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Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch
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According to data obtained by Military Times, the Army hosts the highest percentage of obese or overweight personnel, at more than 10 percent of Soldiers exceeding maximum standards. Air Force is a close second, followed by Navy. Army's total is up from 6.4 percent five years ago.

The USAF came in at 9 percent of Airmen obese or overweight, more than double its 4.3 percent number of 2011. Navy's 5.9 percent of personnel not meeting standards and considered either overweight or obese is also up from the 3.3 percent number it too posted in 2011.

The Marine Corps is the fittest service branch, with 2.3 percent of Marines considered to have an excessive or high Body Mass Index, or BMI, which is an increase from its previous 1.7 percent. Having served in Marine Corps units, I'm amazed the number's that high. They're usually brutal about very quickly enforcing height-weight-appearance standards, and any deviation from such is typically grounds for a swift exit from the Corps.

It's also no surprise the Pentagon slow-walked the release of obesity data by service branch after last month's release of overall BMI statistics. After all, legitimate questions would be raised about the military's readiness, though higher-ups and spokesmouthpieces assure us the stats don't mean our armed forces aren't ready for combat.

And the fattest U.S. military service is ...




"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Given that the number is about 66% for the general adult population those numbers are remarkably good. I would have guessed it was higher as I see plenty of tubby guys in uniform around here. Not sure what branch they are though.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
Given that the number is about 66% for the general adult population those numbers are remarkably good. I would have guessed it was higher as I see plenty of tubby guys in uniform around here. Not sure what branch they are though.


I'm not a martinet when it comes to these sorts of things, and wasn't even before I retired from active duty, but if I'm a commander and I'm being told that 10 percent of my force isn't within standards my head would be in danger of exploding, that's all I'll say. ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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What is worrisome is the article says that the armed forces is going to be moving away from mainly using BMI to evaluate fitness. In theory nothing wrong with that in practice likely moving the goalposts. The other thing is how quickly rates of overweight have gone up.

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
Given that the number is about 66% for the general adult population those numbers are remarkably good. I would have guessed it was higher as I see plenty of tubby guys in uniform around here. Not sure what branch they are though.



I'm not a martinet when it comes to these sorts of things, and wasn't even before I retired from active duty, but if I'm a commander and I'm being told that 10 percent of my force isn't within standards my head would be in danger of exploding, that's all I'll say. ;-)

Policy is written such that it pretty much ensures some percentage of people will be overweight at any given time. There's only so much a commander can do (in the Navy at least) when a Sailor is out of standards. Sailors must pass a height and weight evaluation and a fitness test every 6 months. The height and weight evaluation consists of simple weight vs height calculation. If you are outside the standard for that, you get measured around the waist. If your waist is greater than 39" (men) or 35.5" (women), then you get a second measurement. This time they do waist and neck, and calculate a rough body fat percentage. If you fail all three phases, then it's a "failure."

A Sailor can not be processed for administrative separation for failure meet standards, unless they have failed twice in a period of three years. So if you fail either the height /weight or the fitness test twice during the most recent three year period, you "shall" be processed for separation. However, that doesn't mean you'll actually be separated, because the separation board might find that your failure is out of your control, or that you are in a critical rating for the Navy to retain, etc.

Because of the requirement to wait for multiple failures, and the time it takes to process someone for separation, you could be carrying someone who is basically out of standards for their entire tour, and not really be able to get rid of them.

The standards and process is actually a little harder in some ways than it was a few years ago (used to be you needed to see 3 failures in a three year period, now you can separate after only two), but easier in others (they just recently introduced the waist measurement - so long as your waist is under 39 inches, you're fine, no matter how fat, short, tall you are).

10% is high, and if I had ever conducted a Fitness testing cycle and the results were 10% failures, I would have been pissed and unhappy, but not hugely shocked. To have 10 people out of 100 fail either the height/weight or the fitness test would have been surprising, but wouldn't have been shocking. That said, I never was at a command that came close to that percentage.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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middle guy is definitely armoured division. Why carry your kit, when your kit can carry you? Death before dismount baby!
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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    Would not be surprised to see the military follow the way of the airlines. Fairly tight weight stds in the past gave way to social pressure that allows some portly flight attendants, with the new requirements being if the individual can do the job. More women in the military will bring this same mindset to those outside that can pressure military muckety-mucks to make it happen. Just a matter of time...or we can come up with a pill that makes us all perfect physical specimens, that's what I'm counting on. ;)
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [dave_w] [ In reply to ]
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I wish they'd hurry up with that pill. I need it real bad. lol
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
middle guy is definitely armoured division. Why carry your kit, when your kit can carry you? Death before dismount baby!



Hahahahahaha! Exactly so! :-)




"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Not surprised. I agree with what slowguy said.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Well one of them had to be he fattest. Would you have been happier if say the Navy was the fattest branch?

How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
middle guy is definitely armoured division. Why carry your kit, when your kit can carry you? Death before dismount baby!
I was USAF but I worked with quite a few US Army troops while I was flying A-10's. When a "large" Army guy walked in, it was about a 99% chance that he was a tanker. It wasn't often that you'd see an overweight infantry trooper.

But back in the 1980's, we had a lot of chubby guys in the USAF, more so than the Army. I don't know what the stats were but we didn't really bother enforcing much in the way of standards. The USAF is definitely more fit today than they were 30 years ago.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [BLeP] [ In reply to ]
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BLeP wrote:
Well one of them had to be he fattest. Would you have been happier if say the Navy was the fattest branch?


It wouldn't have bothered me as much, mostly because I know Sailors. ;-)

Army and Marine Corps are the ground combat element, for the most part (composed of combined arms in the form of ground, arty, air and armor, of course). You should at least look fit, not fat. LOL!

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
Last edited by: big kahuna: Jun 24, 17 8:29
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [Alvin Tostig] [ In reply to ]
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Alvin Tostig wrote:
racin_rusty wrote:
middle guy is definitely armoured division. Why carry your kit, when your kit can carry you? Death before dismount baby!

I was USAF but I worked with quite a few US Army troops while I was flying A-10's. When a "large" Army guy walked in, it was about a 99% chance that he was a tanker. It wasn't often that you'd see an overweight infantry trooper.

But back in the 1980's, we had a lot of chubby guys in the USAF, more so than the Army. I don't know what the stats were but we didn't really bother enforcing much in the way of standards. The USAF is definitely more fit today than they were 30 years ago.

I blame chow hall food. And the Three Bs ("Bread, Baloney, Beer"). ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Gives a new meaning to Get Some

All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

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Last edited by: Billabong: Jun 24, 17 8:34
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [len] [ In reply to ]
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len wrote:
What is worrisome is the article says that the armed forces is going to be moving away from mainly using BMI to evaluate fitness. In theory nothing wrong with that in practice likely moving the goalposts. The other thing is how quickly rates of overweight have gone up.

I'm surprised that obesity has only doubled since the 60's. Something went wrong in the 80's. Thanks Reagan!

Trends in Overweight and Obesity among Adults, United States, 1962–2010



â–  Overweight
â–  Obesity
â–  Extreme obesity
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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Does active combat have fitness checks?
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [schroeder] [ In reply to ]
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Two photos below depict a Depression-era family (ca. 940). One thing stands out: they had to work hard just to gain subsistence-level diets. In the first photo, of the family eating dinner, I also wouldn't necessarily say that their meal was all that calorically low or healthful in the dietetics sense of the word. Just that everyone in that family worked from sunup until sundown, most likely.

Contrast that with the third photo of a modern-day fast food meal and the kids eating it. We've made huge economic strides since 1960, when the true poverty rate was around 22 percent in the U.S. (it was higher in much of the rest of the world). It hit a low of about 11 percent in 1974 and it's hovered around 14-16 percent since -- and seems intractably stubborn to any measures taken to lower it.

U.S. economic growth, along with the growth of more 'free time' for the average worker, both occurring over the last 50 or so years, has done a couple of things, at least in my opinion.

1. It's put a relatively larger amount of money in peoples' pockets.

2. It's led to more time to devote to leisure-time activities, including eating foods of all types, especially "fast food." The growth of places like McDonald's and KFC, etc. wouldn't have been possible without these two conditions, it seems to me.

And look what it's done to us, and to our military. ;-)









"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [Billabong] [ In reply to ]
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Billabong wrote:
Gives a new meaning to Get Some


Too, too funny. ;-)

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [Perseus] [ In reply to ]
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Perseus wrote:
Does active combat have fitness checks?


Active combat ("real combat") is its own fitness check, believe me. It's been my experience that the fitter you are, the more effective you'll be in ground combat and special operations-related combat activities and the greater will be your chances of survival.

I'm not a naval operations expert (that would be Mr. Slowguy), but fighting your ship and keeping it from sinking and in the fight if it takes damage from, say, an anti-ship missile or from an air attack might sometimes depend on how relatively fit the Sailors and Chiefs and officers are when it comes to damage control and the ability to handle firefighting tasks and the stressors that come with all that.

I'd say the same is most likely true for the Air Force and its people. I haven't yet seen an obese F-15 fighter jockey, to tell truth. ;-) And the Air Force PJs and combat air controllers I've known have all been supremely fit.

"Politics is just show business for ugly people."
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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How do you define poverty? The government definition of poverty is only used to determine eligibility for benefits i.e. not that many people live in poverty and since the threshold is tied to CPI it is extremely unlikely we will ever get the poverty rate lower because of math.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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This is not a surprise.
If you look at where the US military recruit from.
Income and education play a role in wight and health.

The US military has always been famous for being heavy, even back in the days I was in the military.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
I'd say the same is most likely true for the Air Force and its people. I haven't yet seen an obese F-15 fighter jockey, to tell truth. ;-) And the Air Force PJs and combat air controllers I've known have all been supremely fit.
Every fighter squadron I was ever in (1977-96) had at least one guy who was "participating in the flight suit stress test program" or who was referred to as "the Michelin man". Supposedly, the best physique for pulling lots of "g's" was a short fat guy who smoked a lot of cigarettes (or at least that was the thought.) Our annual PT test was supposed to be a 1.5-mile run (in something like 14 minutes). If it wasn't simply pencil whipped we'd fill that square by getting together on a Friday afternoon to play flag football while drinking a keg of beer.

Things have gotten better in the USAF.

"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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big kahuna wrote:
Two photos below depict a Depression-era family (ca. 940). One thing stands out: they had to work hard just to gain subsistence-level diets. In the first photo, of the family eating dinner, I also wouldn't necessarily say that their meal was all that calorically low or healthful in the dietetics sense of the word. Just that everyone in that family worked from sunup until sundown, most likely.








I think the widespread availability of low cost high calorie food that took off in the '70s probably has a lot to do with it. Basically anytime you're hungry these days you can get a lot of calories for not very much money.

Back in the day, you ate when mom fixed a meal and that was what and when you ate.
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Re: Seriously? The Army is the Fattest U.S. Military Service Branch [big kahuna] [ In reply to ]
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81st Stryker Brigade - Washington National Guard. I wonder how much the ARNG is skewing the Army result.


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