Anyone with AS ever struggled with an eating disorder?

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I've come to think that maybe anyone with AS who experiences an eating disorder does so in a fundamentally different way than an NT would. I wonder this because, as a person likely on the spectrum, I struggled with anorexia between the ages of 15 and 17 and never seemed to fit the 'body-image' obsessed stereotype. Yes, I was the typical perfectionist, but it feels like the real reason I fell into that hole was a growing fascination with 'healthy' eating and 'small portions' and stuff like that..I wanted to take every opportunity to do everything just right to 'maintain' my already normal body, and I truly had NO IDEA that I had lost about 20 or 30 pounds until the high school nurse stuck me on a scale. And I freaked out.

Correct me if I'm wrong/maybe everyone who has an eating disorder is like this, but in NO way did I desire to look so emaciated or think this was good. I think the thing that kept me stuck so long was simply an attachment to routine, not fashion magazines, which might be why it was so hard for my counselor to get to the brunt of it. I admit there was fear of 'overdoing' it and putting my weight back too high, but I was not at all opposed to making myself look decent again (in fact, I wished it would just magically happen).
Now in college, I have made it through that obstacle and, lo and behold, still like to eat the same stuff daily. Only now, I'll go through a 2 lb thing of cashews within a week and enjoy a daily dessert (among other repetitive things, but without being a stick person).

Anyone else ever experienced something similar? Maybe the difficultly for an aspie lies not in 'trying to be look like a model' (as many people would think of anorexia), but in simply being misunderstood when it comes to the mechanisms of an eating disorder in them. Difficulty in communicating these thoughts, as a consequence of AS, doesn't help much..

I have a big appetite that I just can't seem to shrink. My favourite food is almost anything, and it shows. I'm happy with it. I've stayed consistantly around the same weight for 4 years. I'd happy at 250. If I ended up in the hospital with a very bad illness, I'd make it out alive due to the extra meat and flab that I have on my bones. A lot of regular sized people might not be so lucky. I eat as healthy as I can. I rarely buy chips, sweets and ice cream and I eat my fruits and vegetables. I also get a lot of exercize where I work. God made me a big person and I honour that.

You might be one of those people who are meant to be thin. You should be proud of your body and eat healthy, but don't eat more than your stomach can handle. You might need to eat 5 small meals a day, due to your natural smallness. The thing that I like about the human body, is that people come in all shapes and sizes like dogs do. Eat what you like and don't let others tell you what you should be eating.

There is a definite link between girls with anorexia and Asperger's Syndrome and you described it pretty well. I've had an eating disorder before. I still obsess over food and calories and healthy eating but I know that doing it to the point of starvation is not going to work out well for anyone.

I don't have a full-blown disorder, but growing up, I had no friends, and I used food as an emotional crutch for being lonely.

You can imagine where this lead. I became accustomed to using food to process emotional needs.

I'm mostly broken of that habit, but I still am prone to binge eat when I'm stressed or upset. It doesn't help that I just enjoy the pleasure I get from eating...one of the few pleasures I'm able to feel.

Very, very common. Google anerexia and asd.....

I suffered through anerexia at one time in my life.

what is weird is I struggle with eatting but it is because I get confused and cannot figure out what to eat so I just don't eat at all

I had anorexia nervosa for many years. It wasn't about body image at all. I actually started to over-exercise because of anxiety (exercise is super-stimming for some Aspies) and found that I became very obsessive about exercising in a particular way at certain times of the day. I then began to count calories but I didn't even want to lose weight. I just found that controlling my diet made me feel more in control of my life. But I got stuck in routines and rituals around food and exercise. Before I knew it I had lost a lot of weight. I could see I was too thin, and I didn't think it looked good, but I was frightened of breaking my rituals and routine.

I didn't become obsessed with thin models or celebrities either. The main thing for me was that anorexia made me feel more in control of anxiety.

Thankfully I am now better , but it took me a long time to get better.

I have struggles with eating issues and it's not really connected with weight although I really wouldn't want to be fat I put on two stone once and it felt weird, like I was too big for myself and my arms couldn't be were they should be etc etc. I've always been so small and it felt horrible and not like me. I couldn't care less about models and celebrates, most I probably wouldn't recognise on the street. I don't felt that it's about control either. Id o think it's often stress related for me a it is worse if I'm stressed or worried. After a break up I literally forgot to eat for a week. I don't get hungry in those kind of situations and so don't.

I'm vegetarian and careful what I eat from a health point of view but I think some of it is so I can avoid eating. I also get a lot of stomach aches and pains and other digestive related issues

Yes, I had anorexia nervosa, restrictive type for some years. I even got myself in a hospital once.
I'd say my own motives were rather different than trying to conform to unrealistic body image. I simply had -and I still do have- distorted body perceptions and have always been very clumsy. So I thought I needed to lose weight in order to be more-for want of a better word-maneuverable. Then it snowballed very quickly as my rigid values dictated that being thin means being very, very thin.

I have been within normal weight range though for the last 10 years or so think I ought to count as cured, I think.