Plus-size passengers reveal anguish of 'flying while fat'

[Gib Lover]

Ah, the rare Tenn thread I agree with wholeheartedly

[-aiko-]

My first inclination is to just tell the fat people to lose some damn weight.

And it still is to an extent, but roomier seats sure would be nice.

[Ayla]

An object's weight is it's mass times the acceleration of said object. Now, is weight subjective?

Ah so fat people in planes weigh more so for every pound extra they weigh, it's going to be multiplied times its speed, so wow, we really are under charging those fatties. That's like 500 times more weight because of the speed the plane is going. Can you imagine how much more weight is involved for my father?

So help a noob. I'm 120lbs, at the average speed of 567 miles an hour, hiw much do I weigh? 68000 lbs? and my dad is 102,000? Wow he's a fucking fatty.

Thanks for the physics lesson. Down with the fatties!

Seriously, weight distribution, height, muscle, bone density all are factors of weight. Ergo, 2 people could be same height and weight and still one could take up more room in a seat. How fucking hard is that to understand?

[Spectral]

And it still is to an extent, but roomier seats sure would be nice.

Roomier seats are available, they just cost more. I would not like if entire planes consisted only of the more expensive options.

[Oakshana]

Someone near or on the first page made a comparison between a 240lb 6'4" man and a 220lb 5'0" woman as if to suggest that the 240lb male was a gross exaggeration of weight (though perhaps I am misinterpreting their point?)

Here is the deal. Currently, I am that 240lb 6'4" man. I am not obese. Yes... I am a little heavier than my supposed "ideal weight" of 220 to 230, but I am healthy. I eat right, drink nothing but water and coffee and exercise routinely. I am also not overly-muscular. I am an average shaped male. I fit in airplane seats completely fine, with the exception of my legs. I try to get emergency isle seats when available, because of my height. But I do not encroach over into other seats with my size. At my HEAVIEST flying, I was 280lbs. And I STILL sat in a normal seat without issue. A 220lb woman at 5'0", while definitely obese is not going to take up that much real estate either.

HOWEVER. A woman who is, say, 5'6" and weighs in at 300+ is morbidly obese and is well past a weight restriction for someone her height. She is going to be causing comfort issues for people around her. Should she be ridiculed for her weight? No, of course not. There are many reasons people are overweight. Sometimes it isn't as simply as "they just don't care". Sometimes it's depression or other issues that block them from making changes that would get them to a better physical state.

But with THAT said, while I don't think they should be "fat shamed" as people put it, I think it's incredibly arrogant to expect people to just accept the inconvenience that occurs because your situation or life choices have put you into the realm of obesity. This whole "body positivity" and "fat acceptance" movements that are occuring are obscene and encourage people to just accept that they are fat and do nothing about it. Meanwhile, they'll complain about the size of an airline seat, when those seats are designed around the common AVERAGE sized person and made to optimize seating and the money they airline makes. That's business. Get over it. They aren't going to make special seating arrangements as a business and lose potential profits because a person cannot be bothered to make positive changes in their lives (physically, mentally or emotionally) that could change their status quo.

You can be happy and accepting of your fat all you like. I won't love you less or judge you for it. But don't you DARE sit there and tell me you're happy with who you are and healthy when medicine and science have proven you aren't healthy and expect the rest of the world to pay the price. If you are obese, you CAN lose weight. You CAN make changes. There is not a single fucking medical condition on this planet that keeps you grossly obese. That is entirely your personal choices to stay that weight.

I don't fat shame ever. But I will shame the shit out of someone for simply being a lazy fucker and then want to whine and complain how their own poor choices have created negativity in their life from other people.

[tyrlaan]

I did say that some people are being blunt and some just flat out rude. What's worse? Shaming people for being overweight or shaming people for using language you don't like by using SJW buzzword terminology? Personally I think the latter of the two.

See "language you don't like" is something like "I hate the word moist, please don't use it" or "no foul language please". Shaming people is a character attack loaded with heaps of judgment when the shamer really knows nothing about the person and his/her situation. The problem is that there is a difference between political correctness and human decency. Arguing against fat shaming isn't about being politically correct, it's about being a decent human being. Please don't conflate the two.

Also, I hope you see the irony of using the SJW buzzword to try to call out things I'm saying as buzzwords

It's regarding fat shaming. In my basic research, I've seen very few situations of overweight people literally having no control over their situations. In most cases, people who are borderline OW (overweight) just each too much junk and don't exercise enough - which is the category that I fall into, lol. Larger, more OW people either have this problem in spades, or run into chemical imbalances - such as thyroid problems, PCOS, etc. Most of which are manageable with the right meds, diet, exercies, etc.

The labeling of fat shaming, as we've already seen in this very post, is both mean and at the same time, fairly accurate. It's certainly not nice to call people names - period. But at the same time, isn't there some accuracy to the statements?

(please don't think me mean here - I'm really interested in a conversation about fat shaming - I'm not someone who could actually call out people in this manner)

(no worries, happy to discuss)

Overall I think it's fair to say what you've said. Weight gain is the end result of too much in and not enough out. The challenges come when you try to unpack what "too much in" and "not enough out" means for an individual. A person could follow Weight Watchers to the letter and lose nothing because of other medical conditions. A person could manage a condition getting in the way of weight loss but struggle with a food addiction. A person who's older has to follow a much more restrictive diet to get results compared to a younger person. etc. etc.

Can these various hurdles be overcome? In theory, yes, which is why I think what you say is fair. In reality, it gets tricky because it starts to become a potential series of difficult decisions that have real side effects on quality of life. For example, let's say a fat person has a medical condition preventing weight loss. What if the medical condition can be treated, but the side effect of the medicine is a loss of sex drive. What does that person decide to do? If they chose the medicine over weight loss, are they "lazy" like a fat shamer would say? Clearly no.

(I feel like I have more to say here, but eager to leave the office :P)

I'll throw a few other thoughts into the mix with regards to fat shaming, but beyond what you mentioned:
1 - There is increasing evidence that being overweight and being healthy are mutually exclusive. Now, that's not to say being overweight cannot possibly be unhealthy. However I know, for example, an overweight athlete that completed 6 triathlons this year, did two century bike rides last year, etc. In all measures other than weight, this person is healthy - bloodwork, etc. I mention this point because a lot of fat shaming seems to stem from a disgust of how unhealthy the fat person is or, in the words of the fat shamer, "choosing to be".

2 - Fat shaming is typically based on the premise that fat = ugly. Why is that? Because society has built that construct and conditioned us for years upon years to assume all things positive about skinny and all things negative about fat. What someone finds attractive/pleasing to the eye should be personal and not based on what the rest of society tells us.

3 - There's the twisted misconception that if you're fat you fundamentally cannot live a whole life. You don't see this come up in more overt fat shaming, like what's being done in this thread, but rather in the sort of "unconscious" fat shaming. Like when someone pulls off losing a ton of weight and people literally say things like "yay, now you have a whole new lease on life" or "now you can go run a marathon", despite there being no reason a fat person couldn't do these things before.

[Sierra85]

Governments should mandate a year off for every obese person. They are given a card where they can walk in and buy fresh fruits & vegetables only. If they try and purchase soda or chocolate the transaction fails. Repeated attempts they go into a food jail.

Every day of their time off from work they must submit an exercise report and their food diary to a government website. Failure to meet a certain amount of calories burned they must pay a small cash donation to a charity.

I have more ideas, michelle obama should contact me.

[ZazuuPriest]

Dont be fat, problem solved

[Rudkobing]

Anguish.....

mmmmmmm

[Oakshana]

I have more ideas, michelle obama should contact me.

I have a lot of issues with Michelle Obama's approach and logic in most respects. I think she was trying to do the right thing, with the right reasons, but often with the wrong approach.

My son, who was in pre-school/pre-K, was underweight for his age. Children 2 to 6 need a lot of fat (healthy fat) in their diets. It's good to give children, even older kids whole milk. But Michelle Obama's approach as a part of her solution for obesity in our children was to remove whole milk from schools and only offer 2%. I am not sure what nutritionist gave her the idea that whole milk was a problem, but that was ludicrous in my opinion. Meanwhile, I had to get a doctors note to allow my 4 year old son to have whole milk at school. A DOCTOR'S NOTE. What the ever living fuck? Meanwhile the 2% milk most schools serve children has sugar in it, and 1% chocolate milk was still allowed. SERIOUSLY?

The reason for obesity in our schools has absolutely fuck all to do with whole milk. It's partially due to the amount of processed shit we give them in hot lunches, or the processed shit parents send with them to schools (such as lunchables and hot pockets, which are bullshit). But even MORE the point? We've cut back on mandatory PE & gym, and we've shortened lunch time and recess and don't make our children go outside to play anymore. I went to elementary school in the 70s. We didn't have 2% milk then. We had whole milk and whole chocolate milk. That was it. And most kids I knew were NOT obese. Because we spent time outside. We didn't go to McDonalds more that once in a blue moon, and we didn't come home to 500 cable channels and endless video games. I am not saying these are bad, but we have zero personal control over ourselves.

And this comes back around to people who are obese and complain about body positivity and fat shaming. You are fat because you eat too much crap and excercise too little. Period. End of story. It has nothing to do with "low fat diets" or having too much fat in certain foods. It has everything to do with eating more calories than you burn and the vast majority of those calories being carbs.

Stop eating so many carbs, eat more vegetables and fiber, eat less fruit than veg, eat high protein and fat, get off your ass and move more and consume more water. That's it. Pure and simple.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

Because their comfort costs twice as much -.-

No it doesn't. They're not the ones complaining. YOU are.

YOU don't want to have to sit next to certain people. YOU are the one complaining about how uncomfortable it is. YOU YOU YOU. It's ALL about YOU. You want some extra luxury, pay for it or -- wait for it -- don't fly at all. No one's forcing YOU to fly, right? That's the argument you self-centered types keep making, innit? YOU don't want the inconvenience, YOU don't have to deal with it.

If YOU do have a problem with it, then focus your energy bickering at the people who CREATED the situation in the first place: The airlines. THEY are the ones responsible for your lack of comfort, all so THEY can get as much money out of YOU as they can.

[Revi]

No one should be bullied, but what do they expect? You make yourself fat, buy one seat that you can't fit in, sit down and fill up room that other passengers have paid for causing them great discomfort for the entirety of their flight.. And they are in the wrong if they don't take that with a smile?

Don't expect strangers to smile at you when you're causing them discomfort and leeching off stuff they paid for.

Like I said though, people shouldn't bully. If they start verbally abusing you(no, a comment like "you should have bought 2 seats" is not abuse) then they've gone too far, but giving you a disproving look while they hope you don't sit next to them is perfectly reasonable.

[Felya]

Uhm... so? I'm 6'8, not a fun run for me either... and I cannot go on a diet to get shorter...

[Spectral]

3 - There's the twisted misconception that if you're fat you fundamentally cannot live a whole life. You don't see this come up in more overt fat shaming, like what's being done in this thread, but rather in the sort of "unconscious" fat shaming. Like when someone pulls off losing a ton of weight and people literally say things like "yay, now you have a whole new lease on life" or "now you can go run a marathon", despite there being no reason a fat person couldn't do these things before.

Fat people are objectively bad at running. Even if they can technically do it, they're slow and injury prone relative to what a thinner version of them would be. When fat people "run" marathons, it's not usually running in any meaningful sense.

[Tennis]

Uhm... so? I'm 6'8, not a fun run for me either... and I cannot go on a diet to get shorter...

Get a emergency exit row. Simple enough. Or get a business class/ premium economy seat.

[Spectral]

If YOU do have a problem with it, then focus your energy bickering at the people who CREATED the situation in the first place: The airlines. THEY are the ones responsible for your lack of comfort, all so THEY can get as much money out of YOU as they can.

This is pretty obvious nonsense. If there was demand for planes where all of the seats were large and less passengers fit on and the rates were accordingly higher, someone would start that shit up and make a fortune. As it turns out, there isn't much demand for this. Commercial airlines are surprisingly unprofitable relative to other large corporations.

[Sierra85]

Uhm... so? I'm 6'8, not a fun run for me either... and I cannot go on a diet to get shorter...

some airlines offer special seats for extra tall people. usually up the front where there is a little extra leg room.

ofc you have to pay extra.

[Daedius]

You're taking up space that would be for 2 paying passengers otherwise... the airline should have every right to charge you extra. Perhaps a discount or single seat cost when the plane isn't full.

[Rennadrel]

Air planes are designed to suit the average person, having to increase the seat size means less seats on the flight which also means a higher ticket cost for everyone. Being fat is no excuse for trying to ruin travel for other people. As an overweight guy, I can tolerate the seat sizes, and I usually book flight times that are god awful early because people are more likely to take a later flight.

[W1sp]

Tell that to people who recline.

As a 1.95 tall male those heathens should BURN!!!!