When to use this
When the gap between lunch and practice — or practice and dinner — is where the fueling day keeps falling apart.
- Athletes arrive at afternoon practice empty because lunch was five hours earlier.
- The team defaults to a vending machine or gas station because nobody packed food.
- A high-mileage runner is always starving at night or slowly losing weight.
Advanced lab
Snack sizing by the clock and the calorie gap
The sheet covers what to grab and where to keep it. The sizing logic — how big the snack should be based on how close training is, and what a full snack day actually adds — sits here.
Snack needs move with growth, mileage, and the rest of the day's food, and these figures come from adult-oriented references, so youth athletes should scale conservatively. If weight keeps dropping or night hunger never settles, involve a sports dietitian instead of just stacking bigger snacks.
Evidence sources
These references support the handout’s general education. Individual medical, supplement, laboratory, or injury questions should be handled by the appropriate qualified clinician.
- Thomas DT, Erdman KA, Burke LM.(2016) ACSM/AND/DC Joint Position Statement: Nutrition and Athletic Performance.
- Burke LM, van Loon LJ, Hawley JA. (2017) Postexercise muscle glycogen resynthesis in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology, 122(5):1055-1067.
- Burke LM, Hawley JA, Wong SH, Jeukendrup AE. (2011) Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(S1):S17-S27.
Where to go next
