Teen boys and portion sizes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you do realize shrimp has far fewer calories than beef, right? 5

Yes, of course I know that, but this is an issue that comes up with a variety of meals. It just happened to be shrimp on the particular night that I wrote this. The shrimp he ate was also sauteed in butter, and there were plenty of other things like pasta and bean soup and whole milk and dessert that had calories.

Why would anyone drink whole milk with this meal? Ewwww.

Teen boy athletes who are starving all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much meat exactly are you buying?

I usually plan on servings of 4 - 5 ounces of meat, and at least a second serving for the teens. So, I'll make quarter pound burgers, and the teens will get 2, or I'll buy 5 oz salmon portions, and have seconds available. The shrimp night, I think he'd eaten about 1/2 a pound of seafood when we ran out.

Plus, as I said, I'm buying other meat, so I might have a turkey or chicken sandwich meat in the fridge, and chili and breakfast burritos with sausage (and without for the vegetarian) in the freezer that just needs to be heated up.

You aren’t making enough food. I make about a pound of children per kid per meal of boneless skinless breasts. This is for my son and daughter. 4 oz servings would be really tiny for either of them. I think my daughter eats more than my teen son.

[Anonymous]

Chicken!!! Not children. Terrible autocorrect

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He can eat as many lentils as he wants also.

💯

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chicken!!! Not children. Terrible autocorrect

Sure, sure

[Anonymous]

I dont think you are serving enough food op. You need other more filling proteins. Make a meatloaf, make bbq chicken thighs ( he needs at least 4), make some drumsticks or make a roast. Unless shrimp is brought served with steak or at lunchtime I would take shrimp off the menu. Not for expense bit its simply not filling enough. A bag of frozen shrimp is relatively cheap. What does your husband eat? Is your spouse stopping to eat a burger on the way home?

You telling him to eat beans when he wants meat is dismissive. He does need to understand the cost of food and budgetary limits though but you shouldn't be dave ramsey telling him to eat beans and rice

[Anonymous]

I can appreciate that you are trying to budget, but judging by the meals you referenced serving, I don’t think you are actually in a situation where you wouldn’t be able to afford more of the non-veg protein. If this has repeatedly come up, which it sounds like it has, you need to serve more of the food your son actually wants to eat. It’s honestly a bit controlling to be this rigid about the portion sizes another person eats when you are making healthy meals. Go back to Ellyn Satter, like you did with toddlers. You decide what is served, the child decides which foods he will eat and how much. And a 4 or 5 oz portion of fish is nothing for a teen athlete and he shouldn’t have to guzzle whole milk because you are dismissing his appetite.

[Anonymous]

And if you are talking uncooked weights...a 4 oz burger cooked or a pound of raw meat divided in quarters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much meat exactly are you buying?

I usually plan on servings of 4 - 5 ounces of meat, and at least a second serving for the teens. So, I'll make quarter pound burgers, and the teens will get 2, or I'll buy 5 oz salmon portions, and have seconds available. The shrimp night, I think he'd eaten about 1/2 a pound of seafood when we ran out.

Plus, as I said, I'm buying other meat, so I might have a turkey or chicken sandwich meat in the fridge, and chili and breakfast burritos with sausage (and without for the vegetarian) in the freezer that just needs to be heated up.

You aren’t making enough food. I make about a pound of children per kid per meal of boneless skinless breasts. This is for my son and daughter. 4 oz servings would be really tiny for either of them. I think my daughter eats more than my teen son.

She is saying 8-10 oz of meat per teen which is more than enough. The teens can either eat other food or use their allowance to buy meat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much meat exactly are you buying?

I usually plan on servings of 4 - 5 ounces of meat, and at least a second serving for the teens. So, I'll make quarter pound burgers, and the teens will get 2, or I'll buy 5 oz salmon portions, and have seconds available. The shrimp night, I think he'd eaten about 1/2 a pound of seafood when we ran out.

Plus, as I said, I'm buying other meat, so I might have a turkey or chicken sandwich meat in the fridge, and chili and breakfast burritos with sausage (and without for the vegetarian) in the freezer that just needs to be heated up.

You aren’t making enough food. I make about a pound of children per kid per meal of boneless skinless breasts. This is for my son and daughter. 4 oz servings would be really tiny for either of them. I think my daughter eats more than my teen son.

She is saying 8-10 oz of meat per teen which is more than enough. The teens can either eat other food or use their allowance to buy meat.

And yet repeatedly her son is still hungry for more and being offered lentils and milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shrimp isn’t even that expensive compared to other animal proteins these days. We just perceive it to be because it was in the past.

I think the issue is you have a hungry growing teen and it sounds like you live in an “ingredients” house. He wants more shrimp because it’s already part of the nice hot cooked meal. He doesn’t want to be draining tuna cans! If you have meats/proteins prepped that he can just reheat, he will eat those.

Where are you buying shrimp thay you don’t think it is expensive? It’s 10 times more expensive than lentils.

We are on a budget and with teenage boys we rarely served protein alone. Shrimp had to be mixed with pasta. But it’s not a great leftover food so I would pick something else

I buy it at Costco and Trader Joe’s. Yes I know it’s more expensive than lentils, but I was comparing it to animal proteins (fish, meat, chicken breasts, etc). It’s definitely 10 times tastier than lentils…

Shrimp is an animal protein, wth?

[Anonymous]

Tell him he’d have even less shrimp if his sister ate it too!

[Anonymous]

Agreed with the others saying "you can both eat as much lentils as you want." It's not a fairness thing because you're not preparing the vegetarian proteins just for one kid, you're preparing them in large quantities to stretch the meal and provide nutrition for everyone.

To the commenter saying "poor kid is going hungry because he's being told to eat lentils: please. Its a preference. The idea that he will still be hungry without unlimited MEAT is very cultural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can appreciate that you are trying to budget, but judging by the meals you referenced serving, I don’t think you are actually in a situation where you wouldn’t be able to afford more of the non-veg protein. If this has repeatedly come up, which it sounds like it has, you need to serve more of the food your son actually wants to eat. It’s honestly a bit controlling to be this rigid about the portion sizes another person eats when you are making healthy meals. Go back to Ellyn Satter, like you did with toddlers. You decide what is served, the child decides which foods he will eat and how much. And a 4 or 5 oz portion of fish is nothing for a teen athlete and he shouldn’t have to guzzle whole milk because you are dismissing his appetite.

This is funny, because I am a big fan of Ellyn Satter. Her advice is to do exactly what I did. She says it’s fine to limit one food, for budget reasons, or because you only have a certain amount on hand, as long as there are other foods on the table that the kids eat regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much meat exactly are you buying?

I usually plan on servings of 4 - 5 ounces of meat, and at least a second serving for the teens. So, I'll make quarter pound burgers, and the teens will get 2, or I'll buy 5 oz salmon portions, and have seconds available. The shrimp night, I think he'd eaten about 1/2 a pound of seafood when we ran out.

Plus, as I said, I'm buying other meat, so I might have a turkey or chicken sandwich meat in the fridge, and chili and breakfast burritos with sausage (and without for the vegetarian) in the freezer that just needs to be heated up.

You aren’t making enough food. I make about a pound of children per kid per meal of boneless skinless breasts. This is for my son and daughter. 4 oz servings would be really tiny for either of them. I think my daughter eats more than my teen son.

She is saying 8-10 oz of meat per teen which is more than enough. The teens can either eat other food or use their allowance to buy meat.

And yet repeatedly her son is still hungry for more and being offered lentils and milk.

He might have food issues involving sibling jealousy and craves more food because he's limited and she is not. Is he NT?