you can do 18 workouts per month. So let me ask you: which athlete will perform better: the one doing 15 workouts per month, or the one doing 18 per month? Enough said.

The meat, fish and seafood gives the basic building blocks needed for muscle. Exercise by itself works to build muscle. Exercise in combination with the right fuel works a lot better. It also makes you more responsive to the exercise you’re doing. So if for example, a teenager lifts weights, but doesn’t eat enough protein, he may only gain 2-3 pounds of muscle in a month. A teenager who lifts weights, and does eat enough protein, he can gain as much as 4-5 pounds of muscle in a month. Multiply that by 6 months, and it’s the difference between 12 pounds of muscle, and 30 pounds of muscle (although to be fair, weight gain is rarely that linear).

The starches provide energy so that you can perform well at your strength/power sport.

And the fats, you may be wondering? Contrary to popular belief, fat in food does not make you put on body fat (depending on quantity, of course). Fats make up hormones, and fats make up your brain. Insufficient fat intake will result in lower testosterone levels, which lowers your energy levels, your muscle mass, and your recovery. A slower brain obviously means slower reaction times, and worse decision-making in a real-time game situation. So get your healthy fats, and get enough of them.

 Quality Matters 

It goes without saying that getting your protein out of a McDonald’s patty is very different than getting your protein from beef or sardines or chicken. All the “bad stuff” in a McDonald’s patty probably outweighs all the benefits of the protein in there. By the way, if you’re wondering “but what about ________” (fill in the blank with other popular protein sources, like eggs, dairy, beans, etc.), read my article, what are the best protein sources?

Likewise, getting your starches out of a hot dog bun is very different than getting it from potatoes.

So my recommendation for the best possible performance for your teenage athletes is eat food that doesn’t come in a box or a container. If it didn’t exist 100 years ago, it’s probably not good for you. Even if the label says it is good for you. Igor says it isn’t (isn’t it weird that Igor speaks about himself in third person? Kind of like Al Gore or Floyd Mayweather). The very fact that it has to tell you how healthy it is means it probably isn’t healthy. For example, have you ever seen an ad for a tomato, making huge claims about how healthy it is for you? No. A tomato doesn’t need that, because everyone already knows it’s good for you. Ever seen an ad for a cereal or orange juice claiming how healthy it is? Sure. ‘nuff said.

There you go. Now you know about the teenage athlete nutritional needs (those in a speed/power sport). Now go and send this article to a teenager so that s/he can benefit from this.