Greedy or hungry? Teens eating SO much food... what to do?

[Pebbles574]

Two DSs - 19 & 17. Both tall and muscular (gym goers).

They typically eat a lot, but I'm beginning to think they're now just being greedy pigs.

I had this week's food delivery this morning at about 10 am. As it's hot/summer I'd ordered extra cold meats/ bread/ ice creams/ etc expecting people to want more cold meals.

I've been out and in the last 5-6 hours they have already eaten:

Half a loaf of bread
4 bagels
one pack of ham
half a pack of cheese
2 pints of milk
6 eggs
2 Soleros
2 Ice Lollies
2 mini cheesecakes (which were meant for later)
4 bananas
6 mini yoghurt drinks (Actimels)
lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc

I'm particularly annoyed about all the ice-creams/cheesecakes - they're meant as a treat, not 3 a day!
It seems the more I buy, the more they eat .

DS2 says "but I was hungry..." but I think he's just bored (has a project he has to finish by the end of July, so is stuck at home at the moment).

What can I do? I can't NOT feed them, but nor can I afford to keep this up!
Separate shelf/ fridge compartment? 'Rules' about daily limits of certain things?

It actually pissed me right off that U got the blame for eating loads when growing up, and once my older brother moved out my parents realised it wasn't me at all.
He was a talk, skinny rake, but could demolish a six pack of crisps with a double mars bar chaser in half an hour.

My DS was like that , used to drive me mad , that is a lot of food to eat in such a small amount of time. I would hide crisps, biscuits, nuts in a box in the garage then get one pack out at a time. But you can't do that with fridge stuff so think you need to tell them not to be so greedy and point out that certain things are specifically for a meal or for yourself

I have to hide treaty food too,usually in the car or my bedroom. Sneak it out for them bit by bit or else it would be gone in a day or two. That's why I dont ever by fruit juice as it's gone in a day!
Middle son has been told tuna is good for building muscle so going through two tins a day! Now he has finished college I'm waiting for him to get a job and he can fund this.
Cereal and toast,fruit and pasta always available !

I second (or is it third?) the reduced bakery shelf in the supermarket.
I freeze stuff too if I see it for a low price. For years I just had a freezer box in a fridge but I do rely on the freezer right now.

Plenty of potatoes with meals, I buy eggs and cheese in bulk sizes.

I try to communicate what is out of bounds by telling them what they can eat. It doesn't always work but they now do more often than not ask before hoovering up everything.

I rarely buy fruit juice!

I’m not sure even my 15 year old ds could manage this! He’s 6 ft and can snack a lot but not to this extent.

In your situation op I would not replace the ice creams / lollies but tell them that is it for this week. Then encourage them to head out and buy themselves treats if they want them before next week's shop.

OP I feel.for you.

When ds2 was 16 I lightheartedly posted in AIBU about his ability to eat a pizza for an after school snack and be hungry an hour later. I got slated for being a crap parent fir not forcing him to have an apple instead

Omg, a whole Apple?
Surely not, I'd say a quarter would be more than adequate

I bet your DS at uni doesn’t eat like that when he has to use his own money to buy food for the week.

It doesn't sound normal to me at all. That's a staggering amount of food. MY DC are similar age and in 5-6 hours would have consumed 2 bagels, about 200ml OJ, 1/2 loaf french bread, 1/2 packet of ham or bacon or cheese (but not all three), some apples, cucumber, carrot sticks and iceberg and 2 small packets of crisps between them.

Greedy pigs. There's no way on this earth they had to eat all that in 5 hours.

maybe you should send them to the supermarket with the weekly budget and ask them to buy food for everyone for all meals for a whole week. that might give them a bit of an idea about how far money doesn't stretch in the supermarket these days.

Mine ate huge amounts, as did his friends. Roughly 4, 500 calories a day to maintain their weight.
When they were living at home, I kept plenty of eggs for them to scramble, usually I double up meals so there is good food to reheat - lasagne, curry etc. Fruit bowl with plain fruit - plenty of apples and pears. Tubs of vegetable sticks.
Toast with peanut butter or pitta stuffed with cheese.
I don’t tend to have crisps, biscuits etc in the house but if he’s around I make a fruit cake that they pick their way through.

I stopped buying all the easy, junky, packaged (expensive).

There's loads of good food available bread, cheese, plain yogurt,eggs, porridge, tinned fish if they're actually hungry but it takes a (tiny) bit of effort so they're less inclined if it's just because they're bored. And it's much cheaper to buy and more nutritious.

Even ice cream, I find, is less attractive if they have to dig it out of the tub rather then just remove the wrapper.

@Ragwort
Dd is currently staying with her BF who is a student.
She's suddenly realised what having no food actually means!
At home she'd moan there was no food which meant nothing she particularly wanted right at that minute.

Kids all grown up and gone now, but jeez, you wouldn't believe the plague of locusts situation when they were all here. Friends and all. Midnight cooking.

Snacking stuff is expensive. Better to have loads of ingredients and teach them how to rustle it up. Pasta, rice, batch cooking chilli or spag sauce and shove it in the freezer. Growing youngsters have hollow legs.

I remember being staving as a teenager and drinking bottles of cold milk and driving my mum mad as there was never any for a cup of tea. Then when I had my own boys they eat me out of house and home!! They were constantly at the fridge looking for food. I use to have to hide food for them. I stoped buying fizzy drinks as they just drunk it like water!! I ended keeping the biscuits and cakes in my wardrobe!! I just cooked big meals!! I remember asking if they had enjoyed there dinner once and one son replied no not much I eat it all up because I’m hungry!! Remember boys don’t stop growing until there 21 and mine all grew to 6ft4

tuck boxes? Hiding food? Christ.
tell them they can have toast, buy a loaf, that's it. Cheap and cheerful even if it's crap.

I think it’s normal, especially if they are very active. My dB ate a ridiculous amount.

dm made large bowls of wholewheat pasta salad, Roast a whole chicken, strip the meat and leave both easily available with tomatoes etc.
Buy high gi food, it makes them feel full for longer. Bananas, peanut butter, Brown bread, Lots of fibre. Make a cake or crumble each week to keep the costs down. Hide anything special.

If they are gym goers I am surprised they ate all the sweet treats
I have 4 boys, youngest now 18 and a couple of them in particular eat vast amounts of food whilst remaining slender
Suggest huge bowls of porridge with berries ( cheaper frozen ones are fine) or bananas for breakfast but you may well get arguments over too much carbs.
The pp who said it is no wonder the nation is getting fatter clearly hasn’t had a hollow legs teenager, mine are all super fit, super healthy with enviable bmi’s, body fat percentages and lots of lean muscle mass. But boy are they hungry, a bacon, scrambled egg and tomato breakfast for one would feed me and DH for a couple of meals.
I do make a point of saying directly eg the chicken and sweet peppers are for tea, please don’t eat them.

We have a house of hungry teens.

I bake scones, cheese, fruit and plain.

Pancakes

Scrambled egg On toast

Beans on toast

Toast

These are my high protein additions to breakfast lunch and dinner. And they are all thrifty and inexpensive.

If I filled the fridge up they would eat it all and cost me a fortune!

When DS visits I stock up on pizza and pot noodles in addition to 3 'proper' meals a day. He's almost mid twenties now and beginning to eat a bit more normally (still goes to the gym)

Give them an "allowance" for lunch stuff each and tell them to make a list of what you should add to the shopping list? If they can see how much all the snacky foods cost, they will rein it in.

In fact, if your DH is also part of the problem you could devolve groceries to the men entirely, giving them a budget. You add what you want but they're responsible for all the rest!

I often roast a chicken and leave it in the fridge for them to graze on between meals. Healthy, high protein, fills them up and not too expensive. Far better than them ripping through loads of sweets and crisps.

male teens are growing which needs a lot of energy.
I have a younger teen who eats 3x as much as I do.
however, we do not have snacks - dc have 4 meals.
if dc is hungry after a meal he can have yoghurt & berries (frozen) & cereal or hardboiled egg & veg or a sandwich.