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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to ask how you decide if someone is 'fat' ?

253 replies

MaisyMooCow · 08/02/2012 14:27

Here

So the 'fat' passenger paying more argument continues.

My question is, how do you decide when someone qualifies for the 'fat seats'. What happens if you book a normal seat, get to check-in and they say 'Sorry madam but you're fat' . Are you expected to get on their scales for a weigh in?!!

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 08/02/2012 18:27

My whole post... BTW the bitches comment was to outline the nastiness on here NOT because I think thinner people are less nice. I don't. It wasn't directed at you and it was tongue in cheek.

Ample · 08/02/2012 18:28

If a person can't fit into a seat comfortably and needs an extra seat then I would consider that person overweight.

I have a larger Blush hip/bum ratio than my dh but he is 6ft2 and has broad chest & shoulders. He could fill a seat much more than I ever could and he is definitely not overweight.

If there has to be a charge then there can't be any room for thumb-sucking.

And I agree that it isn't just down to the width of a seat!

Bunbaker · 08/02/2012 18:29

"Perhaps there could be something on reserving seats online,like a question about height & size. Then they could have comfort ideals set up for this?
Actually that's a bloody brilliant idea,off to contact Virgin"

And please contact all the other airlines as well. I don't see why this can't be done. It would save a lot of embarrassment and everyone would be a winner, except for the poor soul who has to pay extra for a seat.

For the record I am skinny, I don't wear designer clothes and I travel light, BUT I have long legs and hate sitting with my knees under my chin for several hours. No-one is a winner here really.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:33

incidentally I wouldn't have to pay for an extra seat on a plane! But I just think people assume its just a matter of wanting to lose weight and people just can, easily.

ComposHat · 08/02/2012 18:34

They eat carbs, their body produces vast amounts of insulin, the carbs are digested & stored & the insulin is still surging around their body looking for more carbs. This triggers the hunger response & they want to eat more.

postbellum even if your dubious scienceis taken at face value, it still boils down to they eat far more of the wrong things than they need and won't stop. No one is force feeding them and they can say no.

Which is pretty much the definition of greed.

The simple fact is that if you eat more calories than you burn off you will put on weight. Perhaps the reason fat runs in families is that their formative experience of food and exercise is similar.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:34

saying "if I was that fat I wouldnt be happy" is a bit simplistic, like those that are must be happy if they don't just go and lose weight.

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:36

I don't really get your meaning, Fanjo but I mean that I personally wouldn't want to be fat. To me, it is that simplistic. We all have dodgy hearts in my family and I don't want to be a goner at the age of 55 like my grandad.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:37

well, yellow, i am sure people who are fat don't actually want to be fat either, and maybe find it hard to lose weight.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:38

or is everyone who is overweight overweight because they want to be?!

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:39

OK, but I don't see how making seats bigger on planes will help? If anything, it will just normalise being fat and so more people will stay fat.

How is that good?

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:40

i doubt the thought of not fitting on a plane seat is enough to make every single overweight person suddenly able to lose all their excess weight.

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:41

No, but then that's not what I'm saying, is it?

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:43

and god forbid we make these awful fatties feel "normal" Hmm

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:44

I am not even one of the people who wouldn't fit in the seat...but just my pet peeve is when people say "just eat less and move more, if I was fat I would just lose weight"..when lots of people find it hard for many reasons.

MrsTerryPratchett · 08/02/2012 18:45

Unfortunately, being fat IS normal now. At least in the West.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:45

people who are overweight ARE "normal" ffs

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:46

Gosh, I give up, seriously. Where did I say that fat people weren't normal? You are putting words in my mouth. I said "normalising" re the condition of being fat. That is nowhere near the same thing.

It.is.not.healthy to be so fat you can't fit into an airline seat. Being that fat will kill you. Why on earth should that be encouraged? It is not a natural state of affairs for most people.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:50

Yellow..my post about 'normal' was aimed at MrsTerryPratchett, clearly

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:51

Well, my last one.

foreverondiet · 08/02/2012 18:52

You all comment on the overspill and impact on other passengers but actually its the extra weight that costs the airlines in terms of extra fuel. Thats why some airlines charge children less even though its still one seat.

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:52

There is a massive difference between saying "being fat is normal" and "fat people are normal", clearly.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:54

Not really, you really mean being fat is common these days

Whatmeworry · 08/02/2012 18:54

and god forbid we make these awful fatties feel "normal"

This is not a "you're all being beastly to large people" Ishoo

This is a "it's my right to sit in my own seat for 9 hours without being squashed" ishoo.

It doesn't matter who or what is doing the squashing, its just wrong and at the moment it is treated as the squashed person's problem.

yellowraincoat · 08/02/2012 18:57

It is both common and normal.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 08/02/2012 18:58

Well the airlines shouldn't be so tight with seat space and should think about the average size of the population