# Teenaged boy eats like a starving wolf -- normal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105 "2012-02-07T19:34:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/61 "2012-02-09T01:14:45Z")
When my son was about 10, to the amazement of the waitress and my husband’s friends, he ate an entire Denny’s Lumberjack - pancakes, bacon, ham, sausage,eggs, toast and hash browns. He’s now 21, and that probably wouldn’t hold him over till lunch. And he’s thin ( but very muscular) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/62 "2012-02-09T03:23:40Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > One issue I have with the “everyone must watch their weight, most people don’t need more than 2000 calories a day” is that they ignore the fact that some people do. ^ This. Earlier this year I posted in a thread that I was eating 2500 calories a day and still losing weight despite being a short woman over 40, because I was _that physically active_. Everyone is different, with different activity levels, genes, ages, needs… 1500-2000 calories a day might be a good benchmark for the _average_ US adult, but not everyone is average. (My job is no longer as physically demanding, so I’ve cut back on the calories, in case anyone was wondering. Also reached my current weight loss goal. Yay me! Will consider taking another 5 pounds off this spring/summer.) ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/63 "2012-02-09T05:10:58Z")
Today my teenage brother ate for breakfast: 2 whole eggs and 2 whites, scrambled large raisin bagel toasted, slathered in peanut butter half cup of blueberries 2 cups of coffee For dinner he ate: 1/2 pound of blackened lemon pepper haddock 1/3 pound of roasted asparagus 1/3 pound of roasted baby bok choy 1.5 cups of raw cukes, carrots, and bell peppers dipped in light ranch 1/3 a cup of cooked brown rice 3 large glasses of water Dessert was 2 cups of decaf coffee and 2 tangerines ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/64 "2012-02-09T05:15:28Z")
> [@AndyLee](#): > > I ate like this, but if you watch carefully, you will find boys do not eat as constantly as you think. I might have ate like that for a day, then not eat at all for the next day. I think in the end it balances out, but you don’t notice it as much. Bwahahaha! If my 13 year-old son didn’t eat for a day, he’d call 911 and tell them he was dying. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/65 "2012-02-09T05:25:44Z")
having been a teenage boy with two brothers, raising one boy to 20 and a 12yo in the house I have come to the conclusion that boys start to eat at 12 and don’t stop until they are 21! Boys will eat as much as they can as they are building muscle, keep some tasty healthy things around the house to lessen the issue of long term diabetes etc. But totally normal. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/66 "2012-02-09T05:36:34Z")
Yeah, if I hadn’t put all that in front of him for dinner he’d eat two Tony’s pizzas instead. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/67 "2012-02-09T05:47:52Z")
Tony’s Pizzas suck – all you can taste is black pepper. I was like that in high school too. I was always a scrawny kid, despite being short, and fortunately I have a fairly fast metabolism. I remember I could put away two Stouffer’s french bread pizzas and a can of root beer, then maybe a bowl of ice cream an hour later. And very little weight gain. I just always burned it off. (In fact, when I was little, I was almost _underweight_. I was pretty much all legs.) Now, I don’t think I could eat like that, nor do I want to. But I’m still pretty slim, and I don’t gain weight all that much. (Thank god!) (I do drink a hell of a lot of milk, though. I love milk.) ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/68 "2012-02-09T15:21:21Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > ^ This. > > Earlier this year I posted in a thread that I was eating 2500 calories a day and still losing weight despite being a short woman over 40, because I was _that physically active_. > > Everyone is different, with different activity levels, genes, ages, needs… 1500-2000 calories a day might be a good benchmark for the _average_ US adult, but not everyone is average. > > (My job is no longer as physically demanding, so I’ve cut back on the calories, in case anyone was wondering. Also reached my current weight loss goal. Yay me! Will consider taking another 5 pounds off this spring/summer.) When I was in my twenties I was the girl the other girls hated. I was 5’7", weighed a little under 125 and could eat pretty much whaterver I wanted. I recall lunching on mac and cheese and hot dogs and brownie sundaes. But at one point something happened and I was convinced I had to “start eating healthy”. So I began watching calories and fat and eating salads and yogurt and lots of vegetables and healthy portions. I didn’t have much trouble sticking to my healthy eating but I shortly got into a little bit of a medical issue, my weight had dropped to 110, I stopped having periods and was constantly fatigued. My doctor, after a very brief exam, told me to “eat like a pig”. Which I began doing and soon my weight was back up to the 123 range and the other symptoms resolved. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/69 "2012-02-09T16:03:22Z")
Reading this thread is making me hungry! ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/70 "2012-02-09T16:06:49Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > My mother, with three daughters, talks about the barbeque she had with a girlfriends family. Her girls and her friends three teenaged boys, plus two sets of parents makes for ten people. \*\*Ten people means four pounds of hamburger. \*\* Turns out four pounds of hamburger is not sufficient for three teenage boys, and no one else ate (I think we got the jello salad). It didn’t occur to the boys to take one hamburger and wait until everyone else had them - they were inhaled coming off the grill. And the boys were looking for more. > > I think it was the last time my father allowed that family over for dinner. Bwah!? 4lbs of burger is barely enough to cover ten vegans. If I was \*not \*overeating, I would have two 1/4lb burgers at a grill out – as would most other men and some women. The burgers could easily be a 1/3 of a pound too. Did your mom stretch the hell out of your burgers with breadcrumbs or cornflakes, making what I call a meatloaf burger? That’s the only way I can wrap my head around that being even close to a reasonable ratio. If I knew people were really going to chow down, I think a pound per person is a safer ratio for a party. And that’s in addition to bratwurst. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/71 "2012-02-09T17:06:30Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Bwah!? 4lbs of burger is barely enough to cover ten vegans. If I was \*not \*overeating, I would have two 1/4lb burgers at a grill out – as would most other men and some women. The burgers could easily be a 1/3 of a pound too. Did your mom stretch the hell out of your burgers with breadcrumbs or cornflakes, making what I call a meatloaf burger? That’s the only way I can wrap my head around that being even close to a reasonable ratio. > > If I knew people were really going to chow down, I think a pound per person is a safer ratio for a party. And that’s in addition to bratwurst. A serving of meat is three ounces. You are supposed to be eating the veggies and fruit, too. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/72 "2012-02-09T17:26:14Z")
Four pounds of hamburger would be enough for me to make the chili to put on the hot dogs, brats, and other stuff we amuse ourselves with while we are waiting for the meat to cook. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/73 "2012-02-09T17:57:30Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > A serving of meat is three ounces. You are supposed to be eating the veggies and fruit, too. A three ounce burger is ridiculous. There is nothing more embarrassing than inviting people over for dinner and running out of food. If you know kids, especially boys, are coming, you have to be prepared. One tiny burger each is not going to cut it. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/74 "2012-02-09T18:28:45Z")
1986: Two 17 year old boys are riding out to Bird’s Hill Provincial Park for a weekend camp-out. a distance of about 40 km. Breakfast between the two of us: 1 pot of coffee, 4 liters of skim milk, 1 package of side bacon, 1/2 doz eggs, 6 slices of toast each with peanut butter. Lunch: 4 salami and cheese sandwiches , 1 can of tomato soup, 1/2 large box Old Dutch potato chips. Each So, to answer your question. Yes. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/75 "2012-02-09T18:46:16Z")
As someone who was already overweight, I didn’t go through this stage, and got a lot skinnier as a result, weighing nearly half of what I weigh now. But I knew a lot of people who did do this, and they didn’t change size at all. For example, our first chair tuba player in band would always eat whole packages of American cheese. I suspect this sort of thing is why diets are frowned on for the under 18 set. And I still don’t get the physically active thing, since, if you actually use one of those Calorie counting thngs, you’re supposedly using up far fewer Calories than would ever help you lose weight. As advanced as we are, it still seems like something is missing. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/76 "2012-02-09T18:46:38Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > A three ounce burger is ridiculous. There is nothing more embarrassing than inviting people over for dinner and running out of food. If you know kids, especially boys, are coming, you have to be prepared. One tiny burger each is not going to cut it. A three ounce burger is the right size for a grade schooler, or someone whose appetite has declined with age or sickness. However, for kids who are in junior high or high school, a three ounce burger is just one of the four or five that the kid will consume in a meal. Now, if you’re a guest, it’s polite to make sure that you take ONE serving and then wait for everyone else to also take a serving before you go back for more. Piling all the best stuff onto your plate, when others are waiting to eat and haven’t had a chance to have a burger or whatever, that really IS starving wolf behavior. But the host is also supposed to ensure that there’s enough food for everyone. If that means that you ask the guest to bring something, then do that. And if you really can’t afford to provide food for everyone, don’t invite people over for a meal, or make it a group effort. I think it’s pretty unrealistic to expect everyone to have tiny appetites. So I see rudeness on both sides here. When I was growing up, my mother was pretty active in a church, and we had the normal potlucks and such. A couple of families were famous for bringing, as their contribution, a bowl of Jell-O. Just plain Jell-O, no added fruit or marshmallows, and it was clearly just one box’s worth of it. However, those families expected to munch out on everyone else’s fried chicken and casseroles and whatever else. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/77 "2012-02-09T19:05:35Z")
I think **Lynn** has nailed it - there were two things going on there (not enough food supplied realistically, and impolite behaviour by the boys). ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/78 "2012-02-09T19:21:19Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > A serving of meat is three ounces. You are supposed to be eating the veggies and fruit, too. Oh, no. I’m sure I eat far too many servings of those as well. Nothing says being a generous host like holding everybody to the goddamn food pyramid. I can just picture the comic sans font on the world’s worst BBQ apron: A serving of meat is three ounces. Bon Appétit! ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/79 "2012-02-09T19:35:31Z")
I can easily see a family of daughters that are light eaters having no idea the amount of food that teenage boys will consume if given the opportunity. My husband doesn’t eat much now, and if I hadn’t grown up around my brother and his bottomless friends, I could easily see myself making a similar mistake in portion estimation. Hell, one of my friends ate an entire beef brisket by himself at our last barbecue. I did not anticipate that, as they are not usually single-serve items. (He did make sure everyone else was done eating first, and it wasn’t the only meat. It was surprising, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105/80 "2012-02-09T19:39:35Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I think **Lynn** has nailed it - there were two things going on there (not enough food supplied realistically, and impolite behaviour by the boys). Yep, although my mother had no idea that teenage boys would eat more than four times as much food as her teenage girls or her husband. If she had, she’d have put out lots of cheaper hot dogs and skipped the burgers or made it a pot luck or not had them over during a mealtime. She’d been feeding us all on a shoestring so four times as much food as she normally used to feed her own family seemed generous. My fathers problem with them was not that they ate that much, but they ate it all without letting anyone else have an opportunity for a burger. That was not eating like a starving wolf behavior, that was raised by wolves behavior, which my father doesnt tolerate. Had they waited for everyone to have one burger, then taken a second, and maybe even a third, they’d have been fine. But my parents got 20 burgers (little ones) from four pounds of hamburger, three boys should not have eaten seven each before anyone else got one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/teenaged-boy-eats-like-a-starving-wolf-normal/612105.md?page=5)