One of the things that San Andreas added to the game was different stats for CJ to increase, like his Sex Appeal, Muscle, and Stamina, among other things. These different stats can affect how you play the game, since you will make things easier or more challenging on yourself. For example, eat too much and CJ will start becoming fat, which will in turn affect how you sprint and your health. When you start out the game, most of your stats will be nothing and you will have to build CJ up from scratch.

Respect¶

Respect will indicate how well CJ’s standing is with the Grove Street Families. As you gain more respect, you will be able to recruit more gang members while exploring the game’s world. At the beginning of the game, you are only able to recruit a single gang member, but with a high enough respect rating, you will be able to recruit up to a maximum of seven gang members. You will gain a lot of respect from just finishing main story missions, but there are other ways to increase it. You will also gain respect for killing enemy gang members, as well as police.

Once you unlock the ability to take over gang territories upon completing Doberman, you will also increase your respect by taking over enemy territories. The Gang Tags you can spray over also increase your respect, so it’s a good idea to do those, since it’ll unlock other things, too. Even something as simple as CJ’s appearance can also increase the amount of respect you have, although it’s not a giant increase like the above. For example, you get a boost to respect whenever you wear green clothing in areas controlled by the Grove Street Families. If you are not careful, though, you may lose some respect, like if you accidentally kill your own friendly gang members or lose a territory to another gang.

Stamina¶

Stamina is a very important stat for CJ, as it indicates your endurance whenever you’re sprinting, swimming or using a bicycle. If you have low stamina, then you may see that CJ cannot sprint for too long, which might prove dangerous if you’re in a situation where you need to be running. This is a stat that will be built up over the game, especially if you do things like running a lot, or using a bicycle, or even swimming. You can also increase your stamina by using the treadmill and stationary bike at a gym. Note that if you complete the Burglary side mission, then you will be granted infinite stamina and do not need to worry about increasing the stat at all.

Muscle¶

As should be expected, the Muscle stat will increase the muscular look of CJ, which in turn, will affect his melee prowess, respect and even his sex appeal. You will also notice that increasing your muscle will also slightly reduce the damage taken from falls. Some of the things that increase your Stamina will also increase your muscle, like running, swimming and biking. This also extends to the two gym activities mentioned above, which are the treadmill and stationary bike; lifting weights will also obviously increase your muscle.

Two important things should be said about the muscle stat in San Andreas. First, having 100% muscle is not a good thing for your sex appearl, as some of the Girlfriends will be put off by all of the muscles. The second thing about muscle is that it will deteriorate if CJ has no fat and doesn’t eat enough food. If you wish to lose muscle, then go to the gym and use the bike there to lose all of the fat, then make sure to just not feed CJ while exploring the game’s world.

Fat¶

Fat will change the way CJ looks, as well as make it harder to run, jump and even affect his health. Naturally, you increase your fat stat by eating food, like Cluckin’ Bell, Well Stacked Pizza, and Burger Shot. You should always have some bit of fat on CJ, as if he has none at all, then he will start to lose muscle instead. Note that if you’re not eating and intend to lose muscle, then ignore the warning the game will give you when this happens. If he has no muscle and fat, then CJ will lose health. It’s important to know that eating salad will not increase your fat stat.

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The treadmill is an excellent way to quickly lose Fat

As should be expected, any kind of exercise will decrease your fat stat, including the usual mentioned under Stamina and Muscle. There is one more thing that decreases fat, which is starving CJ. He will not begin starving himself until 48 in-game hours have passed without eating a single thing. One last thing that’s crucial is that you don’t eat too much in one sitting, as this will cause CJ to vomit. Should this happen, any meals he consumed will not contribute to his fat stat at all. You will also not be able to eat in any restaurant for 11 in-game hours.

Sex Appeal¶

Sex Appeal is a stat that indicates how women in the game react to CJ, which includes his Girlfriends and pedestrians. The vehicle you’re driving, as well as its condition, and even the clothes, fat, muscle, and other appearances will influence CJ’s sex appeal. Note that female pedestrians will always go by the sex appeal stat, while girlfriends can be influenced by the boost you get by collecting all of the Oysters. Even sleeping with sex workers can increase your sex appeal by a little bit. Naturally, the more expensive the car and clothing you use, the more sex appeal you will have, so this is something that will be a little harder to control in the beginning of the game.