Have you ever wondered how common fat fetishism is? This article explores the intriguing world of adipophilia and lipophilia, presenting findings from various studies to illuminate just how prevalent these preferences are. By demystifying the statistics and shedding light on the people behind the numbers, we aim to deepen understanding and dispel myths. Dive into this comprehensive analysis to discover fascinating insights into a rarely discussed aspect of human attraction.
Table of contents:
Key Findings
- 4% of Americans have a fat fetish – making it one of the most common fetishes in the US.
- 1 in 14 men has a fat fetish (7%).
- Less than 1% of women have a fat fetish.
- There are 6 different kinds of fat fetishism; Fat admiration, Padding, Inflation, Stuffing, Gaining, and Feederism.
- 11% of the men between 40-59 years old have a fat fetish.
- 13% of men and 10% of women in the age group 25-39 years old find a fat partner more attractive.
- 24% of women between 25-39 years old prefer a partner to be fatter than them.
How common is having a fat fetish?
There is a very loose line between what would be considered a fat fetish, defined as paraphernalia which could be classified as Adipophilia (fetishism of people because of their size) or Lipophilia (sexualization of fat parts of the body).
To make sure, that we did not randomly catch simple preferences in the general US public, and did not have a fat fetish we asked questions in a very direct manner.
We also only included a response option that allowed for people to be included if they have a fat fetish.
Additionally, to conclude how many of the respondents have a fat fetish we cross-referenced responses across two distinct questions (each with a battery of answer-options).
Thereby, to find how common fat fetish are we only included participants who answered the:
- That they find fat men or fat women more attractive and;
- They prefer a romantic partner to be fatter than them.
From the cross references we find that:
- 4% of Americans have a fat fetish.
- Fat fetishism is so common that 1 in 25 people can be defined as Lipophiliacs or Adipophiliacs.
- 1 in 14 men have a fat fetish (7%).
- 1 in 100 women have a fat fetish (1%).
We also looked at the genders by different age groups:
What do you find attractive?
The question was posed with a few other categories available in the battery. However, to focus on narrowing down the total number of people who had an attraction towards fat people we isolated the answers most focused on providing evidence to support the prevalence of fat fetish in the group.
Question: What do you find more attractive?
| Demographic | Fat men | Fat women | Slimmer men | Slimmer women | Don’t mind any | Don’t know | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 1% | 10% | 8% | 40% | 22% | 5% | 3510 |
| Female | 6% | 2% | 23% | 10% | 29% | 5% | 3765 |
| 16-24 | 5% | 6% | 22% | 29% | 18% | 8% | 945 |
| 25-39 | 6% | 9% | 17% | 25% | 20% | 3% | 1797 |
| 40-59 | 3% | 7% | 14% | 24% | 24% | 6% | 2194 |
| 60+ | 2% | 3% | 14% | 23% | 34% | 4% | 2339 |
| 16-24/Male | 1% | 8% | 15% | 47% | 14% | 11% | 456 |
| 16-24/Female | 9% | 4% | 28% | 12% | 22% | 5% | 489 |
| 25-39/Male | 1% | 13% | 10% | 39% | 17% | 4% | 879 |
| 25-39/Female | 10% | 4% | 24% | 12% | 24% | 3% | 918 |
| 40-59/Male | 2% | 12% | 9% | 40% | 19% | 5% | 1053 |
| 40-59/Female | 4% | 1% | 20% | 9% | 28% | 6% | 1138 |
| 60+/Male | 1% | 6% | 4% | 39% | 33% | 3% | 1122 |
| 60+/Female | 2% | 0% | 23% | 8% | 35% | 4% | 1217 |
| Total | 4% | 6% | 16% | 24% | 26% | 5% | 7275 |
What do you prefer in a romantic partner?
the other questions we asked focused less on sexual attraction, and more on romantic partners. This helped provide additional evidence to support the findings. Also, as already revealed, to find the true percentage of the population who can be identified as having a fat fetish we used the two tabulations to cross-reference.
Question: Do you prefer if your romantic partner is…?
| Demographic | Less fat than me | Fatter than me | My size | No preference | Don’t know | N |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 22% | 8% | 20% | 46% | 5% | 3611 |
| Female | 6% | 15% | 21% | 53% | 5% | 3838 |
| 16-24 | 11% | 13% | 19% | 45% | 12% | 1007 |
| 25-39 | 12% | 16% | 18% | 50% | 4% | 1847 |
| 40-59 | 15% | 11% | 22% | 48% | 4% | 2224 |
| 60+ | 14% | 8% | 21% | 52% | 4% | 2371 |
| 16-24/Male | 19% | 8% | 19% | 39% | 16% | 505 |
| 16-24/Female | 2% | 19% | 19% | 52% | 8% | 499 |
| 25-39/Male | 20% | 8% | 20% | 48% | 4% | 909 |
| 25-39/Female | 5% | 24% | 16% | 52% | 4% | 938 |
| 40-59/Male | 21% | 9% | 19% | 46% | 4% | 1069 |
| 40-59/Female | 9% | 13% | 24% | 50% | 4% | 1155 |
| 60+/Male | 25% | 6% | 21% | 47% | 2% | 1128 |
| 60+/Female | 5% | 10% | 22% | 57% | 6% | 1246 |
| Total | 13% | 12% | 20% | 49% | 5% | 7449 |
Terminology
- Paraphilia – Translated it could mean “beyond love”. In essence, it is a term used to describe what could be classified as kinks or fetishes. A more substantive ‘addiction ‘-like attraction to something/someone.
- Adipophilia – The sexual arousal and fetish for fat body parts.
- Lipophilia – The sexual arousal and fetish of fat people.
- BBW – Term for a “Big Beautiful Woman”. Predominantly used in porn categorization. Other similar terms include SSBBW – Super sized Beautiful woman; BBBW – Big Beautiful Black Woman (also with SSBBBW) or; BBT – Big beautiful Teen.
- Fat admirer – A person who does not necessarily find sexual attraction as much as beauty in fat body parts or a fat person.
- Chaser – A small man who is romantically or sexually attracted to fat women.
- Bloater – A person who enjoys stuffing themselves with food and gets turned on by the sensation of feeling bloated.
- Inflater – A person who fantasizes or enjoys the sensation of feeling ‘inflated’.
- Gainer – A person who gains weight for sexual pleasure, or fantasizes about doing so.
- Encourager – A person who finds sexual pleasure in encouraging or persuading another person to become fat.
- Maintainer – A person who is sympathetic towards those who want to gain weight, but is not themselves gaining additional weight (while maintaining it).
- Feede – A person who finds sexual pleasure in being fed by another person to gain weight.
- Feeder – A person who finds sexual pleasure in feeding someone else with the intention of that person becoming fatter.
- Foode – A person who fantasizes or finds sexual pleasure in eating themselves.
- FBW – Stands for Fat Body Worship, and is the consensual glorification of another person’s fat body.
- GRP – Stands for Growth Role-Play
Types of fat fetishes
If we dive deep into the different types of fat fetishes, that exist we find a few different categories with different distinct character traits.
Fat admiration
This could be considered a sexual preference, rather than a fetish. However, when talking about it as a fetish it describes a sexual relationship with an obese partner. It is the romantic and/or sexual desire to be with someone fat.
Padding
A practice, where a person would put on clothes, and use padding, layering, or other techniques to appear fatter than they are. The purpose is to arouse partners or potential sexual or romantic partners. It can also be done as a part of a role-playing act.
Inflation
Through the use of excessive air or liquid, a person would try to inflate their abdomen. This creates a feeling of being bloated or stuffed, without food. It can be to arouse both oneself and a partner.
Stuffing
The practice of eating so much food, that you are full. To the point where you feel both bloated and stuffed.
Gaining
This refers to the fetish relationship between a gainer and an encourager. The relationship is built on the premise that one person feeds the other. It can be used as a synonym with feederism, however, this term is more predominant in gay cultures.
Feederism
This refers to the fetish relationship between a gainer and an encourager. The relationship is built on the premise that one person feeds the other.
