Lifestyle tips

I was wondering what advice anyone has for how to handle comments from friends and family about your weight gain when you are intentionally gaining? I figure I don't want to tell my friends or siblings and parents I'm intentionally becoming a fatty as they likely wouldn't understand or would get argumentative about it (plus, they'd probably be concerned about any potential negative health effects of me getting big). However, I definitely want a reasonable response for when I inevitably receive comments on my increasing size. What kind of response would be good for acknowledging that I have gained weight, but not reveal just how intentional it is and put their mind at ease about health concerns?

Imo people tend to psych themselves out when it comes to this particular issue and in my experience it hasn’t been an issue. For the most part people that care about you aren’t out to hurt your feelings and critiquing someone for gaining weight generally comes off as rude; if it becomes an issue YOU need to lay boundaries for what is and isn’t acceptable and hold them accountable — it isn’t there business what you do with your body is your choice, it’s up to you how much you which to express.

One thing to note is that obviously different people, different circumstances, etc.

For example, when I started doing this I actually used my parents own concerns about their own weight against them because they were becoming stressed over it.

However, in my case I've been doing two things:
1) Telling people I no long care and I'm just enjoying life
2) Joking about my weight e.g. 'meh give me 5 years and I'll be this big (with hand gestures doubling my width).

That said, I haven't had any significant gain (yet), so time will tell whether this will continue to work.

i always say "i like to eat"

As I see it, so long as your health isn't suffering, no one has a right to say anything.

So, if you are getting fatter, but you're taking care of yourself, then they don't have a leg to stand on if they tell you to lose weight.

My wife gets this a lot. She's literally the most massive person in our entire extended family, and her mom and aunties are always concerned about her constantly growing weight.

She forgives them because they're kind people, care about her, and she's aware most women aren't the size of several women put together. She knows they're trying to be helpful, and they just assume a woman her size is unhappy with it.

So she laughs and waves them off-
"I'm getting so fat, right?"
"I'm going on a diet, I swear!"
"My husband is trying to get me in shape!"

Afterwards-
"I'm soooo hungry, can we stop and get some snacks?"

From what I can tell, it's always been like this. You got some people who have no problem stand up for themselves. You got some who struggle. That being said, most people online struggle with direct confrontation. So that's why is seems that people these days don't stand up for themselves.

You're absolutely correct.

Yeah, I tend to fall into the camp of wanting to be everyone's friend/a people pleaser so that probably plays into me trying to avoid conflict/confrontation.

Some of those ways she brushes off comments seem like they're pretty solid ways to do it (albeit not all of them are exactly truthful lol).

I mean, one of my friends always comments on how he's surprised with how I'm not really fat with all the candy and snacks that I have lying around (I don't eat it all myself and I tend to share it). I figure if he or any of the people in our immediate circle brings it up or comments about me gaining, I could be like, "guess all that junk food is finally catching up to me" lol. I could probably also attribute some of it to picking up my wife's eating habits (she's 380lbs, so it wouldn't necessarily be surprising for me to get fat if I start eating more like she does. Plus, I could make some comments like, "yeah, I gained some weight, guess I'm slacking off a bit now that I'm a married man," and "I'm not too worried, I haven't gotten that big, I'm still smaller than my wife."