Something started me thinking about girls and eating this evening.

It's not about actual quantities of food eaten from what I can see in the OP

I grew up in a family where a large appetite in boys was smiled on indulgently, and in girls was viewed as a moral failing

Girls on average don't need as much food as boys. This is not a sexist or feminist issue. It's just biology.

Women don't need to eat as much as men do, and this is the same even when they're teenagers.

Yes, I've noticed the much higher level of indulgence for hungry teenage boys on here. It's not extended to girls anywhere near as often.

Satan - I actually wrote for the first time in ages after reading that video
Link here
https://wannabeadressagediva.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/if-youre-good-ill-get-you-sweets/

I have 3 boys and I can honestly say they don't eat any more or any less than me and my sisters did growing up, or my 3 nieces do now (also teenagers).

I would also (and have) queried my boys asking for a bowl of cereal an hour after dinner, because 9 times out of 10 it would mean they snacked before dinner so didn't eat it all...thus leaving them hungry an hour later.

If that wasn't the case, it usually meant we didn't have a particularly filling dinner that day.

Either way, they (and we) all went through growth spurts which meant changes in appetite.

Your OP made me think of

which struck a huge chord with me when J first saw it..

I ate constantly as a teenager and was as skinny as. And that was 14, 15, 16. I was growing fast at that age and also doing sport.

I think you can almost guarantee that any thread on mumsnet about a child who eats a lot will be about a girl. Girls and the amount they eat is definitely noticed more than with boys.

I remember eating constantly as a teenager (Vesta curries as a mid evening snack!) and not putting on weight despite not being sporty. So I think it's about more than just appetite, there's definitely a social pressure that means girls get less praise for eating. My Mum has always commented negatively on the amount of (healthy) food I eat but gives DH far too much to eat (he always has to ask for less).

I've only got LOs (eldest is 7) and we already get comments from Mums of Boys saying 'oh, but your DD1 is tiny, my son eats so much' and I have to point out that actually no, she eats like a horse because she doesn't stay still. So it starts young.

But it's not all about teenagers and growing, men have a higher calorie need than women of the same size...

But my DD eats loads tbh and as she's a healthy weight I don't comment on it anymore than I do my DS.

I think there definitely is an expectation that women think of maintaining weight while eating and men don't...but, that is also partly because they do have a different need for calories as well as societal stuff.

Growth-wise, aren't women over the peak, and boys just coming up to it at 14? (I don't think I grew much past that age) - do 12 year old girls have bigger appetites than 12 year old boys maybe? Or is sport already so separated by that age that girls aren't as active?

I only have little ones (who still have 4 breakfasts and 3 dinners some days) - and they seem to be evenly spread between horses and birds eating-wise - judging from comments from others at the school gate/family/childminder

I have a sporty but skinny 11 year old daughter and she had fish pie and veg for tea, cycled to piano lesson and back and came back starving and scoffed loads chocolate cake. Said nothing and I hope this food as fuel and a pleasure continues... Won't be long before someone comes along and says all those carbs and sugar will kill her( and the veg was peas and sweetcorn- very carby!)