How many calories does a 13yr old boy need each day

I think you need to focus on healthy food choices as well as serving sizes. My weight problems started when I was very young, and most of my issues were from eating too big of portions. My mom always cooked and we ate out very rarely, but I always had seconds and ate big portions.

This is one thing that I work on teaching my normal weight 5-year-old daughter. When she finishes something that tastes really good to her and asks for more, I am trying to teach her that just because it tastes really good, we don't need to eat more unless our stomachs are still hungry.

I actually flipped out on my ex because he was buying her not only a happy meal at McDonalds, but an extra cheeseburger as well. There is just no need for a 5-year-old to eat two cheeseburgers for dinner. We are on the same page now, and we both try to limit the fast food to once a week or so. She really doesn't get sweets at my house, because I don't want them around, so she gets them a few times at his house.

I think it's more important to talk about the health effects of certain foods, but to also learn to eat proper portion sizes, even of healthy foods. I don't buy unhealthy snacks, but I do keep a variety of healthy snacks (individual pkg of peanuts, kids Cliff Bars, individual packs of Goldfish) on the "snack shelf" in the pantry and fresh fruit in the fridge so she can help herself when she is hungry, but I also try to limit the "boredom snacking" if I notice her doing it.

I never want my child to have to struggle with weight the way that I have, but I also don't want her to become too body- or weight-conscious and lean the other way either. I really try to focus on health as much as possible, and remember that I am the grown-up, so I control what comes into my house and what my daughter ultimately eats.

You can make sweet potato fries as a healthy delicious snack. They also sell "Banana babies" which is a frozen banana covered in chocolate treat...it's in popsicle section at the grocery store.

I have two 13yo kids. Actually, my son I'm not too concerned about, he balances good food choices with good exercise. But I am concerned with my daughter. She has always been very thin but all off a sudden she's got a butt and thighs. I know puberty has a lot to do with it but I'm still concerned, I don't want her to have the same weight issues I have.
Like you, most of our meals are healthy, homemade meals. One thing I do is limit portion sizes. Of course they get enough to eat but I pay attention. Are they taking seconds because they are still hungry or do they just want to eat more because it's yummy?
You say your son is a computerhead and you've started limiting that time. Could he earn more time if he goes out and does something active? Just a thought.

Calorie recommendations for a boy, sedentary lifestyle, age 9-13 is 1800, age 14-18 is 2200. Add 0-200 calories for moderately active lifestyle. It's a common activity in health classes for kids that age to log a typical day, so you aren't going to scar him for life if you log a few days and see if he is eating the recommended number of calories and looking for trends such as servings of dairy, sodium, etc. and you just might create an opportunity to teach him a bit about making healthy food choices.

If he likes being on the computer and video games, for every hour of it make him get out and play or ride a bike, exercise, play basketball,catch, whatever just get him moving!! My son is 14 and overweight also but is now logging his meals and exercise on a website and has been steadily losing weight but he also joined football so he works out at school everyday so I guess it is the combo of being aware of what he is eating and more exercise that is working, and the website will let him know if he is over or under the the daily limit for his age weight and height or weight loss goal,I will have to ask him what the website is can't think of the web address but will post later.

I have this concern about my little brother. He is visibly very overweight, carries all of it in his stomach and hes only 9.
For breakfast the other day, he had garlic break, pizza, blueberrys and pancakes, then he ate again 2 hours later! It drives me insane that my mom lets him and that I cant do anything about it.
If I were you, I would load up on fruits and low calorie snacks for him to munch on, and stop buying most junk food (its not helping him in his development anyway so there's no need to waste money on it), he will eat something healthy if he gets hungry enough. And a possible idea for more activity is he has to spend as much time outside and he does on the computer, he spends an hour on the computer, he has to go for an hour long walk, bike ride, playing baseball, etc.. A guy on the doctors does it with his son and he said it works well, you could also half that time if you dont want to push him too hard (ie: half hour out for every hour on the computer). I would also try to (subtlety) educate him about how calories work and how much really are in the foods he eats, I know I had no idea how much calories some of my favorite (and seemingly healthy) foods had in them, before I started looking them up.
Good luck!

Don't forget your excellent example in trying to make healthy changes too.

Make sure to play up your accomplishments, not to nag him, but just making sure he is very aware of the smart choices you are making, hearing the why you are doing it, how, ect.

Then just making sure he has available the same wise stuff to eat and do.

remember that boys that age grow in a somewhat peculiar pattern. They kind of grow sideways, then shoot up, and that cycle is repeated a few times.

If you're reasonably confident he's eating plenty of veg, getting some exercise most days, and not eating too much sugar or fried food, it's possible that this is what's going on.

My little girl is going through this process. About two months ago, she had the slightest of bellies on her. Now she's 2 inches taller, and not an ounce of extra fat on her!

He goes to a class once a week where he learns different martial arts and self defence. He does P.E twice a week.
And i was looking into a local gym they have for kids.
He hates sports of any kind.

But apart from that he's a massive computer head. I did put a pc timer on to limit the time (which didn't go well :laugh: )

It's so hard cos there is virtually no motivation from his side, he just see's me as nagging him.

I wonder if there are any mums on here that have the same problem as me, perhaps we can share tips.

Maybe have him go to more martial arts classes a week?