Stealing food

My son isn't autistic an cleared the house of every sweet and treat in the interval between school closure and my arrival home from work in his teens. I'd scream blue murder about the unholy mess of crisp packets and ice cream tubs to clear out of his room later, lol. To an extent kind of normal teen lad behaviour.

What does your son say about it? Does he also eat a healthy dinner?

Might be an average teen phase. Might be an autie sensory foodie thing. The former isn't much to worry about, the latter might be.

Hi dawn. 
He never stops eating to be honest. He would eat multiple meals a day if i let him. He once said he doesn’t know what “full”feels like. 
so hard to know whether it’s a teen boy or autism. 
it’s the receipt and addiction to it that concerns me I guess, plus he is Massively overweight. Just don’t know what to do with him. 
he took a giant bag of mini eggs from the shelf this morning without me knowing and had eaten them all, plus a wispa. He denied it at first then confessed and got v upset about it. 

Hi dawn. 
He never stops eating to be honest. He would eat multiple meals a day if i let him. He once said he doesn’t know what “full”feels like. 
so hard to know whether it’s a teen boy or autism. 
it’s the receipt and addiction to it that concerns me I guess, plus he is Massively overweight. Just don’t know what to do with him. 
he took a giant bag of mini eggs from the shelf this morning without me knowing and had eaten them all, plus a wispa. He denied it at first then confessed and got v upset about it. 

Ah, doesn't know when he's full. This is the opposite of autistic people who don't detect they are hungry. That's me very often.

The problem and answer is the same in both cases. The person needs to understand that interoception, including the on/off hunger switch is not functioning as it should and instead try to work out a healthy, balanced number of calories and vits and eat them in a predictable routine and schedule. 

Might be worth checking out he's not comfort eating for emotional reasons on the top.

But basically, he needs it ramming home to him, his body can't tell him what he does and does not need, so he needs to work that out with his brain instead and stick to it or he'll be ill

Jenny said:

He once said he doesn’t know what “full”feels like. 

This is a hypo-sensitivity to interroception. He needs to understand that if he can't feel full then he has to use other methods to know when to stop eating, or when to eat or not. Not feeling full may not be the same as feeling hungry all the time, have you asked him whether he feels hunger? He might feel hunger which triggers eating, or he might not feel hunger either and eat for other reasons.

It is more difficult if he feels hunger all the time as that is a negative feeling which he would want to make go away, but then if eating doesn't make it go away then he would have to learn to accept it somehow, counselling might help?

Does he actually want to do something about being overweight? Does it actually bother him? Don't assume it does because it bothers you, have a conversation with him about how he feels - if he understands how he feels as he may also have alexithymia and not be able to understand or articulate about his feelings (not the same as not having feelings!) If it doesn't bother him then you might need to discuss with him the health problems of being so overweight.

Without knowing how healthy you are yourself it is difficult to know how this next suggestion might work, but the best way is often to lead by example or tackle a project together. If you are at all overweight yourself, or even if you are not as fit as you would like to be, you could suggest you both work on improving your health together. Stop buying the unhealthy foods and instead buy healthy foods, work out meal plans together and maybe even try to get him to cook with you. Start going for gentle walks together which gradually get longer and faster  - exercise needs to be built up or it hurts and can cause injury as well as being very offputting! Find some videos on youtube or TV catch up, or podcasts, books, blogs, there is so much material out there, (though some is more helpful than others) and watch/listen/read it together. If he feels it is the two of you working together it could bring you closer, whereas if he feels it is you imposing it on him then he will feel criticised and got at. If you are super healthy then maybe bring someone else in as the partner who can work with him, if he has a sibling, or another relative, or a friend.

You do also need to be careful if you do manage to get him on board with this not to go too far as there is a danger with food of it becoming an eating disorder.

From personal experience I can say it is much easier to lose weight by a combination of diet and exercise - diet alone is extremely difficult! Today's lifestyles are far too sedentary and advertising is a terrible bad influence.

could that be some medical condition if he doesnt ever feel full?
maybe his stomach needs checking out if the signal to indicate hes full isnt working.