Soccer Nutrition Tips to Crush Cravings So Youth Soccer Players Can Fuel Better
Soccer nutrition tips: Stop the endless hunger and avoid ultra-processed snacks. Here’s how real meals for athletes fuel players and crush cravings.
“I eat way too many chips, even though I know they’re bad for me…”
“I can’t stay out of the cookies—I think I’m addicted to sugar.”
“I’m tempted to try weight loss drugs just to quiet the food noise.”
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Many youth soccer players (and their parents) struggle with the constant battle against snack cravings and food guilt. 
In today’s food environment, ultra-processed snacks—chips, cookies, sugary treats—are everywhere. We live in a tough food environment. As a sports nutritionist, I often hear athletes talk about food like it’s an enemy:
- “I try to stay away from bread.”
- “I don’t keep ice cream in the house.”
- “I don’t do pasta.”
And yet, they’ll still confess to “feeling hungry all the time,” binge-eating after practice, or mindlessly reaching for junk food late at night. Many blame food addiction, social media, or clever food marketing for triggering this cycle.
Is the Food the Problem—or Your Eating Pattern?
Ironically, some athletes track their snacks using apps like Yuka, which label foods with a red-yellow-green light system. But here’s the kicker: even if a snack gets a “red light,” most players still eat it. Why? Because taste trumps health rankings every time.
Truth is, there are no “bad” foods—only unbalanced diets. For example, a packet of peanut butter crackers may be marked as “bad” on an app, but if you include it in a well-balanced, nutrient-dense meal plan, it’s not derailing your performance or health. However, relying on ultra-processed snacks as mini-meals because you’re under-fueled? That’s where athletes run into trouble.
The Real Solution to Food Noise and Cravings
Instead of fighting constant cravings and snacking your way through the day, try this: Stop grazing, and eat real meals.
Soccer players often burn more energy than they realize, and under-eating during the day leads to uncontrollable snacking later. If your breakfast isn’t hearty enough to keep you full for four hours, you’ll be starving mid-morning—and that’s when the pastries or chips call your name. And, candy can even seem. more attractive.
Soccer Nutrition Tip:
Think of meals as fuel stops. After an early training session, a 7:00 a.m. breakfast should be followed by a proper second meal—what I call a “second breakfast” or “early lunch”—by 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., and another meal around mid-afternoon.
When you’re well-fed with nutrient-dense foods at regular intervals, you’ll be less tempted by the ultra-processed snacks we often mistake as addictive.
Being hungry at 9:00 a.m., after having eaten breakfast at 7:00, means you didn’t eat enough breakfast.
Hence, you end up hankering for something to snack on. If the snack is healthful, no problem. But if it’s a pastry, think again! Eating enough wholesome food at meals curbs the hankering for quick energy (sweets), fats (concentrated calories)—and convenient, seemingly “addictive” ultra-processed snacks.
High school soccer players (and others) who train at 4:00 in the afternoon need a good breakfast, a hearty school lunch at 11:00ish, and an after-school second (lighter) lunch at 2:30ish to energize them for the workout. The second lunch will not only improve their stamina and mood but also displace the post-exercise food frenzy with “eating everything in sight” that happens when an athlete gets too hungry.
Hunger is a major trigger for many food problems, including food noise, cravings for sweets, food “addictions” (a debatable claim), and eating “too much junk food.” When you know what you “should” eat but just don’t eat it (and instead devour the whole bag of XYZ), you have likely gotten way too hungry.
Please understand hunger is a physiological request for food.
Hunger appears in the form of incessant food thoughts, a.k.a food noise. If we didn’t think about food, we would never think to eat. Players who disregard their body’s request for food can easily end up getting too hungry—and that can easily lead to devouring a lot of highly palatable ultra-processed, nutrient poor snacks (chips, cookie, candy…)
Granted, some people with obesity do have a genetically driven “big appetite” and have to work hard to control their food intake. For them, a GLP-1 weight-loss drug (Wegovy, ZepBound, Ozempic) seems to calm their appetite and put an end to “food noise.” But the majority of athletes simply need to front-load enough calories to prevent hunger, curb their appetite, reduce food cravings, and put an end to over-indulging.
A key to managing hunger is to learn how many calories you are supposed to eat, then divide the calories into four (more or less) even-sized meals. For a female soccer player, that could be four 600-700-calorie meals a day; for a larger male player, perhaps four 800-900 calorie meals. (Suggestion: Consult with a sports nutritionist/RD to determine your calorie needs and create an effective meal plan for you.)
My experience shows that most soccer players eat far less than 600-800 calories at breakfast (hence hanker for mid-morning sweets). They may or may not eat 600-800 calories at lunch. (A skimpy salad doesn’t do the job!)
By 4:00 in the afternoon, after having tried to “stay away from snacks” most of the afternoon, they have become too hungry and succumb to a snack attack!!! If only they had enjoyed a second lunch (peanut butter-banana sandwich) at 3:00, when they first started to think about food, they could have avoided the dietary disaster.
While frontloading calories sounds simple, it can actually be hard for athletes who fear they will eat just as much at night and end up gaining undesired body fat.
Yet, those who are willing to experiment with a four-meal food plan report back to me:
•”My second breakfast/early lunch (bagel + peanut butter) keeps me away from mid-morning sweets. It’s nice to feel perkier all morning and not constantly ruminate about food.”
• “My second lunch is a game changer. I no longer crave chips or sweets in the afternoon. At 3:00. I enjoy 500 calories of an apple + cheese + crackers. I arrive home in a much better mood after work.”
• ” By having a bigger breakfast, lunch, and second lunch, I curb my evening appetite. I no longer want a huge dinner; I’m content to enjoy a lighter meal. I’m losing weight—while I am sleeping. This is far preferable to my previous attempts to lose weight while training. The food noise in my head has gone away. And best of all, I feel better about my eating.”
If you ready to experiment with eating four daytime meals to adequately support your active lifestyle, be curious. Focus on the benefits: fewer cravings for sweets, more energy, and peace with food.
Boston-based sports nutritionists Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD counsels both fitness exercisers and competitive athletes. Her best-selling Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a popular resource. For more information: NancyClarkRD.com .
