eli5: why is it that fatter/bigger people in general have an easier time gaining strength and putting on muscle than skinny people?

Question

This is not the place to give any measurements, so I’ll just say I was fat 7 months ago and I’m not anymore.

I put on a lot of muscle mass while losing quite some fat, so I can lift rather heavy (on my own perspective), but when I mock my friends about lifting more than them even though they’ve been training for years they all go “well, you used to be fat” or “that’s easier for you because you were bigger” and I have come to understand that’s just how it works because of the Internet too, but I don’t really know why.

I don’t know if it’s the language causing a misunderstanding here, but when I say “mock” I mean we joke with each other playfully in a way that everyone’s comfortable with.

In: Biology

Answer 1

because hypertrophy and calorific surplus are necessary to gain muscle and fat. maybe they have a genetic advantage to eat more or maybe its just psychological. to some extent hormonelevels vary with genetics, like apetite, muslcegrowth, stresslevels, libido etc etc.