To think this isn’t really enough food for a 13 year old?

[ChocolateCrepe]

DS has been given 2 slices of a supermarket pizza, 4 chicken nuggets, a handful of fries (literally about 12) and a few cucumber chunks for his dinner

I think this is nowhere near enough food for a growing teen
The adult who gave him the food thinks it’s plenty and I’m being silly

DS is far too polite to ever comment if he didn’t think it was enough but I’ve made him a sandwich and he is now eating it happily

WIBU?

@Funkyblues101

do your kids really expect a fully home cooked meal each and every day?!

if so…. You all need to live a little!!

😂so true

sounds like a baby lead weaning plate to be fair @ChocolateCrepe

If it's like a Chicago Town pizza OP they are 1700 calories per pizza. While I'm sure most of us have eaten a whole one at some point it's not recommended even for an adult woman.

One of those small pizzas contains 1700 calories, are you sure it's calories and not kilojoules?

I honestly don't understand why you didn't disclose it was his dad in the first place. Are you still together or separated?

Portions should be age appropriate rather than equal

PS he's old enough to sort his own packed lunch

It depends on the teen tbh, my grandson (12) would think I was starving him if that was his main meal but I might get away with it as a light lunch.

Agree with this!

For one meal it's not enough, but could be excused. The fact that it's not a one-off is a bigger problem. Being chronically underfed creates a scarcity mindset and leads to eating disorders.

Sounds adequate to me for just one meal.

For those saying it’s more than enough, and people are over feeding their kids

The recommended calorie intake for a teenage boy is 2,800

Its quite a well understood (well outside of MN) fact that teenagers require more calories than adults and younger children, male teens even more so

A lot of teens DO eat too much though

you see it on here all the time … posters speaking proudly of how their teen soon will wolf down a massive roast dinner then half an hour later will make themselves a massive bowl of pasta and sauce with cheese

totally unnecessary and only within the remit of the very financially privileged especially in this day and age

I take it in your world there is only one kind of pizza?

Tesco stonebaked pepperoni pizza (2 servings so half a pizza is one serving) - 760cal (380 for half)

Dominoes pepperoni passion (3/4 servings) 2642cal - so half a pizza is 1321cal

So you could eat the WHOLE of the tescos pizza and be eating just over quarter of the calories compared to HALF of the dominos pizza.

Expensive? Again... no. Tescos £3.50 Dominos £19.99

The OP specified a frozen supermarket pizza, a quarter of which is going to be under 200calories most likely - that is definitely not enough for a child who is still hungry after eating it.

The OP also specifies its a small pizza - it could be like the tesco kids range which is only 238 cal for the WHOLE pizza.

So yeah someone could absolutely need to eat the whole pizza.

My 12yo would eat that and be full.

My 12 year old can eat a whole one of those supermarket pizzas. But as he is taller than me now I think it’s fine for him to eat larger portions.

You are not being unreasonable.

Dad hasn't clicked that his boy is now entering a stage of huge hunger and also great tiredness. And hormones ....!

When my 4 boys were a similar age they'd have sandwiches or toast that would fill me up while they were waiting on tea cooking!

I get that dad wants to be fair- I've had the 'he's got more spaghetti hoops than me' conversation. Maybe he could ask your lad what he'd like portion wise and include him in the decision making of what is going to be cooked so that there is a better understanding of his needs now he's a teen?

But it’s not when you look at the overall calories

the average teenage boy needs 2,800 calories. That’s more than double what most women need to consume in a day. Also a large portion of teenage boys do some degree of sports, so would need even more than that.

You’re not a parent, so it’s always a bit odd when you have such strong opinions on threads like these. Also unless male, you’ve never experienced life as a male teenager.

@Millsbills

do you have to be a parent to have an opinion?

we were all teenagers once, we were all once where today’s teens are now.

so yeah, I stand by what I said. Teens don’t need say to eat a big roast dinner and then follow up with a bowl of pasta and cheese.

unnecessary and unaffordable.

soz 🤷‍♀️

Of course, when it comes to something that is directly related to understanding how much teens need to eat.

I also added unless male you’ve never been a teenage boy.

unless you’ve patented a teenage boy or been one you have no real basis for your opinion, and therefore it’s a bit silly to have strong opinions either way on a subject you have 0 experience of.

The average teen girl require less calories than the average teenage boy. It’s a bit weird you’re argument is ‘facts are wrong’

@Millsbills

ok cool 👍

Is DS still hungry after eating that portion ? Is he loosing weight?

Why is he 'holding back' so that the others can have more? Does he feel he can't ask for more? What does he think would happen?

If you really want an objective opinion, find a tanita type scale (at GP of a local gym) which will report weight, body composition and calories required daily to maintain current body. That would provide a baseline of calorific needs against which to compare each days worth of meals.

Shows how much a teen boy needs

www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/dietary-guidelines-and-myplate/how-many-calories-does-my-teen-need#:~:text=Calorie%20needs%20vary%20depending%20on,of%202%2C200%20calories%20a%20day

Well my experience of growing boys is they will eat and eat! That will be enough to satisfy hunger pangs but I bet he will be ravenous not long after! X

I used to regularly feed my teenage granddaughters, both size 8/10, both ate like they'd been starved for days. Big dinner plates full up with homecooked comfort food that they polished off, then topped off with pud half an hour later. Then relocated and was feeding a grandson his supper, regularly. Same age as his cousins, but ate less than half of what they would. He was rapidly growing to his now 6' height, but god knows how, as he eats like a sparrow. Children are different, is your son was hungry feed him extra at home. Some people feed small portions based on their appetites.

A teenager and a 4yr should not be eating the same size meal

Far too many carbs, almost no protein, nothing to speak of in the way of vitamins or fibre and really nothing very "filling".
I would be concerned if this was a normal day's diet for my 13 year old.