What Does a Cheerleader Really Need to Eat?

Fueling Young Cheerleaders with Real Food — Part 1

If your daughter is a cheerleader, you already know that “cheerleading” can mean a whole lot more than standing on the sidelines with pom-poms. There’s tumbling. Jumping. Stunting. Running. Dancing. Lifting teammates. Being lifted by teammates. Practicing the same skill approximately 47 times because it was almost perfect that time. And then there are competitions. Suddenly, you realize your daughter isn’t just participating in a sport. She is an athlete and athletes need fuel.

That brings us to a question a lot of cheer moms have:

What should my cheerleader actually be eating?
The answer isn’t a complicated diet, a pile of supplements or a refrigerator full of “fitness foods.”
It starts with something much simpler:

Real food. Enough of it. At the right times. Cheerleading Takes More Energy Than You Might Think

One of the biggest misconceptions about cheerleading is that because practices don’t always look like traditional sports practices, cheerleaders don’t need as much fuel, but think about what a cheerleader is actually doing.

She may spend practice jumping, tumbling, sprinting, holding positions, lifting or supporting teammates, repeating skills and working on routines over and over again. That’s a lot of work!
Unlike a professional athlete who has someone planning every meal and snack, our young cheerleaders are often going from:

School → homework → cheer practice → dinner → homework → bed

And somewhere in there we’re hoping they remembered to eat lunch. Sound familiar?

A growing athlete needs food not only to fuel her sport but also to support normal growth and development. That’s why one of the most important things we can do as cheer moms is make sure our athletes aren’t simply eating healthy food. They’re eating enough food.

Carbohydrates Are Not the Enemy

Let’s talk about carbohydrates because somewhere along the way, carbs got a terrible reputation.
But for an athlete, carbohydrates are an important source of energy—especially for activities involving repeated bursts of high-intensity exercise.
And cheerleading has plenty of those.
Think:

Tumbling
Jumps
Stunts
Sprints
Full-out routines

Your cheerleader’s body needs readily available fuel to do all of that.
So please don’t look at a banana, oatmeal or a bowl of pasta and think, “That’s too many carbs.”
For a young athlete, carbohydrates can be part of the fuel that helps her perform.

Some real-food carbohydrate choices include:

Oatmeal
Whole-grain bread
Brown or white rice
Potatoes
Pasta
Fruit
Whole-grain crackers
Tortillas
Granola
Cereal
And yes, sometimes a perfectly reasonable pre-practice snack is a banana. No fancy powder required.

Protein Helps Build a Strong Cheerleader

Carbohydrates provide fuel, but protein plays an important role in growth, muscle development and recovery. Cheerleaders are asking a lot of their muscles. Those muscles need the building blocks to recover after practice. Instead of worrying about whether your daughter is getting some giant amount of protein, think about including a source of protein throughout the day.

Some easy real-food choices:

Eggs
Greek yogurt
Milk
Cheese
Chicken
Turkey
Beef
Fish
Lentils
Peanut Butter
Nuts and seeds

And this doesn’t have to mean turning every snack into a high-protein science experiment.

Apple + cheese? Great.
Greek yogurt + fruit? Perfect.
Turkey sandwich? Absolutely.

We’re feeding kids here—not preparing them for a bodybuilding competition.

Don’t Forget the Fruits and Vegetables

Sometimes when we’re thinking about sports nutrition, we get so focused on protein and carbohydrates that fruits and vegetables get pushed to the side. Don’t let that happen. Fruits and vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber that help support overall health. And they make it easier to build a balanced diet.

Try keeping easy options available:

Bananas
Apples
Berries
Oranges
Grapes
Baby carrots
Cucumbers
Bell peppers
Snap peas
Broccoli
Smoothies

The key word here is easy.

Because if your cheerleader is running out the door in seven minutes and the only fruit in the house requires a knife, a cutting board and a small construction project, she’s probably grabbing a granola bar.
Ask me how I know.

Calcium and Vitamin D Matter

Here’s something cheer moms may not think about very often:

Strong bones matter. A lot.

Cheerleaders are jumping, landing and tumbling repeatedly. And adolescence is an important time for building bone mass. Calcium and vitamin D are two nutrients that deserve attention.
Good food sources of calcium include:

Milk
Yogurt
Cheese
Calcium-fortified milk alternatives
Some fortified foods
Leafy greens

Vitamin D is found in fewer foods, including fortified dairy products, eggs and some fatty fish.
For young athletes, eating enough overall is important, too. A diet that doesn’t provide enough energy can negatively affect bone health. Strong stunts start with strong bodies.

Iron Is Another One to Watch

Iron is particularly important for adolescent girls. Iron helps carry oxygen throughout the body, and not getting enough can contribute to fatigue. Let’s be honest: a tired cheerleader isn’t exactly at her best.

Good food sources of iron include:

Beef
Turkey
Chicken
Eggs
Beans
Lentils
Spinach
Fortified cereals
Pumpkin seeds

If your daughter is unusually tired, struggling with performance or showing other signs that concern you, talk with her pediatrician. Iron deficiency is something that should be evaluated rather than treated with a random supplement from the vitamin aisle.

And Then There’s Water

Hydration may not seem particularly exciting.
Nobody is putting “drink more water” on a cheerleading highlight reel, but it matters. Cheerleaders can sweat quite a bit during long or intense practices, especially in warm gyms or during summer training.
Encourage your daughter to drink regularly throughout the day instead of waiting until she’s desperately thirsty. For many regular practices, water is all she needs. For longer or particularly intense practices and competitions, carbohydrate and electrolyte needs can vary depending on the duration, conditions and individual athlete.

Again, we’re aiming for practical, not complicated.
A reusable water bottle in the cheer bag can go a long way. Assuming, of course, that it actually contains water.

The Most Important Snack of the Day Might Be the One Before Practice
Here’s where cheer moms can make a huge difference.
Imagine this:
Lunch at noon.
School ends at 3:00.
Practice starts at 4:00.
Practice lasts until 7:00.
And dinner isn’t until 7:30.
That’s a long time for a growing athlete to go without enough fuel. A pre-practice snack can help bridge that gap. Think about pairing carbohydrates with some protein or fat, depending on how much time she has before practice.

Some easy options:

If she has a little time:

Banana with peanut butter
Greek yogurt with berries
Half a turkey sandwich
Apple with cheese
Toast with peanut butter
Oatmeal with fruit
Smoothie

If she’s walking out the door in approximately 30 seconds:

Banana
Applesauce pouch
Granola bar
Fruit
Crackers
Yogurt drink

We’re not looking for perfection.
We’re looking for fuel.

What About After Practice?
After a hard practice, your cheerleader needs to refuel and recover.
And this doesn’t need to be complicated either.
A meal containing carbohydrates and protein is a great place to start.
Think:
Chicken + rice + vegetables
Turkey sandwich + fruit
Pasta + meat sauce + salad
Tacos + beans + fruit
Eggs + toast + fruit

Or even:
Chocolate milk + banana while Mom finishes making dinner.
Sometimes the recovery snack is simply buying us enough time to get an actual meal on the table.
That’s real life.

Please Don’t Confuse “Fueling” With “Eating Perfectly”
This may be the most important thing I want to say in this entire article. Your cheerleader does not need to eat perfectly. She doesn’t need a perfect meal plan. She doesn’t need to be afraid of carbohydrates.
She certainly doesn’t need to believe that being a better cheerleader means becoming a smaller cheerleader. Cheerleading can come with body-image pressure, particularly because of the aesthetic component of the sport. Strong is more important than skinny. Fueling your daughter’s body isn’t going to make her “less fit.” It helps give her body what it needs to perform, recover, grow and stay healthy.

So What Does a Cheerleader Really Need?
When you strip away all the nutrition noise, it really comes down to the basics.

A young cheerleader needs:

Carbohydrates to provide energy.
Protein to support growth and recovery.
Healthy fats for overall health and energy.
Fruits and vegetables for vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Calcium and vitamin D to support developing bones.
Iron to help support oxygen transport and energy.
Water to stay hydrated.
And perhaps most importantly:
Enough food to fuel a growing body.

That’s it.
No magic cheerleading diet.
No complicated meal plan.
No expensive supplements required.
Just good, real food—regularly.
And maybe a mom who keeps bananas in the kitchen because apparently a cheerleader can eat an entire bunch in approximately eleven minutes.

One Last Thing for Cheer Moms

If your daughter is tired all the time, frequently injured, experiencing changes in her menstrual cycle, losing weight unexpectedly, becoming increasingly restrictive about food or showing anxiety around eating, don’t assume she simply needs to “eat healthier.” Those can be signs that she’s not getting enough energy or that something else needs attention. Talk with her pediatrician or a qualified sports dietitian who works with adolescent athletes. Our goal isn’t just to help our girls perform a great routine.
We want to help them build healthy bodies and healthy relationships with food that last long after the pom-poms are put away. And that’s what fueling young cheerleaders with real food is really all about.

Coming next: The Cheerleader’s Secret Weapon: Smart Snacks for Practice, Competition & Recovery