I was hesitant to share my technique to water padding, because it kind of ruins the mystique of it, but so many of you have asked.  Here is the technique I used (it’s still being refined, though):

Parts:
1. normal, tight-fitting shirt
2. fitted athletic shirt (the kind that stretch to crazy sizes but are still skin tight)
3. a stretchy undershirt
4. a big, dark shirt to cover it all up
5. three trash bags with handles
6. tight pants/shorts or belt

Put on the tight-fitting shirt (1). This is just to keep the bags off of your body. Next, you have to put on the fitted athletic shirt (2) as though it were a pair of pants—legs through the sleeves.

Put the bags (5) within each other as best you can. Loop the handles together, and put one half of them around your neck like an apron. You should be able to hold up one side with your hand and the other side being held up by your neck.

Pull the athletic shirt up over the bags as high as you can. Put a shirt on top of all that (3). Put on your pants just below the bottom of the bags and cinch them up tight if you have to (6).

Fill the bags up with water. I have a detached shower head that I used, but you could also use the sprayer on your sink. Any hose-like attachment. Anything else would probably be too difficult.

It feels strange the first time. Don’t worry about the bags breaking unless they’re cheap or you’re pouring water too fast. You may have to hold up the bag as it fills if it gets too heavy.

Once you’ve filled it up as much as you want, loop the remaining handles over your neck. Put on the last shirt (4) to cover it all up. A darker shirt will cover up the stuff underneath even when stretched out.

The weight can be tough on your neck, and could be too much for the bags unless they’re heavy duty. Don’t try to walk around without holding it up with your arms if it’s really heavy.  If you’re wearing a strong enough shirt/pants, you can also try to tie off the bag and let it be supported by just your clothing, but be careful when trying.

As for the padding for the rest of it, that’s tougher. I padded the ‘chest’ using just a rolled up towel. You might have to figure out what will look best for you, though.

Have fun!  Hopefully I’ll have a more refined technique eventually.

Plateaus are very frustrating.  They come out of nowhere—you eat every day like normal, but suddenly you stop gaining.  I’ve heard a lot of people tell me why this happens, but they all seem like theories.  No one has ever given me a good explanation.

Either way, the key to getting past them is to keep eating like nothing’s happened.  It’s difficult, though, to motivate yourself when you see no progress.  I have a lot of trouble maintaining my intake when I know there won’t be any gains. 

One day, though, it will just break.  Usually before you give up all hope.  I’ve seen it happen a hundred times, and even experienced it a few times myself (225, 240, 250, now 295…)  Until then, just do what you can to make the best of it.  Go to the gym more often, keep in shape.  Don’t weigh yourself for a while.  Like everything involved in gaining, just be patient.

If you referring to those mushroom-looking steel buttons that most jeans have due to the thickness of the fabric, I can definitely see why they would hurt.

I try to avoid jeans or heavy pants—all of my photos have me in shorts, I think—for that reason, among others.  I know that ‘replace all of your pants’ is probably terrible advice, but it may be tough to get around that problem otherwise.  I know that they sell clasps that you can fasten to clothing which are much less intrusive, but they are definitely not as strong, and can’t penetrate thicker fabrics like jeans.

If I knew more about suspenders, I’d suggest looking into them as well.  I know quite a lot of guys bigger than me who rave about them.

Made a Frequently Asked Questions page, which just links to some of the most common and my favorite questions.  I feel bad for not answering questions if they’ve been asked before, but I’ve already repeated certain things too much.

Took a video when I padded. 

I have most of my old videos up on YouTube, unlisted.  I’m missing my first two, though (210 and 220).  If anyone has them, please send them to me!

I absolutely love water padding.  Having the weight and feel adds a whole new dimension to it.  I loved everything about being that heavy, especially just how hard it was just to move around.  I want to be this big 10x more, now.

It depends on how big of a part of your life they play.  If you see your parents every day and they’re very militant, then it would be hard to escape harassment from them.  But, as long as they don’t cook your meals for you, there’s not much they or anyone can do you stop you beyond that.

Same thing goes for friends.  If your friends are like mine and are equally as strange as you are, then they won’t care.  If they’re the kind of friends who will tease you mercilessly, you have to just accept it at first.  There’s no hiding it, but eventually your confidence will deflate them.  If you start to get teased because of your weight, you’ll find that you’ll take their ammo away by not responding negatively to it.  Eventually, it will just become who you are, and you may even start to like it.

Some people can’t really handle teasing and pressure, and that’s okay.  If you want it bad enough, though, the pros outweigh the cons no matter how bad they are.  Being fat will never be perfectly socially acceptable, and you pretty much have to embrace that.

That last post made me want to experiment with padding some more.  It’s addicting!

I am still a closet padder.  The pile of old pillows that is ever-present in my closet will always give me away.  I’ve done it for longer than I knew that I liked fat—we’re talking 3rd or 4th grade, here.  My boyfriend knows I do it, but I’ve never done it when he’s around.  Out of habit, I only do it when no one is home, and that’s not often lately.

I can’t deny my secret attachment with padding, but I’ve never been ‘good’ at it per se.  I just mess around with pillows under my shirt/pants.  Sometimes I laze around the house with a little throw pillow under there, or sometimes I’ll try and fill up the 6XL shirt and shorts I have hidden away, too.  I can’t resist going as big as I can, but of course it never looks natural.  I just like the feeling of size.

I would totally pay money for a sort of movie-style fat suit, or at least a more natural way of padding.  Wearing something like that in public is something I’ve never thought about… but is very, very intriguing.  I will have to look into it.

It took a while, but it wasn’t too complicated.  I could never really muster up anything to ask him until we were both at our separate homes for the holidays and chatting over AIM.  That’s how we met, so for some reason it was easier to share things through that medium for us.

I brought up the idea, and despite him liking my body the way it was he approved.  I don’t remember exactly how the exchange went, as I lost the chat logs long ago.  He told me later that he just cared about my happiness, and that the idea of gaining seemed to really make me happy. 

That’s all there is to it really.  He knew I liked fatter things, so I suppose it wasn’t too much of a surprise.  He definitely doesn’t regret the decision now, that’s for sure.

Yep, that’s what the site looked like back before 2002, according to a friend of mine.  All the content that was there is still around the internet in some form or another.

Edit:  From LrgrThnLf himself:

Couldn’t see an obvious way to reblog your post, so RE Anonymous’s question on BB.. difference between old BB and current BB is that the old one had a specific profile system (hand coded by yours truly). Now all the content’s within the messageboard system. Ok, some of the content wasn’t copied across, but there’s a lot in it (stories, sightings, artwork, personal pics).. Reason it changed? Old one wasn’t sustainable, taking several hours per day to run.

If he’s anything like I was when I was a skinny guy, I think I can give some advice. 

If you’re going to be ordering a pizza, I imagine his plan is to stuff himself with it to sprout a bloated little belly.  You’ll win a lot of points if you try to encourage him to eat past his limit and maybe rub it afterwards.

If you get to fool around, give it some attention if you’re into it.  If you are, talk about how you’d like to see it bigger.  That will really push a lot of buttons.

Assuming he’s a skinny guy with a full belly, it’s not going to be anything too big or intimidating, so who knows—maybe you will really want to see it grow bigger.  I think this is a really good scenario.  It’ll give you a good chance to see if this is something you really like.  Good luck!

Hey thanks!  I’m giving my body a bit of a break at the moment, because 295 is being very stubborn.  At times like these, I have my concerns about how steadily the climb will continue over the next year.  I could gain another 75, or I could gain absolutely nothing—it’s hard to tell sometimes. 

All things going well, I would love to be 350 by the end of 2012.  A bit of a stretch, considering 30 of the pounds I gained this year were regained (so they were easier), but I’ll be satisfied as long as the number is higher than it is today.

A few websites for you!

• Grommr - my favorite—organizes meetups every so often.  I encourage you to attend them!
• BeefyFrat / BiggerCity - good dating sites to meet folks (paid)
• BellyBuilders - one of the oldest message boards out there

I’m sure you can befriend plenty of folks on these sites.  And even though I’m a horrible hermit who never leaves the house, I know it’s easy to find folks to meet up with there as well!

There’s absolutely no easy way to bring up someone’s weight in conversation without risking them getting offended or put-off.  They want to say something (either because they’re gossipy, or they’re genuinely concerned), but it’s too taboo most of the time.

The only time I see it attempted is by people casually bringing up dieting or something in conversation and trying to try to segue that into heavy hinting and get you to spill it.  It also happens with my Japanese coworkers, but only because they aren’t too familiar with our customs (and that being overweight is a serious no-no for them).

Most of the folks at my office don’t care.  They’re all much older than I am and they know to mind their own business.  My family I’m sure talks about it, but we’re not a very confrontational group.  We like to talk about each other in private—my boyfriend gets a lot of hinting from my parents when I’m not around.

That’s about the extent of it so far, but I’m sure I’ll run into more the bigger I get.  It’s going to be less of “oh, he’s just put on a little weight…” and more of “okay, he has to be doing this on purpose now.”