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 watched Supersize me 15 years ago and we have learned absolutely nothing. It’s been devastating for people one of whom is my FIL who will die early unless he gets a grip.

I agree with previous PPs that exercise particularly cardio is overrated in terms of weight loss.

Obese people may not want to move due to leptin resistance - your body is fat but your brain doesn’t get the message. The role of hormones particularly insulin in obesity should not be underestimated yet obese people are continuously told “move more eat less”. How can that work? Move more-get hungrier surely.

I’d like to see recognition that obesity is due to a food (sugar/carb) addiction and should be treated like any other addiction.

Look at our society. Bottomless drinks, giant Easter eggs, 24-7 McDs, treat yourself! And people are expected to have iron will power yet we are more stressed than ever. To under go famine (calorie counting) in a society of plenty. And then move more! Doomed to failure.

"I am bulimic/anorexic and have battled it for 20+ years. It's incredibly insulting that you are saying that every overweight person - which is the majority of the UK - has an eating disorder."

I've been both anorexic and overweight in my life.

I don't see that much of a division between an eating disorder and disordered eating, to be honest. There's a difference in intensity, of course, but they are on a continuum not totally different in nature.

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

You would if you weighed over 21 stone.

The problem won’t go away until people refuse to accept sitting next to someone who’s size or behaviour prevents someone else using the seat/legroom that they have paid for.

I was on a flight recently which was full and the woman next to me could not get her (very large) bag in the locker. So she put it under the seats so that both of us had no legroom. I asked her politely to move it and she told me to fuck off. I called the attendant who took her bag and put it in the hold. She also swapped my seat so I didn’t have to sit next to the woman as she continued to be very unpleasant to me, although not to the burly looking man with whom I swapped.

I have also been on a plane and asked to swap with someone who was uncomfortable between 2 obese people. I politely refused and said that I had no intention of moving to a seat which was partially occupied by two other people. The attendant couldn’t argue with that. In the end, the two obese people were made to move to 2 aisle seats.

I really don’t understand the drama that people make over this. You pay for a certain amount of space and if you need more, then you pay for more.

And as for the fuss over obesity, it’s really not rocket science. You eat too much and you get fat. There are a very few people who have genuine health issues, but most people who are obese just eat too much. It’s a choice.

They might not choose it in the sense of deciding they want to be fat. They might not know how best to do something about it.

But recognising that we do these things to ourselves is the only way to also recognise we can do something about it.

If the airlines had to make all seats bigger to cater for our growing waistlines would you all be prepared to pay more to fly as a result (assuming bigger seats = reduces passenger capacity)? I certainly wouldn’t. Our obesity problem is very real but the cost shouldn’t just be born by those of us who aren’t obese.

No one chooses to be over weight. That’s bullshit, actually. Anyone whose excess weight is not down to a medical condition has the ability to do something about it. There are all sorts of reasons why they don’t, but the refusal to address the issue is a form of choosing or acceptance.
I know how difficult it is (I’m a bit of a yo-yo dieter myself) but I fully acknowledge it’s sheer laziness that I haven’t got there so far.

And I definitely fit in my own seat...

I always think your baggage allowance should be calculated on your weight + bag. I am half the weight of DP yet we have the same baggage allowance.

I always think your baggage allowance should be calculated on your weight + bag. I am half the weight of DP yet we have the same baggage allowance

You're right. You should have half the baggage allowance because your clothes are smaller.

Given that most planes were designed and started manufacture decades ago, it would probably be a positive step for seats on new planes to be made larger given the collective increase in our waistlines!

Presumably you're happy to pay higher fares to compensate for the loss of income from having fewer passengers???

I used to think it was an eating disorder but I think the dynamic is different. It’s an addiction.

Their eating isn’t disordered-the food is disordered.

I’m making the (not unrealistic) guess that if you’ve become obese through diet it’s not from too much broccoli or tuna because those foods tend not to lend themselves to over eating.

I’d bet it’s from the foods that are in themselves addictive, designed to be addictive and marketed in such a way to make you want more every time. Sugar and flour are the main culprits. Have a little bit of sugar, next time you need more for the same effect. Just like booze.

some seats have indeed got smaller so they can fit more in-they need to go back to the old specs

although i stil wouldnt expect to squash someone and not pay for an extra seat

i just dont know how they can enforce it

What with the rise in obesity I dare say airlines will soon get round to making it clear on booking that if you can't fit into a normal seat, you will need to pay for two. And/or have a Ryanair type 'will you fit?' check at the airport.

Personally I think it's unhelpful for very fat people - when it's not down to anything medical - to be encouraged to think that it's not their fault, they can't help it, 'it's an illness'. This last is something of a sick joke to people with real illnesses they can do nothing about - like a young relative with MS who would literally do anything, dietary or otherwise, if it meant a cure.

I still feel terrible about it!

Don't. It really wasn't your fault. If you're organised enough to make sure you have seats suited to you and your needs in advance, there's no reason you should move because other people fail in this regard.

I have always thought that airlines should weigh passengers with their luggage. It’s most unfair that an 8 stone woman could be charged for excess baggage while a 30 stone man would not, if their suitcases did/didn’t meet the limit.

Unofficially I think they sort of do. I weigh around 60kgs and probably look like I weigh less than that. If I've inadvertently gone a kg or 2 over a luggage limit staff don't pull me up on it.

Or eating fewer pies.

If it really were that simple, most people would be doing it.

@Belenus, not they wouldn't - a lot of people don't really care that they're fat, can't be bothered to change it, and angrily announce that "size 16 is average so I'm not fat, just curvy, shops should cater to the plus-size community". I mean we literally have people like Tess Holliday whose morbid obesity is her entire image.

But it is that simple, Belenus. Not easy, but perfectly simple.

I think people who say 'they should just eat less' are missing the point. For one, a healthy lifestyle is easier to maintain if you have enough money, and also, there are psycological factors at work.

I know a women who is seriously obese. She was pushed around a lot, as a child. And I swear, though not consciously, she has her weight as a means of 'not being pushed around' or ordered around. (She never travels, though, which is part of her 'I will not be moved' attitude. So, no issues with airplanes).

Exactly HolyForkingShirt-the language around it is deceitful and people are being lied to and are lying to themselves. Most bigger people I know are unhappy about it at heart and are stuck.

But that’s ok so long as we can continue to sell and celebrate junk food. Celebrate every occasion with junk food yay!

Non overweight is already in the minority. Ten years time we might have people conducting interventions on anyone slim as it will no longer be the norm. Slim people will be carted off and force fed

It is an addiction a continuous cycle of destruction like all addictions, like all addiction willpower and acknowledgement is needed to ever over come it.
Addiction effects your MH, deal with either weight or MH, both will benefit.
Even pets today are much fatter than in the past. My aunt's cat is enormous, my sisters dog is a pudding he gets walked regular, but is always over eating.

Ah I knew all the smug fuckers would turn up to tell me how wrong I was. How they know better than me about how active I am and what I eat.
Thank goodness you lot are so damn perfect.

These threads always turn into a debate over why people are overweight, whose fault it is, whether it is owing to a health issue, past traumas, etc.

I am a perfectly polite, friendly, empathetic person. But when I am taking a flight, I really don't care one jot why my neighbour is encroaching onto my seat. I don't judge them, nor am I interested to be sympathetic to their "journey" of why they are overweight. It simply isn't my business. What IS my business is the quiet and safe enjoyment of the seat I have booked, and into which I fit. That is my contractual right and I should not be required to cede this to someone else.

Given that clearly people cannot be relied on to check they fit into their seat, it is the duty of the airline to address this by enforcing size checkers where necessary and to make size a condition of booking.

Airlines employ engineers (I know, I used to date one) whose job is to juggle seat design, size demographics, weight allowances and the economies, fuel and load issues related to flying a plane. The airlines will make their own business decisions about seat sizes, prices and weight allowances. It is not possible to fit in a maximal number of seats and also to accommodate very large people; airlines will have to make a business decision about who should bear the cost and how.