
Fuel up: Power-Packed Meal Ideas for Athletes
My favorite meals for athletes! Refuel your energy with this list below.
MS, RDN, CSSD, CEDS
Licensed dietitian
specializing in sports nutrition
and eating disorders
My favorite meals for athletes! Refuel your energy with this list below.
Written by Kate Cochran, Nutrition Intern
Fueling properly for your sport can feel both straightforward and surprisingly complex. For endurance runners, a solid baseline is three balanced meals focused on carbs for energy, protein for recovery, and fats for satiety, with snacks in between.
By Amy Stephens and Kate Cochran, Nutrition Intern
Many endurance athletes avoid fueling during long runs or rides because it feels uncomfortable or causes gastrointestinal (GI) issues. But often, that discomfort isn’t due to fueling itself—it’s because the gut hasn’t been properly trained. Being able to ingest carbohydrates during an endurance event will improve performance. It will enable you to exercise at a higher intensity for longer without running out of energy.
By Sonia Parashac, Intern
In this post, Sonia shares how she balances a busy college schedule while staying committed to daily movement—whether it’s a long run, a quick strength session, or a walk. She highlights the importance of fueling properly before, during, and after exercise to support energy, performance, and recovery.
In college, when focusing on countless things such as school work and athletics, it can be difficult to find nutritious balanced meals on campus and time consuming to take all that effort to cook something complicated.
By Kate Cochran, NYU Cross Country Athlete. As an athlete, I often come across all kinds of advice—on how to eat, train, and recover—and it can be hard to know what really works. With social media playing such a big role in how we share and learn information, especially from influencers and fitness personalities, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content out there.