Are the poor fat?

Another thought just occurred to me too. A friend of mine was complaining about all the goodies at her work place that people bring in. I remember when I worked back then, the break room would have food people brought in to snack on. It was never healthy and I'd eat a lot of it, because I was hungry and not eating regular meals or regularly. So the boss/co-worker brought in donuts/cookies/danish/sandwiches/etc.., i'd be the jerk who hate half of them before anyone else got any. Opportunity to eat was never passed by. If someone offered me the rest of their lunch that they couldn't finish i'd eat it, even if it was comprised of garbage foods.

Another reason the poor can get fat.

Are you kidding?? Comparing a sensible portion of food for your 5 year old daughter to that of my 14 year old son???

My son is a 6 foot 3, 175lbs broad shouldered, football playing, 5k running. weight lifting, camping, swimmer solid skinny teenager. He's a size 32x33 in pants. (Which is at the low end of the "ideal weight" doctors what to see a person of this height be at. ) How does that amount of food amount to too much?? I actually do not think he brings enough for his lunch. I did tell him he should have eaten something else besides a 3rd chicken leg, but boys are also lazy in that they don't want to take a minute to make something else when there is food already hot and prepped. And due to conflicting schedules I am not always there to provide an alternative. He's bigger than (taller and broader) a lot of adults I know. he went snow cave camping and when the recommended meal plans for that came out I swear it was near 4000 calories per day on them!

I fail to see how feeding my growing super active teenage boy enough food to fuel his body is bad parenting or ignorance? he ate all healthy food with a nice treat in there, because kids like treats. I really don't think you have any clue what you are talking about when it comes to feeding teenage boys.

When my son does eat eggs he eats 5 or 6 at a time scrambled with cheese and whatever else I make him put in it, with a side of meat and potatoes and yogurt.

If I was *still* poor. He'd not have had that much food available unfortunately. He's also not be this active or involved in as many activities as he is, so he wouldn't need as much. Because you know it all costs money. If he was 5, he would eat significantly less. When I was young and flat broke, I bought ramen because it was cheap and filling if I had a dollar and a stove. It definitely was not enjoyable nor did it taste good. Food bank are generally open 1 or 2 days a week, during working hours and where I used to live there weren't any close by and a lot of the foods they give you require cooking. (potatoes come to mind) If I could get to one, i'd have veggies for a day or two.. since I had no fridge they'd go bad pretty quick. And I could spend my dollar on what protein exactly??

I completely agree. When I was in high school, I used to marvel at how much my brother and my teenaged male cousins ate. (All over 6 feet tall.) Not only were they not at all overweight, one was on the skinny side as was my brother. And a friend of mine in high school (also a little over 6 feet tall) ate huge lunches-- a typical lunch would be half a chicken (yes, half of a whole chicken), a roll, 3-4 large carrots, and a large apple. (We ate lunch together every day.) He also had large breakfasts and dinners and would eat a couple of granola bars in the afternoon. Not only was he not obese, he was extremely fit. He swam and lifted weights for hours every day before and after school. (He was a finalist for the olympic swim team.) He is still very lean and fit. (He ended up marrying my best friend.)

So yes, healthy teenaged boys, especially tall guys, eat a TON of food. Do NOT compare a teenaged boy's appetite with a child, especially not a 5 year old girl!!!

Regardless, it is still completely unneccessary to feed the amounts of food mentioned to the average teenager. They arent special cases.

Anything that is essentially an entire segment of the population isn't a special case. And testosterone does not cause higher dietary requirements. Being larger in physical size, muscle mass, and activity level does, but those things are not part and parcel of being male.

Back to the part of this discussion of teenage male eating habits, which was that feeding a large, potentially growing person with a high TDEE is so expensive that McDonalds would be cheaper than a healthy meal, which is not true. McDonalds might be cheaper calorie for calorie (but not macro to macro) than what she fed her son, but it's not less expensive than a healthy diet for him in general. With both McDonalds and what she described, nutrition and cost is taking a backseat to subjective enjoyment.