Feeling compelled to eat EVERYTHING on the plate

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For some reason I feel bad not finishing what I have on a plate. I guess the logical reason is that I don't have much money and if I don't finish, I feel I wasted that money. But then again this is not entirely logical. I mean, if I am FORCING myself to finish the food, then I have "wasted" money regardless, since that money didn't bring me the "joy" of eating I payed for; and, on top of "wasting" it, I also undergone a torture of forcing myself to eat. Yet, I am compelled to do it.

One of the interesting examples of this happened today. At my Institute I had to give few coupons (that consted some money) to get lunch. Now, it is really hot here, so I don't want to eat, just drink. So I would normally have just not taken lunch and saved my cupons. But I saw a watermalon that was add on to lunch, and I decided to eat lunch just because of watermalon. Yet I didn't want to look weird in saying "I ONLY want addon and nothing else" (which could have saved me some cupons), so I took the entire thing and then forced myself to eat it as I kept looking forward to the watermalon at the end.

Can anyone else relate to this sort of thing? Do you think it is an aspie thing, or do NT do that as well?

Absolutely. It's even worse if it's a help yourself buffet that you can return to. It's like, I've paid for it so I'm compelled to eat until it comes out of my ears. I don't want to but I can't stop. My pyschologist says it's very common in autism.

Hah! Yes, I can relate! It may be an NT thing as well, I don't know. If it is only an Aspie thing, maybe it's because our brains aren't able to take the hint that we live in stable agrarian societies and don't need to eat at each meal like we don't know when the next one could be coming.

I feel a bit bad leaving things, but not terrible as I can just keep whatever it is in the fridge and have it later. I think I like to finish food because I like to adhere to a sort of mental 'neatness' - it's a strange sort of perfectionism. I also like to finish tasks I set myself, like cleaning or exercise. It could be related to having AS, in an oblique way.

However, it sounds like you ate the food at the institute because of social pressure and not wanting to seem strange. It may seem an obvious question, but did your parents always tell you off for leaving food and try to make you finish what was on your plate?

In my case with buffet it is usually like this: if I put things on a plate FROM buffet table, then yes I would feel compelled to finish it. But at the same time it is perfectly fine NOT to put it on a plate. So it is quite interesting: in this case it is not even an issue of saving money.

Despite what all the diet and nutrition gurus might tell you,
it is NOT easy for most people to not eat (more) when they have the opportunity to-
we have billions of years of evolution working against us that says
"Eat every scrap you can today- you don't know what tomorrow will bring."

I dont understand what the big deal is with keeping leftovers and/or taking a doggie bag home from a restaurant?.....your doing yourself a favor by saving money that way, ( as well as losing weight) with portion control eating.

I have empathy for inanimate objects; I feel quite bad when I throw away food. My diet is also quite limited.
Not only food, though. I also feel sad for a lonely book, or happy for a chosen book. However, I am getting better with this; now I can throw away some food that I do not eat, but not too much. I'll have to work on that... I cannot stand to see my mother empty something perfectly good into the trash can, yet I do not eat it myself because of sensory problems that cause a limited diet.
Food is my main thing; now I'm better with other things like books and swings and pencils, etc.

I found this interesting: http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v13/n ... 0512a.html

It turns out your sense of fullness is mostly a matter of visual evaluation of how much food is in front of you.

I wonder if this trait is due to the nature of our perception. I wonder how this experiment would fare with people with AS.

My bet is that someone with AS would be more heavily influenced by the quantity of food before them.

Yes, I think having bag would completely solve my problem (no kidding). The only reason I don't do it is probably because it is likely to create a mess if I put it in my backpack full of books. Plus, at the caffeteria I have lunch they don't offer bags since it is not "the restaurant" -- but then again it is entirely possible that they do, and I just never asked.

Anyway, if the caffeteria was 1 minute walk from my appartemnt I would just take the food, put it in a fridge, and a problem would be solved.

I could eat an extra large pizza by myself and not be full.

If I allowed myself to.

That would describe me back when I was teen (and possibly early 20-s, not sure about this part), but not right now. Could it be that aspies are generally younger than their age (I certainly am), so, while you are 22, your body thinks you are a teen so you want to eat a lot since you are still growing?

Yes, I just ate everything on my plate and am now stuffed. I think its more integral, but this is what I experience. It's a compulsion, I think. That being said, breakfast was delicious.

Yes, I always have to finish off my plate, even when I'm eating at home (which is almost always). Sometimes I'll put the rest away for later, but other times what's left isn't really enough for another full meal so I feel compelled to eat it even if I'm stuffed.

Actually, if I'm eating out with other people, it's then that I'm more likely to leave food on my plate, because I worry that they will make some comment about how hungry I was and draw attention to me.

I feel compelled to do the same thing. When I go out to eat, I feel this need to clean off the entire plate. I don't like to leave anything on the plate.

All the time. But what really sucks is that whenever I overeat I get extreme nausea, and I end up hating myself for the next 4 hours. I have to listen to myself when I can't eat any more.