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!

For some reason society in general is pretending very hard that body build is not genetic. I guess because then overweight people can be persecuted for their moral failing not their genetics. OP your kids get plenty of exercise and healthy nutritious food. They are healthy. Maybe they are not the muscly/skinny type some kids are but they are healthy just the same.

Sounds fine to me. The only thing I would consider is how much protein they are getting - depending on sandwich filling the lunch could probably do with more protein and so could the breakfast.

@nomoreraintoday

Any suggestions for more protein? That’s something I always try to push with my own diet too.

Sandwiches are usually tuna, chicken or beef. I cook a whole chicken for sandwiches and snacks. And use leftover from roasts.

It probably comes down to portion size. Many children can easily eat adult sized portions and no matter how healthy the food is, it will go over their calorie needs.

I have an observation that kids who get regular, healthy home cooked meals tend to end up on higher percentiles than the ones always eating junk because they have access to better tasting food and will eat more of it. They also have a higher fibre intake and healthy digestion so they tend to be more hungry.

How do some kids eat so much junk and say skinny?

The children who eat processed snacks and are still rail thin are usually like that because it's literally all they eat. They will eat a chocolate bar for lunch and a bag of crisps for dinner because there's nobody around to check nor care about it. They almost certainly end up eating fewer calories per day than children with balance diets and multi-course meals made with butter, oils with etc. Some types of ARFID and ED also manifest in only being able to eat packaged "safe" foods.

That sort of diet also results in digestive issues like constipation so they may not have the appetite to eat complete meals. They basically just graze on junk all day.

This is nonsense.