#2: The difference between a healthy diet, and an athletic diet & the recommended calorie intake

Unlike a regular teenager, who must eat a balanced diet, an exercising, lifting teenager must eat a lot of carbs, about 2/3 as much protein and little fat. Some people might capitalize on protein instead of carbs, saying that it helps you're body to grow muscle and improve your performance in the long run. However, this is wrong and this person probably doesn't know that carbs do all the work to fuel your exercise and preserve your muscle mass during an exercise. With more carbs, your muscles won't weaken too much before you start to recover from a really intense exercise you can only do with full energy. And of course, you can only have full energy with lots of carbs.


If you're an endurance athlete (runner, wrestler, etc...), then you should eat lots of carbs before competition. As already explained before, this will maximize your performance. When you decide to eat, please plan ahead by considering how much time you have before competition and how long your event lasts. This guide may help you:

1 hour or less before competition-fresh fruit such as apples, grapes, and watermelon. Sports drinks, such as Gatorade and Powerade

2-3 hours before competition-fresh fruitsbread (whole wheat bread is the best)yogurt

3-4 hours before competition-fresh fruitbreadpasta with tomato sauce, baked potatoes, energy bars,cereal

Just before competition, never drink caffeine. Even though it tastes good and stimulates your nervous system very well, it limits your growth and will cause you to tire out later. Caffeine also works as a diuretic, and may cause you to dehydrate. This is very bad for performance. Caffeine also has side-effects such as muscle tremors, nausia, and headaches. Foods with high fat are also very bad before competition because it requires lots of energy and time to digest. Due to this, fat will cause your stomach to cramp when you perform. Also, fat pulls lots of blood into your stomach and may weaken your cardio and mental focus during competition.

To learn more about nutrition effects on exercise, this website may have more information:
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/aa081403.htm