Is this an appropriate portion for DS12?

[JacksonPercy]

DS12 is trying to get a bit fitter as he competes in a sport and wants to get better. He’s tall for his age (around 5 ft 5ish) and isn’t a skinny build, he’s not heavy but he’s got a little bit of podge around his middle/torso (you wouldn’t really notice with clothes on). He’s got a good diet overall, likes fruit and vegetables and loves trying new foods but he does have a big appetite so I’m trying to make sure his portion size is right.

I’ve attached a photo of tonight’s dinner - it’s most certainly not “insta worthy” but I swear it’s tasty 🤣! It’s a medium size plate, half with lettuce and cucumber, around 20ish pasta shells, 3 beef meatballs and a slice of garlic bread with some cheese on top. The sauce is just passata mixed with herbs and he’ll have a cup of semi skimmed milk. Does this seem reasonable? If he‘s hungry after he’ll have a granola yoghurt tub thing/fruit/oat biscuits.

He’s got extra training sessions/running plans in place for extra physical activity and I just want to add that this is all led by him, I would never restrict his diet or anything like that or force exercise - he genuinely just wants to do better at his sport. I eat like a horse and don’t put on weight and I’ve never competed in sport so I haven’t had to think about this kind of thing.

A bigger plate with more carbs and protein to make it a decent post work out meal.

Doesn't look enough to me.
Try not mixing the leaves with the hot food and make bigger portions.
Iceberg lettuce and cucumber are mostly water there is plenty of leaves and vegetables with better nutritional value.

I just checked out the granola pot things you mentioned - they’re full of sugar! Greek yoghurt and berries is a better choice.

As everyone else has said, up his protein, go for less processed food and skip sugar instead of fat. If he eats small portions at dinner and then snacks it won’t do him any good.

If he’s eating crap everyday at lunch and crap when he’s away from you he needs to learn to make better choices for himself.

If hungry, my 2 year old would eat more than that.

A 12 year old shouldn’t be dieting unless obese and health issues. He is quite a tall 12 year old and sporty. He should be eating a full plate/bowl of pasta with veg/salad. Younger children in our family eat more than that and are also sporty, they need the calories as burn them off quicker. This portion control is an eating disorder waiting to happen. Please don’t encourage this.

Blimey that's like a toddler sized dinner. No wonder the poor lad is starving. 3 meatballs, 15 pasta shells and about 20 slices of cucumber. Op, you really need to look at what you are feeding your son. It's not enough.

Yeah, he needs more protein and fat

Cut the crappy garlic bread out

He'd be better off with a big portion of homemade lasagna and a jacket potato

I would definitely go more interesting salad
This was mine tonight (using stuff up!)
Air fried prosciutto, halloumi, bag of bistro salad (has shredded beetroot in), pickles, cucumber, red onion, tomatoes

I agree with @titchy in that if he's overweight it's due to snacking on junk, everyone has different eating habits but I would have doubled the pasta + sauce and skipped the garlic bread

My under 5 ft, just turned 13yo,would eat 4 times the amount of pasta - literally a mounded plate full. He's very active, and very thin.

@christmaspaws that looks delicious i'd have to add some crunch in but yum

I do this too with my tomato sauce. It is a great opportunity to pack nutritional value in. My 7 year old would eat more than this though. He is sporty and skinny. He eats 4 meatballs. I make them myself, so hard to compare size, but I think they are average size meatballs. He has a bit more pasta, though nit much and he always has at least 2 slices of garlic bread. Sometimes 3 if he has ben to swimming or one of his sports clubs.

When my Son was 12 he was sporty, medium height and skinny as a rake, he would have double the amount of pasta and meatballs your son has and he would have had at least 3 pieces of garlic bread followed by a bowl of cereal. Your son must be starving.

Get Greek yoghurt and frozen berries for pudding and/or snacks. I would ditch any snacks that are upf. Cook extra chicken and leave in the fridge pre sliced. Boiled eggs in the fridge ready to go. Carrot sticks. Cheese. Tuna with Greek yoghurt and black pepper. Olives. If he is hungry he has healthy snacks ready to go. If you have a bread maker home made bread - i find mine eat less bread if it’s home made as they say it’s very filling and really nice. I use seeded flour.

You can buy decent non upf Muesli online which he could also have sprinkled on the yoghurt. My kids love it in layers with frozen fruit and Greek yoghurt.

Nuts if he likes them are good snacks. There are some great but cracker recipes which are healthy and filling, nice with peanut butter or cheese.

You can also make homemade flapjack.

Not enough in my view

Honestly, at 12 they start eating like horses. I wouldn't limit food unless it was unhealthy stuff like biscuits etc, especially if he's physically active.
And a lot of boys start getting extra hungry and carrying extra weight at that age. It happened to DS and all his friends. DS was quite podgy at 12 but slim now at 13. It's all been channeled into shooting up and growing giant feet 🤣

The prosciutto was really crispy! I'm addicted to the Wagamama house dressing so keep eating salad

Definitely not enough for what you are describing. Also, forget semi skimmed milk, they need full cream all the way!

I’d suggest more protein so at least double
the amount of meatballs. Then if you want to restrict carbs best instead switch to wholemeal pasta and have more of it. White carbs are not great for lots of reasons. Calculate how many calories he should be having per day with the activity he is doing and try to provide those through a balanced meal with lots of protein, lots of veg and some carbs/fat. Snacks should be slow releasing carbs, or fruit, or healthy protein options like boiled eggs.

If his diet is as healthy as you say but he's fat enough to be being teased, I suspect he's sneaking food. Does he have access to pocket money to buy sweets/chocolate and hide wrappers?

That’s a saucer of cucumber!

That is rapidly becoming my 15 yo dd these days. She was overweight for most of primary school pre puberty and has consistently lost weight over the past 2 years, which has accelerated to 7 kilos in the last 8 months. She just isn’t very hungry atm. I was the same at her age.

My take op is that the food isn’t enough for your ds at all. He may be getting fatter as his body stores before a growth spurt. Some people do this. He definitely needs much more protein. At the very least, I would give your ds double the amount of meatballs.

As for weight loss… or not weight gain, berries are the best fruit. But emphasise vegetables instead as fruit sugars are not good for weight loss. My dd hardly eats fruit these days, which is partly why she’s lost the weight.

I know it is said you should be able to see his ribs etc. I could never see dd’s. These days she’s about the 60th centile (and only that high because muscle weighs more than fat) having been on about the 98th at one stage. When she was younger, I did all sorts to try to keep her weight in check but I think it is partly genetic as dh was overweight as a child and I was probably not overweight but far from skinny despite hardly eating a thing. I always emphasised protein and she was not allowed many pizzas or meals with double carbs.

I regularly eat a plate that looks like that. I’m a 5’3 moderately active woman in my 40s trying to manage my weight.

My 11 year old nephew literally eats 3 times what I do. Why are you feeding your son like a middle aged woman on a diet?!

Your son needs to be a bit podgy at that age - it’s his stores for his next growth spurt!

Those Activia pots are full of sugar and UPF. Also a takeaway or pizza night once a week can have a massive effect on weight. My friend used to diet really strictly and then have a takeaway once a week. I sat down with her to work out calories and basically all of the calories she "saved" by dieting during the week were more than cancelled out by a weekly takeaway!

I would up the protein and fibre. My DC love roasted red peppers with lentils and halloumi, or a curry with chickpeas and spinach. There are lots of quick and easy meals like that. I would avoid things like white pasta and garlic bread. Go for full fat yoghurt and non UPF as much as possible. Also make sure he's not having sugary drinks. There's also a theory that artificial sweeteners affect weight and they're also UPF.

That is not a medium sized plate unless that cucumber was the size of an aubergine 😂. If you use normal dinner plates you will maybe get a better sense of the portion size. It looks like a lot of food until you compare the amount of protein to the size of the garlic bread slice