That was just for himself! A lemonade, two appetizers, and two entrées, but they comped him one appetizer because it wasn't what he ordered. Still $75 including tax and tip. He went there with his teammates after their meet in Ft Myers.

New rules - I'll pay for 1 drink, 1 appetizer or entrée.

Kid is 6' and 155lbs. I'm not sure which amazes me more, that he thought a $75 lunch would be OK or that he ate two appetizers and entrées. The running joke for his swim team banquets is you have to get inline before him or there won't be anything left. Now I'm thinking the kids weren't joking.

The unlimited dining plans at college are looking like the way to go.

My former stepson was a competitive swimmer in high school and college, and ate similarly. It wasn't just that he ate big meals, he also ate all day long before/after/between meals. Still remained skinny and lanky, through a combination of super high metabolism and high activity level.

Luckily his between-meal food of choice - cereal and milk - was cheap, which helped keep the grocery bills reasonable. It wasn't uncommon for him to go through an entire jumbo bag of cereal and gallon of milk in about two days, eating ~8 bowls of cereal per day (in addition to large meals).

It also helped that his favorite place to eat out for several years was Applebees, because they had bottomless appetizers for like $15 or $20 in the early 2010s. So he could absolutely gorge himself for a reasonable price.

The unlimited meal plan in college was definitely necessary, as was making friends with the dining hall staff so they bent the rules to allow him to take food with him, to have stuff to eat even when the dining hall was closed.

In terms of quantity, it doesn't sound like much. He's bigger than me and I could easily eat like that into my 40's. That being said, I would never spend $75 at PF Changs on myself. It would be like spending $50 at McD. I couldn't do it and certainly wouldn't enjoy it. But if someone else is paying, well....

I'm not sure why you're surprised at the amount of food a 17year old competitive swimmer would eat...it sounds about right, especially after a meet.

I shoot with a early 30ish guy in IDPA and we all go out to eat after matches. He normally orders 2-3 entrees and a couple of appetizers.
After big matches we do the steakhouse thing and he'll order a app, salad, steak and a pasta dish...his real estate business or his wife's business must be doing okay...and he's a generous tipper.

I wouldn't spend that much at PF Changs's, but only because I think they're over priced for middle of the road Chinese food. but $100 is pretty normal for a dinner for 3 at a good local Chinese place

I was amazed how much my former swimmer trained while in college. With that level of training, a lot is needed to refuel.

2014 SEC Championships. She is 6’3”


2014 National Championships

Seventy five? Wow. If I spent $25 on one meal with tip I’d be salty about me wasting money.

It all made sense as soon as you said swimmer. All of the parents for our team would take turns buying buttloads of snacks for every meet. If you want him to eat less you need to suplement it with other food or talk to the coach about hitting and all you can eat buffet!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
talk to the coach about hitting and all you can eat buffet!!!

With that appetite, gotta hit the buffet.

Yes, he eats a lot, but not normally that much at one sitting.

The girls wanted to go to Chang's because it's right around the corner from where the meet was and actually the closest one to us. We don't have one in our county.

For perspective, he and I went to Culver's after the meet yesterday and both of us ate for $21. In other words, knocking out the $12 tip, he spent three times as much on food for himself today as we spent for both of us yesterday.

He drove himself today. They go to eat after practice and meets fairly often, but it's usually under $30.

I was about that size in high school and I'd put away about 10,000 calories a day during swim season. But I wasn't doing it at PF Chang's!

Applebees has all you can eat for $14.99. Just sayin

Get ready for college expense. Universities are experts when it comes to picking your pockets.Things like facilitiy fee: 500 bucks. It goes on and on.

I was more impressed that he had that much money of his own. Props.

I'm surprised we haven't hit the wall yet with the cost of eating out skyrocketing in the past year but every where we go the restaurants are packed.

$75 for basically lunch for two is astonishing for me.

quote:

New rules - I'll pay for 1 drink, 1 appetizer or entrée.

When my son got out of the Marines he was a monster, buff that is. After the first outing where he ordered three entrees a few beers and an app I laid down new rules too. I can't afford that

Mrs. Lee used to work at the PF Chang's corp. HQ. She was their token Chinese employee. One of the perks of her job was a prepaid $1200 gift card each year that could be used at their restaurants. That was 10 yrs. ago, so a little cheaper then. We had a hard time using it all up. We eat real Chinese food, so PF Chang's was only the choice when we needed to treat someone as a thank you for borrowing their truck, out of town guests, etc., and I would use up a lot at their bar. Since that perk went away when she took another job, I haven't eaten there once.

Last night I went to my favorite Mexican place alone, had an entree and two margaritas - $39 was the pre-tip tab. But the food and drink were worth every dime.

I was a competitive swimmer/ 3 sport athlete in high school. My normal meal was about 12-14 plates at the chinese buffet, or 6-8 entrees at your average restaurant. I literally worked to eat back then, because my parents couldn't do it. I was skinny as a rail back then too, but I was an absolute bottomless pit for food.

I can't imagine how bad it would be with food prices now, so you have my sympathy.

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:

My normal meal was about 12-14 plates at the chinese buffet

And half an hour later, you were hungry again.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:

My normal meal was about 12-14 plates at the chinese buffet

And half an hour later, you were hungry again.

Sure was. These days I don't even go to buffets because I don't feel like I can beat the buffet anymore. 2 plates for lunch and I don't even want dinner.