Body fat standards or BMI and sleep apnea

Professional Mariner Forum
1

I have a class a cdl and I got the usual two year letter from the DOT to go in for my CDL DOT physical.

I keep it up. You never know, ya know.

Anyway went to the doc. I’ve put on a few pounds but i am working on that now. Especially after I heard what she had to say.

The new BMI for drivers is and is going to be 30%.

Even the doc said it was kind of bogus because the DOT was basing their BMI standards on the same system the army uses for new recruits.

I was 33 1/2% but she said until November she can basically give me a waiver. She said she doesn’t know after November whether she will still be able to give waivers or whether 30% will be written in stone.

I heard the new magic number for mariners is going to be 40%.

They are also asking new questions on the DOT physical about sleep apnea. If you have it and it is caused by being too fat they will pull your license until you loose the weight and can sleep without the machine. (cdl license)

Too many guys falling asleep behind the wheel because they can’t get rest while sleeping because of sleep apnea.

DOT is DOT. CG may follow suit.

Some guys just have sleep apnea and it is not the fat in their throats it is just their brain that tells them to stop breathing for awhile.

I don’t know how they will handle this one. Maybe a waiver. I know the sleep machines have helped a lot of guys but i don’t know if the cg will grant waivers. I am sure you will have to prove somehow it is under control just like diabetes or high blood pressure, ect.

I was thinking about doing a sleep study because I think i have had sleep apnea for years and not because of fat in my throat. I just hold my breath for some reason while sleeping. Wierd.

But I think i will cancel that sleep study because once they got you on paper your done. or could be done.

Another reason this doc passed me is i have high muscle mass. if i was rolly polly she would have probably failed me but she said beins as I am about half fat and half muscle she let me slide.

Height and weight is not good enough. If you fail that system they need to get the calipers out and see how much is flab and how much is muscle.

They are not doing that yet. I need to loose a few pounds anyway. I am 6’ 2" and a good weight for me is around 245 lbs. At that weight I have no love handles, no pot belly, and no man boobs.

But i had a hard core doctor agrue with me that even under those circumstances I should be 185lbs according to his “almighty chart”. He let me slide but that is because I didn’t argue with him.

He would fail you if you were over 25%. And the DOT says that is fine. It is the doctors’ “discretion” at this point.

That is why i went to the flyin j this time instead of him. He would have failed me for sure.

the “drive through” clinic at the truck stop doesn’t make any money if drivers come out saying,“Don’t go in there. They will take your money and then fail you.”

My suggestion if you are having BMI issues and want to make sure your cg physical gets signed off is go to the clinic at the nearest truck stop.

2

As a CDL A tanker driver, this BMI can’t possibly be implemented. You would lose 3/4 of truck drivers. Merchants are a different story. A lot fewer ships and fewer mariners. Don’t know if Flying J doctor is adequate for CG physical. Try going to a clinic like Concentra.

3

the BMI number for the USCG is 40. I just had a good friend have his renewal (7th issue) get held up because of the BMI issue. His doctor cleared him on his physical, but the NMC stopped his renewal during the medical review and made him undergo 2 sleep tests and about 6 more dr. visits to get passed. The USCG didn’t really care that his personal dr. that he has been seeing for 20+ years thought that he was ok to work as a mariner, some evaluator in West Virginia decided they knew more about his medical history than his own dr.

so, yes, it is already here. i guess we will just have to make sure the height and weight that we put on our physicals doesn’t calculate into a BMI of more than 40 or it will result in even more hoops to jump through.

4

[QUOTE=RkyMtn Paul;33512]As a CDL A tanker driver, this BMI can’t possibly be implemented. You would lose 3/4 of truck drivers. Merchants are a different story. A lot fewer ships and fewer mariners. Don’t know if Flying J doctor is adequate for CG physical. Try going to a clinic like Concentra.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I think there will be a lot of waivers or passes given after November as long as you don’t have sleep apnea, high blood pressure, diabetes, ect. But if you are suffering side effects from your weight you may have a hard time finding a doc to pass you.

It could be a good thing for the industry also. Instead of screwing rookies into bogus company sponsored schools and making them work for pennies on the dollar the healthy drivers will finally be able to dictate to the companies what they will and won’t work for. Supply and demand my friend.

Yes I have heard this agruement that Large Marge and Big Bubba are the only ones keeping freight moving in this country but at what expense? If I am a danger to the public I should be taken off the road until I get my personal issues under control. IE weight, drugs, alcohol, ect.

I don’t want big bubba buyin the big one while I am in front of him with my wife and 3 kids in the mini van.

I think this is and will be a wake up call to drivers and mariners that eating honey buns and drinkin countless pots of coffie to stay up all night long may not be the best way to take care of your health.

I am just as guilty. When I was driving full time I put on 40 lbs doing that. As soon as I got out of the truck and stopped trying to stay up all week long running two logs I dropped it right back off.

With how low the pay is drivin truck in most instances you are almost forced to run two logs or run illegal to even make it. This forces you to push your own limits of health and safety.

My last year of driving truck I would drive 48 hrs and sleep 4. I did this all week long until saturday night. I would get one decent night’s sleep saturday night, go to church on Sunday, and get in bed by 5pm sunday pm to be up for midnight and back out on the road to do it all over again. I made 78k that year and i think it took about 5 years off my life. I really was burnin the candle at both ends.

If the pay would have been better I may have actually been able to follow the DOT drivng hour rules and make a decent living. But not as it stands right now.

5

Don’t know if Flying J doctor is adequate for CG physical. Try going to a clinic like Concentra.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, flyin j doc or any other DOT physical doc will usually cut the mustard for CG physcial as long as they do it on CG form. I have had a few docs not really know what they were signing off on but they just used the same standards as they used for their DOT’s. Not to say Concentra, NIOMS, or any other clinic or personal doc is not just as good. But if you are looking for less hassle about your weight I recommend drive thru DOT physical joint.

6

[QUOTE=WildBill;33529]the BMI number for the USCG is 40. I just had a good friend have his renewal (7th issue) get held up because of the BMI issue. His doctor cleared him on his physical, but the NMC stopped his renewal during the medical review and made him undergo 2 sleep tests and about 6 more dr. visits to get passed. The USCG didn’t really care that his personal dr. that he has been seeing for 20+ years thought that he was ok to work as a mariner, some evaluator in West Virginia decided they knew more about his medical history than his own dr.

so, yes, it is already here. i guess we will just have to make sure the height and weight that we put on our physicals doesn’t calculate into a BMI of more than 40 or it will result in even more hoops to jump through.[/QUOTE]

That sucks for him but at least they did pass him. You might be able to get your home town doc to make the height and weight numbers look better for you on paper but most docs i know will not put their name on anything fraudulant for $60.

The best thing to do, no matter how hard it may be out here, is to try and drop that weight. Smaller portions, better food, ect. Believe me I know it’s hard. But after awhile you get used to being hungry. Hunger pain sucks but starving myself is the only way I have found to drop weight besides exercise. Treadmills make me feel like a hampster so i will just starve.

There is also the prescription speed option. Even if you have high blood pressure or diabetes, ect.

My wife lost over 100 lbs after the last baby using Phenterimine. You can go to a quack and get the stuff or even get a script over the net. But she went to a good doc who did blood work and everything plus a nutritionist. She lost the excess weight and has managed to keep it off. Whenever she starts to put it back on she goes back to the doc and gets another script. Maybe not the healthiest way but she has a naturally low metabolism. She needs a little boost now and then to help keep it off.

Before she lost the weight she was borderline diabetic and was on two blood pressure meds. Now she is off the blood pressure meds and her blood sugar has returned to normal.

Word of advice though…Make sure you get a script and list the med on everything. It will show up as speed on a drug screen.