Do my children eat healthily and get enough exercise?

[DisneyDreaming2026]

Hi,

This is a bit of a random post. I’m wondering if my kids eat too much or are active enough.
They’re not what I’d call skinny kids but are no where near overweight. However I am conscious that they could become overweight if I didn’t watch what they eat. How do some
kids eat so much junk and say skinny?

Here is what my kids do/eat.

Breakfast - Porridge or Weetabix and fruit.
Lunch - Sandwich (50/50 bread) or wrap, 2 x fruit/veg, small bag of popcorn.
Tea - home cooked family meal
Snacks - boiled egg, chicken, fruit or veg

We rarely eat fast food probably 4 times per year.

This is their activities:
Mon - 1hr riding, 1hr swimming
Tues -
Wed - 1hr acro
Thu - 1 hr netball, 2hrs acro
Fri - 2 hrs acro

Weekends we try and keep free for family time and is spent mostly outdoors.

Guess there is no point to my post really. I don’t want my kids eating junk regardless of their size but frustrating that they’re always going to have to watch what they eat!

They sounds very active and their diet looks fine. Was there a particular reason for asking - anything worrying you? - or are you just trying to do the very best for them that you can?

Food is reasonable but depends on portion size.

I think it's just their metabolism, OP. Mine eat healthy but not as healthy as yours and generally eat a lot more snacks, and only do a sport once a week (though run around most of the time as they're kids) and they're stick thin. You're doing an amazing job and they sound like really healthy kids.

What age are your children? Even the most active children who eat healthy go through that stage of looking ‘plump’ and this is very normal and what their bodies need to do to grow.
From what you have said your children are very active and have a nice healthy diet, don’t worry.

Their diet and exercise sound fine OP. Some kids are just naturally different sizes. I have three DC, they're all active and a healthy weight but one of them has a naturally bigger build while the other two are skinnier. It's mainly down to genetics I think - are you and DH slim?

This.

Our eldest 2 are 16 and 18 and looking back at photos, they both went through a 'plump' phase for a year or so, before puberty hit. Then woosh and their size went back to normal.

Ds2 has a back full of stretch marks at present which he's very self conscious about, poor bugger.

How many portions of fruit and veg and calcium do they get per day? I’m slightly obsessed with my kids calicum in take do to their history of cmpa and restricted eating.

How old?
Mine would be starving on that lunch. DS is currently on a sandwich, veg sticks, cheese cubes, crisps, fruit and biscuits. He often buys a snack at school too. Hovering around 9th centile.

It sounds like a good diet, plenty of a variety of excerise.

Looks like a very normal diet and similar to mine who are very slim.
I wonder how much active time they are getting outside of those structured activities? I was shocked to read a thread on here where so many people thought that a 40 minute walk to school was too much for an 11 year. So I do wonder if lots of children are driven to school and activities and don't actually spend much time walking and running outside of their structured activities.

Of course it is absolutely fine, very good in fact & I am sure you know that. As long as the remainder of the time they are not in the car or slumped on the sofa. Hopefully they also run around the park / playground / garden and walk or scoot to school too. Just general day to day activeness rather than structured.

Looks fine to me (depending on age and height of course) I wouldn’t be as worried about weight as strength, flexibility and co-ordination which yours will definitely have if they are doing acrobatics. Mines currently on the top end of a healthy BMI but you can see the muscles in her back, legs and arms. We talk about food and exercise in terms of health and wellbeing rather than worry about size. They go in and out so much as they are growing. Is there any particular reason why you are worried given they are active, don’t eat unhealthy and are a healthy weight?

Looks good!

It sounds like you’re looking around at the skinny kids who eat more and wondering why the difference if your kids are not chubby but not skin and bones kids either?

The answer is genetics!

I was always let’s say ‘big boned’. Not fat but definitely never one of those waify kids. Always looked like I belonged on a farm somewhere chopping wood or somesuch. Husband was always an absolute rake - still is even though he scoffs bacon sandwiches, chips, huge bowls of buttery pasta, the lot.

Anyway two kids fed the same and we have one of each. One we can count his ribs and the other looks like he should be in a boxing ring.

Don’t worry, in other words! Just keep up the exercise x

Sounds very good in general. Most of us can make a good diet even better by adding more plant-based foods such as herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, pulses, tofu, olive oil and a greater variety of veg. I am a big fan of mixed seeds - I get one from Amazon that has 7 different seeds in it. I also like tins of mixed pulses. 5 a day is a very low bar. It is actually not that hard to have 30 a day. Have you ever tried chia seed pudding for breakfast? It is like overnight oats except made with chia seeds.

Thank you for your replies!

I am not particularly worries about anything just want the best for them. I assumed it was just their build as I was never skinny. Their cousin lives off junk food, fizzy pop etc and is super skinny, both parents are very overweight and always have been.

They usually always get their 5 a day.

When they’re not doing hobbies they spend a lot of time outside and we do family walks etc. They don’t often play on tablets/screens (the tablets haven’t been touched for months).

My kids are 8, 6 and 3 (although he is super skinny). I don’t want my girls becoming self conscious that they’re bigger than their friends or having unhealthy relationship with food/their bodies!

Their diet looks fine and they’re doing plenty of activities.
Id maybe give them a bit more for lunch (if they’re at school), unless the chicken and egg etc is included in that.

What kind of family do you have and what are the portion sizes? Do they not eat any crisps, chocolate, sweets biscuits etc. What's do they eat over a weekend? What kind of drinks do they have?

My kid eats whatever and is skinny. He’s extremely active though.

I was exactly the same as a child (not as hyper as he is tho!) I got a little fatter with puberty.

I expect it’s metabolism determined by genetics.

They won’t eat more for lunch, and usually have their chicken/egg snacks when they get home. They sometimes have cake or crisps instead of popcorn.

Family meals consist of various pasta dishes, roast dinners, jacket potatoes, curry, stir fry.

They usually have some sort of pudding after their tea which may be ice cream, biscuit etc. I don’t really give them sweets.

Weekend meals are very similar!

It doesn't sound like they are eating anything that would cause them to be overweight based their level of activity. I wouldn't worry about this

Do you drive everywhere? People don’t walk anymore and I think it’s one of the main reasons for weight gain. Anywhere under a half hour walk we walk my kids. We walk to and from school every day, people who live closer than we do drive their kids. It’s hard with the modern life of rushing everywhere all the time but is what it is

If you don't want them to be self conscious about their own bodies, try to dial down your own awareness of their size. Always discuss food in terms of its nutritional value and benefit to muscles, brains, bones etc - never connect it to weight/beauty ideals. Similarly with their bodies, keep them focused on what their bodies can do - how fit and strong they are, how fast or bendy they might need to be, core strength, balance, energy etc. If they ever doubt themselves, just say: there are lots of body types. What matters is to look after your body and keep it strong and healthy.

If they do get a bit chubby, never ever do anything to encourage weightloss. Just say they will grow into their weight and it's nothing to worry about if they eat healthily and exercise.

We can’t walk anywhere from our house as we live in the middle of nowhere. School is 4 miles and not suitable for walking.

We have just started going on bike rides to local places (within a few miles) now that the kids are good bike riders. Just need to keep up the exercise through winter!!

Honestly though they seem fine to me, as long as they are healthy and active. Kids are going to be different sizes, mines 99th height percentile and has broad shoulders (her dad genuinely has big bones, I’m not using a euphemism, it’s like someone dug up a caveman) she’s never going to be waif like. It’s fine, she’s my little amazon, we all have different genetics and environments. I know kids who are tiny and literally just eat junky stuff and kids who only have home cooked meals and they are a bit more sturdy.

I do understand where you are coming from, I was always overweight. The main reason is when I went through a chubby phase my mum started putting me on extremely restrictive diets that led to years of binge starving (ofcourse I’m not suggesting that you would do this, my mum was batshit). I completely understand you want your Dd’s to never feel awful about their bodies in the way that many of us have experienced.

I think it’s best to not even go there with healthy kids because it’s easy to start thinking “I’ll reduce this just to make sure” and suddenly food becomes a “thing”. Your kids are very active and healthy, if it’s not broke don’t try to fix it.

I noticed that there are a few sweet treats/junk food type items here which you didn't mention in your OP. Sometimes we can lose track of what they're actually eating, forget that the odd treat adds up etc.

I'm not saying that is what's happening but if you're genuinely confused about how their weight is out of kilter with what they're eating/doing it might be worth keeping an accurate track of it for a few weeks and seeing if you've maybe underestimated what they're eating and/or over-estimated the amount of exercise they're doing. For example, if you swap out popcorn for cake at lunch and then add in a pudding after tea, that's 14 portions of cake/biscuit/ice cream a week...which isn't mentioned at all in the list in the OP. Add in the occasional treat, Christmas/Birthdays/Easter/Halloween, plus birthday parties, plus stuff they'd have a friend's house/grandparents etc. it can add up.

It’s occasional cake instead of popcorn, and it’s something small with a similar number of calories.

Ice creams consist of low calories (mini milk, fruit splits etc)

Someone asked about calcium, they do drink milk at breakfast time and have on their cereal.
They drink water during the week and squash at weekends.