Padding
Padding is the activity of getting to look fat without being fat. Sometimes it's also called stuffing, but in the feedism context this can be interpreted as actual food instead of pillows or other things under your clothing. Padding can be a more healthy alternative to actual gaining, but can approximate the arousal that results from gaining.
Don't be afraid to experiment! You can try different shapes, sizes, materials and techniques to find out what makes you feel the best. You're doing this for fun after all. There is not a single correct way to do padding. This page tries to give various recommendations which can help you explore padding and get the most out of it. Enjoy!
Lot's of feedists have mentioned engaging in padding, but not many online communities exisits for it. Since 2022, the subreddit /r/paddingpals exists. There is also a Discord server, ask for a new link in the subreddit because they expire automatically in a week. The server welcomes anyone who is interested in padding! There is also the Fantasy Feeder subforum titled 'clothes padding', which contains quite a few threads. As of 2023, the subreddit is the most active public padding community.
Why?
Why do we pad? Where does it come from? There are various reasons and theories, I will try to list some of them. Your story might be completely different.
In public
Padding in public can be embarrasing, but very exiting as well. You can try padding while on holiday far away from home, which minimizes the chance of seeing people you know. If you want to see people their reactions while at home, you could also try food delivery and look at the probably surprising face of the deliverer: "damn, they're yuuge" :D
Being open
You can choose to be open about your padding to other people. This can be a difficult choice, but it is a deeply personal one. People can react to things in wildly different and unexpected ways, and can be surpringly open minded about such things.
As an example, this is a cool story about someone telling their roommate: part 1, part 2
This should serve as an example. It can be hard to tell people, but people don't hate you! They can be open minded! But the most important one: nobody really cares. Most people do way stranger things than they'd like to publicly admit :)
Being open about it can reduce shame and can be empowering. But it is your own personal decision after all, don't feel forced to do either way.
Recommendations
- Large, stretchy clothing
- Use pillows as a basis, with blankets in between as a filler
- Wear a moisture-wicking thing underneat such as a compression shirt that helps you to stay cool
- Using multiple layers. Using a dress can also help keeping the pillows and/or blankets in place
If the bottom half of your bad (trousers, legging, etc) is being pushed down by your top half, you could try a full body suit like a swimsuit. Or try using suspensers.
Acutal fat suits are expensive. They are custom made for your own body type and require a lot of manual work. Before going that route, I recommend buying some cheaper stuff to experiment with that.
Braces/suspenders are a great tool. The standard things you can buy usually can't withstand a lot of preassure, but there are the slightly more expensive (around $20 usually) so called 'heavy duty' versions that have more clips and can hold up your heavy pants!
Sizes? Try buying at least 4XL if you want to go real big.
Cool YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Nikki19NY/videos
Short YouTube video about the creation of a fatsuit:
https://old.reddit.com/r/paddingpals/comments/179kmcu/any_tips_on_padding/k576nub/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIrucjyVgQQ
You can buy a whole video series on fat suits here: https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/fat-suit-fabrication
(I have no affilation here, but It's one of the things I found online)
For the real adventurers, you cal also be padded in
Activity ideas while padded:
- Amusement park
- Going to the mall
- Playing video games
- Sleeping
- Ordering food
- Eating and drinking
- Walking around the house
- Attending SizeCon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV28NFGR
This kind of suit could be used to put a weighted blanket into it, so it stays in place. Credits for the idea: https://old.reddit.com/r/paddingpals/comments/1auwe7v/anyone_use_a_weighted_blanket_before_asking_for/kr6wn4c/
Common issues
A common issue with padding your pants is that your pants will move down. This can be quite easily fixed, because there already exists a common solution for this problem: braces! Although not made for padding, they greatly help here.