For the first few days afterwards, Epesi remained diligently fixed on his goal of running himself ragged and losing weight. As the days passed though, no matter how hard and fast he ran, he nevertheless continued to put on weight, though at a slower pace than when he'd first been brought in. What he didn't know, and neither did Nala for that matter, was that he was managing his time badly, he gained weight during his after-meal naps and that if he just waited for his stomach to settle before attempting to exercise, that he might actually achieve his goal.

Nevertheless, Epesi's failure to lose weight was demoralising him, and so, as the days passed, he ran less and less, which only speeded up his gain, and consequently left him even more depressed. Nor was his situation helped by his new eating habit of devouring his meat as though he were eating an enemy, for while this wasn't problematic on its own, Henry observed it, and assuming the cub was hungry, slowly began to increase his portion, though this was offset by Nala's observation of such, and her consequent stopping of tricking the cheetah cub into having some of her meat.

As Epesi stopped exercising and began eating more his weight ballooned, giving him an ever larger belly and chest. Not that the cheetahs torso was the only affected area, for his limbs, once lean, now began to show extra padding, and even his tail and head were affected. Nala also noticed the changes, and revelled in them, in her opinion her friend grew more appealing with each passing day.

Her opinion wasn't shared by Epesi, for with each passing day he grew more withdrawn, as though he was appalled by his very reality. This worried Nala, for although she found the cheetah's ever-increasing size appealing, his worsening mental state overrode this appeal. Realising she'd gone badly wrong with her plan to make her new companion more pleasant, she tried to think of was to correct her mistake.