To start this off, I am a 23 year old adult male. I am a reasonably short guy, 165cm/5 foot 4 inches, and the ASD in the title means I have autism spectrum disorder. I don't think I've seen this topic addressed here on loseit before, as a pretty long time lurker making a first post, I thought I would mention it.
I was diagnosed at the start of this year, as a "high functioning" (I don't like that term) man with autism. I wasn't a particularly chubby child, but as soon as puberty hit I kind of expanded. Lol. At the age of 14 I was about 80kg/170lbs, and that was definitely not muscle. I already thought I was big then, but this time last year I stepped on the scale to find I weighed 110kg/240lbs. It was heavy on my mind for a whole year before I finally decided to do something about it.
I wear XXL or XXXL clothes, those are what I bought last time I went shopping. It was embarrassing, having to go store to store because I couldn't find stores that had clothes that went up to my size. It's embarrassing sitting on a crowded train and taking up so much of the space that you have to press yourself against the side so people can fit next to you. I've been applying for jobs recently, and there's always this thought in the back of mind about whether their uniforms would even fit me.
Now here's the problem. I have autism. I couldn't even eat toast a few days ago because it wasn't the brand of bread I usually eat. Changing my routine is extremely upsetting for me and it leaves me feeling this encompassing, heavy feeling of being... uncomfortable, I guess. These first two weeks have been very hard for me, but I have still stuck to it despite this. I know that these first few weeks are the hardest and I just have to keep pushing through.
Two weeks ago when I decided to really stick to this, I was 110.7kg, and this morning I stepped on the scale to see 108.15kg or 238lbs. That day I weighed myself, I made huge portions of various meals (I'm a pescatarian so it's mostly vegetables) and then portioned it all out to be less than what I would usually eat (which was a lot). I have managed to stick to eating one for a meal and snacking on crackers and hummus or drinking tea/coffee if I get hungry.
Having autism makes changing these routines and habits extra difficult, but I know that this decision is good for me. My pants are getting looser, they start to fall down as I walk, and I know that my mood has improved and I feel healthier. I do not count calories or macros or anything like that and I currently don't exercise, and although I don't plan on ever doing the former I will attempt the latter. I am not trying to say I think counting things like that is bad or what you should not be doing, I just don't think it's for me as a man with autism who will likely become obsessed.
This got longer than I anticipated and I'm not sure where I intended to go with it. I'm not entirely sure about goals for the weight loss, at the moment I think I just desire to be below 100kg/220lbs, which hasn't happened since high school. Back then I was a size small, I don't know if that's achievable as I'm currently an XXL. I think I would like to be a large, it would make clothes shopping a lot easier and feels like a much closer goal. I'm sure there are other people in my situation, trying to lose weight with autism. Perhaps this would help someone feel like they are not entirely alone.
[link] [comments]
from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2nw8ep2
No comments:
Post a Comment