The system with fat, muscle, exercise, and calories in TS4 really needs to be better tuned.Some examples of what I've seen in my game:- A sim who never exercises but only eats garden salad got visibly bigger in less than a week (garden salad is the food with the least amount of calories)- The same sim ate one serving of tofurky dinner and got visibly bigger (I even used cas.fulleditmode to look at the sims fat slider in CAS, and it had jumped up more than one snap, from 1(!) serving of tofurky!)- Another sim ate one serving of peperoni pizza and also got visibly bigger (and I checked in CAS to make sure I was right)- If your sim lives in San Myshuno, all their neighbours get big very quickly, because they eat at the food stands all the time- Sims who exercise get fit very quicklyI don't think it's reasonable that a sim who only eats garden salad should get visibly bigger, not even if they never exercise. It doesn't send a good message tbh.It would've also been nice if this system could be turned off. If I create a sim I want them to stay fat, fit, slim etc, I don't want their body to change just because they go for a jog or eat a holiday dinner.

Yes, this has always bothered me. Food is assigned different “calories” but they’re never burned by anything other than specific designated “exercise” activities. So if your Sim eats cake all the time but also goes for a jog once a day, they’ll be skinny. But if your Sim is running up and down the stairs doing laundry, playing with toddlers, going outside to garden, and working the “manual labor” job on weekends… even if their hunger is regularly yellow/red and they only eat one salad a day… they will get fat. Because there wasn’t time to do official exercise-for-exercise-sake and the game doesn’t count lifestyle or lack of food.Then, to add insult to injury, the vast majority of the CAS looks terrible on them / clips / bulges oddly.

It horrified me so much at how quickly food items can change your sim, I ended up turning off body changes via MCCC. I click that off in MCCC on each sim as I come to play them. Some I have to edit in CAS after they've been in the game for a while without me ever having played them, because they managed to turn themselves into a complete foodwrecked couch potato.I agree with the OP - the muscle gets laid on way too quickly from working out, and the fat does too (from any foods at all).I remember my first character when I first played this game - had no idea this would happen and was quite confused at how their body was being messed with, and had to google at what was going on. The game doesn't tell you this will happen. I mean it makes sense, just it catches a new player by surprise - especially with how quickly it happens.

@SqueamishNerd Personally I think more then excerise should make sims slimmer and food calories need ajusted aswell as a opt in/out system is needed (seprate for played & non played sims)

The weight gain system is something that makes me enjoy playing the game considerably less.I like my characters staying more or less how I created them. I enjoy creating a variety of bodies and styles, different shapes and sizes themselves are no issue, but I really dislike that a manual laborer who tends a farm all day gets heavier from simply eating a nice diet, and that a larger person can not both stay more or less the same shape _And_ enjoy jogging or weight training.

There are a couple of the female frames that I stay well away from because they seem to gain weight very quickly. I noticed that the last option on the list didn't gain weight/change size as fast. So now I choose that one as a base and stretch it out or add more shape and curves.It frustrates me more with the curvier Sims. I want them to be plus size but at the size I create them. I don't want them to keep changing, especially after I finish that household. I have a few that I've left as plus size, who look great as they are and have fashion choices that compliment them. I see them later and they look totally different. Some go to the very maximum size and some look totally ripped, which doesn't match their personality or their clothing selection. I keep going back and editing them again.Then there's exercising. Anyone knows that sit ups and press ups and bike riding IRL make a big difference to muscle gain and weight loss. But they have no effect on my Sims. In fact bike riding causes mine to gain weight inexplicably.

Feedback: The Fat and Muscle System Needs to be Better Tuned

41 Replies

PipMenace
Hero
3 years ago
Yes, this has always bothered me. Food is assigned different “calories” but they’re never burned by anything other than specific designated “exercise” activities. So if your Sim eats cake all the time but also goes for a jog once a day, they’ll be skinny. But if your Sim is running up and down the stairs doing laundry, playing with toddlers, going outside to garden, and working the “manual labor” job on weekends… even if their hunger is regularly yellow/red and they only eat one salad a day… they will get fat. Because there wasn’t time to do official exercise-for-exercise-sake and the game doesn’t count lifestyle or lack of food.
Then, to add insult to injury, the vast majority of the CAS looks terrible on them / clips / bulges oddly.
khitteh
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
It horrified me so much at how quickly food items can change your sim, I ended up turning off body changes via MCCC. I click that off in MCCC on each sim as I come to play them. Some I have to edit in CAS after they've been in the game for a while without me ever having played them, because they managed to turn themselves into a complete foodwrecked couch potato.
I agree with the OP - the muscle gets laid on way too quickly from working out, and the fat does too (from any foods at all).
I remember my first character when I first played this game - had no idea this would happen and was quite confused at how their body was being messed with, and had to google at what was going on. The game doesn't tell you this will happen. I mean it makes sense, just it catches a new player by surprise - especially with how quickly it happens.
Strangelovekraf
3 years ago
The weight gain system is something that makes me enjoy playing the game considerably less.
I like my characters staying more or less how I created them. I enjoy creating a variety of bodies and styles, different shapes and sizes themselves are no issue, but I really dislike that a manual laborer who tends a farm all day gets heavier from simply eating a nice diet, and that a larger person can not both stay more or less the same shape _And_ enjoy jogging or weight training.
gooochyeee
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@SqueamishNerd Personally I think more then excerise should make sims slimmer and food calories need ajusted aswell as a opt in/out system is needed (seprate for played & non played sims)
simsplayer818
Hero
3 years ago
There are a couple of the female frames that I stay well away from because they seem to gain weight very quickly. I noticed that the last option on the list didn't gain weight/change size as fast. So now I choose that one as a base and stretch it out or add more shape and curves.
It frustrates me more with the curvier Sims. I want them to be plus size but at the size I create them. I don't want them to keep changing, especially after I finish that household. I have a few that I've left as plus size, who look great as they are and have fashion choices that compliment them. I see them later and they look totally different. Some go to the very maximum size and some look totally ripped, which doesn't match their personality or their clothing selection. I keep going back and editing them again.
Then there's exercising. Anyone knows that sit ups and press ups and bike riding IRL make a big difference to muscle gain and weight loss. But they have no effect on my Sims. In fact bike riding causes mine to gain weight inexplicably.
SqueamishNerd
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
@simsplayer818 The system works so that some activities result in fat loss and others in muscle gain. If I recall correctly, sit ups, press ups, and bike riding make your sim gain muscle, this means that sims can still gain fat when doing those activities. Muscle is harder so see on sims whose fat slider is high up.
simsplayer818
Hero
3 years ago
@SqueamishNerdIn that case mine must have a bug, if it's working like that for your game. I have actually wondered for a while if it was by design or not. It was definitely weight that my Sim gained on her bike, and a lot of it. Even her face showed it and in CAS I could see it as I took a little of it off with the sliders because of the amount of weight, it changed her appearance too much.
I'm going to keep an eye on this one and see if it might be a bug. I thought it was tied to the bikes but I wasn't sure, it may be the body type. It's one for me to add to my bug watchlist.
Edit: I've just checked in CAS and it's the 5th and 6th on the female frames that I've stopped using because they go to maximum size quickly. The Sim who gained weight on the bike had one of those body types.🙄
SqueamishNerd
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Honestly, I've started to just cheat my sims motives, unless they're a sim who exercises regularly, because I don't want my sims to get bigger from eating normal sized portions.
SqueamishNerd
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago
Today I looked at my sim's fat slider in CAS, then I had him go for a run on the treadmill. After that I went into CAS again to look at his fat slider. It had gone down 8 steps. From one run.
I'm sorry, but this is absolutely ridiculous. I just want a setting to turn this off.
SqueamishNerd
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I did some testing with some pre-mades.
Grace Anansi ate only HALF portions of garden salad (the food with least amount of calories), never filling the hunger bar, for a week:
Cameron Fletcher kicked a soccer ball until he dropped it:
Julia Wright kicked a soccer ball until she dropped it (I forgot to change her clothes to something where the change is more visible, and I already changed her fat and muscle sliders back to original):
Is this really by design or is it a bug? Should this thread be moved to bug reports? I don't use any mods and have never done, this has been a problem ever since I started playing The Sims 4 in 2017.

Edit:
@crinrict Hi, do you think this is actually a bug and should be moved from "General Discussion & Feedback" to "Bug Reports"? The more I test around with this the more I feel like this can't be by design.