Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

What to eat when injured

25 Sept 2025 · 1 min

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In this short monologue, the speaker addresses a parent’s concern about how to adjust the diet of a 15‑year‑old varsity volleyball player who has torn her ACL and meniscus. The speaker notes that without precise intake data it’s impossible to prescribe a calorie cut, and highlights that many female athletes are already under‑fueling. The core recommendation is to avoid obsessing over weight gain and instead focus on providing adequate, nutrient‑dense whole foods—protein, carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables—to support healing. The speaker also suggests swapping packaged pantry foods for fresher fridge options, as they tend to be richer in the micronutrients needed for recovery. The overall message is a supportive, mindset‑shift toward fueling the body for repair rather than restricting calories out of fear of getting fat.

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Helpful advice for injured athletes. My 15-year-old varsity level volleyball player just tore her ACL and meniscus. It's really sad. I know nutrition is just as helpful in her year-long recovery, but she doesn't want to get fat with her activity decreasing dramatically. Should her food quantity look any different? The hard thing about answering this question without more detail is I don't know how much food this female athlete was eating. If she was one of my athletes and eating as much food as she needed to be eating, then yeah, I'd say let's dial it back. But most female athletes are drastically underfueling as is, so I would say, I don't know, maybe you don't need to decrease your food. So instead Instead of focusing on that and being worried about getting fat, just focus on fueling your body with whole foods— proteins, carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables— and give your body the food that it needs. If it's coming out of a package all the time, if you're always reaching for the pantry instead of something in the fridge, you might want to switch that up a little bit because the foods in the fridge are typically going to give us much more of the nutrients that we need to heal. So in short, instead of focusing and worrying about getting fat, just focus on the fuel that your body actually needs.