When you sweat during exercise, it's easy to become overheated, headachy, and worn out — especially in hot or humid weather. Even mild dehydration can affect an athlete's physical and mental performance.

There's no one set guide for how much water to drink. How much fluid each person needs depends on their age, size, level of physical activity, and environmental temperature. Athletes should drink before, during, and after exercise. Don't wait until you feel thirsty, because thirst is a sign that your body has needed liquids for a while.

Sports drinks are no better for you than water to keep you hydrated during sports. But if you exercise for more than 60 to 90 minutes or in very hot weather, sports drinks may be a good option.

The extra carbs and electrolytes may improve performance in these conditions. Otherwise your body will do just as well with water. Avoid drinking carbonated drinks or juice because they could give you a stomachache while you're training or competing.

Don't use energy drinks and other caffeine -containing drinks, like soda, tea, and coffee, for rehydration. You could end up drinking large amounts of caffeine, which can increase heart rate and blood pressure.

Too much caffeine can leave an athlete feeling anxious or jittery. Caffeine also can cause headaches and make it hard to sleep at night. These all can drag down your sports performance. Your performance on game day will depend on the foods you've eaten over the past several days and weeks.

You can boost your performance even more by paying attention to the food you eat on game day. Focus on a diet rich in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in fat. Everyone is different, so get to know what works best for you.

You may want to experiment with meal timing and how much to eat on practice days so that you're better prepared for game day. KidsHealth For Teens A Guide to Eating for Sports. en español: Guía de alimentación para deportistas. Medically reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD. Listen Play Stop Volume mp3 Settings Close Player.

Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Eat Extra for Excellence The good news about eating for sports is that reaching your peak performance level doesn't take a special diet or supplements. Athletes and Dieting Teen athletes need extra fuel, so it's usually a bad idea to diet.

Eat a Variety of Foods When it comes to powering your game for the long haul, it's important to eat healthy, balanced meals and snacks to get the nutrients your body needs. Vital Vitamins and Minerals Besides getting the right amount of calories, teen athletes need a variety of nutrients from the foods they eat to keep performing at their best.

Calcium and iron are two important minerals for athletes: Calcium helps build the strong bones that athletes depend on. Calcium — a must for protecting against stress fractures — is found in dairy foods, such as low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Sports nutritionist and trainer Matt Fitzgerald recently traveled to five countries to study the diets of elite athletes, with a particular focus on endurance sports, for a forthcoming book called The Endurance Diet.

Among the plus elite endurance athletes he surveyed, he noticed their eating patterns were balanced and clean. The athletes also didn't follow popular fads, like avoiding gluten, or restrict themselves from eating particular foods or food groups.

They even indulged in the occasional sweet or drink — though that happened at the margins. Julie Johnston, a member of the US women's soccer team competing in the Rio Olympics, concurred. Instead of obsessing about calories, she added, "I just make sure what I'm eating is nutritious.

Johnston's lunch pick mirrored that of trap shooting champ Corey Cogdell-Unrein, who favors a simple mix of chicken and vegetables for lunch. Beyond making sure their food picks are healthy, athletes need to consider how to fit enough nutrients into diets with varying energy requirements.

Different types of sports have vastly different energy needs — and most don't eat anywhere near what Phelps was consuming in , according to Nanna Meyer , an assistant professor of health sciences and sport nutrition at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

At the low end of the energy expenditure spectrum are the aesthetic i. They may use less energy during their workouts or competitions, and have to stay within a certain weight category in order to compete. The weight-class athletes in particular "will go to an extremely low intake and do all sorts of things to lose bodyweight in the days before they compete," such as using dehydration techniques like working out in saunas to quickly lose water weight, said Jeukendrup.

T eam USA wrestler Jordan Burroughs's go-to lunch, for example, is a fresh-squeezed juice with ginger, turmeric, kale, and beets — a choice that may sound more like the meal of a detox dieter than a hard-training Olympian.

You can learn more about why exercise actually burns fewer calories than you might imagine in our previous piece. Among these athletes, getting a balanced diet becomes a particular challenge. At the other end of the calorie spectrum are the endurance athletes — the swimmers, runners, rowers, and marathoners.

These sports require a lot of readily available energy, which typically comes in the form of carbohydrates. Here's Team USA swimmer Nathan Adrian on his typical lunch: "I'll eat a fairly large sandwich — turkey and provolone with lettuce, tomato, and banana peppers is my go-to," he told Cosmopolitan ; he follows that with a Korean rice bowl, frozen dumplings, and fruits and veggies.

While it's not a Phelps-style junk food gorge, Adrian is consuming a lot of calories to fuel his swimming routine. Strength and power athletes — who do sports like shot put or weightlifting — typically require fewer calories but more protein to build their muscles.

US Olympic weightlifter Morghan King makes sure her every meal is high in protein , via eggs and meat. Seafood provides essential anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids, which can help with recovery Source.

I know dinner is what we typically struggle with the most since we either get home starving from a workout, work, or from picking the kids up.

Things are hectic! Everyone needs a pick-me-up through the day, but it can hard to find healthy snacks for athletes that are nourishing, energizing, and even without hidden ingredients. Energy bites are great recipes for athletes because they are portable meal prep snacks and chock full of nutrients.

They can usually be made very quickly and without any baking at all. They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and breakfasts for athletes are extra important.

These healthy options will leave you full, satisfied, and ready to take on the day. Many of these options also work great as healthy lunches for teenage athletes as well, to take and bring to school or eat when they get home. Need some pre-workout power? What you choose may depend on the length and intensity of your workout , so we have options for everything!

Most of these are great as snacks for athletes on the go, and have minimal prep and cooking time. So, you just finished a workout and are absolutely starving!

This is where athlete snacks come into play. Another easy option is this turkey taco quinoa skillet. As you can see, there are endless options for healthy recipes for athletes, and some for every dietary preference. I hope you found this post helpful!

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