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

All they need to say is 'if your waist is over x cm or your hips are over y cm then tick this box'. Then it'll book you another seat.
This however assumes that people don't lie.

If they lie, they have to sit in a especially cramped naughty seat surrounded by wailing babies and hyperactive toddlers.

Normalising obesity even further is not a positive step.

Surely no one can argue with that.

That's why it would be optional.

So you're the saying the average seat should be bigger, presumably at an increased cost, because the average person is now overweight (due to no fault of my own). If I want a cheaper seat, I would have to sit next to noisy children.

Doesn't really seem fair does it....

By the time you get to the airport, it's too late to determine that you need a larger seat -it needs to be known when you buy the ticket.

Currently I'm scoffing the biscuits, crisps and coke to get upto large seat status. Will be sending the kids to the skinny seats, while I sit in glorious isolation!!!!

I run 3 miles and walk 2 miles every day, I burn 1000 active calories every day. I eat healthily but I'm still over weight.

Controversial opinion but running made me put on a stone in no time. I read somewhere that doing only cardio just loses muscle mass as your body tries to "streamline" itself, in turn giving you a lower resting metabolism, and gaining weight.

I was chubs for years then started weightlifting (which increases muscle mass/metabolism) and lost 9kg pretty much overnight. Quit the gym after a year, adjusted food intake and have not put any weight back on. The PT at my old gym has a similar story - she was overweight even though she taught cardio classes all day. Started weightlifting and now she looks like one of those bikini models.

TL;DR try weightlifting.

How is it fat shaming? If you can’t fit into a single seat without impinging (quite literally) into someone else’s then you can’t be allowed to take up that space. Why should the person beside you put up with that, when they’ve paid for a whole seat, not half?

I’m another ‘average build’ (size 10- 12) but leggy person who finds standard airline seats uncomfortable. I fidget and tend to sit ‘side on’ in them to try to stop my knees being jammed into the seat in front. Heaven help me if the person in front reclines their seat.

I honestly don’t know how folk 6ft+, moderately/heavily pregnant women or people of a large build (be that rugby players, body builders or morbidly obese people) manage.

I buy bigger seats where the route/airline allows.

Airlines wont make the seats bigger in economy as they will lose money on having less seats, an extra inch or two bigger isn’t going to make any difference to someone who is hugely obese . But adding an extra 2 inches or more so on each seat would probably mean losing a whole line of seats which would be hundreds of thousand pounds

It’s not down to the airline to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds to redesigns seat sizes and probably lose seats space as well simply because people are obese . The would lose way to much money.
And there is often premium first class and business class if you need extra room
But what they could possibly do in economy is have the extra legroom seats made slightly bigger and people would need to book these seats

Most airlines, especially low cost ones, are running on a shoestring. They couldn’t afford the loss.

I run 3 miles and walk 2 miles every day, I burn 1000 active calories every day.

You never burn 1000 calories from running 3 miles and waling 2! lol

I have friends who never do a single scrap of exercise and eat crap all day long who are skinny as rakes

How do you know that? Someone will see me with one biscuit and ask how do I "stay so slim. It's not fair" while they munch down a packet.

I don't argue that a very small percentage of people have obesity issues because of health reasons but so many of the rest feel their weight is not in their control. It mostly is.

About being too fat to fly, I think plane seats have become so tiny and uncomfortable that it's a joke. Poeple are bigger, yes, but seats are really tight IMO. I am "only" 6ft and my legs are wedged against the seat in front. DH and DS (6ft3, 6ft4) stumble out of their seats after 3 hrs, barely able to stretch their legs it's so cramped.

I really hate flying, for seriously overweight people it must be even worse.

I wish we could pay more for more space, i woudl pay!

The ‘extra legroom’ seats are on the wing/by the emergency exit, so would still require anyone purchasing them to be suitably fit & mobile enough to assist.

"I run 3 miles and walk 2 miles every day, I burn 1000 active calories every day. I eat healthily but I'm still over weight."

As others have said, unless you're doing a significant amount of extra activity, this doesn't add up.

The mistake that many of us make when trying to lose weight is not to do the arithmetic properly. Calculate EVERYTHING that goes in and EVERYTHING you burn. You will find, quite quickly, that the calculus is brutal. A major effort is needed for steady, sustained weight loss.

In terms of planes: they need to stop treating us like sheep in a pen and make the seats bigger. Even for those who aren't overweight, they are soooo uncomfortable and poky.

I will concede though, that by serving fatty snacks and alcohol throughout the flight, the airlines are adding to the problem

This is nonsense. What about the Boots/WH Smith/Duty Free shops and vending machines in the departure lounges that people would be able to go to and buy countless junk to eat on the plane, if the airlines stopped selling it?

Obesity is the issue, not the size of a seat on a plane.

I agree compeltely about cardio. I do mainly strength and resistance work.

Bingo! Also focusing on measurements/sizing more than bodyweight is important. The trimmest I got down to at one point put me at the top end of "underweight" by waist-to-height ratio, but my BMI said I was still overweight.

I run 3 miles and walk 2 miles every day, I burn 1000 active calories every day. I eat healthily but I'm still over weight
It is possible.
My Dsis is vegan, eats only homemade food, goes the gym, walks, She is about 4 stone overweight, she has an autoimmune disease hashe moto, with a very slow metabolism.
She is much healthier and fitter than me, yet still much heavier.

@feelingverylazytoday

Roughly 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight eventually regain just about all of it.

It's really not as simple as calories in and out.

healthblog.uofmhealth.org/health-management/weighing-facts-tough-truth-about-weight-loss

I honestly don’t know how folk 6ft+, moderately/heavily pregnant women or people of a large build (be that rugby players, body builders or morbidly obese people) manage

I flew in January, heavily pregnant with my DP who is just as big as a bodybuilder (6ft and 14 stone of solid muscle) My bump was HUGE. We flew Ryanair, so budget airline with small seats. Neither of us had a single issue with space.

That is interesting, viobihi. Perhaps i’m a princess

I suffer from lipodema so my lower half is quite disproportionately larger than my top half. I can just about fit into a standard airline seat and luckily my legs are short so legroom and keeping my ankles and feet moving for circulation is not too bad.
Also my husband is very thin and if my leg is against his he doesn't mind I always ask for a seatbelt extension which was very embarrassing at first but I've had to get over that.
But I will only ever fly shorthaul in case I couldn't sit next to my DH. I would be mortified that a person sitting next to me would be thinking how disgusting I was.

Incidentally if you need a seatbelt extension you cannot sit in a front row of seats for safety reasons. I think someone was mentioning it earlier.

I don't argue that a very small percentage of people have obesity issues because of health reasons but so many of the rest feel their weight is not in their control. It mostly is.
No one chooses to be overweight. No one chooses to have anorexia. Those people absolutely do feel that their weight is not in their control. It's called having an eating disorder in both cases.
It's no different to saying 'someone with a mental health difficulty such as depression feel getting a job is not in their control. It is'
It may become within their control with significant and additional resources aimed at both mental and physical processes.