Nutrition Status of Junior Elite Canadian Female Soccer Athletes
Abstract
Context Adolescent female team-sport athletes are faced with the challenge of meeting nutrition requirements for growth and development, as well as sport performance. There is a paucity of evidence describing the dietary adequacy of this population in respect to these physiological demands. Therefore, the aim of this study was to comprehensively evaluate the nutrition status of junior elite female soccer athletes. Method A total of 33 athletes (15.7 ± 0.7 yr) completed anthropometric assessment, 4-day food records analyzed for macro- and micronutrient intake, and hematological analysis. Energy expenditure was estimated using predictive equations. Results Mean sum of 7 skinfolds was 103.1 ± 35.2 mm, and body-mass index was 22.7 ± 2.7. Mean energy intake was 2,079 ± 460 kcal/day, and estimated energy expenditure was 2,546 ± 190 kcal/day. Of the athletes, 51.5% consumed Conclusion A high proportion of players were not in energy balance, failed to meet carbohydrate and micronutrient recommendations, and presented with depleted iron and vitamin D status. Suboptimal nutrition status may affect soccer performance and physiological growth and development. More research is needed to understand the unique nutrition needs of this population and inform sport nutrition practice and research.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Many intervention studies on low energy availability result in concurrent low carbohydrate availability.
“Therefore, many intervention studies on LEA result in concurrent LCA [20,26,27,28].”
From Considerations of Low Carbohydrate Availability (LCA) to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) in Female Endurance Athletes: A Narrative Review (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
Low carbohydrate availability is common in female athletes who are also at risk for low energy availability.
“This is confirmed by several studies which demonstrate that LCA is common in female athletes who are also at risk for LEA [20,26,27,28].”
From Considerations of Low Carbohydrate Availability (LCA) to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) in Female Endurance Athletes: A Narrative Review (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
Fifty percent of female soccer players consumed less than 5 g carbohydrate/kg body mass/day, while 5 g carbohydrate/kg body mass/day is the adult sport nutrition recommendation.
“Fifty percent of female soccer players consumed < 5 g CHO/kg body mass (BM)/day, while 5 g CHO/kg BM/day is the adult sport nutrition recommendation [26].”
From Considerations of Low Carbohydrate Availability (LCA) to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) in Female Endurance Athletes: A Narrative Review (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
LCA is common in female athletes, especially those at risk for LEA.
“LCA is common in female athletes, especially those at risk for LEA [20,26,27,28].”
From Considerations of Low Carbohydrate Availability (LCA) to Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) in Female Endurance Athletes: A Narrative Review (2023) · cites this paper as [26]
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 26 · Cited by 88
- Authors
- Gibson, J. C., Stuart-Hill, L., Martin, S., & Gaul, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Venue
- International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
- Publisher
- Human Kinetics
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 507-514
- ISSN
- 1526-484X (ISSN-L)
- 1543-2742
- OpenAlex
- W2129566241
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 4.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutrition and Health Studies
- Keywords
- nutritional status, female soccer players, youth athletes, energy balance, macronutrient intake, micronutrient deficiency, iron deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, dietary intake, energy expenditure, sports nutrition
- MeSH terms
- Iron Deficiencies, Adolescent, Energy Intake, Diet, Energy Metabolism, Female, Growth, Humans, Iron, Nutritional Requirements, Nutritional Status, Skinfold Thickness, Soccer, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency, Nutrition Assessment, Body Mass Index, Nutrition Policy, Micronutrients, Body Size, Athletic Performance, Athletes
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
