#Fatspo: Chapter 3

One month later

“When your cooking channel starts making you fat,” Louis typed over a TikTok of himself sucking in and then letting his belly fall forward and out of his T-shirt. He posted the video.

“Who needs #thinspo,” he typed over a video of him in a pair of blue jeans, his stomach barely covered by a striped shirt and hanging over his waistband. The clip cuts to a reverse shot of Louis from behind, his rounded ass cheeks in light blue underwear bulging out from a tear up the seat of his jeans. He types: “when you could be #fatspo?”

Louis posted the TikTok and threw his phone on the bed. His body subtly bounced as he shimmied out of the torn denim. He felt a sense of relief getting them off his body and then fingered the hole with a twinge of melancholy. He had just bought these jeans and felt sad to see them go. They had ripped suddenly as he was squeezing into them about twenty minutes earlier causing him to really take stock of how his body had changed.

He’d probably packed on another ten pounds in the last month. His gut was undeniably present at all times. On the verge of a spare tire the weight not only gathered on his stomach but was beginning to wrap around into love handles. This was perhaps the most noticeable part for Louis himself, as his shirts now clung to his sides. However, his ass had also begun to fill out, as evidenced by his busted denim. This was something Louis hadn’t quite noticed until this moment.

He examined his booty in the mirror. It was quite rounded and heavy with fat now. With the underside of his fingers he jostled the bottom crest of his cheeks and was mesmerized by how they undulated. He even hopped up and down a couple times causing them to jiggle with vigor. Stepping closer to the mirror, Louis even discovered subtle indentations of cellulite. Strangely, he was somewhat aroused by his fatter ass and wondered if other men would be as well. Big butts were quite trendy after all.

He then turned back around and cupped his belly. This was an area he was insecure about. He knew it was not desirable especially with gay men in Los Angeles. But he simply did not have the time to hit the gym and right now he needed to focus on building his brand. The thought then crossed his mind that he might lose followers from his latest posts about busting his jeans.

Louis quickly reached for his phone and anxiously launched TikTok. To his surprise, the post was blowing up. It was almost as popular as his most successful post of all time. He found it strange, but any attention was good attention. He decided to repost the TikTok to his Instagram and Twitter to see how it would fare on those platforms.

The rest of the day Louis spent cooking and baking new recipes. He was becoming quite skilled and adept at modifying recipes he found to his own liking. One of his favorite tricks was adding sour cream or extra butter to most savory dishes. Cooked down, sour cream added a hearty tanginess that enhanced most flavors while butter was simply good on everything. Cooking had become so ritualistic that Louis actually enjoyed the pastime beyond it’s value on social media.

The process of lining his ingredients up, experimenting with flavors, cleaning up, and, most all, eating, was therapeutic. It allowed him to temporarily forget about the existential threat of poverty or the annoying minutiae of working a low wage job and living with roommates. In a sense, cooking and eating had become his happy place.

Louis went to bed that evening feeling so full and content that he forgot to check his social media, a rarity for him. When he woke up the next morning and launched his apps he was flabbergasted. Somehow, he gained over a hundred new followers on almost every platform overnight. And it seemed to be thanks to his #fatspo video which had racked up thousands of views. Louis didn’t quite understand but was happy nonetheless.

For the rest of the week he continued with his normal schedule of two cooking posts and one pop culture interspersed with lifestyle shots. Despite the influx of followers, none of his posts seemed to garner any extra attention. Frustrated, he decided to test the waters with another post about his weight gain.

After chowing down on a new boneless wings recipe with three styles of homemade dipping sauce,  Louis found himself stuffed to the gills. He was bloated beyond belief and his belly was so swollen he looked pregnant. Personally, he felt entirely uncomfortable and unattractive but he snapped some photos anyway. He posted them with the caption: “My new recipe is so delicious I ended up eating a family serving in one sitting. Oof #fatspo continues?”

Louis sent the post into the proverbial cloud and waited. A few hours later his notifications were off the chain. He was also receiving comments and DMs about his body. Most were compliments, only a few were derogatory, and more than a handful were encouraging him to gain even more weight. Louis found this odd and counterintuitive. People wanted him to get fatter? Were they sexually into that? He didn’t know how to feel about it, but something in his gut was telling him that it might be fun.