Fuel Your Performance: The Athlete's Guide To Meal Planning

Whether you're training for your first 5K or crushing daily workouts at your gym, your nutrition strategy can make or break your performance goals. But here's the thing—nutrition for active people doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, some of the most effective strategies used by professional athletes are surprisingly simple and can be adapted for anyone with fitness goals.

Franciscan Health sports dietitian Anna Turner, RD, recently shared game-changing insights about meal planning that work for everyone, from weekend warriors to elite athletes.

Key Takeaways: Performance Nutrition & Meal Planning

• Focus on performance over weight. Nutrition isn’t just about weight loss or gain. Instead, focus on fueling your body for optimal performance in all areas of life.
• The athlete plate method helps match your meals to your activity level, adjusting carb and protein proportions as training intensity changes.
• The athlete plate system can work at home, eating out with or meal prepping
• Follow the 80/20 rule and listen to your body. Nutrition should support your goals without being rigid or stressful.

Beyond Weight: The Performance-Centered Approach To Nutrition

Traditional nutrition advice often focuses solely on weight loss or gain, but Turner advocates for a more comprehensive approach, called the athlete plate method.

"After working with professional and collegiate athletes for over a decade, there's so much more that goes into the performance of their bodies other than their weight," she said. "Your performance matters in all areas of your life."

This athlete-centered model considers multiple factors that impact how you feel and perform:

• Nutrition quality and timing
• Body composition and bone density
• Sleep and stress management
• Lab values and biomarkers
• Cardio and flexibility training
• Social determinants of health

The Game-Changing Athlete Plates Method

The cornerstone of Turner's approach is the "athlete plates" system, which focuses on three different meal templates that adjust based on your activity level. All three plates contain the same types of nutrients (vegetables/fruits, carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats), but the proportions change to match your training demands.

Easy Athlete Plate (USDA MyPlate)      

Best for: Light intensity training up to one hour.

"This plate supports about one hour of light-intensity training, so this could be going for a one-hour walk. This could be maybe a 30-minute easy jog and 30 minutes of yoga," Turner said.

This matches what most Americans with desk jobs can realistically achieve daily.

What the Easy Athlete Plate looks like:

• 50% vegetables/fruits
• 25% carbohydrates
• 25% protein
• Healthy fats as garnish

Moderate Athlete Plate

Best for: 1-2 hours of training or high-intensity workouts. The Moderate Athlete Plate is best for times you’re participating in race training or high-intensity classes.

"When our intensity goes up, our carbohydrate needs go up as well," Turner said.

What Moderate Athlete Plate looks like:

• 33% vegetables/fruits
• 33% carbohydrates
• 33% protein
• Healthy fats as garnish

Hard Athlete Plate

Best for: 2+ hours of training or twice-daily sessions. The Hard Athlete Plate supports peak training phases, long endurance sessions or double-workout days.

What the Hard Athlete Plate looks like:

• 25% vegetables/fruits
• 50% carbohydrates
• 25% protein
• Healthy fats as garnish

Adjusting Your Plate To Your Fitness Goals

Start by identifying which athlete plate matches your current activity level, then build meals supporting your goals. Your body—and your performance—will thank you.

Advanced athletes understand periodization—adjusting training throughout the year based on goals and competition schedule. Your nutrition can follow the same principle.

For example, if you're training for a marathon, your athlete plate system may look like:

• Base building phase: Easy athlete plate most days
• Build phase: Moderate athlete plate becomes your norm
• Peak training: Hard athlete plate for long run days, moderate for regular training days
• Taper: Scale back to moderate plate
• Race week: Hard athlete plate for carb loading
• Recovery: Easy athlete plate while taking time off

This approach ensures you're giving your body exactly what it needs when it needs it, without underfueling or overfueling your body.

Aligning Your Athlete Plate To Training

Advanced athletes can align their plates with training cycles, just like professional athletes. During base-building phases, use the easy plate. As training intensifies, shift to moderate. Peak training and race days call for the hard plate.

"So if you can align your activity level with your athlete plate, you're going to have an amazing nutrition plan that supports your body and what it needs to do," Turner said.

Making Athlete Plates Work in Real Life

The beauty of the athlete plate system lies in its simplicity and flexibility, wherever you eat.

"I want it to be consistent and repeatable. I want you to be able to do this anywhere, whether you're going to Chick-fil-A... or whether you're making meals at home," Turner said.

An eye on portion sizes

The athlete plate method eliminates calorie counting and macro tracking. Instead, you're eyeballing portions:

• Quarter plate = about 1/2 cup
• Half plate = substantial serving of vegetables
• Protein portion = about 4 ounces

Turner emphasizes that perfection isn't the goal: "It's not perfect, right? This is close to half my plate color, but it's close enough."

Here are practical tips for implementing the athlete plate method:

Athlete plates at home

Build your meals visually. If you're having salmon, quinoa, and roasted vegetables, adjust the portions based on which plate matches your training day.

Meal prep for athlete plates

Plan your week knowing which training days require which athlete plate version. If you're doing long runs on weekends, prep more carbohydrate-rich options for those days.

Athlete plates when eating out

Choose menu items that naturally align with your day’s target plate. A grain bowl with protein and vegetables can easily be adjusted by asking for extra quinoa on a hard training day or extra vegetables on an easy day.

Quality Matters: Choosing The Right Foods For Athlete Plates

While the athlete plate method focuses on proportions, the quality of foods you choose within each category can significantly impact your results. Turner offers this guidance for selecting the best options within each macronutrient group to maximize both performance and health benefits.

Carbohydrates

Focus on whole-food carbohydrate sources like potatoes, quinoa, oats and beans. Choose products with the highest fiber content for packaged items, typically 100% whole grain options.

Protein

When choosing protein sources, follow the quality hierarchy: animal, from an animal, beans and then nuts. Aim for lean options by comparing fat to protein content on nutrition labels.

Turner notes that while peanut butter contains protein, "it has more healthy fats in it than it does protein."

Fruits and Vegetables

Don't let diet culture demonize certain fruit or vegetable choices. All fruits and vegetables are beneficial.

"The purpose behind fruits and vegetables is to get in your micronutrients," Turner said.

Aim for variety in colors on your plate to maximize nutrient diversity.

Creating Your Fueling Schedule

A fueling schedule maps out your entire day's nutrition around your training. This includes:

• Pre-workout fuel (50-100 calories of carbohydrates for morning workouts)
• Post-workout recovery
• Regular meals aligned with your chosen athlete plate
• Hydration timing

"Having it all written out can be helpful," Turner said. “Just like planning your week ahead and being able to meal prep to support your fueling.”

The 80/20 Rule

Remember that consistency, not perfection, drives results. Turner acknowledges that life happens.

"There's always going to be fun days like Thanksgiving,” she said. “Those days are always going to happen. And your health and fitness can be very fine with the 80-20 rule where 20% of the time is not perfectly balanced and 80% of the time we're trying really hard to have some good balance."

Your Performance-Driven Future

The athlete plate method offers a practical, sustainable approach to nutrition that grows with your fitness journey. By matching your fuel to your training and focusing on performance over appearance, you're setting yourself up for long-term success.

"Think performance when it comes to your health status and how are we continuing to push our performance forward," Turner said.

Listen to your body. The plates are guidelines, not rigid rules. If you're consistently hungry or sluggish, you might need to adjust. Remember, this isn't about restriction or perfection—it's about fueling your body to perform at its best, whether you're chasing a personal record or simply wanting to feel energized throughout your day. The same principles that help Olympic athletes excel can help you thrive in your everyday life.

The key is matching your fuel to your fire. Train hard, fuel smart and watch your performance soar.