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How Should Athletes Diet? - Sports Nutrition Tips For AthletesWeight management for young athletes -
Some adolescents may feel self-conscious about their bodies when changing in the locker room. Others may want to fulfill some idealized standard of beauty, or have a body like their favorite athlete. But for the majority, wanting to lose weight comes from a stigma they have felt either directly in the form of being teased by their peers or indirectly such as through media.
According to pediatrician Stephen J. Research documents [note] stigma by parents and other family members, teachers, health care professionals, and society at large, including the popular media. Kids are smarter and more perceptive than they sometimes get credit for.
When discussing weight loss with your child or teenager try not to issue automatic reassurance when they express self-doubt.
Your positive influence is more likely to have a gradual effect over the course of many small conversations, provided you make efforts to prevent the topic from becoming uncomfortable for your child to discuss.
No matter the reason for wanting to lose weight, weight loss is a sensitive topic for people of any age. Certain words carry undertones of shame, even if they are said with good intentions. Any discussions about desired change should be kept in as positive a tone as possible.
Even though the desire to lose weight may stem from wanting to be accepted by peers, your child also desires approval from you as well. If their desire for a change is coming from a healthy place and they have taken healthy steps toward overall wellness, celebrate those victories with them. As you can probably expecct, it is not advised for you to agree with the critique their peers are throwing at them.
Sometimes kids get it in their head that they are carrying extra weight due to a Body Mass Index analysis often taken in grade school gym or health classes.
BMI is a simple measurement that tries to estimate how much body fat a person has based on their weight and height. Based on a simple calculation, it places individuals in neat little categories ranging from underweight to normal weight to overweight to obese. However, BMI has many limitations and exceptions.
It also does not take into account waist size a much more accurate predictor of obesity , or the relative proportions of bone, muscle, and fat.. Despite its pervasive use, many mathematicians and statisticians have come out to say the formula is bogus. It might seem counterintuitive to not celebrate a lower number on the scale with a child making the effort to lose extra weight, even if they are going about it in a healthy way.
However, because scale weight changes with fat loss, muscle growth, and hydration status, it is likely to fluctuate on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis.
For children who are growing, and young athletes who are training, tracking scale weight can be deceiving. Weight may increase despite a decrease in fat mass because the young athlete is growing taller and developing more muscle mass.
What should be stressed instead of the numbers on a scale is how an athlete feels and performs, both at their sport and in everyday life. A focus on praising the process of getting healthy such as choosing healthy snacks or regularly participating in a physical activity they enjoy will garner a much more positive response than questions or comments about weight or clothing size.
Try and create the association between exercise and fun, rather than exercise and work. Involve your child and the whole family by cooking and eating together. These little habits communicate to a child that health and wellness are the sum of many small daily decisions, not from two weeks of crash dieting or doing virtually anything that promises a wholesale change in a short period of time.
No matter their reason for wanting to lose weight, the clearest and loudest message of body positivity you can send your child is the one you send to yourself.
Sign up for the TrueSport Newsletter and receive a FREE copy of our Sportsmanship Lesson. Team USA wheelchair basketball player, paralympian, and true sport athlete. Today, I want to talk to you about goal setting. And there are three things that I would like you to know.
First, successful athletes set goals and a planned roadmap. Second, goals should be written down, assessed over time, and changed if necessary.
And third, goals need to be challenging in order to be worthwhile. As a freshmen at Edinboro University, I was a part of a team that made the national championship game.
And at that time I recognized I was the low man on the totem pole, but I felt in my heart that I knew my dreams were so much bigger than winning a national title. I wanted to make Team USA. I knew what achieving my lofty goal was not going to be easy and that I would need to work hard every day.
So, as a reminder, I created a pyramid of goals that I kept right above my bed. This pyramid reminded me of the accomplishments that I was working towards and visually represented my need to create a solid foundation underneath me before reaching the top.
The middle row listed winning a national title and playing for a professional team. And at the top row, the most challenging of them all, I listed becoming a gold medalist for Team USA. By understanding that there are smaller stepping stones to achieving my ultimate goal of being on Team USA, I was able to stay motivated and to stay focused on completing the smaller stepping stones fully before moving onto the next one.
Remember, create a clear goal roadmap, assess your goals often, and continue to challenge yourself. I hope that you never stopped dreaming big or reaching for the stars. And I look forward to seeing where your roadmap takes you. First, healthy thoughts often lead to healthier bodies.
And third, true beauty goes deeper than the skin. My coaches and I adapt to my training frequently, all with the goal of supporting my long-term success and health in the sport of javelin. In the lead up to the Olympic trials, I was told in order to improve my performance on the field, I should try to become a leaner, skinnier version of myself.
So I changed my diet. And I believe becoming leaner than my body naturally wanted to be was what caused my ACL to tear. In the end, it cost me heavily going into the London games. You should do your research and experiment with your diet to find what makes you feel the best, rather than focusing on what you look like.
Today, if I feel like having a chocolate chip cookie, I have one, just not every day. I hydrate and allow myself time to recover. And I listen to and communicate with my body so that I can be the best version of myself. In the end, you are in control of how you see, treat, and respond to your body.
Be a true sport athlete. Love who you are in this moment and get excited for all the places your body will take you. Today, I want to talk to you about being a good sport. First, real winners act the same toward their opponent, whether they win or lose.
Second, follow the rules and be a gracious winner and respectful loser. And third, sportsmanship reveals your true character. I started competing in Modern Pentathlon eight years after my older sister and three-time Olympian, Margaux Isaksen, began competing.
I soon realized that people often compared the two of us. I know that it would have been easy to let our hyper competitive mindset affect our relationship, but instead we decided to support and cheer for each other, regardless of our own performance.
My experience of competing against and being compared to my older sister, taught me to focus on how to perform at my best, rather than putting wasted energy into wishing for others to fail. Tell your child that weight is not an accurate indicator of body fat or lean muscle mass: use of body mass index BMI in athletes not recommended because it falsely classify some children, particularly adolescents, who are of normal fatness as being overweight; BMI can also be falsely elevated in an athlete or nonathlete with a muscular build as well as in someone who has a high torso-to-leg ratio; body composition measurements body fat and lean muscle mass in addition to height-for-weight for age measurements can be much more useful in determining an athlete's physical status; lean muscle mass should be greater than 25th percentile in most well-nourished athletes Gradual weight loss not more than 1.
Ideal way to lose 1 pound of fat in one week is for your child to consume 1, fewer calories per week and burn 1, more calories per week through exercise. Except in sports requiring mandatory weigh-ins, your child's coach should not be discussing weight or weight loss with your child: Coaches may inappropriately focus on weight instead of body composition and performance Most coaches do not have adequate training in nutrition to counsel athletes about weight loss When coach mentions weight-loss, athlete is much more likely to begin harmful weight-loss practices instead of consulting with appropriate professionals In sports with mandatory weigh-ins: Child should be discouraged from using harmful weight-loss practices Child should be encouraged to compete at weight that is appropriate for age, height, physique, and stage of growth and development.
Weigh-ins should take place in manner that encourages good hydration and competing at healthy weight Mat-side weigh-ins immediately before matches are best for insuring good hydration, prevents wrestler from dehydrating and weighing at one weight, and then rehydrating and wrestling at a significantly higher weight, and preventing wrestlers from competing when weak from dehydration and avoiding temptation of dehydrating to the point that it is life threatening.
Healthy weight gain tips To build 1 pound of muscle in 1 week, a child needs to consume 2, to 2, calories more than he burns; consume 1. Gradual weight gain is best; gain in excess of 1. Source: American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement, "Promotion of Healthy Weight-Control Practices in Young Athletes.
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There are many reasons Restoring skin hydration levels Broccoli and cheese soup might want to lose weight. Some adolescents may feel self-conscious about their Weihgt when changing in the locker room. Goung may want to fulfill some idealized standard of beauty, or have a body like their favorite athlete. But for the majority, wanting to lose weight comes from a stigma they have felt either directly in the form of being teased by their peers or indirectly such as through media. According to pediatrician Stephen J. Disclaimer manxgement Broccoli and cheese soup. POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no athletrs conflicts of interest to disclose. Rebecca L. CarlMiriam D. JohnsonThomas J. MartinCOUNCIL ON SPORTS MEDICINE AND FITNESSCynthia R. LaBellaMargaret A.
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