This plus-size hiking influencer says the outdoors gave him confidence: ‘My body can do amazing things’

It Figures is Yahoo Life's body image series, delving into the journeys of influential and inspiring figures as they explore what body confidence, body neutrality and self-love mean to them.

Andy Neal, an outdoor fitness influencer and plus-size model, remembers hearing all kinds of fat slurs about himself and his family while growing up in southern Oregon.

“There was this idea that we needed to make ourselves smaller because the world thinks we need to be smaller,” he tells Yahoo Life. “It communicated to me that, oh, there's something wrong with my body.”

These days, however, Neal is having the last laugh as host of The Hiker Podcast, where he and guests discuss the joys and healing powers of nature, and through Instagram, where he routinely spreads the message that the "outdoors is for everyBODY."

“The outdoors has given me so much healing and purpose,” he says. “This morning I went for a run by the river. I run! I'm in a bigger body and that's OK. My body can do amazing things. It takes me to amazing places — and that is healing.”

A former pastor, Neal, 40, recalls a lifetime of struggling with body image that culminated into years of fad dieting and various bouts of disordered eating. Growing up witnessing his family's “toxic relationship” with food and body size, he says, created an unhealthy cycle that was hard to break.

Obsessing over his weight eventually led him into a deep depression, as doctors and friends routinely voiced concerns about his health. It wasn't until 2019, when his therapist suggested hiking for his mental health, that his entire outlook on fitness changed.

“I went for a hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, a huge trail that expands from Mexico to Canada, and I just fell in love,” he recalls. “I was like, well, I climbed up this bluff. I can do this! This is something I can do. From then on, I just kept going. I was surprised at what I could do and where I could go. Yeah, I might be a little slow, but my body can do amazing things and go amazing places. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I fell in love and I haven't looked back.”

Neal began sharing the lessons he learned from the outdoors — and how it’s changed the relationship with his body — on his podcast. Soon after, he began posting words of encouragement for others on his social media accounts. The response was immediate.

“I was overwhelmed with messages and DMs about how it's amazing to see a guy putting himself out there and giving other guys permission to be vulnerable about their bodies,” he says. “It really encouraged me and gave me confidence that this is what I need to be doing, putting myself out there, because other people are gonna see that and it's gonna give them permission to go out and access the outdoors. The outdoors is for them, no matter what their body type is.”

As a male influencer in the body positivity space, which traditionally has been largely female-focused, Neal wants to create safer avenues for men to talk about their experience with body image. But first, he argues, guys need to start having conversations about how toxic masculinity plays a role in stifling their personal growth.

“There's a sense that as a ‘masculine man,’ you can't be vulnerable,” he says. “It's a shame that our culture, in so many ways, puts [men] into these boxes — that we have to look a certain way, act a certain way and we can't show our feelings, which is a bunch of B.S.”

For plus-size men searching for a sense of belonging in the fitness space, Neals says the outdoors is way less threatening than a hyper-masculine gym environment.

“There’s something about being connected to the outdoors, sitting beside a mountain or a river, walking or running along the trail and having this connection with nature and feeling at peace with yourself and who you are, even if the world's falling apart around you,” he says. “There's nothing better than going to the Redwood Forest in California and standing beside a big tree, after being told my whole life to make myself smaller. I'm out here in nature, where bigger is better. It's like, wow, I look tiny compared to this tree that's been around for a thousand years. There’s something about it that just breaks down all that masculine angst and baggage.”

Still, despite his success, Neal is not immune to online trolls. Recently, he posted a response to what he says are daily accusations that he “promotes obesity” simply by being a plus-size influencer.

“I’m told this a lot by the toxic fitness bros and IG diet gurus,” he retorted in a video response in September. “I’m not promoting obesity … I’m promoting mental health, joyful movement, the outdoors, and inclusivity.”

Though he continues to be a role model for other plus-size men who don’t have a platform, he admits the criticism still gets to him.

“I can sit here and say, ‘Oh, it doesn't affect me,’ but it does,” he tells Yahoo Life. “Those things, not only do they hurt where it hurts, but it takes me back to when I was a kid and I was called ugly and all this other stuff. I have grown so much as a person since I learned to accept my body."

At the end of the day, Neal wants people struggling with their body image to know that they're not alone.

“If more and more people hear my voice and they begin to speak out as well — and, more implicitly, people begin to hear that my body isn’t messed up, it isn’t defective, it’s beautiful — then maybe the people who are saying these mean, horrible things will begin to listen, and begin to change their thinking: What does it really mean to have a healthy body? What does it really mean to be fit?”

Part of that change, he explains, involves unlearning cultural biases about beauty. And that starts by sharing our own stories.

"You can quote stats, you can quote numbers, but when you hear someone's personal story ... it cuts differently," he says. "When you see the tears in their eyes, and you see how they came out of [their toxic mindsets], that's what's changed me. That's what got me to stop chasing the scale and stop chasing fitness or a certain size and just enjoy my body."

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