Maggie's Farm

I've been going to various gyms on 3 continents for the last 15 years (off and on).

The only one where most of the people were young and fit was the military gym on Camp Victory, Iraq.

And let me tell you, there were some MONSTERS there. There was this one guy who would do 3 minutes on the jump rope, then sort of this crawling push exercise--10 forward, 10 backward--then back to the jump rope. He did MANY rounds of this the several times I saw him.

But even there there were the rounder folks--some senior military, some reservists, and a lot of the civilians.

Most of the other gyms I've used, ranging from 24hour fitness to community centers etc. had elderly, out of shape and down right obese folks working out.

If you don't want to minimize exposure until you've got your appearance a bit more under control, here's a few tips:

1) Arrange to go off peak hours . I take a "late lunch" so I can go to the gym between 1:30 and 3 PM local time (I actually work 1 time zone west of me, so I really take 12:30 to 2. It helps that I work from home and the gym is across the street). If I miss that and I still have the energy I'll go at 7 or 7:30 in the evening, and it's almost empty. This was also true of the 24 hour fitness gyms, but they tend to be busier in the afternoons, so if that's what you have access to, try to arrange a "early lunch". Maybe start your work day an hour early.

2) You can get a "beginner" weight set--rack, bench, and 160 pounds of bumper plates with bar and clamps for about 10 months of payments to a gym. Throw in a the "Starting Strength" book and 20 bucks worth of puzzle mats, and you can start doing the needful in your garage/basement/back porch. Get your weights on twice a week (at first), and just do long walks (30+ minutes) of increasing speed (and distance) daily until you're almost running every day. Do some sort of movement/calisthenics (especially hitting the hips if you sit a lot) twice a week. By the time you hit the end of the weights you should have lost enough weight to make the gym tolerable. If not, buy 2 more 45 pound plates.

By the time you're dead-lifting 250 and benching over 150, no one at the gym will care how fat you are.