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Diet and Autism (formerly the 'My Diet Hell' thread)

Steven

I attended an ASD advice session a couple of weeks ago and, amongst other questions, I was asked if I obsessed over anything (it was put more gently than this, of course). I'm often a bit slow to realise obvious things, so I couldn't come up with an instructive answer.

Hours later, it dawned on me that I'm needlessly over-concerned with losing weight. I am 5-foot-9 and exactly 11-stone which, as far as I'm aware, isn't over-weight anyway; so why the obsession? It perhaps doesn't help that I'm truly terrible at everything from basic mathematics to understanding weighing-scales in an ordinary fashion (I frequently think of '11-stone' as '11 o'clock', and can't get out of the rut of thinking that mistaken way). Obviously, this obsession features the usual calorie-counting routines and fretting about the *enormous* calorific legacy of adding a single sweetener to a cup of coffee. All this is difficult to explain because, like most people, I defiantly tell myself that I don't care what others think of me or my appearance...while secretly worrying about what others think of me or my appearance...and vice versa.

Anybody else have this or similar problems?

Parents

  • I’m five foot eight and presently 12 stone exactly. It’s taken me the entire year to lose half a stone at a glacial pace. The only way to achieve it was to make it a low key private obsession. A similar thing happened exactly a decade ago when, having hit 13 stone (my slowing metabolism sort of snuck up on me and when a regular customer at work pronounced ‘youre getting very fat’ - he had No filter apparently- I knew I had to take action.) My rationale: ‘ I’m bald, I’m ugly, I’m overweight. There’s only one of those I can do something about.’ (I’m less about the ‘ugly’ these days, as while I’m no oil painting i think I had BDD for quite a while - in fact I must have because I was objectively and with certainty the ‘world’s ugliest man’ in my own mind for many years, barely able to go out some days except I had a pay cheque to earn). 

    Anyway, over a year on that occasion I got down to ten stone and a half - the ideal for my BMI. I have that in my sights once again, but my metabolism is twice as slow now  - taking Venlaxafine for a time, just to survive, seemed to cause catastrophic and permanent results there- so I don’t know how that will go. 

    im not one of life’s great exercisers. A stranger yo the gym, I prefer the odd walk instead. So my weight loss battle is really with modest restriction of calories - nothing more dramatic is feasible for the long haul. If I stay under 1700 calories in a day, I lose a fraction of a pound. If I stray over, I gain the same or more. The kitchen scales and carefully reading boxes/wrappers are the only ways to be precise enough to be sure. I’d like to win my battle again, and sustain a heathy or optiimum weight as before, this time not letting emotional damage bring me back onto meds that cause such rapid gain.

    So yes, I can identify! But fixating on the numbers does seem to be the only way, so not too unhealthy overall I think…

  • in reply to Shardovan

    My problem for most of my life was the opposite - to gain weight, 

    At the age of 18 I was 5foot4 and only 8.2 stone. I couldn't get my weight up even though I was eating. At least until I started working in a factory and doing heavy lifting there. Thanks to  my 15 years of work slavery I managed to get my weight up to 14 stones. But last year I started cycling to work again after 5years break from it. During December and January, cycling15min to work and 20min back I lost almost 2 stones in a month. I was terrified. Good it stopped there. Keeping steady 12.3 stones for few months now. But I can and do eat a lot, wintertime my diet oscillates around 4-5k calories daily

  • in reply to Mariusz

    Hi :) I'm also in a constant battle to gain weight- it is such a struggle for me.... digestive issues don't help and by this point I have a lot of anxieties around food and I also seem to have super fast metabolism and just do not gain weight easily... Exercise used to help me too to boost appetite etc but sadly I've been unable to do much for a while now due to injuries... I'm glad you seem to have figured out a way to maintain your weight- out of curiosity- how do you manage the 4-5k calories a day- do you have quite calorie dense food? Do you have large meals or many smaller ones? I'm just curious as I am basically also aiming to get as many calories as possible ideally in a reasonably healthy way that doesn't upset digestion too much...

  • in reply to Ann :)

    I love it. Chips receipe is from Jamie Oliver's website

  • in reply to Ann :)

    Sweet potato fries + halloumi + chipotle mayo. Cumin, cinamon, paprika, cayenne pepper, black papper and salt, and a bit of rapeseed oil for chips. One layer of chips on a pan. Flip after 20min, add halloumi slices on top, and 20min more in the owen. Sometimes I make steamed broccoli with green beans to top it up. 1kg of sweet potatos and a block of halloumi makes two meals

  • in reply to Mariusz

    Thanks :) it's a good idea to put snacks on the desk. I used to try and do really big meals but I struggled with that so I also tend to aim for frequent smaller portions. I have barely ever had sweet potato- maybe I will give that a try :) 

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