Are autists naturally overweight?

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Me and my brothers are all very thin actually. I guess we're just not big eaters.

slim-ish here. 143 lbs at 177cm.

just the right weight, most likely.

I weighed 55kgs right from when I was 17 up until my mid 30s when I started taking Seroquel (quetiapine) an antipsychotic medication. I then gained 30kgs in six months. I don't know if it messed with my metabolism, I ate more, or a combination of both.

The doctor told me I could stop Seroquel, which I did. But since I stopped taking it, the weight has stayed on. I haven't been on an official diet or anything but I am trying to eat more healthily and not as much as I was before. This weight is so stubborn though.

Nah, there's generally a range or a spectrum. Some are overweight. Some are lanky or gaunt. Some are in the middle or lean towards something.

not to diminish the dis-satisfaction you have expressed, but I would not mind having a bit of that problem.

What's the percentage for the general population of children?

bring back PE but with caveats.

No one is born big unless you mean in height and how much they weighed at birth.

Lot of people say infants are fat and chubby but I disagree. That is just their normal body and they will have extra pudge in their arms and legs because it's for them to grow. Small children will have bellies that stick out which is also normal. I always find it astounding when any fat acceptance people compare their body to a small child and infant to justify their size. There is a big difference between an adult and a young child.


I was skinny until my body changed and then I was overweight for a couple of years and then I lost the weight. Then I was always in the normal BMI range and now I am around 120 lbs.

And making kids clean their plates, food companies putting sugar in our food so that makes many people want to eat more because sugar is addicting, life style changes so we are just less active now.

There have been lawsuits against fast food and food companies because of what they put in them and their dishonesty.

Now we have laws that require them to list their nutrition and ingredients and restaurants now list their calories on their menus. But many people still don't read the labels nor look at the ingredients so they only look at the box and if it says it's healthy, it's healthy. Lot of people don't understand calories in and out either and servings either so there is another factor there.

Also anyone who actually understands nutrition and knows how to actually read food labels and understand CICO and food servings are automatically labeled as having disordered eating or having an eating disorder by other people, not medical professionals, just people.

I used to think autistic people were predisposed to being overweight because I knew a few. However, since then I have become aware of just how many NTs I know are also overweight to obese thanks to our unhealthy culture. The problem is when it's an NT, people blame lifestyle choices, fast-food society, etc, but when it's an autistic person, often the autism is blamed. If anything, at least speaking for myself, I would say autism predisposes someone to being underweight because many of us are fussy about food and have very nervous psyches.

the trouble is we have food which is designed to be addictive

if you restrict WHAT you eat rather than HOW MUCH, you will go a long way towards defeating gustatory addictions. a restricted variety diet will naturally curb your appetite. I've been using it for several years now after trying other diets.

That sounds interesting. Would you mind if I asked what foods you have restricted yourself to?

basically ones I can afford and am skilled enough to prepare/not prepare. frozen or boxed precooked brown rice, occasional whole oats, tomato sauce, canned salmon and tuna and chicken, quinoa, occasional barley [I love it but it is not an especially healthy carb], peas and black/pinto beans. cans of veggie juice. dehydrated chopped onions and garlic. each main meal usually combines some or all of those things, leavened with ultra-low-salt soy sauce, fake salt, sharp cheddar cheese, Benson's Table Tasty [irreplaceable spice for those on sodium-restricted diets]. canned nuts as snacks. peanut butter-laced bananas for breakfast.

I've always been either a healthy weight or borderline overweight. I generally have a stocky, solidly built figure, even when I weigh less. I'm currently almost 160 pounds (I'm five foot seven inches) and am trying to lose weight, but I used to be anorexic, so I have to go about this carefully...

Honestly, I'm pretty healthy right now... compared to when I was anorexic . I read that when people are in recovery from anorexia, they can overshoot their goal weight by a significant amount. The body keeps this extra fat for one to two years while it repairs the damage done by the eating disorder. Then the weight will naturally normalize. I hope this is the case for me.

Also, I'm 19 years old and still get growing pains, so maybe I need the extra fat?