Obesity and ASD
Sometimes I wish human beings didn't have this emotional attraction to food. We should eat to live and not live to eat. But the pleasure cause from eating is about the only kind to many of us get. Apparently along with all your other problems you get in your 40's your metabolism becomes like that of snakes that swallow an entire pig and them go for months without eating.
Autism either causes you to have a very unusually fast metabolism or a very slow one. Which is probably why autistic people are either skinny or overweight. Science just needs to figure out why autism causes that.
StarTrekker
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From what I’ve seen, the weight issue often tends to be on opposite ends of extreme where autism is concerned. I’m 4’11” and 95 lbs and my doctor has told me she’d really like to see my BMI go up to at least 20 or 21 from its current 19.8. All the members of my social skills group are very skinny, but I have met maybe one or two who were overweight. I can’t remember the last time I saw a normal-weight autistic person.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!
I'm 6' 2" and 165 pounds so would qualify as normal weight, but for most of my life was abnormally skinny. There may be something to the metabolism angle (I'd love to see research on that), but I think sensory issues could also be to blame.
If going outside and being physically active is a sensory burden, autistics will do that on average less than NTs. Furthermore, if like me you have a taste sensitivity, this will affect your eating habits.
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"Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power."
After spending years on WP I am now convinced that the following traits need to be incorporated into the DSM as "sure signs of autism": being overwieight, being underweight, having a larger than normal head, having a smaller than normal head, having more of a sweet tooth than the average person, having less of sweet tooth than the average person, being large, being small, being an animal whisperer, being absolutely clueless around animals, and …
most important of all...
craving chicken mcnuggets!
Researchers need to figure out what is causing that to happen. Also do you eat a lot like the amount of a fat person would eat?
If going outside and being physically active is a sensory burden, autistics will do that on average less than NTs. Furthermore, if like me you have a taste sensitivity, this will affect your eating habits.
Yea I completely agree that autism affects metabolism. But I want to really know why it affects metabolism.
most important of all...
craving chicken mcnuggets!
Autistics tending to the extremes seems to be the main theme. My sweet teeth is really strong.
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"Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power."
I think some autistics eat as a stim, while others avoid or are uninterested in food. Depends on your sensory profile I think.
Other than that I agree with the poster who said autistics are extreme in any direction. Anything we do we overdo.
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I sometimes leave conversations and return after a long time. I am sorry about it, but I need a lot of time to think about it when I am not sure how I feel.
I was pencil-thin before I started taking "medication"...than I puffed out like a balloon. Before the meds, I was constantly physically active and I found it hard to hard to eat because I rarely had an appetite. After the meds, I didn't have the desire to run around and play and was constantly hungry. I just needed something to help me sleep but my mom was amendment I had Bipolar Disorder and told the psychiatrist I had "mood swings". I was fifteen and when you're under eighteen, professionals don't listen to you.
So instead of a sleep aid, I got put on a powerful anti-psychotic. It didn't really help me sleep either because I was still tired in the mornings. I was too tired for school but my mom didn't care and forced me to do my schoolwork (I was home-schooled) and would scream at me when I would fall asleep. She was obsessed with the idea you only sleep at night and punished me when she found me sleeping in my bed in the day time. I was too tired to care and could do nothing about it.
I also got super hungry at night and my parents put locks on the cabinets and refrigerator....mostly to keep me out of the cabinets and making noise so they could sleep. They would leave out vegetables and fruit for me but that wasn't enough. I couldn't sleep due to hunger pains. I started eating paper and dry dog kibble to make the hunger pains go away. I also would sallow cotton balls on occasion. Just something to fill my stomach.
I was never morbidly obese, but I'm no runway model either. When I was a kid and super active and not tired and hungry all the time, I was always getting positive comments on my looks. But I would be in a better place right now probably had I not been forced to take all those anti-psychotics at fifteen and was given a proper sleep aid like I originally had asked.
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Spell meerkat with a C, and I will bite you.
So instead of a sleep aid, I got put on a powerful anti-psychotic. It didn't really help me sleep either because I was still tired in the mornings. I was too tired for school but my mom didn't care and forced me to do my schoolwork (I was home-schooled) and would scream at me when I would fall asleep. She was obsessed with the idea you only sleep at night and punished me when she found me sleeping in my bed in the day time. I was too tired to care and could do nothing about it.
I also got super hungry at night and my parents put locks on the cabinets and refrigerator....mostly to keep me out of the cabinets and making noise so they could sleep. They would leave out vegetables and fruit for me but that wasn't enough. I couldn't sleep due to hunger pains. I started eating paper and dry dog kibble to make the hunger pains go away. I also would sallow cotton balls on occasion. Just something to fill my stomach.
I was never morbidly obese, but I'm no runway model either. When I was a kid and super active and not tired and hungry all the time, I was always getting positive comments on my looks. But I would be in a better place right now probably had I not been forced to take all those anti-psychotics at fifteen and was given a proper sleep aid like I originally had asked.
Tbh that's really terrible that she did that to you.
StarTrekker
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Researchers need to figure out what is causing that to happen. Also do you eat a lot like the amount of a fat person would eat?
No I don't. My whole life I've never eaten enough. I was born 3.5 months premature and had significant physical and growth delays because of it. One of the supports on my 504 plan in elementary school was for the teachers to periodically give me chocolate that my mom supplied throughout the day, just to keep my calorie intake high enough. I have major sensory problems where food is concerned, so being motivated to eat has always been hard for me. I do have a massive sweet tooth though.
_________________
"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!