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The colloquial phrase to put on a bit of pudding, also to put a bit of pudding on, means: to gain weight around one’s middle.

This phrase occurs, for example, in an interview of the South-African jockey Shannon Devoy, who had just retired, published in the online South-African newspaper Sporting Post on Monday 2^nd October 2023:

“After riding forever, one gets used to watching the diet and staying fit. I feel like I have already put on a bit of pudding!” he laughs.

—Cf. also the colloquial phrase a spare tyre around the waistline.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of to put on a bit of pudding, also to put a bit of pudding on, that I have found—this phrase seems to be of Australian-English origin:

1-: From Call me when the Cross turns over (Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1957), by the Australian novelist and short-story writer D’Arcy Francis Niland (1917-1967) [page 48]:

“I’m Barbie Cazabon.”
He squinted at her from his grizzled face. “So you are,” he agreed. “Put a bit of puddin’ on, ain’tcher?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Bum looks bigger. Tits, too. Where’s your daddy, Barbie?”
“You’ll be seeing him soon.”

2-: From an interview of the Australian boxer Lionel Rose (1948-2011), published in The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 7^th June 1975 [page 13, column 7]:

“I’d look at myself and I’d think God, fatso, you’d never do it even if you’re only 26. The guy who really got me going was my old mate Ray Giles, a former professional runner. He really impressed me because although he’s retired he still keeps himself in fantastic trim. He reckoned I could get back into shape again if I really worked at it. The great thing about training with him was that I knew he could do all the push-ups and everything better than me. So I had to show him.
“This was last December. Over Christmas I put on a bit of pudding again but then I talked to Jack Rennie, who used to run me in the old days, and he said if I was really serious maybe he could get me a fight at the big Ali-Bugner do in Kuala Lumpur.”