Ever wondered why you did not score that last goal, run a couple seconds faster, or why your leg cramped up in the last ten seconds of the game? Athletes may pinpoint their loss on their opponent, a recent injury, or just being off their game, but what they might not know is that something as small as carbs, proteins, and fats can be the difference between a loss and a win.

Nutrition for athletes goes past calorie needs of a normal person. Different types of athletes will need different types of food depending on the sport they play, according to Lily Eckert, health teacher and athletic trainer.

“A lot of times kids talk about what type of sport they’re in and we’ll talk about what your calorie needs are based on the amount of minutes per day that you’re actively engaged in that sport,” Eckert said. “What I find is that a lot of kids, when they’re in a certain team sport, they’ll be standing around practice half the time, and engaged and being active the other half the time.”

Calorie needs differ from sport to sport, so athletes need to plan accordingly for practice or a competition, according to Eckert. If your sport requires you to be moving the entire two hours of practice, you need to fuel differently from an athlete that takes breaks from matches or plays every ten minutes. For example, the diet of a cross country runner would be completely different from a softball player. However, no matter what type of athlete you are, you need to watch the types of food you eat.

“What the kids choose to eat is as important as the quantity they eat. I see a lot of kids eating refined sugars that are not really fueling their body. [Athletes] might think that they taste good and might be used to eating them,” Eckert said. “They might also have a lot of salty and sweet snacks, packaged foods and probably not taking a lot of nutritionist from their foods.”

Refined sugars is not the only thing that athletes need to watch out for. Energy drinks, such as Gatorade and Vitamin Water may have the same nutritional value as a more common junk food item, such as a pack of M&M’s or Skittles, according to Eckert.

“Any product like [Gatorade] is going to have sugar in the first couple of ingredients. I think if they’re part of a well balanced meal, it’s not going to cause the blood sugar to spike so high. Having some orange slices for instance, it’s a food source,” Eckert said. “People tend to drink a lot of sugar before they realize that it’s doing to them. When I compare a package of Skittles or Starbursts to Gatorade, there’s very little nutritional difference. The reality is, they’re each packaged forms of sugar that aren’t giving us vitamins and fiber.”