Hi everyone, I'm new to the group. I'm very interested in sports nutrition, and one topic I've been struggling with is calorie intake. I'd like to understand how many calories an active child should consume if they attend a sports school and also have three training sessions and one match each week. I'm talking about children aged 11–13 years. Sometimes it seems to me that they could easily eat around 3,000 kcal per day, but I'm wondering if that's too much. If we build their diet around high-quality protein, healthy plant-based fats, and plenty of carbohydrates, it ends up being a very large amount of food. I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts or experiences with fueling young athletes of this age.

Next time you’re at the supermarket, pick up something you buy regularly and turn it over to read the ingredients. Then find the same product with the shortest ingredients list you can. I’ll start. Two peanut butters. Same product. Different story on the back. One has added oil and sugar and less peanuts. The other just two ingredients. 99.7% peanuts & salt. That’s it. You don’t have to buy the cleaner version — sometimes it costs more and that’s real life. But I want you to SEE the difference. Your challenge this week 👇 Find something you regularly buy, find a version with fewer ingredients, and post both photos here. Tell us what you found. Let’s see what’s in everyone’s cupboards 👀

Hi All, I am from Spring Farm NSW Australia, husband and father of two kids, Lukas my son who is 11 turning 12 and Arielle my daughter 8. Two complete polor opposites of each other. Daughter is very creative and sons all sports 😂 soccer especially. Both my wife and I struggle with trying to get our son to understand the concept of fuelling yourself and when to eat to avoid the dreaded stitch and not to run out of puff. We constantly give the petrol and car analogy to get him to understand. Claims he understands but you know 11 year Olds 🤔🤔🤨🤨

Hi, Could I have some reccomendations of what snacks to pack for my Son who is 8 for a tournament he has this Sunday please? I am currently thinking, pretzels, watermelon, banana, chicken pieces, lots of water is any of that wrong or anything else I can add please?

@Catrin Johnson @Sherriden Sherriden — this one's basically for you two this week 😅 I've been putting together a full Tournament Survival Guide. What to feed them 48 hours out, the night before, hour-by-hour on game day, fast food orders that actually work, hotel breakfasts, hot/cold weather curveballs, all of it. Before I finish it off, I want the people who actually live this to tell me what's missing. Here's a taste of two of the chapters: What NOT to Stress About: "My child had a chocolate bar." Fine. One chocolate bar isn't undoing a weekend of good fuelling. "They missed breakfast." Not ideal, but recoverable — just adjust the next meal and move on. "They had McDonald's." It happens on tournament weekends. A plain burger and a drink is a completely reasonable tournament meal, not the end of the world. Fast Food Guide (McDonald's): A plain cheeseburger or hamburger with a small fries works ok 2+ hours out. Closer to a game, keep it to juice or a soft drink with a small fries. A Big Mac or anything heavy on sauce suits a longer gap better. (Nuggets get reached for as "the protein option", but they're fried. Better for a longer gap than the 45 minutes before kickoff.) Genuine questions for you: - What's the one tournament moment that always throws you, that I haven't covered here? - Anything in here that doesn't match what's actually worked for your kid? - Would "The Tournament Survival Blueprint" grab your attention, or does something else sound better? (Poll coming on this soon 👀) Drop your answers/thoughts below. Building this with the people, for the people who'll actually use it.