Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

Training uses energy, Fueling creates it

24 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:07

The video presents a concise instructional scenario featuring an athlete named Johnny to illustrate how daily training and mental activities deplete the body's energy reserves, while meals and snacks replenish them. Johnny starts his day with a full energy "tank" after breakfast, then uses energy during morning weight training, academic classes, and a demanding 3 PM practice. By the time he reaches an extra skills practice, his energy is nearly exhausted because he did not consume a snack between sessions, leading to poor performance. The narrator emphasizes that maintaining high energy levels requires strategic fueling—specifically, packing a snack before the 3 PM practice and another between the main practice and the skills session—to keep the energy tank topped up throughout the day.

Chapters

Training uses energy. Fueling creates energy. This is Johnny. He's an athlete that wakes up, eats his breakfast, and has a full tank of energy. This is an energy tank right here. He's got a full tank of energy to start his day. Johnny has weights in the morning right after breakfast, and that training is going to use some of the energy that he has. Then going to classes, using his brain, he's gonna continue to burn some more energy. Now he's gonna get some back at lunch because lunch gives you fuel, so he's gonna be able to bring this up a little bit, but then he hits his 3:00 PM practice, and this practice is very intense, so he's gonna burn through his energy tanks, nearly all the way gone. But then he has an extra skills practice directly after that practice, and he didn't bring a snack to eat in between. And all of a sudden, he's playing like crap at that skills practice. He's not being able to perform. He feels like crap because training drained all of the energy that he had. The way to keep our energy high is, is by fueling our bodies and adding energy back into the tank. So what I would tell Johnny to do is make sure you're packing a snack, pre-3 PM practice. Make sure you're packing a snack for in between your practice and your skills practice to make it so your energy levels stay high throughout the entire day.