31 year old woman, into gaining and getting fat since as far back as I can remember, but I'll say 8 since that's the age I can remember stuffing my shirt full of pillows and pretending I was enormously fat. Like many of us, it was a fascination before it was sexual in nature. I do sometimes wonder if that didn't segue me into sex a bit earlier than some of my peers (amongst friends I joke that this is due to being a scorpio, lol). I've always had a hard time keeping my hands off of myself, and fatness/gaining has played a central role in that activity since the get-go, except for the times I tried to trick myself out of my fetish by thinking about more conventional things. I suppose it's good to know I can go there if I wind up falling for a non-fetishist in the future...

I didn't discover feedism until 19 or so, and first tested the waters of intentional gaining at 23. That lasted a couple months until I moved to LA and eventually I got back down to my normal chunky adult weight. At 29 I'd lost even more, hated it, and decided life isn't really worth living if you're always keeping satisfaction at arm's length. 2 years and 100 lbs later... voila!

77%...!

Boosting this and to say that a fry up is also the same as a 'full english,' when American's would call that an early morning abomination. Especially if the plate has some black pudding on it!

Others (from UK to USA English):
Pudding = dessert
Butty = sandwich
Chemist/s = pharmacy/ist
Newsagent = corner or liquor store
Way out = exit
Torch = flashlight
How long is a piece of string? = Who knows? / I don't know

I'm sure I could think of more, as I find that being an American in England means I'm still learning new words and phrases regularly. Even after living here a year and a half!

I'm a fat woman who usually goes for the lanky guys (although this is by no means a hard and fast rule, just a clear tendency).

Then sometimes I get the urge to make 'em chubby

I love this topic But I think your professors are talking about this in the wrong way, as modern psychology has a tendency to pathologise things that are common in the human experience. "Deviance" literally means to deviate from the norm. I love the DSM (it's some good reading!), but it doesn't attempt to define this supposed norm, and instead requires you gauge the impact of a condition on your life by it's negative repercussions. By psychology's standards, you don't have a fetish unless you have a problem with it. I say this all as I'm earning a B.Sc. in Psychology, for whatever that's worth.

From my experience and conversations with fellow deviants, I've settled on the following definitions for fetish and preference:

Fetish: an atypically strong attraction to something that is not [necessarily] inherently sexual. The stronger the fetish, the more stimulus by it is required to achieve sexual satisfaction.
ex: "I have a fetish for weight gain, so I have to think about getting fatter if I want to orgasm in a timely manner"

Preference: an object of desire, but not required to achieve sexual satisfaction.
ex: "I prefer men who are thin, but can be attracted to, aroused by, and satisfied by men who are not."

So with that, it is my personal belief that both fat admiration and feedism can be preferences or fetishes, depending on the strength / requirement that those be present to achieve sexual (and/or personal!) satisfaction

I started doing this years ago when I was losing weight, because I suck at losing weight and measurements are more reliable than a scale. Turns out it's been just as useful for keeping track of gaining over time!

There are a few areas that I always do, which allows me to keep track of my overall size, and the way my new weight is distributing across my body. The spots are:

Upper arm (above bicep). Hips/lower belly, butt, upper thigh, calf, and waist*

Measure each of these at their fullest area, except for the upper arms. Use a fabric tape measure and hold it snugly, but not tightly, around the area you're measuring. *Waist measurements are most reliable when done first thing in the morning. I hope this helps!

I don't know if this is relatable, since I'm under that 270-280 line mentioned above (but not by much! 260 atm), but I started having foot pain after I crossed 250, and have alleviated it by doing the following:

1. Walking. It's a low impact exercise, and doing it regularly keeps me with enough muscle to better support my joints. The movement alone is good for them, as also mentioned above. If I run into more pain as I gain I plan on doing some strength training/lifting to help my body hold the extra weight without it all falling on my joints to handle.

2. Crocs has started making shoes you can wear in public. They have wedges, flats, and mary jane styles that are extremely comfy, and what I wear to work most days (which I walk to, and the shoes are great for that, too).

So basically I'm just echoing what the guys have said above, but hopefully it's still helpful!

I agree that a test run is a good way to see if it's for you. I didn't give myself a test weight, but a test time; I took a week to live like a gainer (which turned into 8 or 9 days), to see how much weight I could gain and how I felt about it. I then I took a little bit of time to think about it, and I found myself just going for it until I hit a relatively happy weight/lifestyle. I will say, I did get a bit caught up in the rush of finally going for it during that test week! But as I got closer to my long-term goal, I found it much easier to feel in control of my fetish, mostly because I understood it better, and because I felt more fulfilled with a fatter body.

Finally giving in and giving it a go was one of the best decisions of my life to date. I love my body now! I highly recommend giving it a try. If it's not for you, you'll know soon enough

2 quarts, mixed with a box of brownie mix. Once I did it all in an evening, which was a little much. The second time I poured myself smaller cups of it throughout the day.

It is far an away the most effective gaining tool I have found! Good luck and enjoy

I adore this sentence