Aspie women and weight

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OK, this has been something that I have been thinking about for a while, and it's been really bothering me.

It seems there is a link between aspie women and eating disorders. But are aspie women always thin?

Actually, I have noticed the opposite, that Aspie woman seem to be more on the heavier side than thin.
Then again, maybe like the rest of the general population we cover a wide spectrum.

However, eating disorders (both over-eating and under-eating) might be more prevalent in women with Aspies due to the co-morbidity of OCD and anxiety. It is an interesting question. I wonder if anyone has done any studies on this.

I got curious, and Google was available.

Two studies, although these are not specifically re: Asperger's:

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and depression/anxiety, children and adolescents with attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder not currently using medication had approximately 1.5 times the odds of being overweight, and children and adolescents currently medicated for attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder had approximately 1.6 times the odds of being underweight compared with children and adolescents without either diagnosis.

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Adult ADHD was associated with greater likelihood of overweight, (odds ratio (OR) = 1.58; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.05, 2.38) and obesity (OR = 1.81; 95% CI = 1.14, 2.64). Results were similar when adjusting for demographic characteristics and depression. Mediation analyses suggest that binge eating disorder (BED), but not depression, partially mediates the associations between ADHD and both overweight and obesity.

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But why? Why would being ADD/ADHDcorrelate with someone being overweight?

I can't speak for other aspie women, but I've struggled with my weight since I was about 14. Prior to that, my constant anxiety attacks made me feel physically sick, so I didn't eat much and stayed thin. Then at age 14, I started taking medication. It calmed me down so much that I was able to enjoy food, and I ate a lot of it. I ballooned up to 180 lbs. by age 18.

Then one day a girl in my neighborhood made a rude comment about my weight, and I decided to do something about it. I changed my eating habits and stopped eating as much. Now I'm a lot smaller at 156 lbs. I actually look like I have a sort of hourglass figure rather than a blob. However, my eating habits are worse than they were while I was dieting, so I have to be very careful that I don't start gaining back the weight I lost.

When I was 25 I developed a fasting/binge cycle. I was trying to lose 20 and ended up gaining 30. It wasn't until I told myself "OK, I'm fat, screw it" that I started to lose the weight. Ironic.

Wow, news to me. I have only been on meds once and have never had a weight problem. Since college, my living habits are more sedentary, but I am not overweight in any way. I guess, freshman year I was somewhat thin, because I didn't eat the foods in the dorm too often.

They think approximately 1 in 5 cases of eating disorders are undiagnosed Asperger's cases.

My (Very ASish) mom was seriously anorexic when she was young...she was so hung up about her weight that she thought she was still fat when she weighed 75 lbs.

I always remember her cycling between obsessively practicing yoga and being depressed and overweight.

When I was a very small child, I would often forget to eat and I was somewhat underweight...when I got a little older and was subjected to the extreme stress of public school I started self-comforting with food, and became obsessed with eating and gradually became obese...I also have a body type that is a combination of my mom's small frame and my dad's large/overweight frame..so I am lucky to stay under 150lbs...overweight, but not obese...

Any food issues I have ever had always involved overeating..and currently I don't have any real food issues other than consuming wheat and dairy when I really really shouldn't so I have pretty much constant IBS.
I am allergic to a lot of fruit...so often dread eating fresh healthy raw type foods for fear of getting serious mouth irritations...from dressings or pieces of fruit.

I had an eating disorder for a while though I don't think it was near as severe as anorexia.

Use to try and eat healthy and then it got a little out of hand when I'd cut my proportions and skip two meals a day. I ended up having dizzy spells and ended up in the hospital after fainting and having epileptic fits. I don't hold anything accountable but myself. It was at a time though when I didn't know how to deal with my problems.

I'm still careful about what I eat but I definitely try and not starve myself like I use to.

When I have too much lessons in school I lose my eating-system, because I forget I should eat. When I had normal plan, I was very strict for myself. IBS bothers me.

My weight is 75 kg (165 lbs), it's nothing wrong, because I'm 180 (6'0) tall. But all my friends from school have reversed weight - 57. They're all shorter than me (about 165) and know nothing about too short clothes (what always seems too small, even if is too big). With them I feel big, heavy and clumsy. When I take photo, I look normal, but I feel heavier and heavier.
Maybe if I eat less, I would look more girly. Sweet girls can have loud deep voice, can't they?

165 lbs is well within the normal weight range for somebody your height. I think your issues may have more to do with your height when it gets down to it.

With that being mentioned, when I was in HS I was underweight until my senior year, when I got at the low end of the normal weight range. I was not anorexic, as I never thought I was fat. I just have a very fast metabolism, and do not gain fat or muscle easily. This also had to do with the fact my high school was 3/4s of a mile long with lots of stairs.

In my twenties I weighed between 135-140 lbs.

Now I weigh around 150-160 lbs, but this took a conscious effort to gain weight. I am 5'9", so I am in the upper part of the normal weight range. I figured this is the ideal weight for my frame.

I normally am active, as I walk 4-5 miles per day, I own a bicycle and avoid driving. I don't own a car. I also have a high metabolism. I never go to the gym, but I make alot of conscious lifestyle choices to keep healthy.

Luckily, I am one of those people who gain fat only in the places where it is okay, and I mostly have brown fat. I really don't have much of a gut.

I think I have an obsession about my "ideal weight range". I don't have a distorted view on it, as I don't see it like anorexics, that no matter the weight they are "fat". Its normal for women to have fat, I just want it to be in the right places, and I want to have a healthy body, not one that is to thin or too fat.

Hi, what do you mean by brown fat?

On topic, I have never heard of this issue before, but I was definitely thinking earlier this morning about genetic similarities in people on the Autistic spectrum. Perhaps weight is part of that?

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 75,00.html

There are also certian areas on your body where fat deposits are okay (hips and thighs). Its the waist and gut where it is a problem. Okay, maybe a bit to health obsessed, but I kind of have to be considering my other issues.

I'm very thin, with a body fat percentage of 15.8% when I'm SEDENTARY. I don't deliberately maintain it at all.

I recently lost 140 lbs in the last year and a half. I can safely say I had and still have a weight problem which I am still working on. I have at least two, possibly 3 other females in my family with AS and each one of them has a weight problem. I'd say there is a disinct possibility that the weight issues are linked to the AS. I know I use food as a way to cope with my anxiety issues and depression, as a lot of people do, even NTs.

I've always been on the thin side, but I was also anorexic for a number of years and still struggle with food.