There is a line in the Bruce Bogtrotter song from Matilda the Musical that goes:

“Your largness is like a tardis;

Bigger on the inside.”

Though the rhyming is pretty poor the implication is clear; Bruce is capable of eating more than it appears that he can, which is why he manages to eat the entire cake much to the delight of his classmates.

This story is not about Bruce Bogtrotter. It’s about Damien Smith, a gainer. Damien was overweight, he was quite frankly very fat, but compared to how much he consumed he wasn’t on the level that you, or he, would have expected.

A lot of gainers would think that being able to consume endless amounts of food would be a dream come true, but being bigger on the inside is not always the benefit that it is made out to be.

1.

At twenty three years old and two hundred and sixty pounds Damien was a big boy. His belly hung low over his brown cargo shorts and he always made sure to wear only the exact same black XL t-shirt that clung to his curves in order to accentuate his size. At a slightly below average five feet eight inches tall, his stretched out t-shirts barely covered the lower end of his flabby stomach. His soft breasts were well defined and his nipples showed through. His doughy love handles wobbled gently as he walked. Everybody thought that Damien was fat - except for Damien.

He was never happy with his size. His doctor told him that with a BMI of 39.5 that he was class II obese and desperately needed to lose weight. Damien told the doctor that he was correct, that his size was a problem, and that he planned to do something about it.

Damien knew that he needed to gain weight and he knew how to go about it. He was an expert eater. He knew which food groups added most abdominal fat: white bread, beer, ice cream, and soda. He knew that skipping breakfast helped, as did eating late at night. He knew that it was important to snack between meals, and he knew that it was important to eat meals quickly. He rarely drank water as it was a waste of stomach space, and he pushed himself to consume more calories every week. Despite all of this the gains were slow to come.

While others online were constantly talking about expanding their capacity and the benefits of stuffing he already had the capacity of an ox. No one ever said to him; “Don’t eat that, you’ll ruin your dinner,” or “Your eyes are bigger than your belly.” As they most certainly were not.

After complaining to a fellow gainer friend online about his ‘bigger on the inside’ problem they agreed to meet in person at a buffet in order to assess if this was really true.

Michael had just turned twenty two and had only been actively gaining weight for just over a year (before that it had just been happening naturally). In that time he had put on over seventy pounds with the help of his boyfriend who was regaining. As regains are easier his boyfriend had ballooned by over a hundred pounds in the same amount of time. Based on his experiences Michael didn’t understand why Damien was finding things so difficult.

They met on a cold and windy October day at the Aroma Buffet in Shephard’s Bush. Both oversized boys dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Damien never wore anything else. They hung up their jackets and took a seat. Damien admired the size of Michael’s belly. At three hundred and thirty pounds Michael had seventy pounds on him; meaning that he had been the same size as Damien only about a year ago.

The selection was extensive and both boys undid their belts in preparation. Michael had brought a notepad and pencil in order to tally exactly what they consumed. Determined to work their way through as much as possible they began with starters. Michael took the prawn toast, onion rings, chicken nuggets, crab claws, and buttered naan. Damien started with garlic bread, fried chicken wings, prawn omelette, calamari, and poppadoms. Both boys ate quickly knowing that if they took too much time then their brains might attempt to tell their stomachs that they were already feeling full.

They selected dishes in the order in which they appeared on the menu. Skipping the salad course meant that it was pizza next. There were only three varieties on offer: hawaiian chicken, spicy beef, and margarita. They both took four slices of each as they wanted to match each other - for now. They folded every slice, knowing that doing so helps increase consumption levels. They sat smiling at each other patting their bellies barely ten minutes later.

With no time to waste they arched their bellies forward as they stood up in order to fetch a few items each from the steamed and soups section. Damien helped himself to the tom yum soup, steamed milk buns, and prawn dumplings. Michael had siu mai chicken, steamed sweet potatoes, and steamed corn. As this was a smaller course they were soon up again and heading towards the sushi bar.

The larger Michael was already starting to feel a sense of fullness growing steadily in his gut. He was nowhere near finished but knew that he had to pace himself. They still had two more courses to go before they even got to the mains. Damien was ravishing. He heaped sixteen salmon sashimi, twelve sweet prawn sashimi, eight california rolls, and twenty four chilled mussels, onto two large plates. Michael selected ten crispy spicy salmon rolls, and ten cheese rolls. Neither of them said anything about the fact that Michael was already pacing himself. Michael just noted everything down.

Next was chow mein with singapore noodles from the rice and noodle bar. They both took a more than ample mountain of these. Damien devoured them with gusto. Michael ate quickly but sensibly. His belly was already showing signs of strain. Half way through he undid the top button of his shorts and wiped a bit of sweat away from the heavy underside of his straining belly. Damien noticed that his friend was starting to look red in the face.

His plate empty Damien rose and fetched himself another mountain of chow mein and noodles. Michael said nothing, he wrote ‘x2’ next to the item on Damien’s list.

As he watched him go, Michael spotted that Damien was still walking with the same amount of energy as when they had begun. His belly looked no bigger. His shorts were done up. He breathed normally. His eyes were bright, not dull and heavy, and there wasn’t a single bead of sweat anywhere on him. He really did show no signs of having eaten anything at all.

Once Damien finished his noodles it was finally time for their sixth and main course. Hot, full, and flustered, Michael really didn’t know what to go for. There were thirty six options! He needed to take the ones that were least filling but most calorific. Such information was missing from the menu so he guessed at the fish balls in oyster sauce, aromatic duck pancakes, salmon in sriracha butter, and honey chicken wings. He was eating slower now but was determined not to let himself down. He had a whole plate of each and felt his stomach complain and growl. Damien commented on the loud gurgling noises emanating from Michael’s overstuffed belly. He also commented on the gas that had started to escape from both ends.

For his part Damien was having no such digestive issues. As he teased Michael about his bloat he munched down platefuls of tarka dahl, chicken tikka masala, braised beef flank, prawns in garlic butter, fish tempura, lemon chicken, black pepper beef, and lamb ribs.

Michael admitted defeat after finishing his fourth main plate. He watched in awe as Damien continued to eat for at least another thirty minutes. By the time they were ready for desert Damien had chowed down twelve main plates. He still hadn’t broken a sweat or undone his buttons.

Michael told him that he wished that he could eat like him. “Imagine how fat I’d be! It would be fantastic!” This annoyed Damien. He admonished Michael for not understanding. That was the whole problem. He could eat forever but only put on a pound or so every two weeks. Michael said that that couldn’t possibly be the case. Yes, Damien was somehow bigger on the inside, but all that food had to go somewhere, it had to pay off eventually.

Before going for dessert they already agreed to meet there again at the same time the next day. They would meet everyday in order to consume as much as they could and then see how much they’d gained by the end of the week.

With a new motivation eating at his brain, Michael also rose again, his knees cracking as he struggled to lift his own bloated bulk. They collected four clean bowls each from the cutlery station (the most that they could balance) and went to town on the desserts.

The Aroma buffet offers nineteen dessert options, though two of these are just different selections of ice cream. Michael went for these knowing how high in saturated fats and easy to consume they were. Damien also ate a more than liberal amount of ice cream, but he combined it with his assorted cookies, banana fritters, waffles, chocolate coconut cake, tiramisu, creme brulee, and apple almond cake.

In total Damien took three trips to the dessert counter compared to Michael’s solo effort. Michael struggled to tally the scores due to the immense pain in his bloated abdomen, he wondered if it was his liver that was aching, while Damien continued to eat.

Finally, he declared that Damien had eaten about sixty percent more than he had. Damien burped and rubbed his belly. It was his first burp of the night. Michael considered whether his black t-shirt did look a little tighter than it had before. He thought that it did. “Based on our comparative sizes that really should be the other way around,” he commented. Damien pointed out that there wasn’t always a correlation between waist size and capacity. Michael was forced to agree. They would have to see what the effect of a week’s worth of binging would have on them if they were to be certain though.

2.

The next day Damien was surprised to see Michael arrive with another fatboy. At first a little perturbed he was soon put at ease by the Swedish boy’s natural good looks, kind charm, and wonderfully round belly.

Michael introduced his boyfriend and explained that he had been forced to explain where he’d been all day and why he’d come home such an exhausted bloated mess. Upon hearing his tale, Tobias had become jealous that Michael had been binge eating without him. Hence there were now three of them in the contest.

The meal followed pretty much the same pattern as the day before, only now there were two boys smaller than him out-eating Michael. Tobias who was on the regains had always been able to eat more than Michael having once been bigger than him. Even he, though, was amazed by the sheer amount that Damien could effortlessly put down him. The fat lovers watched Damien eat in wonder as once more he showed no signs of physical discomfort.

In total they spent almost three hours in Aroma and both Michael and Tobias left bursting at the seams. Belts removed and shorts undone, they had to hold their waistbands up as they waddled and sweated back to the tube in order to prevent them from falling down to their ankles. They received numerous stairs. Who were this pair of gelatinous gluttons?

Damien rode the tube home in the opposite direction. Nobody paid him any attention.

When he got home, Damien immediately weighed himself, just as he had done the day before. Once more he was three pounds heavier than when he had awoken that morning. The next day all of the extra weight was gone, again. And he hadn’t even taken a dump yet.

Day three came around and Michael and Tobias asked him if he’d gained. He told them that he hadn’t. They struggled to believe him. “I swear you look bigger,” Tobias told him. Michael agreed, he definitely looked fatter. Damien insisted that he wasn’t.

Even more determined Damien set about once more trying to prove to himself that he wasn’t actually bigger on the inside. He increased his portion sizes and partook in an even greater range of dishes. Where on the first day he had five starters he was now up to eight. All six additional courses disappeared into his belly in exactly the same ratio.

Michael and Tobias also ate more than previously. Both boys transfixed on the idea of eating and gaining more than the other. Nothing was better for their bellies than romantic competition.

Damien once more finished his feast without showing any signs of being full, let alone stuffed. He claimed that he was full, but it was really hard to tell. Michael on the other hand was a massive fat, sweaty mess. His triple XL t-shirt was stained under the armpits and  riding high up on his massively bloated belly. His belly was covered in huge bright red stretch marks that ran up from his crotch and muffin top all the way up and over his belly. To the disgust of the people on the table next to them he even lifted his shirt fully in order to show Damien the stretch marks on his thick low hanging side moobs and underarms. Damien was so jealous of Michael’s physique that he could barely stand it.

Tobias wasn’t fairing much better. His huge rounded out belly felt like it was full of bricks. It had been years since he’d felt this heavy and despite the agonising pain howling at him from his intestines he knew that he was going to do the same tomorrow.

Damien asked them how much they had gained. When they told him that they were abstaining from weighing themselves till the end of the week he was quietly pleased. They had both grown significantly and only putting a number on it would just have made him feel worse.

By day six Michael’s t-shirt fitted him again. He had clearly been shopping. Damien didn’t ask what size it was, he didn’t want to know. He was still wearing the same brown cargo shorts and body hugging black t-shirt. Tobias clearly hadn’t been on the same shopping trip as his boyfriend. His bulging belly now hung low under his shirt. Damien wondered if he had purposefully worn a button up in order to try and pop it. That was a gainer achievement that Damien had never unlocked. He did feel a bit fatter though. Whilst taking a short break between the noodles and mains he sat playing with the palms of his hands trying desperately to convince himself that they felt a bit softer. It was while he was doing this that he missed the magic moment. Tobias swallowed a huge mouthful of chow mein, his already overloaded gut barely able to make space for anymore expanded just the right amount. His shirt creaked under the pressure and the offending button pinged off and bounced on the table in front of them. Damien looked up just in time to see it spinning for a brief second until it settled down into its new home next to the tempura. Tobias burped thunderously and wore a grin a mile wide. Michael looked at him with so much love in his eyes that Damien thought that they might fuck right there. They didn’t though, Michael just leaned over to his boyfriend and undid the rest of the buttons on his shirt for him. “There babe, that will help create space for the rest.”

The final day was upon them. Damien was feeling despondent as he walked to the restaurant. He knew that this wouldn’t work. Yes, he had eaten more than ever before, and yes, he had really enjoyed getting to know Michael and Tobias, but he didn’t feel like he had gotten significantly fatter. He had given up weighing himself three days previously. It always ended in disappointment so he decided to follow the fat lover’s lead and at least hope for a small gain by the end of the week. That had now arrived. The best he could do now was eat even more and hope that it at least added some temporary water weight that he could show off to his friends.

Michael and Tobias were in a boisterous mood. They egged each other on as they fetched ten plates each from the starter selection. They ate so much in just the first few courses that Damien was unsure if they would get to the end. For his part Damien matched them mouthful for mouthful. There was no way either of these two were going to out eat him, he was afterall the one who was supposed to be bigger on the inside.

All three boys ate with a ferocity that they had never before seen. At £17 on weekdays and £26 on the weekends they ate more than their money’s worth in a single sitting. Crispy seaweed and squid rings, spring rolls, prawn crackers and chips, prawn dumplings, ebi panko and cucumber rolls, fried ho fun, egg fried and pilau rice, black bean chicken, lamb curry, chicken satay, and tofu in sweet chilli sauce; all of it and more made its way into their ever hungry and straining guts. And that was before dessert.

Michael ticked more desserts off his lists on that final day than he had done on the first three combined. Him and Tobias sighed and blew out heavy breaths as they massaged their swollen aching guts. Damn it felt good to be this fat. This gluttonous. This full. They burped and farted loudly and couldn’t wait to get on the scales.

Damien also felt stuffed. The feeling was discomforting to him. He prodded his rounded out belly and wondered if he had finally managed to eat enough?

As Michael and Tobias lived at Michael’s parent’s house it was decided that it was best to go back to Damien’s bedsit for the weigh in. They all reminded themselves of each other’s starting weights before getting on the scales.

Michael was 330 lbs at the start of the week. Tobias was 298 lbs, and most importantly Damien had been 260 lbs.

They flipped a coin to see who would go first. Tobias was up:

“320 exactly!” Tobias beamed. Michael gave his boyfriend a simple kiss on the cheek and a tummy rub. “Well done, babe! That’s the quickest I’ve ever seen you grow! Even more than at Hotel de la Gorda!”

“Remember that I only had six lunches. You guys had one extra day than me.” Tobias was keen to remind Michael of this fact as he approached the scales.

“346.5!” Michael smiled as if he had just heard that he had been accepted into heaven. “Not quite as much as you, babe, but I always knew that you could eat more than me!” Tobias and Michael kissed more passionately and Damien watched on with consternation. Not that he cared about two guys kissing; he just knew that he was never going to match their gains.

“Your turn, dude,” Michael told him. “This is a waste of time,” Damien replied. With some friendly encouragement he inched his way towards the scales. All of the boys were naked save their underwear, so as to get the most accurate reading. Damien looked down at his admittedly bloated stomach. It jutted out just that bit more than it unusually did. This gave him a little confidence.

“268 lbs! Congratulations!”

Damien blinked and looked down at the scales. He didn’t struggle to read them as much as Michael and Tobias had. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had never gained more than a couple of pounds in a week before, and that was over Christmas! “My God!” He said, “It actually worked! I gained a real amount of weight! Like more weight than any normal person would ever do in a week!”

“That’s fantastic!” Tobias said. “You’re a real gainer!” Michael added.

“Yeah, but look how much effort it took! Anyone else would be up thirty pounds if they ate like I did!”

“So?” Michael said, “Who cares? We’re all different. You may be bigger on the inside but that won’t stop you from gaining if you really want to. You’re already fat, dude. Don’t forget that! Gaining isn’t about being the fattest person ever, it’s about being the best version of yourself. Gain at your own pace and be content. You’re not in competition with us or anybody else. Being happy with who you are is the most important thing.”

Damien smiled. Michael really was one of the nicest guys that he had ever met. “I’m gonna head out for a bit. I’m guessing you two want some alone time. I can see that you can hardly keep your hands off each other.”

Michael removed his hand from down the back of Tobias’s sweaty boxers and Tobias removed his hand from Michael’s left breast. They suddenly felt very self conscious.

“Seriously, it’s alright. You two make use of my place and I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Are you sure?” Michael asked him, desperately hoping that he would say yes.”

“Where are you going to go?” Tobias asked.

“Well to Amora’s of course! What else is there to do!”

3.

Damien left the heavily bloated obese lovers alone to get on with relieving each other in ways that he didn’t want to focus on. He hopped straight on the tube, whistling a happy tune, and arrived at Amora’s to discover that he and his two elephantine friends had been barred. He went to McDonald’s instead and ate like he hadn’t touched an ounce of food in the previous week. Bigger on the inside and soon the outside, he said to himself.

Michael and Tobias were pressing bellies, exhausted in his bed.

“Did you mean what you said to Damien? About being the best version of yourself? And that being happy is more important than how much you weigh?”

“Of course not! That was a right load of BS! But what else was I supposed to say to him? Gaining is about becoming as fat as humanly possible, and if you think for a second that you’re ever going to catch up to me then you’ve got another thing coming!”

Tobias kissed Michael passionately. “God, I love you!” He said.