How much does your teen boy eat?

[ZNation]

Curious as I think my teen is overeating. He isn't noticeably putting on weight and he has always been skinny but the food he eats I think is excessive.
I know teens eat more but I'd love to hear exactly how much their teen eats so I can see if it's excessive . He is 14 so would love to hear of similar ages.

DS is an adult now but I remember how he could consume so much in a day. He exercised regularly and has always been lean and muscular ( continued into adulthood).
Bread, milk, cheese and chicken were the favourites. He had his own shelf in the pantry and fridge to satisfy his snacking. If it’s healthy stuff then I wouldn’t worry. Stay away from processed crap if you can.

If he isn’t fat, how can it be excessive?

At one point I was better acquainted with the back of his head as he stared into the fridge, than I was with his face.

It was like shovelling food into a lift shaft, it was impossible to fill.

I have DS 15 and DS 13. Honestly you would not believe the amount of food we get through. It's perfectly normal for teenage boys to eat a lot.

Ds2 is 14. Today he’s had 3 weetabix, half a baguette with cheese plus half a bad of Doritos and an apple. Large slice of cheesecake, big bowl of curry (chicken and veg) and rice, chocolate chip cookie. He may well have toast before bed. Not the healthiest of days..

Op, surely if he is not putting weight on, that tells you something? He is a child, not an adult. He needs fuel because he is growing. Lots of boys go through massive growth spurts at this age. My brother grew nearly 5 cm in one year. My mum started feeding him an extra meal at 10 pm at night; something like pancakes or egg and chips. I wouldn't be cutting his food back, I would be making sure that he is eating good quality food , not junk.

I have teenagers and honestly keeping them fed is a major preoccupation ATM. I never thought I would be spending so much time food shopping and cooking at this point but honestly it's never-ending!

My DS eats roughly the same amount that three adults eat a day!
They are growing and going through puberty. That takes an enormous amount of calories.
Don't stop him eating if he isn't overweight!

He’s skinny and he isn’t putting on weight. So he isn’t overeating.

I have two teenage sons and my food bill is my bigg pest monthly expense.
They are both active, slim, etc and they eat a lot more than l do.
I don't buy takeaways, my eldest works so he buys his own if he wants them, and l cook mostly from scratch. Chicken, tuna salmon, steak and mince are our staples with rice, jacket potato, veg fajitas etc. Lots of porridge, toast , cereals, fruit , cheese and yoghurts, gallons of milk and water. I stopped buying junk like crisps and chocolate, just try and fill them up on nourishing food.
I am a single parent, they often cook for themselves as l am at work etc but l had no idea before hand how much teenage boys can eat.

My 14yo has only just slowed down his eating. He is a 6'2" string bean.

For about 18m (ie from 5'5" to 6'1") he was eating the same amount as dh, who is also 6'2", except that dh was running ultra-marathons.

Each week we went through:

• two to three dozen eggs, most of which were eaten by ds,
• three loaves of home-made bread between dh and ds,
• three large blocks of cheddar (OK we all like cheese)
• 3kg potatoes
• 750g rice
• lost track of pasta, we never seemed to have any, no matter how much I bought.

With ds1 it was similar, but peanut butter and tuna rather than eggs and cheese. And he reached 5'10", but is also a string bean.

I tended to keep good stocks of easily available protein, rather than biscuits.

I don't have a teen boy but can well remember how my brother and his friends just inhaled food. My parents always agog at how quickly it all disappeared and learned to add extra but bulky basics to the weekly shop, like loaves of bread so they could devour rounds of toast, etc. None of them were fat, or even particularly sporty.

All.of.the.fridge!!!!
I have 2 ds with v different metabolisms. Fuck me....around £400 lidl pounds to feed our family pm.

Hollow legs

A lot! He has just gone through a big growth spurt and will happily eat his own portion and finish off any leftovers from anyone else. He also seems to want to snack constantly and definitely sneaks down to the snack cupboard after hours. I'm hoping it's just a faze but his dad also could eat for England neither of them are overweight.

DS(14) would happily eat his way through our local Sainsburys. He’s tall and skinny (he’s a bit self conscious atm because his friends call him lanky) and packs it away - it’s ridiculous the amount he eats. I’d like to say it’s all healthy but I’d be lying.

Everything in the house some days! Will quite happily eat 4 or 5 weetabix as a snack….. he does do a high level sport but I don’t think it’s unusual among his peers. His intake would easily equate to 4 or 5 meals a day for me, I cook once for everyone he usually cooks another meal for himself then 2 “snacks” which are meal sized.

Huge amounts. He had a large three course meal for tea the other night at about 6pm.

He then came down at 11.30pm and made himself 6 scrambled eggs on 4 slices of toast.

That's what they do. He is 16, 6ft 2" and skinny. You can't fill them.

Today my 13 yr old ate
2 weetabix,
Pitta, carrot and hummus
Garlic bread, adult sized pizza and chocolate ice cream (dinner out).

He doesn’t have many snacks throughout the day. Most days he has a smallish breakfast, a regular sized lunch, then a huge dinner and then biscuits, fruit, toast etc - back to cluster feeding! He’s only 5ft3 so I’m expecting the eating to bump up soon.

At that age it is only excessive if it is crap they are eating or they are putting on too much weight.

Try to fill them up with protien - eggs or cooked chicken are more filling that working their way through a box of sugary cereal etc. Or tuna pasta is easy enough to make themselves and quick and filling.

Mine isn’t excessively sporty or tall (5’8ish) but easily eats 3x what I eat and is skinny (not slim - skinny). Milk, eggs, weetabix, porridge, bread disappear as soon as they come into the house. Also have a teen girl and she eats more crap but substantially less in terms of meals and doesn’t have 12 weetabix and 8 slices of toast as a random snack. He will have 2 dinners and then a massive supper.