Comment by recursive 2 days ago
I don't even have an autism diagnosis, and I never skip breakfast because of the energy drop. I bike to work, run 5ks, and am not overweight, even by standardized BMI metrics.
I don't even have an autism diagnosis. It never occurred to me that something might be "going on". Breakfast imparts energy. To me, that has been a given.
This is also something you can train your body to get used to. Anyone who started doing intermittent fasting and struggled at first will know that you eventually adapt to it. Depending on how difficult someone finds it, doing a ketogenic diet might be a nicer way to ease into it.
I find I’m happiest not eating until about 6 pm. Usually one large meal and one small late-night snack. I’m a little surprised there wasn’t much evolutionary pressure to align eating schedules considering how social we are but meh. Maybe everyone being on their own schedule is actually better for survival.
part of the challenge with autism is that nearly all it's features are shared partially or individually by ordinary people as pretty routine character traits (eg: socialising is energy draining for "regular" introverts).
It's (a) them being collectively combined and (b) the severity that creates the issue, but it's very hard for autistic people to explain and justify what's happening to them when everybody feels like they already experience these things and manage to just "deal" with it.
The lack of logic in this thread is remarkable.
If 50% of the world is just fine without eating breakfast, that still means 4 Bn people are not.
Posting personal anecdotes as if that proves feeling low on energy without breakfast means something is wrong is a degree of irrationality I can’t believe is showing up on HN.
It’s fine to share personal anecdotes and experiences but so many here are sharing them as if it disproves all other things experiences and responses.
It's even more complicated, because it also depends on what yout eat for breakfast. Some food will sustain you for a longer time, some will give you an immediate sugary boost and then the inevitable fall (which could definitely be a big part of the "I feel lower energy when I eat breakfast" experience.
Typically, my first meal is at 11:45 (a plate of normal food + fruit), and then one at about 19 (the content varies from bread + cold cuts to soup).
When this changes in numbers, size or kind I do not feel any difference in energy.
When I bike to work I am particularly not hungry until 11:45.
Interesting. I am also physically fit and if I don't have something to eat within the first half hour of getting up, I am cranky and definitely won't be doing anything approaching information work.
Thanks. I've never heard it framed this way. I've mentioned my appetite diminishes after aerobic exercise, but a common response is that I'm weird.
Interestingly my appetite sometimes skyrockets after certain activities like bouldering or weight lifting, so the diminished hunger response must be a bit more complex of a phenomenon.
> a plate of normal food + fruit
What is "normal food"? Fruit seems like it would be more universally normal than pretty much anything else.
Sorry, I was not clear. A plate of some meat + some vegetables, or variations of that. The kind of things you expect to eat for lunch in France (and, broadly speaking, in Europe).
What I meant by that is that this is a full starter for the day, not a "late French breakfast"
I can go about a full day before eating without noticing an energy drop. Everyone's different.