Youth Nutrition 102 - Performance Nutrition

Youth athletes face unique metabolic demands, balancing biological development with rigorous training. Consequently, a competitive teenager's daily energy requirements can frequently exceed that of an adult.

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For context, here’s a nice abstract from Nutritional Considerations for Performance in Young Athletes:

“Nutrition is an integral component to any athletes training and performance program. In adults the balance between energy intake and energy demands is crucial in training, recovery, and performance. In young athletes the demands for training and performance remain but should be a secondary focus behind the demands associated with maintaining the proper growth and maturation. Research interventions imposing significant physiological loads and diet manipulation are limited in youth due to the ethical considerations related to potential negative impacts on the growth and maturation processes associated with younger individuals. This necessary limitation results in practitioners providing nutritional guidance to young athletes to rely on exercise nutrition recommendations intended for adults. While many of the recommendations can appropriately be repurposed for the younger athlete attention needs to be taken towards the differences in metabolic needs and physiological differences.”

Smith, J. W., Holmes, M. E., & McAllister, M. J. (2015). Nutritional Considerations for Performance in Young Athletes. Journal of sports medicine

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Youth athletes cannot simply be considered ‘mini-adults’.