Gaining

For those of you that started out as gym rats, or were fairly in shape, did you slow down working out? Or eventually stop? Was there something that happened which decreased your motivation?

I used to work out every day for at least an hour. I love my body being soft now so I seem to have lost most of my motivation, dropping from seven to two times a week. I can imagine this will only accelerate my weight gain.

I was never a gym rat per se, but I did swim varsity in high school, and was very active when I was younger. I wound up not swimming my senior year in high school, and my physical activity dropped sharply off from there, with my weight steadily increasing ever since high school.

I started going to a gym again a couple years ago, and I still go 2-3 times/week, but I only work out for 30-40 minutes, and it's mostly just because I enjoy swimming.

I had to stay in pretty good shape for the military. Since I got out/finished I have gained weight. I still run everyday and do some exercises weekday mornings. I have been enjoying my belly getting bigger and softer. I doubt that I will give exercise completely though.

Not sure if you are trying to get answers to how much faster you will gain and get bigger by not going to the gym nearly as much as you used to.

Obviously everyone is different......but here are a few things that I realized with gaining and working out with myself. By the way ....for the record ...... I used to work out 4-5 days per week fairly heavy weights most of the time and around 1 1/2 hours each workout.
During this time I didn't do much cardio but being that I was lifting heavy I usually burned way more calories than if I was on a treadmill or stair climber. Also, I should say I worked in Abs but not extremely aggressively.

During these lifting times I would gain a lot of weight....both muscle and some Fat. Even though I would do Abs and would be working out a lot and burning calories.....my appetite would grow huge......thus giving me a big muscle Chub look. My belly would really get bigger but my shoulders, chest, arms and everything would really swell up even more.

The several times that I intentionally gained weight was when my workouts were slowed down considerably and eventually I was only going 1-2 days max but the workouts were way less intense and eventually they were not really even a workout that I felt I should even bother going in for. So during these times of Intentionally fattening or gaining for several months I almost quit working out all together. My appetite grew from being a greedy glutton not from work outs. I still maintained descent muscular size because I have been lifting for many many many years....but I softened all over and My huge Gut become much more prominent. By forcing myself initially to eat more my appetite became out of control and I found myself binging on fast food which I never really liked before ....but all of a sudden I couldn't get enough of it and I surprised myself how fast I could stuff down 2-3 Big burgers and fries along with 2-3 cokes and still want a large milkshake afterwards. I became turned on by how much I could eat and how Fat I was getting.

In my case I have noticed as I have gotten older.....the weight I gain sticks around and it is a lot harder to lose.
So when I lift weights and workout and do cardio I don't ever really get slim anymore......I don't think I have been below 230-235 Lbs. for several years now....and If I really wanted to I could probably go past 260 Lbs. relatively quickly knowing what I know and how to jump start my appetite and gaining.

Another thing I have noticed that when I am gaining and eating like a pig....the softness takes a while to settle in.....almost like if I were to slow down on eating so much and lose a little weight...all of a sudden I notice way softer Fat accumulated around my love handles, back and Belly.

Also, from a psychological side when I eventually went back to the gym after several months layoff and close to around 30+ Lb. gained, 5 extra inches on my waistline & a noticeable big round Gut. I found myself slightly embarrassed and insecure at times. When none of the women trainers that I knew said much I found myself actually trying to evoke a comment out of them.....none of my gym shirts could contain the girth of my big ole Gut and I would play it up a bit and it actually rose up exposing my belly several times right in front of them working out. I am sure My fattening and belly was the topic of conversation on their lunch breaks like some caddy girls but never did they slyly mention anything to me. I struggled through my workouts....I felt weak, off balance and out of breath fairly quickly and it took several months for me to get into a rhythm and I would usually only go 1-2 days a week with a couple of times giving up and missing several weeks again. It is crazy how fast you can get out of shape but how long it actually takes to get back in shape. My belly woud get in the way with most a lot of the lifting especially when I tried to do crunches and ABs...it was like starting all over again except having a heavy big beach ball in front of me that totally got in the way.

Just my take on lifting and gaining, quit lifting, intentionally getting Fat....and going back to lifting with a huge beach ball gut getting in the way.

I can only imagine how women who have never really worked out in their lives start to get Fat and then get really fat and then try and go to the gym to lose weight. Not only from a new never gone to the gym before, but Psychological experience and then the physical aspect of not being able to move around being that big and Fat and having all their Fat body parts get in the way and not let them be able to do most of the movements.

I love voluptuouslover's answer to the OP's question! Hot!

I have kind of a similar story only over a longer time-span.

At university aged 19-22 I rowed in eights in a really competitive environment. We rowed 6 days a week (only because of restrictions on using the river on the 7th day, otherwise it would have been 7) and additionally trained "on the land" ie. in the gym, running, swimming, circuits, aerobics etc 5 times a week. So most days I was doing at least 2 or 3 hours' exercise at quite a hard-core level. I would spend most of the day in a one-piece lycra bodysuit with either just a t-shirt or hoodie over it, since the next workout was always just a few hours away. Fitness training then (this was 1989-92) was still in the "aerobics are good for you" phase and lifting weights wasn't as widespread as it is now for women, but we still did one or two weights sessions a week, although it was light weights/high reps.

So at that stage of my life I was pretty fit and slim, although still not as thin as most of my crew members several of whom were (in my view) struggling with eating disorders. The obsessive exercise regime imposed on the team was masking the fact that they were obsessional about exercise and food themselves. I was never like them in that regard (thankfully) and was happy to eat whatever I wanted given we were doing so much exercise, and not worry about it too much, although I was aware that I was (in their eyes) a tad on the chubby side.

In the first year I had arrived at university somewhat unfit but I soon got into pretty good shape. I weighed about 10 stone (140lbs) (I'm 5'9" ) most of which was muscle. In the second year although I carried on doing the same level of sport I started to put on a bit of weight. I kidded myself that a vast quantity of pasta was essential for an athlete, haha! My team mates were watching what they ate whereas I was more cavalier. By the third year I got to around 11.5 stone (161 lbs) and as luck would have it our Rowing Captain (who was a diet fanatic) decided to have a weigh-in with all the girls together. It was totally humiliating as I was by far the heaviest (I know, right?! WTF? They were all so thin! Most were 7-9 stone) and was told in front of everyone that I needed to lose weight "to help boat speed" and go on a diet. To be fair we were the fastest of the college boats and every fraction of a second counted in the races we entered. But eights have tiny people at each end of the boat, and taller, stronger girls like me in the middle (the middle 4 are called "the powerhouse" ). I was comparing myself to the tiny skinny-minnies as well as the taller beanpoles (who were nearer my weight although no-one else was more than 10st) and felt like a heifer.

Also as luck would have it I got glandular fever around that time, was in the sick bay for about 3 weeks and mainly delirious, couldn't eat a thing, and left at around 10.5 stone (147lbs) - to the delight of my Rowing Captain. So ridiculous that serious illness was seen as a godsend! Under pressure from my team mates I avoided putting any of the weight back on as I recovered. I took up coaching other boats on top of the other sports commitments so that added several days a week of cycling up and down a towpath for a few hours, in addition to all the exercise I was already doing. Also I guess coaching was an incentive to stay slim as you lose the moral high ground telling others to work out if you're not seen to be in good shape yourself.

So I left university at around 147lbs, extremely fit, and used to working out 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Starting a high-pressure career in London and discovering that socialising in the pub for several hours each night was a lot more fun and better stress relief than working out meant I started putting on weight. It wasn't that I didn't want to stay fit, it was just that being transplanted into an environment away from the pressure to be at a physical peak, and away from the convenience of the university facilities meant that I grew lazy. At university everything was right there within 10 mins' walking distance; in London I'd have to get on a bus to get to a horrible public gym (I was too skint to afford a posh one like we'd had on tap at university), I didn't have the pressure/support of a team and races to win, plus exercising was time-consuming when there were now other calls on my time such as earning a living, commuting, and working at my desk or being in the pub (de-stressing from the sheer terror of my job ) most evenings.

So fast forward to 2014 and I've gradually gone up to 17 stone+ (238lbs +), and although I aim to get to the gym twice a week it's not always that frequent.

In the intervening time I've had periods where I've worked out a lot (I spent about 2 years going to the gym about 4 times a week, when I was somewhere around/under 200lbs) and periods where I haven't exercised at all (at various points I gave in to hedonism... and put on a stone or two, haha). Certain things would increase motivation to exercise/watch what I ate, such as being single (before I discovered FF that definitely used to increase my exercise levels!). Events such as being a bridesmaid at an impending wedding would lead to a lot more working out/dieting because dresses had to be fitted into or I didn't want to be "the fat bridesmaid" next to the others. Summer holidays were another reason for crash dieting and increased gym attendance... for a few weeks anyway.

Generally I'm not a natural lover of exercise but have historically been either press-ganged or guilted into it.

It's definitely more difficult to motivate myself the heavier I get because there's no getting around it, exercise is harder once you're fatter. Certain exercise is pretty much off the menu for me now, eg. running, as it's just too exhausting. I have absolutely no idea how people heavier than me continue to run, I'm totally in awe. Body-weight exercises such as squats, step-ups, push-ups etc are all harder now than when I was slimmer (obviously). However lifting/pushing/pulling weights is a relative strength compared to cardio-type exercise so I try to play to my strengths. But being bigger and in less good condition means I get out of puff more easily, sweat more (ugh. I hate sweating) and generally exercise is a lot less comfortable than when I was lighter. I don't think fatter necessarily means you have to be less fit but for me it's worked out that way.

The other major disincentive to working out is that having discovered that there is such thing as feederism and eventually worked out that this is my kink, I've given myself permission psychologically not to have the stupid learned hang-ups about body image. And once you get to that point, a lot of the exercising and working out stuff that other people feel they have to run around doing just looks like misguided vanity. Kudos to you if you're into it and want to look slim and buff, it's a popular body image and there's no doubt that high fitness levels do feel good (although laziness and chocolate feel better, right?). But it's all a question of choices and priorities and mine just don't lie in that area any more, although sometimes I do miss it.

Having said that, I do still think if you're going to be a fatty it's probably not a bad idea to be strong too, just to enable you to live conveniently and without injuries. Unless obviously you're aiming for the whole thrill of being properly out of shape, which believe me, I do understand the pull of

These are awesome responses! I can certainly empathize with getting less out of going - I like to stay active and take walks, but the gym is really losing the appeal. Part of the reason is people trying desperately to have the perfect body which seems...unnecessary? I've also noticed very different reactions that I get even now at the small size difference I've made. Very much looking forward to the reaction 40 pounds from now!

I'm still in college, so I'm a little younger than most of you guys. In high school I was goalie for the soccer team, and also on the track team. My best friend and I both went to the same college, she played volleyball and basketball, so we decided to be roommates. (Us tall girls got to stick together.)

Neither one of us wanted to be on a college team, because academics is more important. I was always too skinny in high school which made me prone to injury; my roommate was healthier because she seriously weight trained. I was surprised that she was 75 pounds heavier than me at our first weigh in---she was a little taller, but I thought our bodies looked about the same size.

Fast forward a few years and we're now both committed weight lifters. My life is basically: get up, spend an hour lifting, eat, go to class, eat in the cafeteria while studying, work for an hour or two in my studio and then sleep. I work most weekends.

At first I was constantly sore, but I started using creatine (muscle recovery) along with arginine + glutamine (hgh) which together let me work out pretty intensely. The only downside is that I've grown a couple more inches, which I kinda did not want.

Anyways---We've both gained lots of weight with careful practice. It has only been with the last hundred pounds that I've really noticed any downside in that I'm sweating more and it is harder to climb many flights of stairs. (At my current weight and bf% I have the equivalent of 17 year old me in fat holding on)

I just finished my program, and we are both going separate directions. (Yeah art school in San Francisco.) We will see if I can keep up my routine without my buddy, but I'm optimistic.

Anyone else here into weight lifting?

I used to work out 4-5 days per week. I stopped working out as much when I took a job where I had to travel a lot. That job also led to my initial 30 pound weigh gain. I would try to go back once in awhile but all of my cardio was gone and I didn't enjoy it. Plus I wasn't trying to lose weight. Now I just try to make sure I get some walking in during the week. I don't ever see myself going back to the gym again.