On Writing: Descriptions- There's More to Bellies than Rolls!

I’m sure we’ve all encountered the one story before, where someone thin puts on weight, and eventually their belly gets split into a roll, and then another, and then another, until suddenly they have more rolls than a bakery has in stock. When detailing the belly, uniqueness tends to get lost under all of its rolls, and is forgotten all for its size and number of folds.

Subcutaneous and Visceral
To start, I think the right place to begin is with the fat itself. This might not be seen as prominent or important in other areas, but thanks to the gut being placed in front of organs and not having much of a skeletal structure behind it, you get a mix of the fat that everything else has, along with some extra that appears even further within your body. In order, these are known as subcutaneous and visceral fat.
Subcutaneous is soft, fluffy, and is the layer just below your skin and above your muscles. It basically just hangs off of your body, which is why a gut with so much might droop a bit. This is the fat that can be found just about everywhere else on your body as well, and is what you would feel if you were to grab (a consenting) someone’s rolls.
Visceral is the stuff that hides a little bit deeper. It sits in between the empty spaces of your organs and is a bit harder than the previous fat. Typical beer guts are defined by this type of fat, as it has a tendency to give the gut a more defined, solid shape, making it appear more round and have less jiggle. This is also known to be the least healthy fat.
Now, every gut contains a little bit of both of these fats, but often times it is never in equal amounts. This is one of the key traits to determine how the belly will shape up as it grows out. A lot of visceral and you get a hard, round, gut. A lot of subcutaneous, you’ll get a lot more variety in shape!
Rolls
Sometimes it’s imagined that as people grow, they just tack on rolls. On the contrary, that round mass of fat can only have up to two or three at max, and the third is rare, even for the largest of people! As it seems to be its own unique development, I will be saving the “third roll” for later. Rolls are when the belly gets too big and decides to split itself in half. I’m not sure why or what causes this to happen, but it can occur and result in a variety of shapes. To simplify, I’m going to split it into two categories: a roll that splits above the belly button and one the splits right at the belly button.
First is above. The crease in between the rolls can be found just above or even a fair distance above the belly button (bb), though the distance is subjective. This often times can be found when side rolls are higher than the bb and the rest of the gut folds at the same level, or the side rolls do crease in the direction of the bb, but something happens and the fold in the center of the stomach ends up higher. In either situation, this can cause the belly button to sit right below the fold causing the appearance of a valley in the lower roll thanks the the button’s crease. If it’s much lower than that, the bb will be apparent regardless of the roll. The lower roll is often much bigger with these rolls.
Ex: Rolls: above belly-button
Next is through. These were a tad more difficult to find images of, but these happen when the crease cuts through the belly button. Sometimes it forms when the belly button flattens out with the extra fat and the rolls on the side help complete the crease, but it also seems to happen when al the fat beside the belly just caves in. Due to the folding to often be so even, this makes the belly almost look like two donuts stacked on one another, though there are exceptions.
Ex: Rolls: through belly-button

"The Belly Flap"
Now this is the “Third Roll”, putting that in quotations because there isn’t always a second to go along with it. Depending on its shape, it can also be deemed “the second set of boobs”. So what makes the flap different from the other rolls? It forms much, much higher than the where the others tend to be. This development occurs right under the breast and often goes all the way to the back. Up front, it can develop in a way to appear as another roll, but can also be split down the middle, forming that second pair of breasts.
Ex: Bellies with flaps

The Round Gut
You might not expect much variety from a belly that has no rolls, but some happens to be there. Most variety comes from the two types of fat, but other things can effect a soft, round stomach. There is just a basic gut, which has no creases of any sort, leading it to appear smooth and pillow-like. While full rolls are not present, the side might still have creases, often giving the belly what appears to be large yet shallow dimples on the sides and overall giving more shape as the large mass droops. Cellulite can also heavily affect the appearance of the belly, and the shape of the belly button and how it’s held up with the extra weight can also alter looks. This is also the one I found the most of, even outside of images I added.
Ex: Round Bellies

A Note on Chins
Now, not necessarily part of the belly, but is often times looked over in the aspect of how it develops. This is not because it’s forgotten, but more because it is often developed the same way in most stories. At high weights, a second might still be small for some, though the face might soften up everywhere else. On the other hand, others at a similar weight might hardly even have a neck. Now this distinction for characters could even be important for how you decide to portray them, whether you want them to appear cuddly and only give them a softer face, or want a more slovenly appearance with an almost neckless face. I also noticed that there isn’t usually more than a second chin, just that the chin falls lower and lower down the neck as the pounds pile on. This does not include shoving your face back to get the multiple chin appearance.

So now that you’ve read all of this information on guts (and maybe including all the photos you have observed) what you do with the information is up to you. What can you do with it? You can try to create new characters with these different shapes. You could also look at the pictures (or find your own) and try to describe how they appear to you, or sketch the details if you prefer to draw! There are limitless possibilities

Now for the polls!
What type of gut do you prefer?

  • Round belly
  • Rolls
  • The Flap
  • Triple Rolls

0 voters

What would you rather have for rolls?

  • Through the button
  • Just above the button
  • Clearly above the button

0 voters

Finally, what is your preference for the chin?

  • Just a soft face
  • Light second chin
  • Clearly visible second chin
  • Covering the neck
  • Multiple chins >:(

0 voters

Edit: I had forgotten to add two other resources that could have been helpful.
One is pictures of some large ladies together so you can compare belly variations side by side: BBW’s Together
The other is a set of weight gain sequences, to compare how each type might change as someone would put on weight: Gaining Sequences

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Thank you so much for this!

It’s not only useful for writing, it also helps a lot with how one would approach drawing bellies!

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Indeed. It was a very useful bit of information.

Two questions, if I may. First, I saw in the photos that big cutie Margot was placed in the round belly category, though i would have considered her a triple, or at least a double with flaps. It has been awhile since I looked into her, so I may be mis-remembering something.

Second, I’ve noticed some people gain a heart shaped belly or a vertical crease as they grow. Do you know if there’s any particular reason such shapes occur? What little research I’ve done on the topic hasn’t given me much insight as to why, I’m afraid.

I wonder if the possibility of rolls occurs due to maybe clothing or lifestyle of the gainer since having a heavy partying lifestyle tends to give more visceral than others (usually, not for certain) which has the belly pushing out more, while clothing adds pressure since it is being outgrown by their owner’s weight gain.
Another thing I am wondering is the stomach itself, whether having a big stomach means certain belly shapes or not as it can contain more food compared to smaller gainers.

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Very helpful post, thank you! :slight_smile:

Weirdly enough, bellies tend to be the part of writing this sort of fiction that I have the most trouble with, probably because there are other aspects that I like better.

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This was very well done, thank you! Also the statistics are quite interesting, turns out I’m in the majority in most cases lol

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Like, I thought for sure that rolls would be the most popular belly type, but boy was I wrong… :thinking:
(Although, things might change as more people vote of course!)

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I know, right? As the poll currently stands, I’m a minority in a minority, lol

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Yeah apparently when it comes to double chins moderates like myself (slight double chin) get out voted by the extremes of either no chins or super visible chins.

But as for the rest it seems like my old description of the fat fetish I gave to a buddy of mine once, which was “imagine a conventionally attractive women, then just simple add 50-100lbs and soften her features just a little bit” seems to be the norm, and not the exception. I believe it’s because fat fetish authors are a little limited in their abilities to describe a smooth belly beyond mentioning that it’s large and jiggly, and a lot of models seem to have rolls.

Is there even a way to accurately describe the many different shapes well? It may be that we simply need to invent a few words.

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I think that came up in a previous thread, actually. Namely the fact that so few people have ever hit the level of supreme sized individual, so we don’t really have enough words in English to describe someone past a certain weight.

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Well… Let’s try with one of them!

…but definitely the most prominent feature of Rosa were the ginormous fat rolls that she had developed just underneath her boobs, which gave her the bizarre look of someone who might have an extra pair of breasts! They were resting on top of her otherwise very round gut, they split at the middle between her breasts, and drooped all the way down to the hips at her sides. They were so big that they even outsized her large cow-tits, which used to be her biggest assets until she started to gorge herself every day…

You could set it up like that, and then afterwards give the excessive shape(s) a nickname in the story/game, so that people have a frame of reference.

Edit: Yeah well, what about games that has minimalistic character descriptions?
You could have some sort of pop-up that shows up once a feature starts to develop and makes itself known!

Your character has now started to develop a pair of boob-pillows!
This part of the body is a fold that develops right underneath the chest area, above the top of the belly, and wraps around underneath the arms, etc etc…”

And then you just add a boob-pillow section to the description/character sheet that has a description of how big and defined the “features” are!

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I’m glad you find use in these posts!

Yeah, you’re completely right about that, she does belong in the Triple category, or flaps and rolls above belly button. I was tired and DeviantArt’s collections organizer thing was kinda difficult to use, so I got careless on a couple things. Thank you for pointing that out though

I’m not too sure in all honesty, as there’s a lot of possible variables that could lead to each. From structural/genetic things such as hip size/shape, height of the waist in proportion to the rest of the body, ribcage variations, muscular structure, etc. to lifestyle choices such as posture, when and how you sit or lay, or anything else might could think of, there are a lot of things that could have an effect, and if any of them do, there aren’t really any studies (that I know of) to determine which affects what and how.

Those are also some really interesting possible variables as well. Is anyone here a biological scientist? lol
Though to respond to the whole visceral thing, I’m not sure that would have any affects relating to rolls, at least at high levels. Due to the location of visceral fat and the substance it is, it will more often than not retain its round shape. It might be a support in a way for subcutaneous to fold or morph the way it might, but on its own would leave for a round gut. When males gain weight, a much higher percentage tends to be visceral over subcutaneous, which is why men are more commonly known to get a “beer gut”, which is round and actually physically hard.

If anyone is more interested in exploring the topic of sub q and visceral fat, there is someone I’ve found on Fantasy Feeder who has found/compiled a ton of information and studies on this stuff, one of his posts can be found here: How to gain SAT and lose VAT.
Now, this post is more about how to gain and lose weight, but much of what I know about this stuff, I learned from his posts.

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This sounds like a job FOR SCIENCE!!!1!!

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Her gut was akin to a was akin to a thick water balloon as it lay over her legs as she sat. The large, round form appeared soft as no marks or folds were visible on her silky skin. This was aside from the divot of her belly button, of course, which found itself in the center of her malleable stomach.


Even when standing, you could tell she enjoyed her food. She was big enough that her belly stay folded on top of itself, like two massively fluffy pancakes laid one atop the other. As you gaze at her prominent gut, you could say without a doubt that you definitely are what you eat! Speaking of eating, it appears that even her belly button couldn’t survive her gluttony as it was swallowed between her rolls. You break from your trance and realize she’s noticed your stare.


Here are a couple examples. Could you visualize which was which? It might require a lot of comparisons and analogies, but the creativity might help pay off in the end. Tightfit’s example is also a good way to show how you go about describing one of the many forms!

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Thanks, this is insanely helpful! I semi-recently started writing a Mario princess (as in, the subjects of the weight gain are the princesses from the Mario games, not Mario as a princess) weight gain story. Or more accurately, I started writing a spin-off that relates back to the main story I’m planning. Seeing the examples and reading what you said about each, as well as reading the examples other users responded with on this topic, will really help with improving my story. Cheers!

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Not really into wg, more be. So I prefer round more than roll.

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