Additionally, CHO intake in U18s was lower (P<0.05) at breakfast, dinner and snacks 56 when compared with both squads but no differences were apparent at lunch. 57Furthermore, the U15/16s reported lower relative daily protein intake than the 58 U13/14s and U18s (1.6±0.3 vs. 2.2±0.5, 2.0±0.3 g·kg -1 ). A skewed distribution 59 (P<0.05) of daily protein intake was observed in all squads, with a hierarchical order 60 of dinner (~0.6 g·kg -1 ) > lunch (~0.5 g·kg -1 ) > breakfast (~0.3 g·kg -1 ). We conclude 61 elite youth soccer players do not meet current CHO guidelines. Although daily protein 62 targets are achieved, we report a skewed daily distribution in all ages such that 63 dinner>lunch>breakfast. Our data suggest that dietary advice for elite youth players 64 should focus on both total daily macronutrient intake and optimal daily distribution 65 patterns.
al., 2015). These studies have typically been limited to reports of total daily energy 80and macronutrient intake, often concluding that elite youth soccer players habitually 81 don't meet their energy requirements (Boisseau et al. 2002; LeBlanc et al., 2002; Ruiz 82 et al., 2005;Russell and Pennock, 2011; Briggs et al., 2015). 83In addition to the quantification of daily energy and macronutrient intake, it is 84 important to consider timing of intake in relation to training sessions (Burke, 2010; 85 Mori, 2014), main meals (Garaulet and Gomez-Abellan, 2014; Johnston, 2014) and 86 sleep (Lane et al., 2015). Whilst this is most well documented for carbohydrate 87 (CHO) intake in order to fuel training and matches (Goedecke et al., 2013; 88 Jeukendrup, 2014) and promote glycogen re-synthesis (Zehnder et al., 2001; 89 Gunnarsson et al., 2013), recent data suggests that the daily distribution of protein 90 intake is critical for optimizing components of training adaptations such as muscle 91 protein synthesis (MPS) (Areta et al., 2013; Mamerow et al., 2014). Recent data has 92 highlighted the importance of quantity and timing of protein intake in elite youth 93 soccer players. Milsom et al. (2015) demonstrated that such populations typically 94 Therefore, the aims of the present study were two-fold: 1) to quantify the total daily 101 energy and macronutrient intakes of elite youth UK academy players of different ages 102 (U13/14, U15/16 and U18 playing squads) and 2) to quantify the daily distribution of 103 energy and macronutrient intake. In accordance with the higher absolute body masses 104 and training loads of the U18 squads (Wrigley et al., 2012), we hypothesised that this 105 squad would report higher absolute daily energy and macronutrient intakes in 106 comparison to the U13/14s and U15/16s. Furthermore, based on the habitual eating 107 patterns of both athletic and non-athletic populations (Mamerow et al., 2014), we 108 hypothesised that all squads would report an uneven daily distribution of 109 macronutrient intakes, particularly for daily protein intake. 110
Methodology 111
Participants 112Elite youth soccer players were recruited ...
