Too fat to fly

[loobielousplaits]

Is anyone/has anyone watched this?

It's a documentary about massively obese people being interviewed about being taken off flights/too fat to flight.

While I absolutely agree it's a 'fat shaming' programme - I can't agree with some of the comments from the interviewees that have complained they had to leave the plane due to an armrest not being able to go down - a woman wasn't able to visit the toilet, another who couldn't understand why someone would be offended that half their seat was taken up by overspill - a 32 st man was offended that he was asked to leave the aircraft because he couldn't safely fit in the seat and should have paid for two - pilot decided he wasn't safe to fly.

I'm torn - I absolutely understand weight is a huge issue (I was anorexic in my teens) and it is not easy to control your weight but come on - seriously? You cannot expect to be OK to fly if your weight affects health and safety and you can't fit safely in a seat

I think sometimes people don’t realise how big they are objectively? My mum’s husband is a bigger man but put the weight on quite gradually over a number of years and still thinks he’s smaller than he is so tends to be surprised when clothes and chairs etc don’t fit and she obviously loves him and doesn’t want to offend him so kind of goes along with it if that makes sense.

My other half is large and always books two seats. It's just part of the cost of travel that has to be factored in. However, the airlines do not make it easy to do so and all of them have different criteria for how you do it and what passenger name you should use. One of them makes you book the extra seat under the name of Mr Comfort Seat. Who would ever guess that?!

Person sat next to me on a flight in February and the arm rest wouldn’t go down due to their size being to big to fit. It wasn’t pleasant and why should I have someone taking part of my already compact seat?

That is only half the truth, though, isn't it. If you have no money, an effective way to save is not to pay for the gym, not to go to the bath, not to go to the climbing wall, not to go skiing.... and sitting at home in front of TV with, say, Pringles

What planet are you on? Seriously?

What about walking/running/body weight circuits in the park or at home? There are countless things people can do to stay healthy! Yes, I go to the gym (membership costs £10.99 a month for pure gym) I can’t swim, so don’t go to the pool. Never been skiing or on a climbing wall in my entire life!!

So instead of spending 3quid a week on pringles and sitting in front of the TV, either save it or put it towards a gym membership 🙄

@deepwatersolo

For the record - I work full time, have a house to run and 2 young children to look after. My job is extremely demanding as is my home life but I still make time for exercise.
Obesity is a class issue is it? How do you come to that conclusion? I earn less than £18,000 a year in my job and live in a council estate in Glasgow. I’m hardly classy.

You just sound like you’re full of bullshit excuses!

The problem is that whilst you get some people who are considerate and pay for an extra seat some people simply will not pay extra unless they are forced.

Therefore the airlines need to start implementing a consistent and enforced policy which requires people to book extra seats if they can't fit into one. It isn't hard to find seat sizes because they advertise extra sizing for premium economy, business or first. If an overweight person was that bothered they would pay an additional price for two seats or the appropriate upgrade for more room. However lots of people will try and get the cheapest possible thing and hope no one complains and it's their neighbouring passenger that loses out.

What planet are you on? Seriously?

I'm on the planet where people read scientific studies. You should join us, knowledge is power.

www.canadiancentreforhealtheconomics.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Sisira-et-al.pdf

academic.oup.com/jn/article/131/3/881S/4687033

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4329950/

Obesity is a class issue is it? How do you come to that conclusion?

I read scientific studies. One can argue whether making time for sports or making time for educating oneself is more valuable, I guess. (Rule number one: One case does not a statistic make, not even if said case is oneself).

Thanks for that, but I’d rather use my time for keeping myself healthy and not for reading shite, watching TV and stuffing myself with pringles 🙄

@deepwatersolo - but that's not about the money. It's about the education and awareness of a healthy lifestyle as a way of keeping fitter and healthier to avoid illness.
You don't go skiing only because you have the money. You go skiing because you know that being active is good for you, being able to get out of the everyday routine and be somewhere in nice nature is good for your mind.
Poor people don't sit in front of the telly and eat Pringles because they have no money. If I went to Primark now, I could get out with some decent clothes and runners for under £25. It's about completely different things. It's similar to cooking. Poor people often don't cook or don't cook well. Not because they don't have the money, it's because they were not taught and sometimes don't even have working appliances or even if they have, they simple were never taught the skills of utilising them to their full capacity.

No one can deny that we are suffering an obesity academic. It is now easier to find school clothes in plus sizes than it is to find them in what would be a more healthy size. Even supermarkets now sell clothes in size 26 where as 20 years ago if you wanted plus size you had to go to a speciality shop like Evans.
Ever food outlet up sells to large potions. Even buying a simple coffee comes in large sizes with extras. Takeaways are no longer takeaways as they will deliver to your door so no effort to buy.
Even the plates we eat off are larger. I have a diner service from the 60’s and the diner plates and pudding bowls are half the size of modern ones. Even the cups are significantly smaller.
We have lost sight of what is a healthy amount to eat and this also covers the amount we feed our children.
No matter how healthy some diets are the very fact that they are eating to much of it means the weight piles on.
Until we stop the normalisation of fat then nothing is going to change in fact it will only get worse.
I spent years being the correct body weight but have found post menopause it harder to keep to a healthy weight and find I seem to collect extra weight on the tummy. I see the fat, I know it is there and need to do something about it but someone who has had extra tummy fat since childhood now sees it as normal and as they grow
older most likely will grow fatter as it is harder to lose weight when you are post 50 and not as active as you were at 25.

Thanks for that, but I’d rather use my time for keeping myself healthy and not for reading shite, watching TV and stuffing myself with pringles.

If you think that reading scientific studies goes hand in hand with watching TV and stuffing yourself with pringles, Science is clearly not for you. It requires logic.

Vio I agree, not a class issue at all, I live in council house too and am low income but I manage to eat healthy and fit in exercise around work and kids, I know many people who are overweight, all different classes, most eat rubbish food and don’t do any exercise. I choose to eat well and to exercise.

Vio I agree, not a class issue at all, I live in council house too and am low income but I manage to eat healthy and fit in exercise around work and kids, I know many people who are overweight, all different classes, most eat rubbish food and don’t do any exercise.

And global warming is not a thing because the last winter was cold. Ooookay.

@deepwatersolo - I think you have a bit of a case of richsplaining.

Deepwater is talking about statistics on a population level - doesn't mean all rich people are thin and fit but all poor people are overweight and unhealthy. The causes for this may be complex, but the statement 'It is well documented that obesity is also a class issue.' is accurate. It's not a value judgement.

The concept of treating fat people as baggage is alarming. Do some of you realise what you are saying? Have a jump seat that they can sit in before checking in - do you not see how cruel that would be?

I am obese but I fit in a seat. Always book a window seat so I can lean in and doubly not encroach of others.
Maybe we should penalise manspreaders too as I say next to a horrific one on my flight this week.

Maybe I should track down my rapist and get him to pay for an extra seat? He is the reason I am fat - after all being fat nobody will want to rape me again. To say that obese people are not aware of their size is a sweeping statement - I can assure you that they are and are discriminated against. But for some it's not that easy.

Not see the programme, but I've twice has someone obese spill over into my seat.
On both occasions they were travelling with two other family members (slim), yet while the slim duo sat together, I got the privilege of losing a large portion of my seat to the third person.
On one of the long distance flights I was asked by the large traveller if I could move the arm rest up between us to get more room. I had to explain the other side of the arm rest was my seat!

I agree with the previous posters around obesity/class. There's a lot of interesting academic research in this area (I've heard Dr Oli Williams on a couple of podcasts and his arguments around health and social inequality are striking). That said, I think part of the problem is people's general attitude to flying. It's not a right. We're going on holiday in a couple of months and I'll be 28 (and then 30 weeks pregnant). I don't know how big I will be but why should I ruin someone else's flight by squeezing my bump next to them? As a result, we booked premium economy/business class. Our choice to get pregnant, our choice to go on holiday.

Precisely, ErrolTheDragon. Thank you.

@deepwater is correct. Statistically speaking there is a link between obesity and socioeconomic status.

People claiming it’s not true because they live in a council house and aren’t fat are totally missing the point.

Maybe we should penalise manspreaders too

Good point. The couple of times I had someone invade a seat, the people were quite athletic, broad-shouldered, tall and very self-confident men.

I still think airlines making their seats smaller in the past decades is a huge part of the problem.