Dietary Intake Recommendations for High-Performance Youth Soccer Players

Abstract

Youth soccer players undergo a rapid growth and maturational changes which result in physiological, anatomical, and biological changes [1] that's why these players exhibit increased nutritional requirements to support the energy demands of growth and performance. What should to reinforce the importance of nutritional support because there are findings that shows mean energy deficits almost 900 kcalday-1 in high performance youth soccer players [2]. A recent research evaluated eighty-one high performance youth soccer players (10-16 years old; U10-U16), competing in 11-a-side matches, and concluded total match running distance increased with age from ~5700 (U11) to ~6700 mh-1 (U15) [3] having greater area go through as age increases and, consequently, there should be greater attention to the energy intake of these athletes. Recently a work demonstrated mean values of total energy expenditure of 2859 kcalday-1 (68 kcalkg-1day-1), 3029 kcalday-1 (50 kcalkg-1day-1), and 3586kcalday-1 (44 kcalkg-1day-1), using indirect calorimetry and doubly-labelled water for U12/13, U15, and U18 English Premier League players, respectively [4].