Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Examining the Caloric Needs of the Youth Athlete

Since I work primarily in the youth athlete population, the majority of my nutrition related conversation revolves around getting kids to eat enough calories. In my experience, I have found that the average 14- 18 year old boy simply does not consume enough calories to break even, let alone gain weight. We have to take into account that the average teen athlete is active at least 5 days per week, usually in high intensity sport such as basketball or lacrosse. Add in pick up games, training and just daily activity and you have yourself a pretty deep caloric hole to dig out of.

Now lets look at a mock diet for the average 15 year old basketball player during the school year. Although I know that all 15 year olds do not eat like this, I have found that this is a pretty average day for a kid who needs to put on some weight. I have listed the calories and grams of protein per meal. Calories can vary slightly depending on the brand, exact serving size and method of cooking.

Breakfast: bowl of cereal with milk - 220 calories, 12g protein (if they eat breakfast at all)

Lunch: piece of pizza, fruit cup, chocolate milk - 375 cals, 15 g protein

Snack: granola bar - 130 calories, 3 g protein

Dinner: piece of chicken, rice, green beans - 360 cals 35 g protein

Snack: Ice cream -125 cals, 3 g protein

Add a few gatorades or drinks throughout the day and that will add about 300 calories.


Total for day: 1510 calories, 68 grams of protein



I found the website below to be a great resource for calculating caloric needs. I entered in a 15 year old that is 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighs 120lbs. I entered his activity level as 5 day per week of intense activity - which is accurate for a basketball player in season.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm


This is what I found.

Calories per day to maintain body weight - 2410

Protein: 150 - 180 grams per day!


I highly recommend checking out the link I provided and entering your kids' information into it. In order to gain 1 lb of muscle per week, a kid needs to consume 500 calories per day more than they are expending. So the 120 lb kid I am talking about actually needs to be eating approximately 2900 calories per day to gain 1 lb per week. I want to reiterate that the kid we are talking about his highly active on a daily basis in a sport like basketball, lacrosse or soccer.

In the next few weeks, we will look at some strategies to easily increase caloric intake.

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