6month old kitten is ravenously hungry 24/7

Simon (6month neutered male) acts like he is absolutely on the verge of wasting away 24/7... I have never seen a  cat THIS food driven. He's mildly overweight, and certainly not lacking for nutrition. He was born in a shelter and has never had to scavenge or go without. When we got him at 11weeks, he had a tiny saggy "pouch" that was mostly just a flap of skin on his belly, but he's since put some..er.. junk in the trunk? He's not hugely obese, and he's pretty active, but I don't want to make him fat from the start. He's been checked by a vet, is worm-free, and growing and gaining weight appropriately. He was 6lbs at his 4 month check. I've always free-fed cats, especially kittens, dry food unless they also got wet food, which was given in meals. Just started Simon on some canned kitten food (Fancy Feast, forgive me. I just wanted to see if he liked it.) His normal dry food is Nutro Max Kitten. Because he has a fat little pouch, we meal feed, 1/3c twice per day. He continues to gain weight on that. Should we just free feed him? This cat will eat ANYTHING... he goes in the trash, will literally try to get in my lap and eat off my plate, and will eat out of the dogs dish if allowed. I actually saw him eat a wax bean the other night.  If you go into the room where his food dish is, he chases after screaming and hollering. When we do go to feed him, he'll try to rip the scoop or container of food out of your hand. Is there something wrong with him? He seems very healthy otherwise.

Sounds like a normal kitten to me. At 6 months he is still growing and with his activity level burning off all of those calories that he eats. I would definitly keep dry food available for him to eat between his wet meals. With my kittens, 11 weeks old I feed them as much canned as they want and have dry kitten food available for them also. Cats don't reach their full size until about a year. My 2 year old boy took about a year and a half to reach his full size and to fill out.

As for trying to get food off your plate, normal also. I try to feed the babies around the same time I am eating to help distract them from my food. Still I am constantly telling them no and placing them on the ground. Eventually they will learn thar momma's food is not for them.

Should we just put the bowl out and let him eat to his hearts content? I'm afraid he'll gorge and end up throwing up.

You could try a slow-eating bowl or put some golf balls in the bowl to slow down his eating maybe?

Bagel (five months old) eats three meals a day, two ounces of raw each time. So a total of six ounces a day, but sometimes I give him more depending on if he's been more active than usual or not (he's enrolled in my older cat's bootcamp program, LOL).

Will he eat until he is full, or will he keep eating and leave nothing in his bowl/plate? My kittens eat a lot, at least double of that which my adults eat. If I I give them a little too much they will eat until full and leave the rest. Of course they may come back in a half hour to a hour to finish what was left. If your kitten doesn't seem to get the message that his tummy is full and to stop eating I would definitly talk to your vet to see what they think.