The major difference between teen athletes and average teens is their extra need for energy and calories.  Non-athletes need up to three thousand calories a day while athletes may need up to six thousand calories a day to support their sport.  Activity in an average teenagers day may be quite limited.  An average teen may only have to walk to class several times a day.  In California, students need only take two years of physical education in a four year high school.  In contrast, an athlete may run two miles daily in physical education, which is usually a class especially for a specific sport.  Before or after training is even more rigorous.  The athlete may run up to ten miles in sports like tra

The athlete needs to understand how food affects his or her performance and plan a diet carefully.  Understanding the extra nutritional needs of an athlete can insure that teens involved in sports grow to their full potential while developing the power and strength needed to excel.

Some athletes believe that extra dietary protein builds muscle and use high protein diets.  Although protein is essential for athletes, too much can negatively affect performance.  Protein needs range form 80 to 122 grams per day for a teen of average weight.  A diet too high in protein has two problems.  It may make someone too full to eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your muscle actions.  Foods with protein also have high fat content, which may lead to a diet too high in fat.  An athlete that eats a fatty steak may feel too full to eat enough potatoes, bread or rice at the same meals.

For an athlete in training, the recommended source of fuel for muscles is carbohydrates.  Carbohydra

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Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)