Good old fashion cursed gift. Something like, a spurned sister, cousin, coworker, etc., gives protag a giant ugly sweater for Christmas. Protag grows fat enough to outgrow the sweater, extended family commenting on appetite and weight as they blow up.
Could be a reality shifting tale also, all the family oblivious to the new weight while protag and gift giver being aware.

I got very big into counting my calories when I started here. By the thousands. Now I just count the burgers.
BK is routinely the most calorific in terms of average meals, btw.

I thought this said disgusting at first.
Anyway, try talking differently than you typically do. If you're normally loud and clear, be soft and smoky. If you're normally soft, be stern.
Most hypnosis videos I've seen also depend on some kind of distorted ambience.
All in all, also realize the likelihood of recognition IRL is very small from something faceless online.

Especially if you're also tall. I just give an bear-like vibe apparently.
I mean, I can and do lift heavy stuff.

Thanks. I actually found some 6XL pants and shirts at a thrift store. The hips on the last man to wear them must have been astronomical, easily 4 feet across.

The Biggest Gainer: XXXXXXXL. Whoever can't put on pants first wins.

I have the opposite feeling if the person is a stranger. I think to myself, "I'm so large people can't help but say something." I must have a gravitational pull.
Now if it's especially negative from people I somewhat know, that's when I feel embarrassed.

I'm in a similar boat. I have to reach up and over my gut, and my fupa pushes it down further. If I was a few inches bigger, I'd probably have to work at it.

In high school and college, every summer I would lay around and eat, sometimes up to 5 meals a day. Naturally, I never noticed just how much fatter I was getting until school, where I couldn't fit in desks.
By the time I got out of HS, there was only a few desks in each room I could fit in, the ones extended for beefy football players, or lardasses like me.
College was even worse, because I never stopped eating. Buffet style cafeterias meant I was always putting on the pounds. In several older rooms, I just had to sit at a chair with no desk, or have it be pressed upward by my gut.
I probably put on 50 pounds easily those last two years of college.

I've been too tall (long?) for most tubs for a long time, but the last time I used one, my gut rubbed both sides and my back fat suction-cupped on the back of the tub.