Forgetting to Eat?

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Yes. I do. Although the frequency of missed meals seems to be decreasing with increasing age.

yes, and that is one of the main reasons I began to look seriosly at the fact that I may have aspergers... that trait of being so engrossed and forgetting to eat, and whenever I would ask other people about that, to see if anyone else does that, I would get laughed at, because apparently that is just so absurd. However, turns out that is one of the key reasons I now know what I know-- that I am a 43 year old aspie. The hand flapping thing held me back on diagnosis for a long time, since I don't do that. Till one day I read about "leg bouncing"... and it was AH HA! uh oh.....

I am pretty sure I am forgetting to eat right this moment.

Yes, I haven't eaten since breakfast because I originally forgot to, and now I am too lazy to make myself anything even though I am starving lol.

It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's almost scary. I'll be doing something and then next thing I know I haven't eaten in 8 hours. It's strange to think how easy it is to ignore my needs when I'm busy doing something.

Last edited by SammichEater on 11 May 2011, 7:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I often forget to eat, but not long enough to cause problems most of the time. If I've been wrapped up in something all day, yeah.

Fluids? I never actually feel thirsty, so I have to make a conscious effort to remember to drink or I will get severely dehydrated, unlike hunger which I will feel even when not hungry.

I don't remember if I posted about this before, but forgetting to eat has been a serious problem for me, whether I feel hungry or not. I've only in the past six months managed to cut it down and seriously eat three times a day and not put off lunch or dinner for hours at a time because I can't managed to get around to it. I mostly used scheduling apps/software to manage it, and now that it's part of my routine it's easier to remember.

No I am fat and proud of it.

I forget to eat a lot.

This is a well-known autistic trait.

I am fat, but I often have trouble getting the calories I'm supposed to get in a day. Sometimes because I forget to eat.

Recently, I started eating every 2 hours, which helps. ...Unfortunately, these past couple of weeks, I've had trouble mustering the energy to actually eat at the times I'm supposed to.

This is where creating rules/routines help for ASD individuals.

In the case of eating food, you can "create" a rule which is that you shall eat a meal soon after you wake up, even if you're not that hungry. You might also have messed up sleeping patterns or insomnia like many other Aspies, and you might be waking up at night or in the early morning, but eat a meal anyway, even if it's not literally "breakfast".

You can then create a rule for eating the second meal around 4-5 hours after you first.
Create a rule for eating the third meal around 4-5 hours after the second.

For stocking the food staples, you'll have to create a list of food that you generally eat in the average week. ASD individuals have an advantage in that they don't get bored as easily with eating the same foods day after day after day. There may be some nutritional deficiencies with such a repetitive diet, but this can be fixed if the repetitive diet is adjusted to contain sufficient carbohydrates, protein, fats, fibre, vitamins and minerals etc, in conjunction with food having tastes and textures that are tolerable. If you hate the taste or textures of most vegetables and fruits, you can obtain your fibre from wholemeal bread, beans/pulses, Metamucil supplements, and you can obtain your Vitamin C from supplements too which are actually affordable (perhaps even more so than fruit).

Create a rule to go grocery shopping once a week to buy all of the food that's written on your "Food week list".
Create a rule to go grocery shopping on a Saturday or a Sunday, in the morning or the afternoon.
If you want to go shopping less often, then multiply your "Food week list" by the number of weeks that you're stocking food for. Eg if you want to go shopping only once a month, then you have to multiply the "Food week list" by 4.

I did that a lot when I was in college and I don't think it's a bad thing. I could afford to not eat and lose some weight anyway. *shrug*

If you become Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian, you should be able to live on a food budget of around $US 35 equivalent/week with 3 standard meals a day.

From what I've seen in Australia (not sure about US), meat is much more expensive than beans as a protein source. Undoubtedly meat contains all of the essential amino acids and beans don't, but you can always complement the beans with rice or oats.

I'll put it this way, this thread just made me realize i haven’t eaten in almost 24h.

off to find food...

Yes, but routines don't work because I have trouble following them. I don't have a very good concept of time. I cannot tell you how many times I have thought it was about 10:50 AM and looked at the clock and seen that it was 12:00 PM.

I remember once I was at school, and my favourite teacher came into the room to talk to me. It was lunch time, which is 75 minutes at my school. We talked the whole time and I ended up eating at 12:20 when lunch ended at 12:30.

Setting the timer doesn't work either because I say to myself "Well, I'm almost finished this, I'll finish it then eat". Then something else catches my attention. By that time, I have totally forgotten about food by that time.

About eating when I am not hungry: My body won't let me. I just can't do it.

I'm voracious.

Probably because I've been on a near-permanent diet for over a decade.
When I was hospitalized for anorexia, all the girls made collages of our favorite foods,
and talked about all the foods we'd eat if we could.

I fantasize about eating whole pizzas and big fat burritos. Sometimes I even dream about food.