The crew who gained weight and the crew who lost it: the cabin and the body composition, the crew meals, the layover food
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#1 Virgin Australia Sydney, four years, and the weight question on this forum is in the BMI threads for the applicants and the uniform and body thread for the standard. The crew's own weight over the years is the thing nobody writes and every crew room discusses: the ones who gained and the ones who lost and what did it. Here it is from someone who did both.
What the job does
The crew meals (the galley food, the leftover business meals, the snack basket at 3am). The layover food (the per diem spent on the restaurant, the hotel breakfast at the wrong body time). The irregular meals (the four sector day with no lunch and the dinner at 11pm). The alcohol on the layover (the thread). The sleep disruption, which the research links to the weight more than the food. And the step counts, which on a four sector day are high and on a long haul are low and which the body does not average.
The crew who gained
Year one to three for me: the galley snacks, the layover restaurants, the beer in Bali, the sleep that was never right, and the step count on the 737 that I assumed was exercise and was not. Ten kilos in three years and the uniform that did not fit and the grooming conversation Holly's thread described. The crew who gain are the ones who eat the job's food on the job's schedule and do not notice the number until the uniform does.
The crew who lost
Year four, after the uniform conversation: the food brought from home on the four sector days (the container in the crew bag, Victoria's coeliac preparation without the coeliac), the crew meal eaten and the snack basket avoided, the layover dinner as one meal and not three, the alcohol stopped on the layovers (the thread), the hotel gym at 7am (the thread), and the sleep taken seriously (the blackout, the home time on the short layovers). Eight kilos in a year and the uniform fits and the grooming conversation did not happen again.
What actually changed the number
Not the gym. The food brought from home and the alcohol stopped. The crew who go to the hotel gym and eat the galley food and drink on the layover do not change the number. The crew who bring the container and stop the beer do, with or without the gym. The sleep was the third thing and the hardest and the one the research says matters most.
The honest view
The job makes the crew gain in the first years and the crew who lose it later are the ones who changed the food and the drink, not the ones who ran. The uniform standard at the Gulf and Asian carriers makes the conversation happen; at the Western carriers it does not and the crew gain without the conversation. The number is the food and the sleep and the beer, in that order, and the step count is not exercise.
For the year one crew
The container in the crew bag from day one. The snack basket is not a meal. The layover dinner is one dinner. The beer is the thread. And the step count on the 737 is the job, not the gym, and the body knows the difference.
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#2 Jetstar Brisbane, and the year one to three gain and the year four loss is my exact curve with Bali instead of Bali (the same Bali) and the container in the crew bag was the change. The step count on the 737 as exercise is the lie every short haul crew tells themselves. Liam has the number.
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#3 Emirates, and the uniform conversation at the Gulf carriers making the number visible is the thing I described and Liam's Western version (the gain without the conversation) is the other side. The food and the sleep and the beer in that order is what my dietitian said.
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#4 Jetstar Sydney, and the Bali beer stopped at year two was the number change for me and the container was the second. The gym came third and did nothing the first two had not. Liam's order is the right order.
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#5 Virgin, 14 years, and the weight gained slowly and lost when I stopped drinking at 39 is the line in my body thread and Liam has the mechanism: the food, the sleep, the beer. The gym for looks is the thing the crew do and the container is the thing that works.
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#6 Air NZ, coeliac, and the container in the crew bag by necessity is the thing that kept my number stable by accident, as Liam's thread says. The crew who bring their food eat the right amount at the right time. The galley is the trap.
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#7 Emirates upper deck, and the grooming check making the number a conversation is the Gulf's unkindness and its usefulness: the crew who have the conversation change the food. The Western crew gain quietly. Liam has both sides honestly.
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#8 Jet2 Manchester, and the four sector day with no lunch and the dinner at 11pm is the Jet2 day and the number went up for two years before the container. The snack basket is not a meal is the sentence for the galley wall.
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#9 @victoriaakl the coeliac by necessity being the stable number by accident is the proof: the container is the method and the condition just enforced it. The rest of us need the uniform conversation or the thread. The thread is kinder.