Reddit is the only place I've seen fat guys get made fun of for going to the gym. Only on Reddit do I see immature punks posting shaming videos of fat people "looking silly" at the gym. And this was years ago. Times have changed.

I never see this kind of judging or ridiculing at the gym. And I've been to several gyms over the years. If you go to the gym, you'll see how encouraging the staff always is. The other people are usually so focused on their own workouts they don't care what you look like; they only care if you're sitting on the arm press poking at your phone for five minutes while everyone waits for them to get the hell up. They only grimace if you show up reeking of perfume to cover up whatever "ghastly" smells your body produces. The only appearance-related judgment you'll get is if you're dressed for a night at the opera.

I'm totally the kind of person these immature Redditors would love to scrape some free asshole karma by recording while I stomp-stomp-stomp on the treadmill, breaking into a red-faced sweat after thirty seconds of low-speed jogging. But these assholes are so far and in between, and the /r/fitness community grills the shit out of them if they ever go fishing for clicks there, it's not worth worry about.

If you're thinking about going to the gym, go! Yes, your target weight won't be achieved for a long time, but don't go for the long-term goal. There are short term goals too. Just go once, and you'll feel more accomplished at the end of the day. Go a few times in a week, and you'll get the satisfying aches of your muscles lurching back to life. Go for a month, and revel in just how much better you sleep at night, how much easier your breathe, and how awake you feel as you roll out of bed.