Sporty DS constantly starving

[scouseontheinside]

DS1 (16) does a lot of sport throughout the year. He has morning and/or afternoon training most days. He cam home from school this afternoon and ate:

• 3 honey sandwiches
• Pint of milo
• Plate of crackers and cheese
• 4 kiwi fruit

I've also just witnessed him destroy 2 serves of pasta for dinner. He was like a hoover! He's now looting the fridge for a top up. Where the hell does he put it all??

He often complains of being starving in the mornings after training - says he can't concentrate in class as he is "wasting away" all 6'1" of him. Anyone else have sporty DS who can advise? I'm going to stock on some protein heavy breakfast items to keep him going in the morning. But what about snacks?

I swear to god he is literally eating me out of house and home. weeps at 3 other DSs to follow

I've just been shopping with ds, to try and find things for him to snack on. Like I said, he's fussy, and won't eat a lot of the things suggested on this thread (baked beans, bagels, bananas, hard boiled eggs, avocados).

We came home with (as well as a normal week's groceries) pastrami, nuts, falafel (3 different sorts!), choc chip oatcakes, ready-cooked noodles, granola, plain yogurt, chicken breasts and dried fruit. I know dried fruit is high in sugar, but at least it's fruit. He also pointed out things that he likes that I can make at home and try always to have a supply of: soups, fish balls, and various types of meat pie. I figure I can freeze them in portion sizes for him to help himself.

I had him estimate what proportion of sugar and fat he thought a packaged foot had, and then checking the labels. He compared things he thought were healthy and better for you, with things he thought were less healthy. He was gobsmacked to see that muesli bars are not better than biscuits.

I think he's taken on board that snacking on protein-rich and complex carb-rich food is better for him than snacking on high-fat or high-sugar food!

Where was that, Random? I would have been with you around the bend.

SixImpossible -- I keep a whole pantry shelf devoted to tins of 'hearty' soup that DS can decant and microwave. He can polish off an 18oz tin while he's thinking about what else to eat.

Deli meats are another staple and even though they're high in nitrates etc it's better than seeing box after box of breakfast cereal emptied. DS eats about half a dozen slices per sandwich.

Mine is due back this Sunday and I am already panicking. I make low-fat low-sugar flapjack cakes with dried fruit in that are filling, but I have to make them in bulk and hide them in a freezer under the frozen veg so that he doesn't eat several a day. Here he can be seen 'threatening' to stab me with a fork if I make him put one back... I took photographic evidence! There is a very good new polish shop that sells hams and things far cheaper than I can find them anywhere else. I shall take him in there and get him to choose for his lunches, then get him learning how to make potato salad and grain salads.

I disguised liver in a mustard-based stroganov sauce last winter, with lots of mushrooms and peppers and onions. That was wonderfully cheap and he ate it, I shall have to do that again. Cheap protein. Crisps do nothing for anyone really, I can fully understand why a growing boy would need four bags. All that salt though!