Too Fat to go to the gym??? WHAT!?!?

If I could afford to go to the gym I totally would.. regardless of how I look.

For those of you that can't afford a gym, check your local Y and see if they offer a sliding membership scale, mine does.

As for the original question, at 5'4" I started going to the gym at almost 300 lbs.

No one ever said anything negative to me. Instructors always helped me and if I took a class without singling me out they would show me ways to do things that were more in line with my abilities.

IF you are super worried that they gym will be judgmental, ask around and get a feel for the gyms in your area. For example, if you are a woman you can go to Curves or women only gyms or sections which are great for people starting out.

I started at over 300lbs. Sure I got stares but, honestly I didn't give a d*mn and still don't. :laugh:

The only people who ever criticized me for being a fatass at the gym were other fatasses. And, I think the only reason they even said something was either because they were insecure or because they REALLY wanted a cheeseburger instead of being on the elliptical. Either way, I let people think what they want to think, and don't really worry about it. It's my body, not theirs, so they can suck it up if they don't want to see fatasses at the gym.

I think that Ms jr1985 is right...

People should be commended for working out... When I started working out at the Y about a year ago, I had weighed over 300 lbs... Everyone at the Y had been very supportive...

I now weigh only 181.2... I would never make fun of anyone who is overweight and trying to become healthier. The gym is not for perfect body people only!!!!

I think it is the coolest thing when very obese people go and work out...honestly it is motivation. I am not small myself, but I just like seeing that people are taking their situation in to their own hands. If they are getting "looks", it may be that people are happy to see them, but like me..I don't want to say something and possibly hurt anyones feelings.

Now, as for people being rude in the gym..these are the two things I have seen.

1. A woman who talks crap (very loudly), about what other people are wearing and how much they sweat. Now, what makes this even worse is this woman is very large also, wears a face full of make-up with her hair completely done. She sits on the bike hardly moving, usually with a starbucks frozen coffee, and picks apart people with her friend. If she had any sense, she would put down that 400 calorie drink and try and burn some calories.

2. I was scared to apply at Lifetime fitness several years ago. They opened a brand new facility here, and needed sales representatives. At that time, I weighed only about 180 pounds, so I was smaller than I am today, but not 120 pounds obviously. I had a great interview and the was brought back 6 more times until I finally interviewed with the head manager. The interview went great also and he told me to call him the next day to work out a training schedule. When I called, he told me that he decided "Lifetime fitness was not for people like you." I guess he was too afraid to tell me in person that I was too fat to work there.

I was very scared to start working out at the gym because I go to a University affiliated gym and everyone there is in their early 20s or younger, and everyone is FIT. At first I would only work out an hour before closing time at night, when I was sure there wouldn't be too many eyes on me.

I let that initial fear go but sometimes it gets to me to be the fattest girl at the gym... I have gotten some looks from others there, but never comments.

The worst comments I ever got was actual from one of the guys working there, a personal trainer. I was talking to him to hear about booking an appointment for a personalized workout plan. He kept brushing me off and telling me "Well, you won't lose weight just by working out". He was just completely uninterested in me. As if me being overweight meant I just wasn't worth his time. Still mad about it to this day!

When I first started going, I wasn't paid attention to at all. I was overweight and the "fit" people were only looking at other "fit" people. Now, as I've gotten much stronger and smaller, people pay attention to me, or stare at me, etc,. It's a little backwards in my case.

Last summer, when I first started running for pleasure/weight loss, I was made fun of relentlessly by people driving or walking by. They would call me "disgusting" "pig" "fat" "huge" or make comments like, "Maybe you'll actually lose weight if you keep running." It scared me from running outside for a long time because all through out my school years from elementary to high school, I had been bullied mercilessly and scared out of school at times. Upon losing more weight, I began to go running outside more often and now I run to and from the gym 3-4 times a week. : )

Try some yoga pants, they are ultra comfortable and I don't feel they show everyone every little crinkle or fold.

Has anyone on here actually been made fun of for being out of shape at the gym personally? Or is a lot of it in their heads that they think people will make fun of them there?

When I was overweight and started going to the gym, I hated people looking at me. Many of them smiled. I hated that. I thought they were being condescending and rude. I thought they were snickering at me. It was disheartening.

I went to the gym a few weeks ago and a heavy person came in and my first thought was "look at her! She's in here working hard, doing the same thing I did! What a great accomplishment". So I smiled and nodded.

And I realized, at that moment, that most of the people who were smiling at me when I was heavy were probably thinking the same thing I do now.

Plus, of course, I kept going to the gym despite what I thought people thought - because if I didn't, it would never change. I didn't lose weight to impress anyone, I lost weight so I could live longer.