Based on interviews with big-bodied women living in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa this presentation highlights a system of explanations that declares all body sizes to be the right size and is against the idea of intentional change in body size.Three analytical categories are presented: bodies as given, bodies as circumstantial and maintaining bodies as given. The first category refers to a view of body size as predetermined and to a very limited extent possible to change by intentional action. Changes are partly explained by natural events, like growing up, giving birth to children and aging. The second category refers to supposed connections between body size and living conditions or mood, such as happiness or worry. The third category, maintaining bodies as given, complements the ideas of bodies as given and offers reasonable explanations for understanding changes in body size that are not covered by the idea of circumstantial bodies. Together these ideas encourage efforts at size maintenance rather than change.