What high school lacrosse, football, baseball, and basketball players actually eat on game day — what they avoid, how their macros differ, and how eating changes between seasons.
This project also zooms out to the economics of hosting the Olympics. See The Business of Sport ↓
I started this during football season of my junior year. A health issue forced me to rethink almost every meal while I was still training 20+ hours a week, and once I started paying attention I realized most of my teammates were getting their nutrition advice from social media and supplement ads. So I went and asked athletes directly.
I asked the same five questions to a varsity lacrosse, football, baseball, and basketball player, recorded the conversations, and transcribed them. Then I took what they said to a registered dietitian at Hunterdon Medical Center and to Hun's athletic trainers to check it against actual evidence. Everything on this page traces back to those notes.
How to read this site: Quotes labeled "Athlete Perspective" are exactly what the athlete said in the interview.
"What This Shows" and "Performance Connection" notes are my own analysis, not additional claims from the athlete.
None of this is medical or nutritional advice. It's what four athletes actually do, examined in context.
Across every sport, athletes described eating differently depending on whether they were competing or training. Here's the pattern that showed up again and again.
These answers come straight from my interviews with a varsity lacrosse, football, baseball, and basketball player. Tap a sport to see their game-day meal, what they avoid, and their macro targets.
Constant running, minimal rest — carbs lead the plate.
"On game day I usually eat a carb-heavy but clean meal like chicken, rice, or pasta and fruit. Lacrosse is nonstop with a lot of sprinting, so fast and slow carbs for energy without feeling heavy."
Sports with constant running and little rest push athletes toward carbohydrate-heavy meals to keep energy steady.
"I avoid greasy or fried foods, super sugary snacks, and anything new. Those mess with digestion and energy levels, especially in a fast-paced game."
Team nutritionist, strength coach, and years of trial and error.
In season: more carbs, focus on recovery. Off season: fewer carbs, more focus on protein and body composition.
Endurance sports with lots of transitions rely on both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems — which is why carbohydrates take priority over protein or fat on game day.
Explosive, physical, contact-heavy — protein does the heavy lifting.
"I eat a big, balanced meal — something like steak or chicken, rice or potatoes, and vegetables. Football is explosive and physical, so I need fuel that lasts and helps with strength and power."
Sports built around short, explosive, high-contact effort push athletes toward bigger, more balanced meals rather than light carb-focused ones.
"I stay away from junk food, excessive sugar, and heavy fried foods. They slow me down and affect my recovery."
Team dietitians, strength staff, and older players who've had success.
In season: more calories overall, recovery is the priority. Off season: more disciplined, cleaner eating, focused on building muscle or leaning out.
Contact-heavy sports create more muscle breakdown from collisions and sprinting, which is why protein takes priority for repair and recovery.
Long games, sharp focus needed — lighter meals win.
"I go lighter — usually chicken or fish, rice, and fruit. Baseball requires focus and reaction time, so I don't want to feel sluggish or bloated."
In a sport built around sharp reaction time over long games, feeling light matters as much as feeling fueled.
"I avoid heavy dairy, greasy foods, and anything that causes bloating. Long games mean digestion really matters."
Team staff, pro players, and experimenting during the season to see what helps performance.
In season: eating consistently, focused on maintenance. Off season: eating more to build strength and muscle.
Long games with high focus demands reward digestion-friendly meals — bloating or sluggishness is a bigger risk to performance than being slightly under-fueled.
Constant movement, end to end — carbs keep the engine running.
"I eat easily digestible carbs like pasta, rice, and fruit with lean protein. Basketball is constant movement, so carbs are key for energy and endurance."
Nonstop, end-to-end movement demands a steady carbohydrate supply, similar to lacrosse's endurance-driven approach.
"I avoid fast food, heavy fats, and too much sugar before games because it causes energy crashes."
Team nutritionist, strength staff, and research from credible sports performance sources.
In season: more carbs, recovery and hydration are the priority. Off season: cleaner eating, heavier lifting, more body-focused.
Sports played end-to-end with little stoppage lean on carbohydrates for sustained energy — the same pattern seen in lacrosse.
Two contact sports, two very different game structures — which means two different nutrition strategies.
Built from the patterns above, here's what a full game day of eating can look like for a football player. Use it as a template and adjust the foods and portions for your own sport.
Oatmeal and banana provide slow-digesting carbs to fuel long, high-intensity effort and keep blood sugar steady.
Eggs bring high-quality protein to support muscle function and limit breakdown.
Whole grains give sustained energy without a crash.
Starting hydration early helps prevent cramping and fatigue later.
White rice and pasta digest quickly and top off muscle glycogen needed for sprinting and contact.
Protein here supports muscle strength going into the game.
Low fiber and fat keep things light on the stomach.
Carbs here provide a quick shot of energy right before you take the field.
Low fiber keeps digestion easy this close to game time.
Electrolytes help maintain hydration.
Protein repairs the muscle damage from contact and lifting.
Carbs restore the glycogen you burned through during the game.
Antioxidants from fruit help reduce inflammation.
Regardless of which sport athletes played, the same three priorities kept coming up for game day.
The go-to fuel source across every sport, especially the day of a game.
Supports muscle repair and keeps you ready for the next practice or game.
Keeps digestion easy so you don't feel heavy or bloated once you're competing.
Eating the way you know works for you, meal after meal, game after game.
What to skip on game day: greasy or fried foods, excessive sugar, and anything you haven't eaten before. Trying something new right before a game is the fastest way to feel off — save the experiments for practice days.
Sports nutrition isn't one-size-fits-all. Athletes adjust what they eat based on the intensity, length, and demands of their sport — and whether they're in season or off. Here's where to start.
They know your sport, your schedule, and can help you build a plan specific to you.
Test new meals and snacks during practice, not competition.
Endurance-heavy sports lean on carbs; contact-heavy sports lean on protein. Use the sport cards above as a starting point.
The balance shifts between seasons, but these three stay central to performance and long-term health.
Not medical advice. This guide reflects the personal habits and opinions of the four varsity athletes I interviewed, not clinical recommendations. Talk to your school's athletic trainer, a registered dietitian, or your doctor before making major changes to your diet.
Nutrition shows what happens inside a single athlete's body. Zooming out, the Olympics show how sport reshapes entire cities, industries, and economies.
Sport isn't just what happens on the field. It's also a massive economic force. This section is adapted from a paper I researched and presented through The Hun School Honors Program on what it actually costs, and gains, a city to host the Olympic Games.
Whether a host city comes out ahead often comes down to one thing: how much new infrastructure it had to build.
Already had the roads, airports, and hotel space it needed — no new stadiums required. That success is a key reason LA was chosen again to host in 2028.
Built 11 new venues plus roads, railways, water, and energy infrastructure — the most expensive Olympics in history. Debt and maintenance are projected at $4.4B a year, which would require 4 million extra tourists annually to offset. Many of the new ski resorts sit underused, and poorly planned construction has left lasting flooding and landslide issues.
Earned $5.8B in broadcast revenue against roughly $13B in total costs — a reminder that even a strong broadcast deal covers only a fraction of what hosting costs.
Broadcast revenue reached $3.6B, against an estimated $40B in total costs.
Its Olympic stadium is rarely used today and is now on its third roof renovation, projected to cost $780M — decades after the closing ceremony.
Predicted 70,000 new jobs; only about 7,000 materialized — roughly 10% of the projection — and those jobs were temporary.
The IOC is reforming how it picks hosts. Economists Stefan Billings and Scott Holladay found no long-term impact on a host country's real GDP per capita from hosting the Games. In response to concerns like this, the IOC launched Olympic Agenda 2020, which now weighs how a bid aligns with a city's existing long-term social and economic plans — rather than rewarding the most elaborate proposal. Whether the reforms work is still an open question, but it's a step in the right direction.
Hosting the Olympics isn't automatically good or bad for a city — it depends almost entirely on what a city already has. Cities with existing infrastructure, like Los Angeles, can host profitably and use the Games to showcase national identity and progress on a global stage. Cities that have to build from scratch, like Sochi, often take on debt and maintenance costs that outlast the two weeks of competition by decades.
These reforms don't guarantee success, but they mark a real shift in how the IOC — and future host cities — should think about the trade-off between national pride and long-term economic responsibility.
Roughly in order. It took about a year, and it isn't finished.