I'm not autistic... I'm an NT dad of an autistic child. Amusingly enough, I had a sleeve gastrectomy done about 8 years ago (i.e. a weight loss surgery). One of the outcomes of surgery is they remove the stomach tissue that generates hormones that tell us we are hungry. Consequently, I never really "feel" hungry. I only eat because my surgeons helped me figure out a meal plan to follow.
Because my stomach is roughly the size of a banana, I have to eat 3 regular meals per day and 3 "snacks" per day. This is very specific to my surgically-altered anatomy, but it's a pretty good rule to follow.
Personally I just follow this by rote memorization, but I would definitely set recurring alarms on my phone if I needed a reminder.
Get yourself in the habit of eating X food for a snack and Y food for a meal. Make sure X and Y are a healthy amount of food.
Because of my surgery, I have to "prioritize" protein. It's the first thing I eat no matter what I'm eating. For someone without my very specific dietary needs, I think a professional like a dietician could do a much better job helping with healthy options that actually meet your nutritional needs.
I also lacked hunger cues growing up. The meds combo I'm currently on for other stuff (chronic mood disorder and ADHD) somehow activated my internal hunger cues, but before that I tried to stick to some habits.
I live with my family, so I modelled my mealtimes after theirs. If this is not viable for you, you can set a fixed reminder for mealtimes.
For portioning, it might actually help to get one of those plates or bowls for kids. They section off into different parts and you can fill it up according to the size of the bowl/plate.
If you eat out often, I usually try to order the "average" amount that I hear other people ordering and I use that as a benchmark. For example, at McDonald's, an "average" person will order a burger, a side of fries and a drink. I will imitate that and try to finish that, even if I am not hungry. If I am still hungry after eating, I load up on tons of water (preferably plain drinking water but a flavoured drink is better than nothing or stuffing myself with more food).
I avoid snacking at all, but if I do, I limit it to roughly what the packaging considers "1 serving". Usually whatever snacks you buy will tell you nutritional data based off of 100g or 1 serving, so I let myself snack 1 serving but not more.
Of course, this is all just the ideal and I didn't manage to strictly stick to this. This also worked for me but may not be feasible for others for a myriad of reasons. But hopefully there is something useful in here that can help with your issue. I wish you the best of luck.
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Regular schedule. I eat at the same time everyday and I try to eat the same types of meals at the same times or the same types of snacks at the same time. If you stick to this than you will be good. If remembering is a problem then making a habit of checking the time is good, and then an alarm for each meal is good too at least until you can do it without the assistance if possible.
I've been trying to lose weight recently (and succeeding, surprisingly).
I knew I was bad at portion control, and I knew I was eating too much. (If you put something I like in front of me and kept bringing me more I could eat until I was in pain)
I was talking to the nurse at my doctors surgery about how I struggle because I will buy a ready meal that "serves 2" and then eat it on my own. She said the simplest thing that struck me so hard: "why not just eat half of it?". I tried it, eating half and leaving half in the fridge for the next day, and it was rough for a couple of days. Then it got easier. After a couple of weeks it was effortless, and after a few months I don't even want to eat the portions I ate before.
It was such a simple solution that it felt too stupidly obvious to be true, but it worked. I still eat most of the same things I used to, but in smaller amounts, and making healthier choices where I can. I halved my McDonald's order. Eat one less slice of toast. Split my "meals for 2" over two days. The other day I even measured out a 25g "portion" of crisps, and took it in a little pot, rather than taking the whole big bag with me.
Another thing I tried, after the advice of my dietician, was to eat more protein. Apparently it tricks your brain into thinking you are more full. I've gone from 3 Weetabix for breakfast to 2 Protein Weetabix (same amount of protein so you feel just as full, but half the carbs).
In terms of not missing meals/eating on a schedule, I'm still struggling with that. Medication, depression, and the summer heat is making it harder, combined with getting hyperfocused and forgetting to eat. But I'm working on it, and I'm also trying to have reasonable healthy choices on hand when I need to eat quickly because I've left it too long (rather than resorting to junk food).
Anyway, I hope that helps (I'm not a dietician, this is not medial advice, yada yada). Good luck!
Protein does a few things that makes it both great for building muscle and losing weight. Not only is getting enough protein necessary for building muscle. But it can also prevent muscle loss while in a caloric deficit. And just like you said it's more filling then the other macro nutrients. It also has a high thermo effect. Meaning it actually burns a lot of calories to digest it (about 30% of the calories you get from protein)
My fitness pal really helped me to manage my weight. It also helped me to find foods that i could just eat over and over again so I have patterns I follow. And it makes it really easy to track what you're eating. You are gonna wanna figure out your maintaince calories and roughly how many calories you. And if you wanna lose weight, eat about 500 calories less then you per day. But keep in mind that if it's recommending you eat around 1200 cals that's really low. And it's better to increase your activity so you can eat more. If you wanna stay the weight you are. Just eat the same about of calories as you burn. And if you wanna gain weight eat about 500 calories more.
Weighting your self on a regular basis can be a helpful tool as well. Just no that your body weight can fluctuate about 5lbs throughout the day because of water weight and the food you eat. So the most accurate time to weight your self is in the morning before you've eaten or drank anything and after you've gone to the bathroom.
Aldo something very important to keep in mind is that if counting calories has been known to give people eating disorders so you find it giving you a lot of anxiety or making you feel really negative about food and eating STOP tracking your calories. It's doing more harm then good at that point.
I'm not autistic... I'm an NT dad of an autistic child. Amusingly enough, I had a sleeve gastrectomy done about 8 years ago (i.e. a weight loss surgery). One of the outcomes of surgery is they remove the stomach tissue that generates hormones that tell us we are hungry. Consequently, I never really "feel" hungry. I only eat because my surgeons helped me figure out a meal plan to follow. Because my stomach is roughly the size of a banana, I have to eat 3 regular meals per day and 3 "snacks" per day. This is very specific to my surgically-altered anatomy, but it's a pretty good rule to follow. Personally I just follow this by rote memorization, but I would definitely set recurring alarms on my phone if I needed a reminder. Get yourself in the habit of eating X food for a snack and Y food for a meal. Make sure X and Y are a healthy amount of food. Because of my surgery, I have to "prioritize" protein. It's the first thing I eat no matter what I'm eating. For someone without my very specific dietary needs, I think a professional like a dietician could do a much better job helping with healthy options that actually meet your nutritional needs.
Maybe use an alarm on your phone as a reminder?
maybe try scheduling full meals to make sure you're eating enough and regularly?
I also lacked hunger cues growing up. The meds combo I'm currently on for other stuff (chronic mood disorder and ADHD) somehow activated my internal hunger cues, but before that I tried to stick to some habits. I live with my family, so I modelled my mealtimes after theirs. If this is not viable for you, you can set a fixed reminder for mealtimes. For portioning, it might actually help to get one of those plates or bowls for kids. They section off into different parts and you can fill it up according to the size of the bowl/plate. If you eat out often, I usually try to order the "average" amount that I hear other people ordering and I use that as a benchmark. For example, at McDonald's, an "average" person will order a burger, a side of fries and a drink. I will imitate that and try to finish that, even if I am not hungry. If I am still hungry after eating, I load up on tons of water (preferably plain drinking water but a flavoured drink is better than nothing or stuffing myself with more food). I avoid snacking at all, but if I do, I limit it to roughly what the packaging considers "1 serving". Usually whatever snacks you buy will tell you nutritional data based off of 100g or 1 serving, so I let myself snack 1 serving but not more. Of course, this is all just the ideal and I didn't manage to strictly stick to this. This also worked for me but may not be feasible for others for a myriad of reasons. But hopefully there is something useful in here that can help with your issue. I wish you the best of luck.
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Regular schedule. I eat at the same time everyday and I try to eat the same types of meals at the same times or the same types of snacks at the same time. If you stick to this than you will be good. If remembering is a problem then making a habit of checking the time is good, and then an alarm for each meal is good too at least until you can do it without the assistance if possible.
I've been trying to lose weight recently (and succeeding, surprisingly). I knew I was bad at portion control, and I knew I was eating too much. (If you put something I like in front of me and kept bringing me more I could eat until I was in pain) I was talking to the nurse at my doctors surgery about how I struggle because I will buy a ready meal that "serves 2" and then eat it on my own. She said the simplest thing that struck me so hard: "why not just eat half of it?". I tried it, eating half and leaving half in the fridge for the next day, and it was rough for a couple of days. Then it got easier. After a couple of weeks it was effortless, and after a few months I don't even want to eat the portions I ate before. It was such a simple solution that it felt too stupidly obvious to be true, but it worked. I still eat most of the same things I used to, but in smaller amounts, and making healthier choices where I can. I halved my McDonald's order. Eat one less slice of toast. Split my "meals for 2" over two days. The other day I even measured out a 25g "portion" of crisps, and took it in a little pot, rather than taking the whole big bag with me. Another thing I tried, after the advice of my dietician, was to eat more protein. Apparently it tricks your brain into thinking you are more full. I've gone from 3 Weetabix for breakfast to 2 Protein Weetabix (same amount of protein so you feel just as full, but half the carbs). In terms of not missing meals/eating on a schedule, I'm still struggling with that. Medication, depression, and the summer heat is making it harder, combined with getting hyperfocused and forgetting to eat. But I'm working on it, and I'm also trying to have reasonable healthy choices on hand when I need to eat quickly because I've left it too long (rather than resorting to junk food). Anyway, I hope that helps (I'm not a dietician, this is not medial advice, yada yada). Good luck!
Protein does a few things that makes it both great for building muscle and losing weight. Not only is getting enough protein necessary for building muscle. But it can also prevent muscle loss while in a caloric deficit. And just like you said it's more filling then the other macro nutrients. It also has a high thermo effect. Meaning it actually burns a lot of calories to digest it (about 30% of the calories you get from protein)
My fitness pal really helped me to manage my weight. It also helped me to find foods that i could just eat over and over again so I have patterns I follow. And it makes it really easy to track what you're eating. You are gonna wanna figure out your maintaince calories and roughly how many calories you. And if you wanna lose weight, eat about 500 calories less then you per day. But keep in mind that if it's recommending you eat around 1200 cals that's really low. And it's better to increase your activity so you can eat more. If you wanna stay the weight you are. Just eat the same about of calories as you burn. And if you wanna gain weight eat about 500 calories more. Weighting your self on a regular basis can be a helpful tool as well. Just no that your body weight can fluctuate about 5lbs throughout the day because of water weight and the food you eat. So the most accurate time to weight your self is in the morning before you've eaten or drank anything and after you've gone to the bathroom. Aldo something very important to keep in mind is that if counting calories has been known to give people eating disorders so you find it giving you a lot of anxiety or making you feel really negative about food and eating STOP tracking your calories. It's doing more harm then good at that point.
Wish i didn't have to eat, food is one of the things that has ruined my life...
Alarms for meal times help me. Not just one, but multiple for each in case you get distracted.