I saw a recent picture on Fetlife captioned “punishment for gaining weight”, and that made me wrinkle my brow a bit. I have spent a fair amount of time as a disciplinarian, and I have punished many a person for many a thing, but one thing I won’t punish someone for is weight gain (or lack of weight loss).

As a fluffy individual myself, I’m fully aware that there are a multitude of factors going into whether or not someone loses or gains weight. You can exercise, eat right, and still gain weight; you can laze around, eat stuff that’s bad for you, and still not gain weight — or even lose weight. I mean, the latter is unlikely, but it’s possible. Some people’s metabolism lends itself to losing weight faster; some people’s metabolism makes it virtually impossible. Even getting weight loss surgery doesn’t always work. (There are some new medications that have shown promise, but as someone who takes one of them — it’s possible to “eat through” the full feeling they give you, which means they really don’t work at all unless you have the willpower to stop when you get full.)

Being spanked doesn’t work for me as a punishment or motivator, but it does work for some people. Still, I’m never going to punish someone to help with their weight modification. At least, not for the number on the scale. For me, if I’m going to punish you to help you get motivated to lose weight, I’m going to punish you for not trying. I can review your food logs or calorie counts; I can help you keep track of when you go to the gym and how much time you spend there. But I’m not going to spank you if you gain a couple of pounds one week. Especially if you’re a woman; just your reproductive cycle alone can lead to changes in your weight, and it’s unfair to punish you for something that you’re biologically incapable of controlling.

However, if you gain a couple of pounds and didn’t go to the gym like you were supposed to (and you don’t have a good reason for not going, like being sick), that will get you punished.

Plus, I really prefer rewards to punishments when it comes to fitness, as you’ll see in the January and February editions of my holiday stories collection.