Worried about weight

[Scuzi]

I have been accepted by NATS for the position of trainee air traffic controller and I have been informed that I need to pass a Class 1 medical similar to that of the old CAA class 1. I'm happy enough about everything but from all the searching I have done I cannot find any specifications on height/weight limitations.

I am 5'11" and weigh 16st 10lb. At eighteen years of age this is not exactly a healthy combination but a lot of it is muscle. About two years ago I took an interest in weightlifting and subsequently put on quite a bit of weight. More recently I have neglected visits to the gym and have watched the muscle turn to flab.

I am now on a strict regime to lose some weight but I don't know how much I will be able to healthily lose before my medical (date to be confirmed).

What I want to know is if there is a limit for height/weight ratio? I am reasonably fit, I don't smoke and I only drink the odd pint of Guinness now and again. I am worrying myself sick incase I fail the medical and end up losing my place at CATC.

Many thanks in advance. :)

[Flyin'Dutch']

Your BMI as I work it out is nearly 33 which is in the 'unhealthy' category.

I believe (IMMSMR) that the CAA have an upper limit (as in accept without any problems of) 35 but check this on their website.

Above this they suggest an assessment to ensure that cockpit safety is not compromised.

The latter is probably less of a problem for an ATCO but if you want to enjoy the fantastic pensionscheme in due course you would probably be well adviced to loose some weight.

FD

[mazzy1026]

BMI 35 is very high and I have heard from quite a few people that sometimes there is no limit. It seems that they look at this on individual cases - if you walk in and theylook at you and you are clearly unfit for the job, then they will get you for BMI (IMHO).

Some people have also said that the limit is 30 if they were going to fail you, as anything from 30 onwards is the obese categroy, BUT you say you have a lot of muscle, so this will account for a lot of your weight. Your best bet is to drop a stone. It aint that difficult and not only will you be highly likely to pass the medical, but you will feel and look better.

There is a great post on here started by a chap called Darul - run a search for BMI and you will find it.

Best of luck

Maz

[Flyin'Dutch']

M,

Thanks for that reminder, I have just refound the link to the JAR stuff and it is indeed 35.

Link to JAR (http://www.jaa.nl/section1/jars/435247.pdf)

FD

[Scuzi]

Thanks for the advice. It looks as though I fall within the specified limits but to be on the safe side I'm losing the spare tyres anyway.

Thanks :)

[QDMQDMQDM]

BMI 35 is very high

That's nothing. I saw a woman the other day, 5'2", 19 stone, BMI approx 51.

Surprisingly enough, her knees hurt. Surprisingly enough, too, she doesn't eat anything. Lives on air, she does.

QDM

[mazzy1026]

Jeezus thats some serious BMI - did she bleep when she walked backwards? :O

[Bad medicine]

QDM said "lives on air"

Isn't it amazing that in some people the laws of the universe (conservation of energy/mass, etc) just don't seem to work!:)

[BlueEagle]

How do I calculate my 'BMI' please?

[Toilet_Town]

You can work out your own BMI using this calculation: (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/en.asp?TopicID=333&AreaID=534&LinkID=137)

Measure your height in metres and multiply the number by itself.
Measure your weight in kilograms.
Divide your weight by the answer you got in step 1. The number you are left with is your BMI.
An ideal BMI for most people is between 20 and 25.

[Just an other number]

BMI is Body Mass Index.
It relates your weight to your height as a crude measure of skinniness/obesity.
see here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/yourweight/bmi_metric.shtml)

[Whirlybird]

Isn't it amazing that in some people the laws of the universe (conservation of energy/mass, etc) just don't seem to work!

I know that was meant cynically...the trouble is, it's true!

I'm pretty much normal weight...BMI around 26. Trouble is, I have to be virtually on a diet the whole time to stay that way.

I've struggled with my weight since I was 7 years old, and been quite a lot overweight much of the time. I've tried every diet or method of eating there is - low calorie, low fat, low carb, high protein, healthy eating, not worrying about it, loads of exercise, liquid only...you name it. I've also at various times been very active and very fit - record for a 5000 walk round the coast of Britain (during which I put on 2 stone, and it wasn't all muscle), school swimming team, university judo team, etc etc etc. I used to worry my mum when I was a teenager, because I was so active she thought I was overdoing it...on Sundays I'd do three hours judo, then run home (around a mile) and grab a quick snack before dashing to the local stables to muck out the horses so I could go riding for free. And still I was overweight!!! I was probably the fittest fat kid in the country...but I was still not slim by any means.

Now, I find the only way I can not put on weight is by staying on 20 WeightWatchers point a day - that's around 1200-1400 calories, but I'm more used to counting points, and it's easier. The WeightWatchers adviser told me to stop trying to lose any more, since I was getting exhausted, and just couldn't. Yet I'm still "officially" slightly overweight, and certainly not thin!!!!:confused: :confused: :confused: And still pretty active too. And if I ate "normally", ie healthily, but a sensible amount, and like most people do, I think my weight would stabilise at about 2-3 stone higher than it is now. I don't like myself at that size, and I'm vain. But I can't help thinking it might actually be healthier for me, no matter what the powers that be say. Because I do actually get tired and cold pretty easily, and I suspect it's because I don't eat enough, longterm. And yes, I've tried eating more, eating different things etc etc...read earlier in this rather long post. None of it works. And I know I'm not unique...except I think most people who have this problem give up and end up very overweight...I'm ridiculously strongwilled.

OK, bad medicine, QDM etc...you explain it! I can't and neither can anyone else. OK, maybe I sleepwalk and eat then, who knows? Most of the time I've given up caring or even discussing it; I have a strong will and I'm not that interested in food, so I can maintain this weight. But every so often, I just....wonder...why?????

[BlueEagle]

Thanks for all the info, is three digits bad?!;)

[Bad medicine]

Gday Whirly,

One of the things you said in your post is interesting. You said that you get tired and cold pretty easily. Have you ever had your thyroid function checked? These symptoms, along with the weight gain can be an indication of an underactive thyroid gland.

I know some people have aterrible time trying to control their weight. Whatever you do, don't starve yourself, but there will be a balance point where you use more than you take in.

Cheers,

BM

[Whirlybird]

bad medicine,

Yes, I've had my thyroid checked, though not for some years. I demanded to have it checked for just this reason - I'd been dieting, and was getting tired and cold. And it was normal. So is everything else about me that anyone can check. And I only get tired and cold when I've been dieting for several months, and only when I'm down to approximately a "normal" weight. If I'm a stone or two overweight I don't feel the cold and have more energy. And if I eat more I do too...only then I put on weight. It's as though something in my body is set just slightly wrong. Makes no sense, I know, but that's how it seems.

[ariel]

Wouldn't worry Whirly, you don't look overweight to me

[Whirlybird]

ariel,

I'm not (or not a lot anyway). It's just I have to work so hard to stay this way. :(

To get back to my original point, the laws of conservation of energy etc seem to work differently with me than with most people. Which is why I tend to identify with 20 stone people who tell their doctors they eat very little and aren't believed. I'm firmly convinced that, were there to be a famine, I'd be here when all the rest of you had long gone. Somehow that's not a lot of consolation. :( :)

[QDMQDMQDM]

To get back to my original point, the laws of conservation of energy etc seem to work differently with me than with most people. Which is why I tend to identify with 20 stone people who tell their doctors they eat very little and aren't believed.

It's all about perception (and often self-deception). The reality is that you don't have to eat that much extra over time to put on weight and if what you eat is fairly high calorie it doesn't look or feel like much either.

I see a lot of people in a week who have lost weight and more who haven't. When questioned, the former always say they have lost weight by eating less, the latter always say they live on lettuce leaves and thin air. And this group, the people who haven't lost weight, always have revealing shopping trolleys when you bump into them in the supermarket -- generally crammed with crisps, junk and what-have-you.

Back to perception: we are conditioned to feel that what we eat is acceptable, when it often isn't. e.g. the size of chocolate bars. In Switzerland, where you see fewer fat people and definitely very very few fat kids, as compared to the UK, the Mars bars are, I would estimate, about half the weight of the UK ones (and I'm not talking about the King size ones) and twice the price. A portion of Macdonalds fries has increased in calorie content six times since the early 1960s. Thus, you order a portion of fries and say to yourself 'Hey, it's only one portion of fries', but don't realise the enormous number of calories you are consuming because 'Hey, it's only one portion of fries'. Ditto Mars bars.

In this way, much of the blame for the epidemic of obesity could be laid at the door of 'society', whatever that is. In another way that doesn't help the individual at all, because the only way to get slim is to take personal responsibility for what you eat. Unless you do this, you won't lose weight. That's a given.

I was never an obviously excessive eater, but have lost about 7-8kg in the last year, simply by both eating less and eating less crap. It's that simple and complicating it beyond that does no-one any favours and conspires in the mass denial of the laws of physics, which is orchestrated by the grossly overweight. ;)

It's an old chestnut that there were no fat people in the Japanese POW camps at liberation. So, if you eat the number of calories your body requires to stay in equilibrium, given your size and level of activity, then your weight will remain stable. If you eat more than that, you will put on weight. If you eat less, you will lose weight. Anything else is wishful thinking and up there alongside astrology and other silly stuff.

QDM

[mazzy1026]

That was a great post QDM

I agree on the calorie rule - to lose weight = burn off more calories that you put in, in one day. Simple as that.

Sometimes when I say I am on a diet, people will offer me for example a biscuit, fr which I say "no thanks", they then reply "but you can have one at least on your diet" well I say to that, if you eat the 1 buscuit, you are eating X amount of calorries, therefore slowing down your weight loss. And if you eat enough of em, you wont lose any, you may even gain weight. I suppose a lot of it depends on how fast you want to lose weight.

The weight watchers/slimming world diets for example, work by slowly reducing your calorie intake - you lose weight very slowly, which is actually the best way as it will stay off you easier. These diets are good as they enable you to eat the odd little treat, such as the biscuit example above. Personally though, I get fed up and impatient on these diets due to the lack of quick response from the body - and I tend to crash diet sometimes, which I know is no good.

Happy dieting

Maz.

[Re-Heat]

Whirly,

I agree that your thyroid function sounds like it might be playing up - ask specifically for T4 and TSH to be checked of you feel concerned enough to have another test. It is apparently often misdiagnosed according to my consultant. It didn't help that one GP I saw was convinced that I was snorting coke.

I had thyroid failure in the opposite sense at the end of last year, and lost 10kg, while becoming ever hotter, with too much energy on me. Certainly while I was on drugs to reverse this, I was cold and tired for a lot of the time, while gaining some weight that I could not lose.

[antiicing]

last week I did my medical renewal, I passed all the 9 test's, they gave me my new medical , not before telling that I'm Overweight!!!!.
I'm 1,78 and 93kg's
that's like 29 BMI
ok, I know what the table says about that,
but my point is; I feel OK, I walk everyday, I try to eat as healthy as possible all week, and it's my 1st time in 12 years they tell me that if I keep this same weight next year i would have problems!!!
I've seen pilots with belys bigger than mine, looking like the Koolaid man!!!!!, i feel great, My clothing from last year still fits!!!!.
And I wonder.......what if 'im the same wt. in12 months.........ok trouble, they already told me, but come on lets get real, even the most fitted humans on earth, like the footbal players, wich undergo several medical test per year in their carrer and 3 died of a heart attack in the past last year.......Who would have tell ahh?????????, a total runing machine, fit, and all of the sudden.....pammmm, dead!!!!!,
I know that we pilots have to be healthy, but its to much tension in your life, when it comes to 2 or 3 kilos somebody tell's you its over the limit!!!!!!!
like the song..............
I Feel Good.............................
:O

[Flying Bog Monster]

Great post, QDM.

I have been wondering lately about how sensible the "2000/2500 calories per day" guideline is. I'd pile on heaps of weight if I ate remotely close to 2000 calories a day for sure. It's not like I sit on my backside all day (actually, when I come to think of it, I do :hmm: ahem, I'd say my activity level is "average") and I don't easily put a lot of weight on, but 1200 calories per day keeps me at my current weight. None of my friends can eat 2000 calories worth of food per day and not put weight on, let alone 2500 calories per day, and most of them are pretty thin, so it's not like they have a tendency to get fat.

This makes me suspect that some people are saying they "don't eat much" based on 2000 calories per day guideline when in fact the guideline intake might be rather excessive?

What do you think? I'm very interested in hearing your informed opinion.

[doubleu-anker]

BlueEagle

No, it's not looking good.