Super size me: When bloggers approve – and glorify – obesity

Peter rejoices whenever he puts on more weight. He loves how his protruding belly moves and delights in the fact it gets in his way.

At 5 foot 8 and weighing a hefty 250 pounds, Peter, who requested that his last name not be published, is on a quest to become even more corpulent. He documents his weight gain on his blog, GitBigger.com, under the pen name Stupidgit.

“I love how my weight feels when I run, falling and shaking my body shortly after each step...” the 23-year-old Lexington, Ky., resident, writes on his blog. “The only thing I love more than being fat, is getting fatter.”

As hard as it is to understand, Peter is not alone in his desire to gain weight. The Internet is rife with “gainer” blogs, plus dating sites and discussion forums that glorify big bodies, with names such as Fatnesse Follies, Growing Larger, BiggerCity.com and BellyBuilders.com.

While far from mainstream, the phenomenon was brought into the public eye last month, when a 600-pound New Jersey mother announced she is trying to reach 1,000 pounds to become the world’s fattest woman.

Donna Simpson, a 42-year-old mother, told Britain’s Daily Mail that she raises money for her weekly $750 (U.S.) food budget through a website where men pay to watch her eat. Her long-time boyfriend reportedly encourages her weight gain.

Ms. Simpson’s much-publicized story raised a multitude of questions about the subculture of gainers, their motives, their attitudes and their mental and physical health.

As Peter explains, he and most of his gainer friends believe “it feels natural to be fat.”

“I talk with many men who are much larger than I am, about their bodies and why they grew so large. They talk about the satisfaction of being full like some people talk about how good they feel after a hard workout or something,” he says. “Being fat is just what makes them happy.”

Women gainers also share that view.

As one Canadian blogger, who claims to weigh around 550 pounds, wrote on her site Amy’s World. “I’ve been eating so much the past week, my body feels stuffed … like some sort of overstuffed teddy bear. Just moving around, I feel like I’m softer, bigger, less responsive. … I’m really quite enjoying the feeling.”

Peter says he began intentionally putting on weight more than two years ago after moving out of his parents’ home for college. His blog shows photos of himself before, as a lanky freshman, and after, with a serious gut and thick, stocky limbs, resulting from packing on more than 110 pounds of muscle and fat.

The support he receives from other gainers on the Internet helps motivate him and boost his self-esteem.

Peter says he is also sexually attracted to other plump men.

“I look at fat men in the same way that most men look at a beautiful woman – it's just what comes natural to me,” he says. But even he doesn’t understand why he’s compelled to pack on the pounds. “I’ve never been completely able to explain why I have this desire.”