WAG Hw to calculate caloric needs for younger gymnasts

[GymBeeMom]

There are many calorie calculators for adults online but I am curious how to best support the needs of my 9 year old. She has an appt with pediatrician soon, and I will ask her, but in the meantime I am curious. She has a lean muscular build but loses weight fast if I don't keep an eye on her food intake. She has no natural interest in food so I have to help her maintain her appetite.

She is 9 years old, weighs 62-64 pounds, is 51 inches tall, and trains 33 hours per week. I would like to know how many calories to support her strength and growing healthy body, plus the % breakdown of protein, carbs, fats... She seems healthy, strong and gets enough rest to have energy, but I find that a day or two without me encouraging her to eat, and she starts to look scrawny fast...

 

[gymgal]

At that age, training that many hours, I would be inclined to find a sports nutritionist to be sure she is getting the right nutrients for her build and activity level, especially given she isn't an"eater". does the gym have someone they used for their elites?

 

[fuzi]

Ditto the suggestion to find a sports nutritionist. Share your concern with your pediatrician and perhaps he or she can make a suggestion.

 

[BlairBob]

Bare in mind when even using food and activity calculators, we have to chalk up some calories merely to the fact that they are supposed to be growing. Not just physically but their noggins (and the brain burns glucose and needs fat or carbs to do it).

I might even think about liquid nutrition with her. Homemade smoothies can pack a lot of calories and protein. Kids will only eat so much solid food.

 

[JBS]

33 hours...lot's of McDonald's...she'll burn it right off...won't have to worry about a thing until she quits gymnastics.

 

[iwannacoach]

An approximate ball park figure would be 20 calories per pound to maintain all of her resting body functions and growth. Add in about 5-6 calories per pound of body weight for a normally active child non-athlete, and 10-15 calories per pound for active to very active child athletes.

With her workout hours what they are, she'll need more if those hours are consistent intense activity, so figure in another 100 calories. Use that as a starting point and adjust from there. Straight to the point?..... 1280 + 980 + 100 = 2380.... more or less.

The most important nutrient she needs will be complete proteins to renew/restore/repair muscle tissue and to add muscle mass as grows and works to become stronger. BlairBob could chip in on the protein issue better than I can, but absent his wise counsel I'll hazard a guess off 15% protein, 30-35% fat, and the balance in carbohydrates from whole grains, nuts, beans, and one of my favorite superfoods...... tomatoes in any form like pasta/pizza sauce, in a salad of diced tomatoes, zuchini, and cucumber with olive oil and basic seasoning, uhhhm, errr, sorry for getting sidetracked, but at least you know how much I like tomatoes.

The bottom line is, what makes *her* tick. You seem to have a pretty good grip on how much she needs to eat. Maybe you can just keep doing that and add a little ice cream or smoothies made with a big boost of half and half. Chocolate, isn't that the other superfood I forgot to mention. Maybe take advantage of JBS's sage advice and just "supersize" your child's diet. Sure, it may be bad for 90% of the population, but your little dear child isn't among that 90%, as what she needs now is "all you can eat, baby."

 

[leotardmakermum]

For the sake of any specialists you see such as a sports nutritionist, keep a food diary for at least a week. Take it with you and that will help them immensely. They will know exactly the sort of diet your daughter is on straight away, and will be able to accurately assess it for what you're doing well, and what could be improved.

 

[profmom]

Mine's almost 12 and still hasn't cracked 60 lbs. She drinks a lot of chocolate milk after practice and has ice cream almost every night. Other than that, she eats a pretty ordinary and varied diet. She's usually fine under this regimen unless she gets sick enough to stop eating for a few days. It's important to find efficient ways to get those calories into kids with these kinds of metabolisms!

The other thing to attend to is that your DD will likely experience some minor growth spurts soon, so be ready to up those calories. I can sometimes tell when one is on the horizon for my offspring because they suddenly seem to need more sleep. About a month ago, I swear my oldest child spent about 50 hours sleeping between Friday and Monday and went to school on Monday morning two inches taller!

 

[my4buffaloes]

My barely turned 15 year old son (not a gymnast, but an athlete) is desperately trying to gain weight (still only 90 pounds). He eats PB&J every day before bed, multiple sandwiches are good. The venti Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino at Starbucks has 690 calories and he can suck down one of those in about 5 minutes. He also just eats all day - munches constantly. Nuts, fruit, cheese, yogurt, put butter on everything you can, bagels with cream cheese are rich in calories, etc. Carnation Instant Breakfast drink in her milk would add calories. Ice cream cones on the way home from practice are also a good start!

 

[gymcritter]

I too am at a lost. i started trying to figure this out as my DD was doing 38 hours since she was 8... but peditrition didn't really help and I called lots of sports nurtionist/ and child nutritionist.. it was hard most sports ones don't see children and most children ones aren't that sure when it comes to "sports' they deal with overweight issues or eating disorders.. it was very fustrating and never got any offical answers..

 

[HappyMom]

I'm already getting worried about this. My DD is 6. She just made team and will be moving from her rec class (1 hour week) to 9 hours/week this summer.

She has a super high metabolism already - eats a ton, has a crazy muscular build, very little extra fat, and is hungry all the time it seems. She often eats more than my husband at dinner...and as I said, just muscle and not much fat on her.

I'm already thinking about her nutritional needs once she adds 9 hours of conditioning, training, and exercise to her week. (Plus all the swimming and outside time that comes with summer and also with not being in a classroom from 8:40-3:40 M-F)

Any tips?

 

[profmom]

I see it as an opportunity to teach my gymboy and gymgirl some life lessons about food and eating. I encourage them both to listen really carefully to their bodies and to fuel themselves with a variety of foods that will help them to grow and get stronger. I try not to talk a lot about good food/bad food but more to get them to think about what they need. If they are getting really ravenous when they get home from practice, well, maybe they should be adding in a snack before. And what's a good snack? Probably not something that's all sugar that will leave the gas tank totally empty in a few hours . . .

When DD was recovering from her broken arm, she really paid attention to her food cravings. She shoveled down the green leafies like nobody's business and consumed a lot of dairy. Who knows if it made a difference in her recovery, but it did help her feel like she had more ownership of/agency over the healing process. Right now, both she and her brother are helping to keep our local peanut butter company in business.

To make a long story short: are they growing (and staying on their own growth charts for height and weight)? Do they have enough energy to do what they want to do? Are they feeling and responding appropriately to hunger cues? Then just keep on providing a good variety of high quality calories and, for the super fast metabolizers, some very dense calorie options, and they should be fine.

This is just my opinion and I don't want to create controversy, but I think we teach healthier attitudes toward food if we set up situations where they can choose among healthy options and self regulate portion sizes. So for the ones who could use a few extra pounds, providing more higher calorie options is better than getting into a situation of wheedling them to eat more when they're not hungry.

I'll also say that all of my children (I also have an older soccer enthusiast) were terrible eaters when they were little. Fortunately by the third one, the day care finally stopped scheduling conferences to discuss the fact that the kid ate absolutely nothing of any significance all day long. They only started eating when they got into sports!

 

[txgymfan]

I suggest making an appointment with a registered dietician in your area. Ask for recommendations from your pediatrician, the head coach at your gym and/or call your nearest children's hospital. Even a few appointments can give you valuable insight into what your child needs and some great idea for healthy, yummy meals based on your child. Nutrition can be so complex, I'd love for you to get the best information available.

 

[GymBeeMom]

Great suggestions everyone! Thank you very much for the input

 

[BlairBob]

Current research says 2.8g of protein per kg. Anything higher taxes the liver. I know the broscience often calls for something on the order of 3-500g of protein (for an adult male) but that's dumb and is pretty much only possible through liquid nutrition. I think whey digests around 10g/hr so keep that in mind that's a max of 240g per day. Milk and eggs and soy and vegetarian proteins only digest around 3-4g/hr though casein may be around 5 or 6. Pork tenderloin was around 9 so perhaps other meats are similar.

Ballpark these days seems to be 0.75g/kg of BW to 1.25. USRDA is like 0.3g/lb but that's for survival. I don't remember if that was referenced as lean BW or total BW.

50lb kid, 10% BF would be like 35-55g of protein per day.

Some kids just are not big eaters. I never had that problem but a few of my little brothers were that way. You know how many young kids are more grazers than 3 meal a day-ers.

 

[leotardmakermum]

BlairBob, thanks for your thoughts. For your suggested 35-55g of protein for a 50lb (22.5kg) kid, is that a "regular" child or an athlete training many hours?

My daughter is about 50lb/22.5kg, and if I work it out on your 2.8g protein per kg, that comes out to just over 60g. Is that per day, or per meal?

What does 10% BF mean? BW refers to? Sorry, just wanting to understand your jargon.

And given that our bodies extract different types of protein in different ways (ie animal protein such as meat and eggs, compared to plant protein such as legumes and nuts) even if we do load them up with whatever might be the "right" quantity, it doesn't necessarily mean their body can make use of it all, does it?

Thanks.

 

[HappyMom]

I can't answer all your questions, but:

BW = body weight
BF = body fat

60g protein - all day

 

[iwannacoach]

Just chipping in, as well as asking BlairBob if studies suggest 10% bf is adequate for normal healthy function without considering reproductive maturation/cycles for girls passing into, through, and out of puberty. My info is pretty dated, but at that time 10% was a minimum, but would likely delay or drastically slow the physical changes associated with puberty.

With that said, will the 10% bf level do the same for the emotional aspects? I think doubt it, and doubt that parents and humanity could ever be blessed with such good fortune.

 

[BlairBob]

I stated 10% BF when I was thinking of pre-pubescent kids. Some kids might be even hitting the 5% BF, either gender.

Most pubescent girls will probably be around 15-20% though some might be between 10-15%. 10% is pretty low though, they might never get or miss their periods at that point. That probably depends on how much they are eating. There are some crossfitters who are pretty darn low (females) who still don't have problems but bare in mind most at their level are really keeping good track of their dietary intake and everything.

Then again some girls genetics just predispose them to not have regular periods regularly or their first period till late in adolescence. And that's when they aren't starving like a Romanian gymnast. One of my gymnasts said she didn't have hers when she was already 16 or 17 and her mom was the same way (ex-gymnasts that still keep in touch with me). Then again, she probably wasn't eating a lot either and was all beat to heck.

Guys will probably be between 5-15%. Ideally not that close to 5 besides the genetic freaks and closer to 10 than 15%. At least in gymnastics.

Is that per day, or per meal?

Per day, 60g of protein per meal is A LOT of protein. Especially for a 50lb kid. I wouldn't expect them to eat 1/2 a lb of meat at every meal (for a 50lb kid).

You can look up the amino acid profiles of different protein. Egg, whey, casein, meat all tends to be roughly the same with fluctuating differences of some amino acids. Some vegetarian proteins sometimes have more L-arginine or glutamic acid or this or that. Soy is pretty close as is brown rice and pea. I don't remember what potato protein is like AA wise though I know spirulina wasn't nearly as high in AA overall compared to the proteins I just mentioned. I don't know about Quinoa or trying to figure out AA profiles of green veggies like brocolli or whatever.

One of the issues with vegetarian proteins is you have to eat a HUGE amount of them to get the same amount of protein as meat. Lots of volume which can be sort of a good thing but with some proteins (like beans or rice) that also means a lot of carbs.

200g of brown rice is just over 5g of protein. So to get 25g of protein from eating rice, that's about 250g of carbs and 1000 calories. That is A LOT of rice!

it doesn't necessarily mean their body can make use of it all, does it?

It's kind of a gamble really. It's so dizzying sometimes to think about what's "optimal" that it will you dizzy and just want to give it up.

 

[BlairBob]

And to recant it's definitely probably a good idea to find a nutritionist, preferably one who deals with athletes. But you are very correct, that I don't really ever hear of little ones going to a nutritionist till they hit pubescence or in their teens. Unless they aren't growing.

And maybe as a parent keep track of this stuff, but I wouldn't want to bug the kids about it. Don't want to give them some sort of food complex.