CaloriesA surge in appetite around

Calories
A surge in appetite around the age of ten in girls and twelve in boys foreshadows the growth spurt of puberty. How much of a surge? Let’s just say that Mom and Dad might want to oil the hinges on the refrigerator door and start stockpiling a small cache of their own favorite snacks underneath the bed.

“Adolescents seem like they’re hungry all the time,” says Mary Story, “especially boys.” Calories are the measurement used to express the energy delivered by food. The body demands more calories during early adolescence than at any other time of life. On average, boys require about two thousand eight hundred calories per day; and girls, two thousand two hundred calories per day. Typically, the ravenous hunger starts to wane once a child has stopped growing, though not always, says the dietitian. “Kids who are big and tall or who participate in physical activity will still need increased amounts of energy into late adolescence.” During middle and late adolescence, girls eat roughly 25 percent fewer calories per day than boys do; consequently, they are more likely to be deficient in vitamins and minerals.