Ep. 69 Does Weight Gain Make the Penis Smaller in Teen Boys?

It’s one of the most common—and least talked about—questions I get from teenage boys and their parents.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the real science behind penis size, puberty, and weight gain. You’ll learn the difference between a buried penis (when fat tissue hides the penis) and a truly small penis, and why many boys worry unnecessarily during puberty.

I also explain:

• When penis size actually changes (hint: it doesn’t before puberty!)
• Why extra belly fat can make the penis look smaller
• What to do if your teen is feeling anxious about their body
• When to see a doctor for evaluation

🎁 Grab my free high-protein recipe bundle for teens at lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

I’m Dr. Jenny Gourgari—pediatric endocrinologist, certified in obesity medicine and a health coach.
After helping hundreds of teens struggling with their weight and hormones, I’ve created a whole new path by doing what most programs miss: balance puberty hormones naturally and create habits that actually last.

Here's what makes this different:
✅ No dieting. No calorie counting. No shame.
✅ No more food fights between parents and teens.
✅ No weight obsession—just healthy habits
✅ Real science behind how puberty hormones affect weight
✅ A safe, supportive approach that prevents eating disorders

Because when teens understand their hormones and get the right support, they don’t just lose weight—they gain strength, energy, confidence, and freedom!

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Transcript

 Today I will talk about a topic that I have a lot of teenagers come and see me for, and I know a lot of teenagers worry about their, penis size and whether that is normal and in particular, the question is the, does the size of the penis change in adolescent boys when they have extra weight? And to take it one step further, if teenage boys that have extra weight, do they have smaller penises because of that?

And if they lose weight does the penis size gets bigger. Before I go into this topic, I wanna say that there's a lot of misconception and misunderstanding on the internet on how we classify and what do we mean when we say small penis size. And the most important thing that I think it's to know is that when boys are born, they have a size that.

It's a particular size, and we define that as being small if it's less than 2.5 centimeters in general. And then the size doesn't really change much from whatever that initial size is in babies until the boys actually go into puberty. So don't expect to see increased size on your penis if you are a teenager.

If you are not in puberty, so you may be 11 years of age and be in puberty, or you may be 11 years of age and not be in puberty, and whether you are or whether you are not in puberty makes a big difference in terms of whether you are. Expected to see, first of all, any change in the size compared to what the size was when you were six years of age.

So first take home messages that the size doesn't really change from what it is in toddler, boys, until the boys actually hit puberty. The second thing is that. What happens when boys gain extra weight? There is more fat that goes throughout the body, right? There is fat in the arms, there's fat in the stomach, there's fat in the legs.

And as part of this extra weight gain, there is also a part of the fat that goes and sits around the penis. So if you I made a small diagram here, so if you can imagine that we are looking from the top, and this is the body of a boy, and this is the penile size, this is the extra fat pad

When you gain weight, your stomach gets bigger, your waist gets bigger, so there is fat that goes also and sits in the area around where the penis size sits. So if you are having fat here, then you're looking at the size of the penis as being like this. And then. If you don't have that extra fat, then the size will look like this.

Really, the size doesn't really change. It's always the same, but it's a perceived issue of looking smaller when you have. Extra weight, and that is because of the extra fat that goes in the stomach and the lower abdomen basically, and hides the penis. This is what we called buried penis. So buried penis is not the same as small penis.

It is means that it is hidden inside the fat. That is in that area around the penis size of adolescent boys. And how can you know that? You can simply push back with the fingers, you can get, you can grab a pen or a ruler or something that is hard. You can put it down from the beginning, like you can stretch the penis and put the pencil down and that way you know what the real penis size is. So don't stop here, but push all the way and that will give you the size of the penis. So it is a big difference whether it is hidden. Penis or whether it is small penis. Okay. That's the second take home message I have for you. The third is that how common is that?

It is very common in teenage boys. Actually. There was a research study that examined more than 600 teenage boys and they measured the penis size and they found that approximately 30% of teenage boys that had extra weight were. Perceived to have small penis, but in reality their penis was perfectly fine.

Okay. Now the fourth point I wanna mention is, what happens when boys lose weight? Does the penis get bigger? The answer is no. The penis doesn't get bigger, but as I explained before, it may appear bigger because you lose that fat that is. Hiding the penis. So if there is no fat that is hiding the penis, then the penis of the adolescent boy is gonna look bigger. And now why is this important? I think it's important to talk about it because we know that managing stress and having a negative body image issue can affect adversely your efforts as you're trying to get to a healthy weight. If you are, if you feel not in. So not if you don't feel good with your body, if you feel insecure, you are more likely to continue to be stressed about it.

You're more likely to over eat, you're more likely to get depressed, and that increases the vicious cycle of overeating, depressed, more fat, smaller penis. And the reality is there is nothing to worry about and you should not worry about it. Now, that's not to say that there are not any pathologic conditions and there are boys that do have smaller penises, and those can be due to other issues like lower testosterone level .

If there is, if your pediatrician is concerned that your puberty is not advancing regularly, that you are not progressing into puberty as you should, then you can see a pediatric endocrinologist and they can do more thorough evaluation and they can do more measurements and they can try to see if there is something else with going on that would explain a smaller penis size.

So I hope that was helpful. Go and check out my free resources on Lifestyle 📍  fourteensdotcom forward slash recipes to get  📍 thirty recipes for teenagers if you're trying to get into a healthier weight. I. Feel free to reach out to me at info@lifestylefourteens.com with any topics or anything you would like me to talk about and subscribe to my newsletter, lifestyle  📍 fourteens.com/newsletter that I can share with you my weekly tips on how to help your teenagers go into a healthier weight by following a healthier lifestyle.

Take care. I'll talk to you soon.