We better all slim down

dustoff17 said:
This can't be all that bad. I'm sitting in the terminal right now about to board an AE flight to DFW. I kid you not, I'm looking at one if the largest women I've seen on an airplane; and she's the FA!
There is NO way she could fit through an over wing exit. God help us if she gets to the exit first because she'll serve as the cork in an soon-to-be-pressured filled "bottle".
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FA's don't need medicals do they?
 
I thought they did but from what I'm seeing (I mean beyond the Lunar eclipse), the answer is "No".
 
Well….I already have sleep apnea and I already have a special issuance, so I guess I can skip the screening at for my next medical!:)
 
Don't fly commercially. But there are a few guys I knew at Comair that had a CPAP and had to take it on their overnights. Once you do get an SI, you have to get a letter from sleep doc so your AME can send to OKC, to show compliance. The machines have a data card that needs to be downloaded to show you're using the machine every night and that you're at least using it successfully for an average of 6 hours a night.
 
H46Bubba said:
Don't fly commercially.
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I knew that. :) Sorry, flew a standup last night, and not exactly on top of my game.

But there are a few guys I knew at Comair that had a CPAP and had to take it on their overnights. Once you do get an SI, you have to get a letter from sleep doc so your AME can send to OKC, to show compliance. The machines have a data card that needs to be downloaded to show you're using the machine every night and that you're at least using it successfully for an average of 6 hours a night.
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Hmm, not good. There's not a chance in hell that I'm using one of those machines, so that means I won't be able to milk the med leave after all. That sucks.
 
H46Bubba said:
Don't know. Never had one done. I'm slightly overweight. But I've had snoring issues since I was a teenager and weighed 165 pounds.
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BMI is a formula based on height and weight. I think you're thinking of bodyfat% (or body composition)
 
All in all it was a pain in the butt to get all the testing and to get an SI. Luckily my insurance paid for most of it. I go to the sleep doc twice a year and I make sure one of them is close to when I need to go see the AME every year to renew my SI.
 
Boris Badenov said:
Meh. I'll grant you that I've never been truly fat (and very likely because I'm uh "coded" not to be...fair point). But I've been psychotically in shape and embarrassingly out of it, and everything in between. There very likely are the ~10% of the population (or whatever) whose systems don't work as, uh, "designed"? However you choose to describe it, you know what I mean. But most of us are in our, what, size (?), as we are in all other things. To wit, the product of our personal ambition. For the most part, we treat our bodies as we treat ourselves

The interesting thing to me is that the psychology behind the "fat epidemic" gets short shrift in our oh-so-modern 24 hour news-cycle culture of buying and selling poop people don't really need to each other. As in like, how did it even come about that otherwise normative people feel the need pile more and more food in to their mouths? The world of money, self-absorption, and endless desire for things you can't even really have would have you believe that it's some fundamental flaw in the fatass. But I reckon the real problem lies a bit closer to home. Something about how we govern ourselves (or choose not to), and what encourages us not to govern, day after wicked day. It's something we don't talk about very much, but it's all around us, on every billboard, in every glossy advert. CONSUME, right? And yet those who take this bizarre commandment literally are reckoned pariahs, somehow. Gotta keep em guessing. I guess.

This way of thinking inevitably eats itself, though, is the thing. No pun intended. Ok, maybe slightly intended.
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Us ectomorphs (yes, that's the word) have it easy. I'm in alright shape, I guess.

It's somewhat difficult to stay in shape (and be well rested) in this job. The diet is irregular. The sleep is irregular too. Exercise opportunities on days on can be hard to come by. The body doth protest, not unjustifiably.

The main reasons that I exercise far more now have more to do with clearing my mind, but I certainly like the physical results.

trafficinsight said:
If I took it wrong, sorry :) I have seen way worse posts than yours, usually they're in threads about seat width.
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I'm not sure I've sat in a comfortable coach seat in a long while now.
 
I posted in the Flight Surgeon forum on this. But I recently got an SI for sleep apnea. BMI is 23...being fat is just one of several factors for having OSA. Many of us are in great shape, and yet we have it. Since my weight is already ideal, I can't lose weight as an option to get rid of it. Don't want to consider the surgery, yet. I've read there can be some nasty side effects, and it may not even work anyway. Yes, I have to take the machine with me at all times. Big pain the the arse.

I myself elected to get the sleep study as I was feeling tired quite a bit. Rather than live in denial, I chose to get treated. This career is not worth letting your health go. Had I not done the study myself, this new screening tool wouldn't have effected me. I don't regret getting it done as it made a tremendous difference for me. Yes, it was a few months off work, a total of just over 5 for me. I will say I get tired of having to explain that I need the machine to every single crew I fly with. They are all in shock because they think, wrongly, that it's a disease of only obese people. Plus it makes crashpad life difficult.
 
I wonder what the actual number of people is with OSA. Take that with the incidence of obesity and is obesity really a cause or just a coincidence?


@Eicas. Did you snore a lot or have the morning headaches?
 
Never had headaches, wife said I snored only occasionally. During the sleep test, the doc said my snoring was minimal.
 
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