Fuelling Young Female Athletes: Growth First, Performance Follows

When we talk about fuelling for sport, the focus is usually on performance, medals, and personal bests. But for teen girls, the real priority should be fuelling for growth and health. Performance follows when those foundations are strong.

As a sports physiologist and through developing Her Strength I’ve seen many athletes under fuel without realising it. This usually is unintentional, often from a lack of knowledge. No one has gone through what they need to eat to maintain health, grow, keep up with school, plus all their training sessions and competitions on top of that. When fuelling falls short, so does everything else: recovery, training quality, performance, mood, focus, and even long-term health.

Why Nutrition for Teen Athletes Matters

Teen girls are in a critical stage of development. They’re not just training, they’re growing fast, developing their hormonal systems, and laying down the foundations for bone health and healthy body systems that will carry them for life.

Good nutrition during this time supports:

• 📈 Physical growth and muscle development

• 🦴 Bone density and injury prevention

• 🔄 Hormonal balance and menstrual health

• ⚡ Energy, performance, and recovery

Parents and coaches consistently raise nutrition as a top concern for their young female athletes. This concern is for good reason as under fuelling and consuming poor quality fuel can result in fatigue, stalled progress, irregular or missing periods, and sometimes burnout.

What Do Girls Really Need?

Most teen girls need 2,000–2,600+ calories per day, depending on age, size, activity level, and growth rate (Das et al., 2017; Schofield, 1985). That’s energy for training and for growing.

Yet many fall short because of:

• Skipping meals (especially breakfast)

• Relying on processed foods with low nutrient density

• Fear of gaining weight

• Lack of time or knowledge about what to eat

Consistent under fuelling can cause low energy availability, which can disrupt puberty, menstrual cycles, performance, and mental wellbeing. At its extreme, it’s called RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) and can cause serious health problems not just acutely but into adulthood (Mountjoy et al., 2014).

PFC Eating: A Simple Framework

At Her Strength, we like to combat the high stakes of under fuelling by simply showing girls, their parents and coaches how to fuel with quality and balanced foods. With a simple approach, we teach what is most important rather than having those involved worry about counting calories, macros, and avoiding getting too focused or obsessive over food. Our sport dietitian, Dr Sylvia Goedeke, promotes a simple approach called PFC eating that builds meals and snacks around:

• 🥩 Protein – needed for repair and growth

• 🥑 Fat – important for hormones and long-lasting energy

• 🍠 Carbohydrates – fuel for sport, focus, and mood

Quality and balanced meals don't need to be complicated. Aim for whole foods and ask yourself, do you have a protein, a fat, and a carbohydrate source each time you (your daughter/athlete) eat? Here’s how a swap can look:

• ❌ Cereal with low-fat milk ( a carbohydrate source, but lacking in protein and fat) 

• ✅ Scrambled eggs on toast

• ✅ Smoothie with fruit, full-fat Greek yoghurt, and protein powder

• ✅ Chicken + avocado wrap

Aiming for balanced meals will give girls steady energy, support recovery, and reduce the risk of injury or fatigue.

Spotting Under-Fuelling

Up to 69% of female athletes are at risk of low energy availability or disordered eating patterns (Magee et al., 2023). Watch for these red flags:

• Persistent tiredness

• Irregular or missing periods

• Irritability or mood changes

• Slower recovery

• Difficulty focusing

These are signs a girl may not be eating enough to match her growth and training demands.

How Coaches and Parents Can Help

You don’t have to be a dietitian to support better fuelling. Here’s how you can help:

1. Talk about food positively
   Frame food as fuel for strength, energy, and fun — not weight.

2. Teach PFC eating
   Encourage every meal and snack to include protein, fat, and carbs.

3. Promote consistency
   Help girls avoid long gaps without food — especially around training.

4. Avoid body talk
   Comments on weight or shape do more harm than good. Focus on strength, energy, and progress.

5. Know when to refer
   If needed, work with a qualified sport dietitian. 

Final Word

Fuelling in adolescence isn’t just about today’s performance. It’s about setting girls up for a lifetime of strength, confidence, and health.

When we give them the tools to fuel well, like the PFC framework, we’re not only improving their sport performance. We’re helping them grow into healthy, resilient athletes who stay in the game for the long term.

References

Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Thornburg, K. L., Prentice, A. M., Campisi, S., Lassi, Z. S., Koletzko, B., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2017). Nutrition in adolescents: Physiology, metabolism, and nutritional needs. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1393(1), 21–33.

Schofield, W. N. (1985). Predicting basal metabolic rate, new standards and review of previous work. Human Nutrition: Clinical Nutrition, 39(Suppl 1), 5–41.

Mountjoy, M., Sundgot-Borgen, J., Burke, L., Carter, S., Constantini, N., Lebrun, C., Meyer, N., Sherman, R., Steffen, K., Budgett, R., & Ljungqvist, A. (2014). The IOC consensus statement: Beyond the Female Athlete Triad—Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(7), 491–497.

Magee, M. K., Jones, M. T., Fields, J. B., Kresta, J., Khurelbaatar, C., Dodge, C., Merfeld, B., Ambrosius, A., Carpenter, M. & Jagim, A. R. (2023). Body composition, energy availability, risk of eating disorder, and sport nutrition knowledge in young athletes. Nutrients, 15(6), 1502.