Asperger's and anorexia?

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This is just ridiculous. You can't live off of only 300 calories a day. Of course you're going to give up after a few days, because your body needs more energy than that.

Try setting a more reasonable amount, like 2,000-2,500. That's enough, unless you actually have an active lifestyle, then it should be more.

I haven't had any eating disorders, I simply eat as much as I can until my stomach says I've had enough. When I was younger, I was almost considered to be underweight, although, now, my weight is very close to what it should be for my height and age.

Somehow I lived for a year like that....at first, I was living off of stored fat, and then my body began deteriorating. I only got down to the range between 80 and 85lbs, so I definitely had some extra to live off of. I think Karen Carpenter got down to 75lbs (?), and she was taller than I am.

She also had Anorexia Nervosa for years, so it is possible to live for a duration of time longer than a few days, but it will eventually hurt or kill if continued.


I believe the recommended minimum caloric intake is around 1,500 a day without exercise and with dieting to lose weight, but that depends on other factors like as well like height.


When I fasted (as a cleanse) more recently, my calorie intake was less than 500 calories daily and I did it for 10 days straight, no problem. When you dramatically lower your calorie intake, your metabolism slows down.

I have nearly 20 year recovery in a 12-step program. Loads of people in recovery from substance abuse have struggled with eating disorders. Issues of addiction (of all stripes) germinate from attempts at control, and feelings of isolation. When I was young I obsessed with calories and exercise and weighing myself, it would consume most of my thoughts.

I would be easily convinced that people on the spectrum, with all the sensory issues, are very eligible habitual eating "differences" I hesitate to say disorder, because, nowadays I just do not have any appetite whatsoever, and unless I have a social cue that it is mealtime, I actually forget to eat.

I wonder about this. I have issues with OCD (nothing too detrimental, usually just annoying) and have over-eaten habitually for years, but it's a habit I've tried hard to break and I have made progress with. I worry about it because I really like being able to control myself, but I don't want to accidentally push it past the line of what's healthy. It's a really hard one to pull off in today's world, considering what goes into so much of the food out there.

Female aspie here, and I certainly have never been anywhere near anorexia not bulimia. I suffer the opposite at times, as i have used binge eating as a coping mechanism at times of emotional turmoil

I've been anorexic since I was 11. And it's quite obviously connected to AS.

It started as a special interest. I read everything about eating disorders and dieting before I even thought about losing weight myself.
And then one day I weighted myself and it was 50kg. I don't like the number 50 but I adore the 49. So I thought I want to weigh 49. And then I just went on playing number games with my weight...
I also loved all those neat little rituals I developed around food and exercise.
It just narrowed my whole world down to the small and predictable world of anorexia nervosa and I loved it.

Also the first time I ever had some social success was a few month later when I blurted out my low weight during one of those diet discussions the other girls had in the changing room.

It was never about the way I looked, I think I wasn't even conscious of the fact that I looked different in the beginning.
It was about numbers and predictability.

And then it also was a way of living my weirdness in a socially acceptable way...

Im 29. Im 5"11 120 pounds. Ive never been over 130. I have had trouble since I was a teen. My mom use to get crazy angry with me because I turned vegetarian and I think overall my having Aspergers I was just seen as a disappointment to them. They had the "perfect" life, house, yard they wanted me to be the same and I just couldn't be. Well I got to the point I just stopped eating I wasn't hungry anyhow. Animals were the one constant that had never and still haven't let me down I wasn't going to eat them no matter what.
Then after I left home it still continued it became a thing I could control and still to this day it's only of the things I feel in control of in my life. I do think poorly of my self but I really don't care what I look like. For me it's also a form of self harm and I also just rarely feel hungry. When I was up to 130 I didn't feel right I felt fat. I got mad at myself. I do eat healthy when I do eat. I never counted calories or anything. What I do is not eat as a type of punishment. I exercise some but not excessive. I get worn out easy but I do love to walk and hike.

I don't have anorexia, but I have other food issues. I comfort eat and have done it since I was 12. I'm trying to restrict my diet and loose weight (IBM around 30). In a sick way, I almost wish I looked like an anorectic. When I was in a mental hospital, almost no-one went to the gym activities except for me and the girls from the eating disorder clinic. They all looked so petite and pretty and I felt like an elephant in comparison.

I don't have anorexia, never have, even though I've become more self-conscious of myself and scared to get fat. I am naturally skinny, but my brother has scared me because he's naturally skinny but has put on a lot of weight because he eats a lot of chocolate, but even so, I eat other fattening things but don't put on weight like he did. I can't go without my food though - if I don't eat substantial food for lunch and dinner, I start getting a hollow feeling in my stomach and I get really stinging pains from acid, and once they come they don't go unless I lay down, even eating doesn't get rid of it, and then I've become too hungry to eat, if you know what I mean.

So I don't know how some people can go without eating and live through those agonizing stinging acid pains. Ouch!

I don't think I have anorexia, but i don't exactly eat enough......as of now its 12 in the afternoon and I haven't eaten anything at all, though I am going to have to if I want my stomach to stop feeling how it feels. It just pisses me off because it does not matter how much freaking food I eat in a day I still feel like I am literally starving within hours of eating and certainly will the next day.

Eating seems like an endless struggle to avoid hunger pains, I hate having to force myself to eat food I don't want because my stomach hurts. I prefer to enjoy food but yeah I'm not sure what's up with this. I wish I knew of something full of calories that comes in a can for cheap so I could just at minimum have enough in my body to prevent the stupid hunger pains so then that's taken care of and when I am actually able to enjoy food I can make it and eat it......but yeah I think its a lot to do with my ptsd, anxiety and depression....all those things seem to make eating a hassle.

that actually is not opposite of anorexia, there is even a type of anorexia with binge eating as part of it.

Try souper meals if they have those where you live. I like them. They are like the cups of ramen noodles but bigger and better quality. They are $1. I actually need to buy more soon. I only have one left and it was defective. It had two vegetable packs instead of a vegetable pack and a soup mix pack.

Another things I found to be tasty, filling, and easy to make (but not cheap) is the pancake and sausage on a stick.

But is it more filling than ramen? because one major issue with ramen I run into is well I might as well be drinking a cup of water because that's about how filling it is. But if these things you speak of are a bit more filling and such maybe it would be an idea.

And I am sure that could be good, though typically I'd probably just settle for a pancake and sausage on a plate, then of course I only like syrup if it's pure 100% maple syrup otherwise it's too sweet and gross.

They are bigger, the noodles seem thicker, and it has more flavor.



I like the ones on the stick because it's easier to cook (you just heat them up in the oven) and then I don't need a plate.

Yeah I've had those noodle things before.....it has more flavor but I can eat one of those and still be just as hungry if not hungrier than I was before within the hour of eating it and well water and noodles just doesn't do much for me I guess and its one of those foods I get burnt out on in like a day. I need something with lots of calories that will stick around for a while rather than being sucked into the abyss. And yeah I imagine it would be easier to cook that way. I just typically don't like sausage and pancake in my mouth at the same time so if I did that I'd probably take it apart before eating it.

Another eating disorder myth is that only women get them.

I developed anorexia when I was 23, and ended up in a treatment centre. I definitely think it is related to my autism, though I didn't have the diagnosis back then. It became my obsession, and gave me rules to follow when my life was particularly challenging. I was very overwhelmed, both sensorily and socially. I became obsessed with numbers and calculating what I was allowed to eat. It gave me a narrow point of focus.

It never started out about weight. I didn't think I was fat at all. It wasn't until I had been starving myself for a while that I started caring about how much I weighed. I think that was from the effects of starvation - like that study where men who were starved started exhibiting eating disorder behaviours.

Even now, I feel some dislike for my weight, but that's only because it's right on the high end of normal. I still go through brief periods where in order to cope with something overwhelming, I stop eating. Those have gotten much less since discovering Asperger's and being diagnosed.