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

You have a higher baseline of muscle, just moving your arms when you are fat is like lifting weights.

A lot of fat people do have the muscles of someone that has went to the gym regularly for years. And if you don’t lose them when losing weight you will be at an advantage compared to someone that never went to the gym before.