Nutrition for the Freshman: Your First Year of High School Track

If you're eating lunch with non-athlete friends who have one slice of pizza and call it done, and you finish three slices and still feel a little hungry — that's not weird. That's physics.

Your friends who don't have daily practice are burning maybe 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day on growth and basic movement. You're burning 2,500 to 3,500 or more. The gap is real.

Don't apologize for being hungry. Don't eat less because someone comments on how much you're eating. Don't compare your appetite to people who aren't doing what you're doing.

You may notice that the seniors on your team eat differently, train differently, and handle competition differently than you do. Some of this is experience. A lot of it is biology.

A 17-year-old who has been training seriously for two or three years has a more developed aerobic system, more muscle mass, and a body that has adapted to athletic stress in ways yours hasn't yet. That means they can run farther, lift heavier, and recover faster — and their nutritional needs are calibrated to that.

Don't try to eat exactly what a senior eats if it doesn't match your training load. Don't try to train at a senior's volume in your first year. Development takes time. Your job in year one is to train consistently, stay healthy, and build habits that will serve you for four years.