To think we need fat only Gyms

[TaylorQuifft]

I feel really demotivated and pathetic when i'm on the running machine doing a walk and the fit women next to me is practically sprinting 5K.

I think its a great business plan. Aibu

For me it's not so much about size as being completely crap and useless and intimidated. Open a gym for the willing-but-incompetent and you might be on to something.

I am most definitely obese. I'm losing weight with slimming world, go to the gym 3x a week, swim once a week, go to a boxercise class once a week. I go to the gym, gym and obesity dont necessarily cancel each other out

But that's it goodbye, who gets to decide who deserves that? Thin people can have self esteem issues too. And I do resent the implication as a naturally thin and toned person I'm assumed to be going about judging overweight people who are clearly trying to be healthy. Which again gets back to which people deserve to have their 'I assume thin people are judgy' self esteem issues honoured? Does the size 10 person have to put up and shut up with the size 6 and 8's? Or do they get to go and put off the really big people?

I hate gyms, bmi of 21, serious runner (can do a 44 min 10k!!) HATE gyms, find them so intimidating. Super fit ripped people, people who are a bit anti cardio, people who can do a spinning class without wishing they were dead.

Hanse I just put my shoes on and go running

I hate gyms, bmi of 21, serious runner (can do a 44 min 10k!!) HATE gyms, find them so intimidating. Super fit ripped people, people who are a bit anti cardio, people who can do a spinning class without wishing they were dead.

Doesn't sound like any gym I've ever been to!

Hanse I just put my shoes on and go running

Oh God I find running outside much more intimidating than any gym!

I go with a school gate mum , who was actually properly obese when we started , like size 26 plus, easy . I was certainly overweight , but my real problem was having been unable to exercise at all , I was totally totally unfit . So we started at very similar levels for different reasons . That was 4 years ago , and now she's that " 5k in 5 minutes " sprinter , who I sometimes struggle to keep up with when we're out .

But from the beginning , both of us got nothing but support from our gym . It's a council run one, but everyone uses it because we're in a rural market town . Everyone goes , from the 75 year old runner who puts us all in awe, the 80 odd year old who just uses the treadmill for walking, the wheelchair using weight lifter who gets people to help him adjust his weights and laughs when they struggle to pick them up. We all know one another , pass the time of day, then do our thing . Not once have I seen anyone smirking at the expanse of my Lycra clad backside . Well , only when I managed to tune out so completely I fell off the cross trainer anyway.

I go to an exercise class which is for Weight Watchers members only. It's great as I feel far less self conscious than I would in a normal one.

I would love gym sessions for disabled people. I go to an exercise class run by a charity for disabled people, and a gym session for disabled people would be really good.

I'm obese and until a knee injury 5 weeks ago was going to the gym daily. I could do cardio for hours, lift weights that many thin people struggled with then cycle home uphill...but I stayed obese in numbers. Unfortunately having a dodgy thyroid and an inability to get off prednisolone for arthritis meant the weight was going nowhere.

I did feel uncomfortable in the gym, mainly among young girls who didn't seem to ever sweat. Were they even effin working out? I tended to go when all the old folk exercised as they were considerably less judgemental and would even chat with me. The grunting male biceps kissers were a real turn off tho and banning those types would make me feel far more comfortable. I like a fatty gym or at least a fatty only exercise class

I stopped going to the gym the evening a man opened the door, looked at me on the treadmill and shouted, 'Christ, it's fucking Fatty Munter Night!' to his pals in the corridor outside.

I'd rather be fat than pay £50 a month to spend my evenings in the company of wankers.

I'm a size 16 with a BMI of 27 so bigger than I should be. I run and I enjoy the gym. There are people bigger and smaller than me in both areas. I really don't care. I'd rather see a bigger person in the gym than in maccy Ds. Of course the person in maccy Ds could just be having a day off and I too frequent the odd fast food place. I just want to say that anyone who thinks that they are too big for exercise, they really are not. Please if you want to do some exercise, then do. Don't think about other people, but just concentrate on your goals and the workout you are doing.

Most of the time people are too busy thinking about themselves and how they appear to be thinking about anyone else. I would guess that those who appear not to sweat are the worst for trying to look good. No-one gives a Shit, really.

My disability means that the exercise I do, would not register as exercise to others in a gym. Basically I would look incredibly unfit. The exercise class I go to for disabled people is very well attended. But I don't know any gyms that do anything to encourage disabled people like me.

You allowed yourself to feel that way.

Other gym user should inspire you not demotivate you.

Stop body coveting and get on with it.

Size 16 and pretty fit here. I love spin, mainly I lift weights but also do pole fitness. So yeah, obese and in the gym and I adore it

I used to go to a aquacise class especially for ladies over a size 16, it was fantastic no one felt uncomfortable and some of us where over a size 30. All of us felt that it was easier to go as we where all larger ladies and would have felt uncomfortable with thinner people sadly it closed when the gym was pressured into removing our use of the pool but for two years I did that class twice a week and felt so much better for it.

Last year I was heading towards a size 22. Last week I bought my first size 16 jeans in 15 years.

I didn't need a gym for fat people. I needed a bit of confidence and a bit of 'it's now or never' attitude.

No one judges you on your size at the gym I go to. No one is even looking at you as they are too focussed on what they are doing.

Definitely find a gym that has NHS referrals. They don't only refer for obesity, but also for recovery after serious illness, injuries etc. My gym has such a huge range of people in it. I envy the skinny and superfit, but they don't put me off going and i'm a size 18.

I don't get the intimidation thing. I used to be around 3 stone overweight, and joined a gym to get it off. Of course, most people there were fit and athletic, but it never crossed my mind to feel intimidated. Just because they were thin and I was fat didn't make them better people than me. In any case, I didn't flatter myself enough to think they'd be looking at me anyway.

people of all shapes and sizes at my local gym. LOts of pensioners peddling away very slowly while chatting.

No. Why the hell should a thin person be discriminated against just because you are bigger than them? I tend to see it as motivation - If that person is fitter than me, I play a little mental game in my head that it's just me and them competing and I have to beat them, it really works in helping me to push myself harder.

YABU. Seven years ago I was close to 200lbs (18 months after the birth of my second). Now I have a BMI of 22 and am around 125-130. More importantly my body fat is down to 20 from about 33%. I've had people (usually quite heavy) who didn't know me then express disbelief that I was that big. When I see someone big in the gym or out and about exercising I don't feel like laughing at them at all. I think "Good on you for doing something about it. I'm glad I did" I think you'd find a lot of 'slim' people who you think are just born that way have a history of weight problems you're simply just unaware of.

You cant really be fat fat and be fit. Fitness comes from nutrition and exercise.

No - fitness is just a general term to cover physical ability- usually measured by reference to cardio capacity and endurance. It has relatively little to do with nutrition providing the body's energy requirements are met and the person isn't missing any vital micronutrients. Loads of really good pro trail runners live on white carbs and sugar, for example. Pretty crap diet - still massively fit.

A person who is overweight can also be very fit, just like a lot of people who are a normal weight are very unfit.

Food is the main determinant of if you are overweight or not
Exercise is the main determinant of whether you're "fit" or not.

Tbh I think even if there was a 'fat only' gym, the people who feel intimidated by a gym will not go. Because a lot of those feelings are insecurities and don't actually exist.

I have been to the gyms all over the place, I used to be 20 stones. Most people in gyms don't give a shit. They only give a shit about themseleves.

Besides which if overweight people join and lose weight, in two years most of the members should be normal weight. If they are used as the advert, was message does that send?

Why would new overweight members join when they walk through the door and most members are not overweight. They will still feel intimidated, because the insecurities are in their head. It won't matter that they used to be over weight.

Agree with others that confidence in the gym is a self esteem issue. I felt intimidated in my gym the first few times I went but the reality was no one was looking at me, they were just trying to get through their session & carry on with life.

Maybe gyms should have a few hours a week of "beginner sessions"