Jhale wrote:
This is not what we should be talking about.

Did you know that our fat cells grow the most during puberty?

The amount of fat cells we have allows the growth of subcutaneous fat, which is located on areas beyond the stomach.

This means that if you got fat when you were in your teenage years, your body rounds out a lot more when gaining weight at lower levels. In fact, I believe this allows for people being able to gain higher weights easier and without complication.

I think people who gain slowly and/or regain eventually form the extra fat cells though, so you do not have to be lacking.

awesomename1111 wrote:
With a BMI of 31.7, former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis is well into the classification of "obese". The BMI scale is only useful when accompanied with a picture, and even then it's only useful for saying "hey, that person is proportionately heavy/thin" It is never an indicator of athleticism or internal health, nor is it an indicator of how fat a person is.

There are people who eat healthily and are what would be considered medically healthy, but who are considered overweight or even obese by BMI. There are thin people, even athletic ones with fast metabolisms who don't eat well, and have clogged arteries/high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

To answer the question of the thread, body fat percentages are a far more reliable indicator of fatness, since it is a fairly accurate estimate of how much of a person's weight is actually carried in fat. This requires water weighing and is not simple to obtain. I'd say a woman with more than 25% of her body weight being fat, should be considered fat.

For a less scientific estimate you could say if she has a double chin, or if her belly has a hang, but some women don't really put on weight in the face, or don't really develop a belly hang until after they're quite on their way to being fat.

In the words of Potter Stewart, "I know it when I see it."

sweetsexychubby wrote:
There are a lot of weight loss retreats and "fat camps" advertised online, but so far I've only been able to find one for gainers, Seattle Gainer House, which seems to have very limited availability.

Does anybody know if something like this exists? Or more specifically, if there were a b&b/retreat space where you could go to be constantly stuffed and fed for the duration of your vacation, would you go?

There are enough people into gaining that it might be a lucrative business venture...like a swank spa plus a lot a lot of food...essentially the opposite of a weight-loss spa.