Flying Fit

"I shouldn't eat this late on my trip, should I?"

Actually, you should.

You land in Los Angeles. Body clock says 2am UK. Local time is 6pm. And you're starving!

But surely, if you eat that's just extra calories?

But in my 27 years of flying and 3 years of coaching pilots and cabin crew, I can tell you that fear is misplaced.

The hunger is your circadian rhythm getting scrambled by the time shift, it's not a weakness.

I've always found that when I've skipped food it usually backfires with worse sleep, bigger cravings tomorrow and usually ends up with me rummaging around my crew bag at 3am hoping to find an old chocolate bar that's been there forever!

Sound familiar?

But here's what's worth thinking about.

Eating something light and high in protein before bed actively helps. It supports muscle repair overnight, keeps you fuller so you wake up less ravenous, and it won't derail fat loss.

But what does light and high protein actually mean?

✅ Protein-led, something like grilled chicken, eggs...in a small salad possibly, if you can find something local. Keeping carbs and fats low (keeping it light enough not to sit heavy before you sleep).

✅ A proper portion, not a binge. It's all about portion control of course.

✅ And don't forget to hydrate. Flying dehydration often masquerades as hunger. So don't let it fool you and keep that water handy.

Here's a useful tip....Keep a decent protein bar in your crew bag (17g+ protein, low sugar, ideally under 5g). Watch out as not all protein bars are the same.

This beats you getting your coat on and nipping out for that $1 pizza slice at 9pm!

But what happens if you go out and meet the crew at a bar? 👀😮

Look out for my next post in my free Facebook Group, click to join the Flying Fit Community below ⬇️

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BxSKUiBhB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

(Ps...LA has to be one of my favourite destinations!)

I landed back from a long west coast US trip the other day.

Legs heavy, head foggy, that specific jet-lag tired where even standing up feels like effort.

That evening I was sat on the sofa telling myself I’d earned the right to do absolutely nothing, and I nearly believed it too.

Then I made myself get the bike out. No plan, no target, just get out the door before I could talk myself out of it.

48 minutes later (thank you Strava!), and I felt like a completely different person.

Head clear, actual energy and I sat there afterwards thinking, 'I was so close to skipping this!'

If you fly for a living, you'll know exactly what I mean.

This isn’t the odd bad night’s sleep, it’s a body clock that’s permanently out of sync with a life spent chasing time zones.

Here’s the bit a lot of crew in my view get wrong about jet lag: the instinct is always to collapse.

But movement is one of the fastest ways to reset your body clock, raising your core temperature and getting you out into daylight at exactly the moment your internal clock needs the signal.

27 years of flying and I still have to fight this same argument in my head after every long trip away.

The sofa always wins the debate. It just doesn’t win in reality.

The thing is, in my experience, you don’t need a hard session and you don’t need 'motivation'.

You just need to be out the door before your brain catches up with what you’re doing!

Next time you land feeling wrecked after a long-haul trip away, try it before you write the evening off.

So, my question is...how do you deal with your jet lag?

Do you have to track your food to lose weight?

No, but……

You don’t need to be logging every bite into an app to ensure results.

(Don’t get me wrong here, if you are currently tracking your food like this, you’re definitely winning!)

But having an understanding of what’s actually in your food is where the real progress starts.

Think about it like an aircraft meal. You’re never going to sit there and log exactly what’s in it. That’s just not realistic, and honestly, most of the time you don’t even know the exact macros in it anyway.

But having a rough understanding of what’s protein rich, what’s carb heavy, what’s loaded with fat, gives you the concept of what you’re actually putting in your body.

That’s where food tracking becomes a really useful tool if you want to take it further, and it’s a key part of what we do in Flying Fit to help you grasp these key concepts.

And it’s this awareness itself that lets you make better choices automatically. Building your foundation on nutrition knowledge. Setting out a clear pathway to your success.

Learn the basics of what’s on your plate, or your tray inflight, and the weight loss follows a lot more naturally than you’d think.

Flying Fit

So how exactly did my client manage to lose 7.9Kg in 12 weeks?

In Luke's own words below.

1. What did things look like before you started, and what’s changed?

“Yeah just up and down with weight but never really lost, would lose a little, think lost a lot, and put it back on… Since the programme, it helped me over that hurdle and to keep on going and keep on losing weight and not to fall back into that trap.”

2. What’s something Flying Fit gave you that you didn’t expect?

“It taught me how uneducated I was on food, which was quite worrying actually, however now much better.”

3. Would you recommend Flying Fit to another pilot or crew member, and why?

“And yes, 100%, because it’s tailored to the industry and just makes sense.”

Want a result like Luke’s?

If you’re flying a busy roster and want a plan that actually fits your life in the air, get in touch with Jason today and let’s get you started. ✈️🎯

How do you stay consistent with fitness and nutrition around a busy flying roster

When your body clock gets rearranged every few days, "just be consistent" is easier said than done.

You're not lazy. You're not lacking willpower. You're operating on a system that was never designed for humans to thrive on, and trying to apply "normal person" fitness advice can be a big reason why you keep starting over.

Here are some things that can trip crew up (and what to do instead):

1. You're waiting for the "right week" to start.

There isn't one. Standby, late finishes, time zone chaos, it's permanent, not a temporary phase before things calm down. The fix isn't finding a quiet week. It's building a plan flexible enough to survive a chaotic one.

2. Layovers wreck your nutrition because you've got no default. When you're tired and in a hotel in a random city, decision-making is the first thing to go. Without a "go-to" meal or snack strategy, you'll default to whatever's easiest, which is rarely what you actually want. Autopilot beats willpower every time.

3. You're treating training like it always needs at least an hour and a gym. It doesn't. If your bar is "proper session or nothing," you'll skip most weeks. 20-30 minutes in a hotel gym or your hotel room, done consistently and with intention, beats the perfect session you never get around to.

4. You're comparing yourself to your pre-flying self, or to a non flying person with a fixed routine.

That version of "disciplined" same gym time every day, same meals, same sleep, was never built for a flying roster.

Comparing yourself to it just makes you feel like you're failing at something you were never actually trying to do. The comparison that matters is: are you doing better than you were three months ago, roster and all?

None of this is about motivation. It's about building something that survives your roster, not having to fight it every month.

Flying Fit

You can't out-train the 'box of dreams'.

If you know, you know. ✈️

There's often a tray that lives behind the pilots on every flight. I recently heard a pilot nickname it the box of dreams, salad, a wrap, crisps, chocolate, a drink.

And on a long day it sits there quietly calling your name.

Here's the catch: it's not one box. It's a graze. A handful here, a packet there, picking at it through the dead hours when there's nothing else to do. And because it never feels like a "meal," it never gets counted.

After 27 years of flying, here's what I've learned: the box of dreams doesn't derail you in one go. It derails you 150 calories at a time, across a flight. Snacks you forgot you had even opened.

The maths can be brutal. A packet of crisps, half a chocolate bar, a sugary drink, the bits of the wrap you "may as well finish"... that's an easy 500–700 calories on top of your actual meals.

Do that across a month of flying and you've quietly wiped out a month of training.

I'm not saying don't touch it. I'm saying decide before you're three hours in and bored.

If you have to, pick one thing from the box and leave the rest as wallpaper.

Better still, bring your own meal/protein so the box isn't your only option.
Boredom can be the real trigger, not hunger, so sort the boredom, not the box.

It's not about willpower at 35,000 feet. It's about making the choice once, on the ground, so the box doesn't make it for you mid-flight.

If your job puts free food in front of you all day, whether it's aviation, hospitality, or an office full of biscuits, the grazing can undo all your hard work.

So what's your strategy with the 'box of dreams'?

One of the hardest parts of losing weight as a pilot or cabin crew isn’t the flying.

It’s the waiting. Standby duties especially.

Here’s the thing about standby: you can’t really make plans. It’s like crewing have a sixth sense, the minute you commit to something, the phone rings. ✈️

So you end up hanging around, waiting, killing time. And that’s exactly when the snacking creeps in. Boredom does half the damage, and weeks of progress can take a knock in a few afternoons by the cupboards.

After 26 years of flying, here’s what I’ve learned: don’t rely on willpower in that window. Remove the decision before boredom makes it for you.

So I treat prep as the distraction. Getting organised, sorting my food, packing the bag, it keeps my hands and head busy, and it means the good choice is already made before I’m tempted to make a bad one.

For today, that looked like:

• Chicken pasta with extra chicken and mixed beans, 60g+ protein, two servings ready to go
• Protein powder for later, on the flight or at home
• A breakfast with 20–25g protein already in before the day starts

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about building an environment where staying on track is the easy option, not the hard one.

If your job comes with unpredictable hours, aviation or otherwise, how do you stop the waiting around from derailing you?

The real reason most crew struggle to see results — and it's not always the lifestyle.

For the first part of my flying career I threw myself into it completely.

New destinations, new experiences, the crew lifestyle, I embraced all of it.

And I still do. 27 years in and I still love flying.

But back then? Eat whatever, drink plenty, and worry about fitness another day.

I wasn't unhappy. I was just... not paying attention.

Then I hit a point where I looked in the mirror and realised something had to change. I couldn't tell you the exact moment but I knew I couldn't keep ignoring it.

That was my turning point.

And here's what I realised, it was never the lifestyle that was the problem. It was the fact I'd never actually committed. So I never had to find out if it was possible or not.

Half-committing is comfortable. You can always blame the roster. The hotels. The jet lag. The early and late check ins.

But when I finally went all in, everything changed.

27 years in this career. The last five have been the best physically of my life.

When crew fully commit:

- You learn what your body actually responds to

- You figure out how to train and eat around disruption, for real

- You build habits that survive a 3am hotel check-in

- You stop waiting for the perfect moment that never comes

The lifestyle isn't the problem.

Going all in is scary. But it's the only way you'll ever know what's possible.

Flying Fit

The annual class 1 medical renewal.

For many pilots, it’s one of the most stressful days of the year.

I work with pilots every day on their health and fitness, but I’d love to hear it from you.

What makes it stressful?

Is it the fear of losing your licence? Weight creeping up? The lifestyle finally catching up with you?

Drop it in the comments. I appreciate every one. 👇✈️