Casual Conversation

Ah. I'd say that's about normal for 14. It won't last forever, but teenagers need a lot of food, and if you're in a guardian role, you're on the hook. I'm not sure what other complaints you might have, but for that one I think you need to come to terms with it. It's unfair to him. Some kids need more food than others, and it might be that your expectations are out of line with reality.

When I was that age, I was working stage crew at the high school one night. My mom brought baked pasta and Pepsi to the school. I ate it. When I got home, she asked me how everyone liked it. I told her I ate it all. She said she made enough for everyone on the crew. I told her she was wrong. She only made enough for me.

Another tidbit from that time: with everything I was eating, I was still barely getting enough. I could eat as much as I wanted at every meal, and I was still deathly skinny. I was 6'4" tall and only 185 pounds. When I was 16 and started dating my future wife, I briefly stopped eating (love struck). I dropped down to 165 in two months. I never noticed at the time, but when I look at pictures from back then, I look like a skeleton with skin stretched over it.

I have three kids and they are all above average height. My wife would make food for the week on Sunday, and by Tuesday morning it was all gone.

My advice is to make sure that he eats one serving at a time. Make it clear that he can come back for more as much as he needs to, but to the extent possible get him in the habit of eating one normal serving and then stopping for 30 minutes. That won't reduce the amount he needs, but it will help him avoid eating more than he needs. That's more for his benefit than yours. It will help him avoid overeating later.

You can tell him I told him so. I stuffed myself at every meal growing up. When I was done growing, it took me decades to unlearn that habit. I ended up gaining a lot of weight. So, I made that rule for my kids and they've all stayed down to a reasonable weight.