Why do you want to get bigger?

[NotNamedDan]

I am getting asked this a lot lately. Stuffing my face with clean food, turning down cake but eating meat three times during the work day. People have seen me shed 25lbs since April, and they haven't questioned that at all. But getting bigger? This is a mystery to them.

So I am sure some of you have been asked. How do you answer?

[Hulking Lummox]

Because it is my ideal and I like to strive for my ideals.

Edit: I guess I should clarify... It's my ideal because I'd like to be able to face extraneous circumstances without dying. To perish doing something I could have trained for would be a waste and a shame. It's less about being big and more about being strong and capable.

[PlainGreyT]

To become more attractive, to incerease my confidence, to get a sense of achievement...

Any of the above. As for people in the real world, to be honest no one outside these forum's cares

[George]

'Cause I'm 6'0 and weigh 160ish pounds.

But seriously, I believe that having a lot of muscle, at least through the legs and back, would be a great benefit for most people. This is especially relevant for older individuals who have to deal with muscle and bone loss. Falling down becomes a real danger as you get on in the years.

[carguy]

Originally Posted by George

as you get on in the years.

Thanks for worrying about me, George. I wanted to get bigger because I have been thin all my life. When I was younger, painfully thin. It made me feel weak, even though I wasn't unhealthy.

But as I trained and gained weight and muscle, I looked and felt healthier. It's just for me. It makes me feel better about myself. And weight training is a hobby that improves your health, unlike stamp collecting or NASCAR.

[optheta]

Because I never really had a hobby, I never collected anything played sports or etc. And When i found weight training it was like Not only is it fun it actually improves you unlike playing Video games or collecting MIsc. Objects.

[mattback]

cause people make fun of me and say im small

and i want to be able to pull 405 without being ridiculously strong at 145, so at 165 it makes more sense

[guava]

Wanting to be bigger is more likely to be image-driven than wanting to be smaller, which in a lot of cases is assumed to be health-driven. Getting smaller usually results in a significant loss of fat mass, and requires less intake of nutrient-poor foods, and requires more physical exertion, both of which have been shown to be beneficial to health. Getting bigger isn't as likely to improve your health. Getting stronger does have health benefits, but that's a little different than getting bigger.

I'd like to be bigger because nothing in Sears fits me.

[dpark]

Originally Posted by guava

Wanting to be bigger is more likely to be image-driven than wanting to be smaller, which in a lot of cases is assumed to be health-driven.

It might appear that way, but I don't really think it's true. I think losing weight is about appearances the bulk of the time. There's no real health benefit to getting to very low bodyfat. It's about looking good.

I believe most people would probably choose attractive and unhealthy over healthy and unattractive. Of course, most people choose unhealthy and unattractive and easy over any other options.

[guava]

Originally Posted by dpark

There's no real health benefit to getting to very low bodyfat. It's about looking good.

I agree.

I suppose getting smaller has just become so ingrained as a positive thing, because it's in the media so much. There are certain magazines I refuse to buy anymore because they promise "Lose twenty pounds before Christmas!" like it's a great thing I'd be crazy not to want to do.

Of course, it's not as prevelant with men, but I think it's still there to some degree. More men in the population are overweight than underweight, so it's a more common goal to lose weight than to gain weight.

[JoeSchmo]

I don't wanna get bigger -- I just wanna get stronger.

[philph]

Being bigger feels more natural to me.

I've been obese and I've been skinny. I know my body wants to be big - and it will do what it can to be heavy with or without my intent. I would much prefer the extra mass to be muscle rather than fat.

It has also become a path that I get a lot of fulfillment from following.

[zenpharaohs]

Having more muscle is healthier in several ways, and this is of increasing importance as you age.

[NotNamedDan]

Originally Posted by Hulking Lummox

To perish doing something I could have trained for would be a waste and a shame.

This is probably the closest to what my answer would be. At least, that's my answer to SOME question.

Why do I want to be bigger? I want to be stronger. I am young and can still attain a certain degree of perfection (I use this term very loosely - true perfection isn't even something I'd want if I could have it, but when I say it here, I just mean a sort of youthful aesthetic perfection, as perfect as I can be at this point).

I guess my answer is, "Because I can." I was born with myelomeningocele spina bifida. Medically speaking, I should at least have trouble walking and functioning properly. I don't. I am 100%. So many others aren't, and I feel like I've always been aware that I am on chance number 2.

The answer is, I can. I am alive, and I am an agent. I can change my body, bend it to my will, rather than live as a slave to it. For ten years I was an awkward fat kid. I was every girl's "like a brother". I was the easy butt of the joke. And now, I've found that it doesn't matter at all what I am to most other people. It matters what I am to me, and it matters what I am to who I was.

It's about being something more than I was yesterday. It's about pushing hard, finding my limits, and knowing that, for once in my life, I didn't take the easy way out. It doesn't matter what the guy next to me thinks of my workout - it matters that I know I gave it everything I had, same as in the ring. For me, lifting is like fighting, it's Muay Thai or boxing. I can give up. I can put down the iron and walk away. I can step out of the ring.

Or I can try for one more rep, one more round, one last punch. I can leave knowing something about myself that I didn't know before.

And that's why I want to get bigger: to know myself. To know what I can be and what I can do.

[Namazu]

Because if you're not trying to get bigger, entropy takes you backwards. And you can't shrink to greatness.

[Big_D]

It's better than getting smaller.

[Ectomorphic]

Similar to Carguy (<3). Been a skinny bastard all my life and wanted to not be. I finally got fed up with it and researched how to gain weight and here I am. But I suppose that's not really any different than overweight people wanting to be thin.

Being as thin as I was, I felt weak, looked weak, was weak. If you search for threads started by me, you'll see my before and after pictures for my first bulk. How does that 'before' picture look appealing in any way, shape or form? I want to look better, feel better, and be better (a significant part of that is psychological, which I have covered). I look better and feel better than I ever have before. I feel like a million bucks. When I look in the mirror now I don't see a full, boney ribcage staring back at me anymore, which is massively uplifting and inspiring. It makes me happy.

So I want to be bigger to look better and to feel better. This is aside from the health benefits associated with working out, building muscle mass and keeping your body properly fed; to keep your body constantly on its toes and busy doing something useful with itself internally.

When a lot of people think of getting big, they only see Arnold and his buddies. People seem to forget that there is a continuum of bigness between skinny bastard and superly muscled bastard. I don't want to look like Arnold. There's more than one way to be big.

[Dr.Jen]

I am a girl, so I really don't identify with the getting bigger part. I am plenty big. As a general rule, I like men who are bigger and stronger than me. Even though I am pretty good at taking care of myself, there is something very deep inside me, on a survival level, that likes the comfort of a man who could protect me. If it never happens, and I never need that help, great, but I can't deny the way I feel.

It's a very basic instinct, and to deny it is to lie to one's self. Men are by nature hunter and gatherers. Many Women are different- I don't want to go there- it would sound sexist, and that's one thing I am NOT. They feel they way they feel, and they may agree with me or they might not.

I think men sense that many women the same way I do, and so they like to be bigger and stronger. I totally understand.

I'm with JoSchmo: I just like to be incredibly strong for my size... but I am a girl. (Looking femanine is important, so I wouldn't want it to interfer with that!) For most guys, though, form goes with function. The stronger they are, the bigger they are.

I don't think you should give a flying rat's butt what people think of you or you size. If you want to be big or you want to be strong, it's really your right to want you want. I think you would be perfectly right in saying, "just because I do!"

Don't mom's tell their kid,"Because, I'm the mom, and I said so."? Same applies here: because you said so, that's why. Be yourself. It's not only allowed, it's applauded.


Dr. Jen

[chicanerous]

Originally Posted by Dr.Jen

For most guys, though, form goes with function. The stronger they are, the bigger they are.

That sums up my reason for continuing to lift and my views on getting bigger.

[odin1642]

To get hunners o' burds, to beat people up, and to generally intimidate anyone you come into contact with.


That should shut them up pretty quick