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

Lead researcher Prof Sadaf Farooqi, from the University of Cambridge, called on people to be less judgemental about others' weight.

"This research shows for the first time that healthy thin people are generally thin because they have a lower burden of genes that increase a person's chances of being overweight and not because they are morally superior, as some people like to suggest," she said.

"It's easy to rush to judgement and criticise people for their weight but science shows that things are far more complex.

"We have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think."

We have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think

Well if you know you're predisposed to put on weight then you need to be even more careful and conscious than somebody who is not. I was on meds for years that increased weight. However I eventually learnt that despite this known side effect, it was in my power to do something about it and I became more conscious of what I was eating and how much I was moving. Lo and behold I managed to lose the weight and keep it off.

I expect all the posters on here, who say overweight people on aeroplanes shouldn't be fat shamed, will be the ones who jump up willingly and straightaway offer to swap seats and sit next to them on their next flight, if the person originally in the next seat to them complains he/she feels squashed!!!!!!

You can’t tell how healthy people are by looking at them
This is true, but there is no arguing that someone too fat to fit comfortably in a airline seat is healthy. It’s simply impossible.
The medical profession classing it as “morbid” obesity tells you that, if nothing else does?

The whole point is to feel hungry. I've never lost weight without feeling hungry. And if I wasn't losing weight, I ate less until I was. E.g. if you don't lose weight on 1500 a day, try 1400 etc. I also did zero exercise while I was losing weight as I found that way more effective.

"We have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think."
So why then is obesity such a new problem? Years ago things were very different so it makes the genes story hard to believe.

This is the second thread on the same subject I've seen on here in recent weeks, it just reads to me like an excuse for fat-bashing, so I should know better than to read it or join in. I honestly thought from the title that the OP was someone who had been told they were too fat to fly. Instead, it reads like 'two minutes hate' against fat people.

I'm no fat basher - I watched a programme and thought it interesting so started a discussion. That is all. Why should talking about morbidly obese people always be seen to be 'fat bashing'? Ridiculous.

What's also ridiculous is that so many people think it fine to comment on slim people's weight IRL - 'you need to put some weight on!', 'seen more meat on a bone!' etc

Yet God forbid we discuss people being overweight!

Most pp are mixing in emotional and health issues. That's why the thread became emotional.

This is about a practical issue which people are more than entitled to address especially if it's affecting them.

@InspectorClouseauMNdivision

Of course they are. But the words used to describe fat people are emotive. In some, the disgust is palpable.

I am totally against shaming people for their size. There is definitely a struggle going on and part of it is fuelled by diet culture. Especially if you look at the stats for dieters, and how dieting essentially leads to higher weighs. It is an emotive subject.

But in the same vein; everyone has the right to feel comfortable especially when you're paying for a seat on a flight.

I think we can all look at the way we view fat people and our attitudes towards being fat.

Kindness and compassion costs nothing.

But the words used to describe fat people are emotive. In some, the disgust is palpable.

Disgust and anger and emotive words show in any discussion about what makes people unhappy.
Parking threads when that "old angry witch" keeps blocking someone's drive.
Neigbour thread where "that posh bastard" keeps sending over council non stop.
Etc.

People will never be really pleasant about something or someone who is annoying them/making their life difficult or just simply causes them discomfort.

Kindness and compassion cost nothing. However, that seat they can only use a part of, costed them a lot.

For the love of Ra, I don't understand why people who need it wouldn't book 2 seats. So far no one actually answered that.

We have far less control over our weight than we might wish to think

I don't believe this. My birth mother is overweight. My sister who was brought up by her is overweight. I, who from age 10, who was brought up by someone else, am a normal size.

My sister could lose weight if she wanted to, she chooses not too.

I'm no fat basher - I watched a programme and thought it interesting so started a discussion. That is all. Why should talking about morbidly obese people always be seen to be 'fat bashing'? Ridiculous.

Well, I'm sorry I misunderstood your intentions, OP, but you did say yourself that the programme was 'fat bashing', and I'm unclear what form you expected the discussion of the programme to take other than criticising people for being 'too fat to fly'.

What's also ridiculous is that so many people think it fine to comment on slim people's weight IRL - 'you need to put some weight on!', 'seen more meat on a bone!' etc

I haven't seen any posts on here criticising people for being too thin, so I'm not sure what that has to do with it. I agree that it's cruel and uncalled for to comment on people's body size. Maybe it would be better if we all held back from personal comments about people's bodies when we don't know their struggles?

Helena this isn't horrible??

How on earth did that happen? Does that mean you're twice as lazy/greedy as people who just put on weight once?

Ok, anyone who thinks I'm taking rubbish by saying there is no way of losing weight and keeping it off, where is your proof? Where is the proof that all these fat people can simply lose weight long term to fit into these seats?
I stand by my assertion that around 98% of people who lose weight will gain most of that back within 5 years. That is not because they are stupid greedy or lazy but because the human body will not put up with dieting (even moderately so) for very long.
If people could keep the weight off slimming clubs would be boasting those percentages all the time.

Urg, I really dislike the supremely superior posters that pop up in these threads, the ones who think all the awful obese people should just eat less chocolate.

Because it's that simple.

For the love of Ra, I don't understand why people who need it wouldn't book 2 seats. So far no one actually answered that

I think it has been answered.

Because it costs more money.

Littlepaintbox

The point of the thread, again, was to discuss a programme and issue I found interesting. I can't help if a minority of posters use offensive language in relation to being overweight. I can't police what people post nor would wish to.

The point of my making the comment about slim people is that it's normally deemed okay to discuss slim peoples weight yet any discussion about overweight people is shot down as 'being horrible' and 'fat shaming'. Yes I said the programme came across as fat shaming, I didn't say discussing the impact of morbidly obese people squeezing into seats was fat shaming.

Anyway, numerous other PP's have explained it far better and more eloquently than me

@InspectorClouseauMNdivision

For the love of Ra, I don't understand why people who need it wouldn't book 2 seats. So far no one actually answered that.

Shame? Fear? Humiliation?

My position is, if you need 2 seats you should absolutely book them. For your comfort and the comfort of others.

But it's hardly surprising that people don't when there is such a stigma attached to it.
I feel there are better, kinder ways to address this. But really people want to be angry about other people's bodies. Perhaps because they fear being fat themselves and the reaction they'd get from people around them.

If I happened to have a seat next to an empty one, and a fat person needed it, I would absolutely give mine up for them. Not sit there petulantly and think that it's their decision to be fat and they deserve everything they get.

And for the poster that said diets don't work, you're right. Our bodies rebel. Even if fat bodies sense famine or restriction they push back. I have shown self control in dieting to the level of someone with an eating disorder. But of course, because I carry weight I'm just not trying hard enough and could do better if I really wanted to. And my weight has always bounced back. (And just to stress, I would fit into a plane seat comfortably, so I'm not resentful or unsympathetic to those who might experience sitting next to a fat person that encroaches on their space)

Some people choose to think of obesity as a disability that the unfortunate victim has had foisted upon them and is powerless to do anything about.
Which is bloody insulting to genuinely disabled people.

As someone with MS, I 100% agree.

As someone else with MS I also 100% agree.

I have shown self control in dieting to the level of someone with an eating disorder

As if you just said that! Wow!

Fat Jannit signing in.
Recently on a flight to Tennerife with my lovely hub, and was politely forced to upgrade to bisness class. It was certainly not worth the £80 upgrade fee (Ryanair, mind). I would have rather floated across the seven seas! [santa].

Godspeed, lovlies xx

@FatJannit you got a bargain there 😂😂

And for the poster that said diets don't work, you're right. Our bodies rebel

So every person who has reduced calories and managed to lose weight is lying? Jesus Christ, this is the lamest excuse I have ever heard for being unable to lose weight. If this is your mindset TheRumor no wonder you still carry weight. I've never read so much shite in ages on here.

HarrysOwl
I can't speak for Rumor but she possibly means that she often starves herself for a period of time in a similar way to someone suffering from an eating disorder.
I have always struggled with weight and 'disordered eating' I have often gone up to 5 days with only water, years before fasting was fashionable. Unfortunately this was then often followed by a binge.
Many very fat people eat like this. Sometimes I barely eat more than 500 cals a day for months, lose weight, feel great then boom something happens I binge then spend months eating everything I missed put the weight back on and then go on a restricted diet again, over and over.
It is far more complex than simply being greedy. I know I should eat three small meals a day and a couple of treats a week but for some reason I cycle between starving and bingeing.

Restricting calories as severely as someone who is anorexic isn't a hat you can put on and take off again.