Autism and Obesity
16 May 2023, 1:44 pm
When I used to go to the local city support group of adult autistics and aspies (would like to find the time to go again), and we would fill the little Asian restaurant that we met at...the ratio of fat folks to non fat folks seemed to be about the same as that of the general population. Minority fat, but a large minority (like in any crowd of Americans).
+++++++++++
Post script
I would describe "obesity" as being a common problem. Not as a "popular problem". 
If something is a "problem" then by definition it cant be "popular". Just sayin.
16 May 2023, 7:05 pm
That's me - forgetting to eat. I'm not affected by the additive thing because I hardly buy any processed foods, preferring simple vegetables, making my own meals from those, baking my own bread etc. Obesity has therefore not been a problem here.
But I can understand the temptation to eat tons of addictive, calorie-rich junk food if somebody wants to spend all day pursuing a special interest and so doesn't want the distraction of food preparation getting in the way. Still, there are ways of minimising the necessary labour time for the latter. My staple diet is salads, egg on toast, and a mixture of mashed potatoes and a few cooked vegetables - I make that mixture in a large batch and just microwave a portion at a time when I want a meal. All very quick and easy. Being such a restricted diet, I analysed the vitamin and mineral content from FDA tables and now make up the few deficiencies with calculated amounts of dietary supplements. Happily, the repetitive, restrictive nature of my diet made the analysis and calculations relatively easy, and now it's done it's really not hard to administer. I made a bit of a special interest of it until I'd got it all worked out.
18 May 2023, 12:49 am
Since early teen hood I've had a passion for physical fitness and swore, when I was like 14, that my legs would NEVER get flabby or old looking.
I'm over 50 and my legs are so athletic looking and toned. They don't have that aged look.
My BMI is 21 point something. The obesity in autistic women I see all the time, coupled with excessive flabbiness, makes me cringe. There just is no excuse. Workouts can be done at home, and workout equipment is cheap on Amazon. Don't get me started on this. I used to be a personal trainer and I could go on endlessly.
I'd think that with all the struggles that autistic people have, the one thing they can do that puts them on an even playing field with NTs is that of exercising and strengthening their muscles, looking toned, fit and firm instead of like Homer Simpson or like your body is made of bread dough.
The extent of flab I see in YOUNG ADULTS with autism is just so sorrowful. And I'm talking higher functioning here, not more severely autistic.
I began weightlifting in high school, driven by a need to feel superior to other girls, as I was not able to fit in, and felt like so many classmates disliked me and thought I was weird. I coped by making my body strong and fit looking.
All throughout adulthood I have worked out. It's a priority. I've lived paycheck to paycheck and still paid for a gym membership. It's all about priority, where you put your limited money. But even your OWN BODY WEIGHT can be used as an exercise tool. So even if you're dirt poor, you can still work your body to avoid that Homer Simpson or flabby doughy look.
As for obesity, it's cheaper to eat normal size portions of healthy food than it is to over-consume cheap junk food.
Half of the U.S. is fat. So of course, autistics get included in this epidemic.
Obesity is NOTHING to be celebrated, like all those huge loon-bags on TikTok do.
Man, the OP really opened a can of worms here (metaphor)
18 May 2023, 2:52 am
Theres a simple explanation for the link
Many teens with autism have ADHD and ADHD drugs cause weight gain.
Some poor souls have to take anti pysicotic meds which are horrible in general but one such side effect is weight gain.
_________________
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
- George Bernie Shaw
18 May 2023, 5:07 am
I don't know about obesity, but from my observations, lots of autistic people do look like they'd be slightly overweight. Not that I can say for sure since I don't know their actual weights and am not a professional, so I could be mistaken in some cases...
In my case, I was overweight from my pre-teen years to late teens/very early twenties. I moved out of my parents' place at 18, and that's when I started to lose weight because I had to make and pay for everything on my own, so I could no longer afford all the foods I used to eat. That and I moved from a farm to the center of a small city, so instead of needing my parents to drive me everywhere, I could actually walk to stores and such. Plus, having street lights around made the idea of going for a walk after dark, which comes way before 4 pm and ends what, around 10 am, at winter time, far more appealing.
I'd think that with all the struggles that autistic people have, the one thing they can do that puts them on an even playing field with NTs is that of exercising and strengthening their muscles, looking toned, fit and firm instead of like Homer Simpson or like your body is made of bread dough.
Good advice for the autistic women (and men) who got lucky and were born physically healthy, but for us that were born physically disabled, it's not as easy. My muscles and stamina are weak because of a permanent health complication that I was born with, and there are others like me as well. While it's true that we too can and should exercise, our bodies are weaker than an average person's for good no matter what we do. I think people should take this possibility in to account when dealing with strangers; the other might not have been born with the privilege of being physically healthy that those who have tend to take for granted.
18 May 2023, 9:48 am
In my case, I was overweight from my pre-teen years to late teens/very early twenties. I moved out of my parents' place at 18, and that's when I started to lose weight because I had to make and pay for everything on my own, so I could no longer afford all the foods I used to eat. That and I moved from a farm to the center of a small city, so instead of needing my parents to drive me everywhere, I could actually walk to stores and such. Plus, having street lights around made the idea of going for a walk after dark, which comes way before 4 pm and ends what, around 10 am, at winter time, far more appealing.
I'd think that with all the struggles that autistic people have, the one thing they can do that puts them on an even playing field with NTs is that of exercising and strengthening their muscles, looking toned, fit and firm instead of like Homer Simpson or like your body is made of bread dough.
Good advice for the autistic women (and men) who got lucky and were born physically healthy, but for us that were born physically disabled, it's not as easy. My muscles and stamina are weak because of a permanent health complication that I was born with, and there are others like me as well. While it's true that we too can and should exercise, our bodies are weaker than an average person's for good no matter what we do. I think people should take this possibility in to account when dealing with strangers; the other might not have been born with the privilege of being physically healthy that those who have tend to take for granted.
Though dyspraxia comes at a higher rate in autistic people than in NTs, it's not accurate to say or imply that autims often comes with physical disabilities. This gets shot down when we consider that there are many athletes with Down syndrome who are very toned and even muscular from their workouts. Yet Down syndrome, 100 percent of the time, comes with naturally LOW muscle tone. Not only does this make it more difficult to get toned and firm, let alone muscular, but it also makes it harder to keep a healthy weight, since low muscle tone means a slower metabolism.
Yet I have seen people with DS who are practically shredded from workouts. There was a guy at my gym with DS who'd go around to the various machines and really pump it out, and he'd go around flexing his muscles with pride. I'm not saying any of us should bulk up like Mr. Olympia, but I'm using the DS as an example of how, despite being born with health ailments (many with DS have heart problems and other physical issues, not just the low muscle tone), one can STILL do strength training with gusto. This includes people with cerebral palsy.
In college was a student with severe CP (he used a motorized chair), yet he'd slide off it while in one of the campus weight rooms and use the pulley machines very diligently. This guy was ripped, despite not being able to walk, and despite not even being able to steadily hold a glass of water or write with a pencil.
Its not about money or accessability to gyms. Amazon sells incredibly cheap resistance devices, and the human body itself makes a great "bodyweight exercise" tool.
Autism does NOT cause low muscle tone. It's a neurotype, not a physical health ailment. The prevalence of obesity and excessive flab among autistics is TOO GREAT to attribute to a higher rate of health ailments such as Ehlos-Danlos (sp?) syndrome, dyspraxia, etc.
However, dyspraxia doesn't preclude feisty strength workouts. Strength training does NOT require coordination or the ability to walk in a straight line.
I see old people at the gym, and I mean OLD, really putting it out there. And they are so very toned, even though they may hobble around.
People make excuses. That's what it boils down to. Unless one has a condition that makes it PAINFUL to strength train, or Prader Willi syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that causes continuous intense hunger that can't be suppressed with any amount of food -- there just is no excuse. There are military vets with permanent disabilities who still manage to use weight machines and dumbbells, and they're very toned, even muscular.
Let's face it: America is the laziest, fattest country, and autistics are part of this epidemic.
18 May 2023, 7:00 pm
I don't have a weight problem.
I don't need to lose weight -- I'm almost underweight.
Reason: Genetics. None of my mother's immediate family are obese.
To a point that my mom can be mistaken as someone in her late 30s... She's almost 60.
But this doesn't necessarily mean healthy.
For all I know, I'm just not visibly fat.
Reason: More genetics. My dad's side of the family is prone to obesity and other diseases related to it.
Plenty of my cousins and most of my aunts from his side of the family gains weight easily.
And the autistics I've known varies too much.
_________________
Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).
Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.
20 May 2023, 12:34 am
None of us can put ourselves in someone else's shoes. There is no way to judge why someone is fat and it's wrong to judge someone for being fat, because we just don't know what is going on in their lives that brought them to this point.
No one wants to be obese. If they are, there's a reason, whether psychological or physiological. Saying that it's just down to laziness is lazy thinking. Being a human is complex. Our relationship to food is complex. Our minds and wishes and anxieties are complex, and they relate to how we behave in relation to food and physical activity. Our bodies are complex and everyone's is different.
There is a school of thought in psychology that there is actually no such thing as laziness. When someone finds themselves doing something that is harming them or that they don't want to be doing, laziness is not enough of an explanation, there has to be something more going on. If it was just laziness then the person would be able to stop doing the thing that is harming them, so there has to be something more.
And it's really terrible to shame fat people. It's cruel and it's unnecessary. We don't know why any one person is fat. There could be so many reasons. And why add to their stress by pointing out something they probably don't like about themselves already.
20 May 2023, 2:22 am
iv always been thin
back when i was a alcoholic i was almost like a skeleton
im still thin now but a more healthier thin
my partner often says my arms are too thin but i dont want to many muscles to show it might make me look masculine
i do eat a fair amount but i dont overeat
_________________
Have diagnosis of autism.
Have a neurotypical son.
20 May 2023, 2:34 am
I'm over 50 and my legs are so athletic looking and toned. They don't have that aged look.
My BMI is 21 point something. The obesity in autistic women I see all the time, coupled with excessive flabbiness, makes me cringe. There just is no excuse. Workouts can be done at home, and workout equipment is cheap on Amazon. Don't get me started on this. I used to be a personal trainer and I could go on endlessly.
I'd think that with all the struggles that autistic people have, the one thing they can do that puts them on an even playing field with NTs is that of exercising and strengthening their muscles, looking toned, fit and firm instead of like Homer Simpson or like your body is made of bread dough.
The extent of flab I see in YOUNG ADULTS with autism is just so sorrowful. And I'm talking higher functioning here, not more severely autistic.
I began weightlifting in high school, driven by a need to feel superior to other girls, as I was not able to fit in, and felt like so many classmates disliked me and thought I was weird. I coped by making my body strong and fit looking.
All throughout adulthood I have worked out. It's a priority. I've lived paycheck to paycheck and still paid for a gym membership. It's all about priority, where you put your limited money. But even your OWN BODY WEIGHT can be used as an exercise tool. So even if you're dirt poor, you can still work your body to avoid that Homer Simpson or flabby doughy look.
As for obesity, it's cheaper to eat normal size portions of healthy food than it is to over-consume cheap junk food.
Half of the U.S. is fat. So of course, autistics get included in this epidemic.
Obesity is NOTHING to be celebrated, like all those huge loon-bags on TikTok do.
Man, the OP really opened a can of worms here (metaphor)
Unusual way of wording it but I do find it surprising that many autistics are under or unemployed with a huge abundance of time yet still won't use that time to gain or lose weight seeing it's putting them at a great advantage compared to others.
Simple workouts take as little as half an hour and I would be going stir crazy with the amount of time many other autistics seem to have on their hands. Looks are one of the few things autistics have control over that could actually put them at an advantage over NT's.
20 May 2023, 4:56 pm
In my posts I mention MANY times, "Flab." A person could be medium or "normal" size and still have excessive flab. I see overweight women at the gym working out with gusto, and they are NOT flabby. The toned, strong muscle beneath the layer of fat (not flab) creates a firm, trained appearance. It's not so much as, "Why are so many autistic people fat," as much as, "Why do barely any autistic people TRAIN WITH WEIGHTS
I see autistic women/men in their 20s who have more flab than the 60-year-olds I see in the gym. Unused muscle will significantly impact health LATER ON. Flab (untrained muscle, regardless of how much excess FAT is in the body) is strongly correlated to a host of health issues in later life.
I can't even begin to explain; there's tons of research backing this up. And I already explained in detail how unecmployment or being short on money is no excuse and how to get around that if one is low on money. Furthermore, the flab issue (and obesity) ALSO occurs in autistics who have well-paying jobs.
20 May 2023, 5:00 pm
back when i was a alcoholic i was almost like a skeleton
im still thin now but a more healthier thin
my partner often says my arms are too thin but i dont want to many muscles to show it might make me look masculine
i do eat a fair amount but i dont overeat
Muscles don't make a woman look masculine. What gives a masculine look is clothes, hairstyle, facial structure, even the way one walks. A woman could be shredded with muscle and still prevent quite femininely. It takes a tremendous amount of intense training to develop significant musculature. And I mean tremendous. Women have one-tenth the testosterone as men, and less muscle to start out with. You will not grow manly arms by accident. However, I do realize that some women think just a small hint of muscle is "too much." You will not get Serena Williams' shoulders and arms with fitness weight training.
| Similar Topics | |
|---|---|
| Autism |
13 Mar 2024, 7:44 am |
| Autism |
31 Jan 2024, 12:58 am |
| Autism and living alone |
07 Apr 2024, 11:06 am |
| A father with autism |
08 Apr 2024, 10:51 pm |
