So Matt is happy, exploring his new school and settling into a new sort of life, but what's going on with that 5'6", 264 pound body he hauled into OSB?

Especially since his appetite has grown - well, OK, grown hugely. Maybe even doubled.

Well, the stress of the new school had led Matt's body to deplete its reserves a little in the weeks leading up to the new school year - he had probably dropped a pound or two, and certainly had depleted some of his fat cells a little. This predisposed him to be hungrier than usual, once he relaxed. At OSB, away from his parents, surrounded by food and fat guys, he did relax - no more the stress of being the class fatboy, of dreading gym class - in fact, his inner wonderings and fantasies about fat guys were answered and massively reinforced by meeting Todd, his 'nearly twice my size' roomie, and Mr McCrary, among others.

So, relaxed, surrounded by food and subtle encouragements everywhere to eat more, Matt's appetite takes off. Probably doubles. Four meals a day, encouragement, and endless opportunities to snack will do that to you.

But, he's 'only' 264 pounds - and eating more like his 500 pound roomie Todd! Where do the calories go?

Well, at first his body, assaulted by the thousands of extra calories, refilled those slightly depleted fat cells, and repaired the damage caused by the stress of anticipating school. That, plus growing some new capacity in the digestive system, took care of maybe the first day's excess calories (though growing a bigger stomach and intestines, a bigger gut, takes more than a day).

Then his body cranked up its internal thermostat to burn off some more of the extra calories - Matt threw off the extra covers on his bed at night, because he was warm, not realising his body was just trying to cope with a flood of food...

Gym class the second day of school provided his body with further relief - all that stretching, weightlifting, and jogging, left well-worked muscles feeling sore. His body thankfully rushed calories into the breach, fixing the damage caused by heavy exercise and growing the muscles to cope with future workouts. Swimming the next day worked other muscles, and his body rushed more calories to them, thankful to have something to do with the increasing flood of calories Matt was consuming, as he 'got into' the snacks between classes.

Finally, on the fourth day, his first Saturday at OSB, Matt's body couldn't cope any more with the flood of incoming food energy - all existing fat cells had been topped off, the damage from pre-term nervousness was fixed, his body temp was cranked (no flu virus would get any hold in his frame), his muscles bulged with all the calories spent repairing and enlarging their cells...

so it was time...

Time for Matt's body to do what every boy's body at OSB does...

Grow new fat cells!

So, from day four on, Matt began to get fatter. And fatter.

Now, Matt didn't just get fatter - his digestive system also continued to stretch and grow, his muscles grew (and surprisingly fast - it turns out he's what the bodybuilders call an 'easy gainer') and of course his bones and heart and all the rest grew too, but from day four on, ...

Matt was gettin' fat.

Just what OSB is all about.

Now, a week after that first gym class, Matt has added nearly fiver pounds - though he doesn't know it, yet. A couple of pounds of muscle, three pounds of fat. He feels great, and his lifting has improved in just one week! So when we drop back in on our gaining boy, he's ...