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setting your active child up for success with adequate fuel and recovery
9 minute read
active children can sometimes need as much as 4,000 calories a day to sustain their energy, growth and development.
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this article was produced by the healthing editorial team with the support of a grant from aquaomega. while aquaomega made the production of this article possible, they did not have any editorial influence or control over the content, including review prior to publication.
eating a balanced diet is important for all growing children, as it plays a significant role in their development. but when a child is incredibly active, the amount of food they need may change drastically.
“people probably underestimate the nutritional needs of kids,” said dr. quinton nurse, a naturopathic doctor who operates out of toronto and vaughan clinics, as well as offers virtual care options.
even young children, ages three to six, who are basically sedentary, need roughly 1,200 calories a day, dr. nurse notes. but if you have an older child who’s incredibly active, those numbers could soar much higher.
“an active child would need more, like 2,000. if you’re talking about adolescents, sometimes it’s even 2,000 to 3 or 4,000 if they’re very active, like athlete status, because they sometimes train once or twice a day. they’re doing sports or tournaments every single day of the week,” said dr. nurse. “they really do need to keep up with the needs, and there are consequences if you don’t.”
in terms of calories alone, ensure that active children get at least 33 calories per kg of body weight for females, and 27 to 28 calories per kg of body weight for males. but calories aren’t the whole story. nutrition is so much more.
so, if you have an active child, how do you plan their diet to help support their activity, growth and recovery?
balanced nutrition is a bit different for kids and adolescents
a diet full of whole foods that provides enough carbohydrates, proteins and healthy fats is important at any age. but the amount of each differs for children, especially active children. for example, younger children often need more carbohydrates than adults because their brains need more for development, like learning and building new neural pathways.
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adults tend to shy away from carbs because we’ve been told that they’re bad for you, but when you add in activity and a child’s already higher needs, getting enough is incredibly important.
“for an endurance athlete or someone really active, four to five grams of carbs per kilogram is also something that gets neglected and people think, ‘well, that’s way too many carbs.’ but these kids are burning through them like nobody’s business on a day-to-day basis, right?”
that said, even though carbs are important, it’s not just any carb that’ll do. you want to reach for complex carbs that really give the body sustained energy. eating high-quality protein sources and healthy fats alongside that gives active children the best well-rounded meal that not only supports their activities, but also their recovery.
“foods that would help the muscular recovery, we’d be talking fish, chicken, you know, steaks or any kind of meat,” said dr. nurse. “tacos would be a great example of something you get some carbohydrates, some fats, you can put some avocado in there, some beans, some rice or grains, and meat right? having just regular dishes as we would have as adults that would look somewhat like a healthy meal, like grain, vegetables, some protein, right?”
why is getting all these nutrients important? because each plays its role. protein helps with muscle growth and recovery, while carbohydrates provide energy for cells in the body to support pretty much everything from brain development to digestion, and again, muscles.
healthy fats are also vital.
“that’s important for brain function, important for cellular function and membrane function overall. so, that’s key. even cardiovascular function, right, to get in some nuts and seeds and some avocado, eggs might be good, too,” said dr. nurse. “there’s various options that can really help out to build that store and supply of fats in a good way rather than saturated fat from cake.”
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timing meals before, after and during activity matters
what an active child eats also comes into play when determining what’s best for their growth and development alongside their performance. you don’t want to have a heavy meal too close to activity, but you also don’t want to be underfueled.
for example, eating a full meal like chicken with rice and vegetables is fantastic fuel, but “if you’re on your way to practice and you’re like, how can i fuel this kid so that they do well in practice and they feel good,” having a meal this heavy might not be a great way to do it.
“having a meal that’s too heavy with fats and vegetables, for example, can actually get in the way of performance because your body is digesting that and diverting blood flow to the gut rather than to the muscles,” said dr. nurse. “you can kind of get this impairment of performance if you have, even if it’s some of the right foods overall, at the wrong times.”
the best way to look at it is to give the body enough time to digest before activity. if you eat something small, you won’t need as much time to digest it. having something a bit simpler before being highly active, like a banana, strawberries, an apple, or some white rice or potatoes at least an hour prior, will give the body time to digest and help aid in energy while performing the activity.
“you’re going to have a performance boost instead of a performance deficit from the fats and fibre,” said dr. nurse.
after activity, however, is when you want to load up on a balanced meal full of fibre, fats and protein.
“after activity, it’s a great time for some carbohydrates, some fats, some vegetables, protein. that’s awesome for recovery, like your full-blown regular dinner meal,” said dr. nurse.
when it comes to hydration, kids need a bit more than adults and should stay hydrated by drinking water or electrolyte drinks before, during and after physical activity. this is because their bodies tend to heat up faster than adults, and when they finally feel thirsty, it’s a sign their body has already lost too much water.
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to stay hydrated well without overdoing it, start with up to eight ounces half an hour to an hour before an activity, and up to eight ounces every 20 minutes while they move. after the activity, they should drink water continuously for a few hours to replace the fluids they lost.
planning around activity schedules
the child’s activity schedule is also important to consider when fueling, and parents can do that in a couple of ways. the first is to look at things day by day. for example, if training occurs one day a week, you can eat a moderate diet and bump it up a bit the day after intense activity to replenish and recover better.
but as dr. nurse notes, that “can be a little bit trickier” when you also have other obligations in life to pay attention to outside of eating.
another approach is to look at fueling on a weekly basis and “have a general amount of nutrition that kind of fits, on average, the week that you go through.”
“if you have training only one day a week, then you would eat slightly more than a moderate diet just to account for that little extra boost and make sure that you’re fueled for when you do that,” he said. “if you’re training every single day, twice a day, then you’re going to have to eat substantially more all the time.”
signs of underfueling and supplementing where necessary
if your child isn’t getting the food they need to match their activity levels, it can have detrimental effects on their overall health that are hard to ignore. they may lack focus in school and you may notice that they start reaching for more sugary snacks that offer them a quick dopamine hit.
there’s also a “tendency to injuries, lethargy, behavioural issues” that can arise when the body isn’t getting what it needs. for females who have reached puberty, missing periods is an obvious sign that they’re not eating enough. mood changes and performance issues can also arise.
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“there are various things, and a good term for people to become familiar with would be relative energy deficiency or low energy availability,” said dr. nurse, which is often found in athletes who expend so much energy day to day but also focus heavily on appearance as well as their performance. it’s basically doing too much without having enough food to fuel it.
body image often comes into play when active children start underfueling.
“pressure from coaches to have a certain physique, especially at a young age when your body just might not look like michael phelps or whoever this athlete you’re striving to be one day because the muscle mass isn’t necessarily there,” said dr. nurse. “they’ll hear from coaches or from peers, ‘oh, you want to get a little bit leaner and then faster, just like cut carbs.’ and then they’re not eating any carbohydrates or avoiding it and then they are way underfueling.”
dr. nurse notes that when children underfuel, supplements may help, but typically “people’s intakes are good enough.”
“as long as they’re eating some fruits and veggies, vitamin a is usually covered. vitamin k is covered. if they’re eating grains like pasta and rice and some meats, their b vitamins are usually covered pretty well,” he said. “the key ones to look out for, vitamin d, calcium, potassium and then having excess dietary fat is typically the problems that youth experience, at least within canada.”
for vitamin d, it can be as easy as going outside and getting roughly 30 minutes to one hour of sunlight each day, depending on how light or dark your skin is. those with lighter skin need less time, while those with darker skin may need to stay in the sun for the full hour to get the same effects. if potassium is an issue, eating bananas or potatoes can be helpful.
there is one supplement that, unless you’ve been told that your child needs something specific like calcium or vitamin d, has been shown to be helpful across the board.
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“there’s been research that when kids take multivitamins, for example, they generally have a better iq. they have improvements in their growth and their ability to thrive,” said dr. nurse. “there is some merit to taking vitamins, but in terms of preventing deficiency, there’s only a few that really stand out here because we do have a reasonably robust diet.”
he continued, “there’s plenty of things that you could consider working if you wanted to have some benefit, for example, like a multivitamin, omega-3s are helpful in some people, right? there’s various ones that can be useful, but it really depends on if this kid is healthy and happy and growing well and smart. then maybe we don’t need to do any of those things and you can save them feeling like they need to be taking something to be good and they can just eat and be happy.”
rest is just as important
fueling for activity is vital for overall performance, growth and health, but paying attention to other factors, such as sleep, is just as important. depending on the child’s age, their sleep needs may vary. adolescents may need as many as 10 and a half hours, whereas younger kids will do well with eight hours a night.
“it can make a difference in terms of how well they recover,” said dr nurse.
rest is often neglected, especially in adolescents who may be on multiple sports teams and engage in high levels of physical activity daily. that’s why it’s also important to plan rest days for children and adolescents as well as you would their diets.
“trying to shoot for about two rest days, at least, in a week allows the body to kind of recover,” said dr. nurse.
when looking at a child who’s incredibly active, doing as well as you can in nutrition and rest will set them up for success, but perfection isn’t easy. and it’s not always needed.
“the youth athlete is one of the most resilient in terms of physical injuries and that sort of thing,” said dr. nurse. “as long as they’re doing some of the right nutritional things and sleeping and eating well.”
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