Are autists naturally overweight?

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Underweight, six per cent BMI. Autistic.

And no, autist isn't harmful; it just sounds too much like "artist" said in an affected accent.

I actually use 'autist' a lot. It's my preferred word of the bunch to describe us.

But no, not naturally overweight. I've been at 5'2" and 110-120-ish for most of my life, including now. However, 2/3 of Western adults are now overweight and obese due to high calorie processed food and its ease of availability, along with reduced physical exertion in modern society. It's certainly not just an autist issue.

I don't believe anyone is naturally overweight.

I'm slightly underweight, with a BMI of 18.4

I'm not gonna read all the posts so this stuff may of already been covered but people on the spectrum can vary quite a lot with weight. Some of us are very picky eaters & depending on what we eat we could be over or underweight. I'm a very picky eater but not nearly as bad as I used to be. People were worried I would die when I was little cuz I barely ate due to not being able to get the food I liked. I gained aLOT of weight since I moved in with my girlfriend 6 & a half years ago partly cuz I can get the food I like more easily & I eat a lot of fast-food & junk-food thou I eat a lot of other stuff too. I also have a tendency to binge-eat cuz I would usually only eat one meal a day when I lived with my parents cuz I cant cook much & mom hated cooking special meals for me so I would just eat big when we ate out or when she cooked stuff I ate or pulled something out the freezer or fridge for me to eat. I started eating 3 meals a day after I moved in with my girlfriend partly cuz of meds & supplements I'm on & my mind & body are still used to me pigging out when I eat. Another reason I could be overweight is cuz of meds I'm on. Lots of us on the spectrum take psych meds to help with our various mental comorbids & symptoms like anxiety, OCD, depression, problems focusing, & anger & meltdowns. Lots of psych meds can cause weight gain but there's some that can cause weight loss. Some of us also have food sensitivities or intolerances which might could cause us to gain or lose weight. My 2nd girlfriend was on the spectrum & she was very overweight. She researched her various issues & she realized she had food intolerances/sensitivities. She changed her diet a bit by avoiding milk cuz she was casein intolerant & she also became close to a vegetarian cuz of sensitivity/intolerance to lots of meat. The diet change helped her lose some weight. Our varies mental comorbids can also have an effect on weight. Some may not eat much when stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious, &/or depressed but others may overeat or just eat unhealthy food as a coping mechanizm. Also being stressed or anxious like having panic-attacks can upset some people's stomachs & give em diarrhea(I used to get it a lot sometimes before I started an anxiety med) &/or even make some people vomit & those things can cause weight loss. We also tend to be homebodies(we're usually naturally introverted), we tend to avoid most sports(have bad motor-skills, dislike of being in teams & noise & chaoticness) & we may dislike doing things outside(we can have sensitivities to various weather conditions) & those things tend to make people overweight. However some autistics can have a special interest in a sport or outdoor activity, some of us work in jobs doing manual labor cuz we tend to have problems finding employment(3 jobs I had were manual labor), & we tend to have more problems driving than NTs which means we may walk &/or bike to places(I cant drive & have to do some walking in addition to taking buses) & being more active tends to cause people to lose weight. My current girlfriend is on the spectrum & very overweight. She was born big but she has a lot of mental comorbids & she gains more weight when she's stressed even if her activity level & eating habits stay the same.

Dunno. I just "listen" to my body and eat when I'm craving food and stop when I feel full. I've been doing this since as long as I can remember, like around when I was a toddler. I've never been underweight. And I was only overweight for about a year in college (senior year when I was too busy and stressed with keeping my grades up to graduate that I ended up eating out almost every meal.)

I can stay at a normal weight despite doing a lot of exercise by adding a snack around 2PM and another meal around 8PM. And drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated in the heat.

I've been underweight all my life.

I've always been thin. Eating mostly feels like a chore, and I probably burn calories just by constantly fidgeting from nervous energy.

How tall are you? I'm 6 feet and currently weigh around 180. I'm at a normal weight for my height, but I would like to be around 170. I was overweight as a kid. When I was 14 I weighed close to 200 pounds. During my first two years of high school, I was in the 190s. During my junior year of high school I went through a period of depression and lost over 20 pounds. After i unintentionally lost that weight, I felt better about myself. Since then, I've been able to maintain a healthy weight. What I do is go to the gym, go for walks, ride my bike, and take vitamins. My diet isn't the best, but it doesn't affect my weight that much.

Personally, I'm pretty skinny.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26824581/

I am not sure about this study. It is just one study too. Point is, the study indicates that maternal obesity is linked statistically to ASD in children born to those mothers. Given recent advances in medicine that indicate that the gut mircobiome / enteric nervous system link with the brain, it just seems like there might be a lot of developmental conditions that are linked to natal diets.

Something to think about.