[quesera]

Sugar content is a function of serving size, of course.

The astonishing thing to me is that we can sell a 32 fl oz (950 mL) drink as "large", instead of "a week's supply of empty calories that you should never consume in one sitting".

[grishka]

I distinctly remember having my mind blown by fast food drink sizes when I visited the US. A "small" there felt like what we would call "large" here in Russia. Our small soda is usually 300 ml at most.

[nicoburns]

> fast food drink sizes

Food sizes too. I was regularly splitting a meal across two sittings (e.g. eating the other half of my lunch for dinner) when I was in the US.

[bluGill]

That isn't enough information to learn anything.

Activity level matters a lot. Genetics matter a lot. There are a lot of late teen boys (teen boys are likely in sports at school, and hormones means they will use a lot of energy anyway) who need 6000 calories per day. There are a lot of adults only only need 1700 per day (they really should exercise more!). We can talk about the 2000 calories daily requirement, but that is a round number that is close enough for discussion but not really relevant to any individual.

What you grew up with matters - if your body is always low on calories it will compensate by growing less, so if you someone young gets calories they will tend to be larger (there is a lot of genetic variation between humans that makes hard to measure at levels smaller than national population over decades), in various ways and need more calories to maintain the same weight. It isn't clear if this shows up in anything other than body size though some suspect it does.

There is also the question about what people eat between meals. Some people eat big meals but never snack between meals. Some people don't eat much at a meal - but they always have snacks in between. There is a lot of variation. I know some people who get half their calories from soda (beer is another large source of calories for some people, but that starts to get into alcoholism).

There is probably more that you don't know about others and so be careful about drawing any conclusions.

[Reubachi]

You're missing the forest for the trees, and the point of OP.

That growing young male teen you reference (not sure why we need to focus on boys, here) would not in any circumstance choose a 500ml Coca Cola to satiate their "hormones". Nor word any trained dietican.

That's the point of this discussion. There is enough information to learn everything about a healthy balanced diet. Your point is not that; rather your point is that there are....different habits of animals. Yes, agreed.

[bluGill]

Male teens have genetic differences from females or adults that mean they will normally need a lot more calories.

I agree that soda is not a good way to get those calories