US Military Faces Increasing Problem of Overweight Troops
Considering the poor meal choices offered on US military bases, fitness programs focused on PT tests and not health and the change of lifestyle many younger troops live in front of video game screens it is easy to understand why soldiers’ weight have increased:
It’s not exactly clear why America’s military personnel are getting fatter. Could be that 15 years of war have weakened the focus on fitness. Could be that millennials, with their penchant for sedentary activities like playing video games and killing time on social media, aren’t always up to the rigors of military life. Could be all the burgers, fries, cakes and pies served in chow halls around the world.
And maybe, too, the military is simply reflecting the nation’s broader population, whose poor eating habits are fueling an alarming rise obesity rates.
This much is clear, though: Today’s military is fatter than ever.
For the first time in years, the Pentagon has disclosed data indicating the number of troops its deems overweight, raising big questions about the health, fitness and readiness of today’s force. [Army Times]
You can read more at the link, but like I have always said I have had a lot of so called overweight soldiers that were actually very good troops who could pass the PT test just had problems with the tape test.
GIKorea – I agree with you on the points made in your comments about this article. I also agree that it is probably indicative of the more sedentary lifestyle that millennials have compared to when I was in the service. I further applaud you for your commendation of troops that were able to pass the PT test but feared the dreaded tape measurement. In reference to fearing the tape, I was one such sailor. In fact, I was almost administratively discharged for my problems with my weight. The only thing that saved me was that I rolled over 18 years while the process was ongoing and since that happened the Chief of Naval Personnel (the Admiral in charge himself, not one of his countless minions) would have had to personally recommend that I be thrown out which rarely ever happens.
Additionally, there are a lot of jobs in the military these days that even during wartime would not require someone to be able to run extensively or put up with the prolonged physical rigors of combat. Not everyone in the Army is going to be an infantryman, not everyone in the Navy is going to be a front-line combatant, not everyone in the Air Force is going to be a forward area observer in a combat zone and surprisingly even ever Marine is not going to be an infantryman these days. Although, with the Marines’ primary job being to fight and win battles, I think they will always be tough on PT standards.
@Tagum City Tim, I always felt that if someone gets a certain score on a PT test they should be exempt from the tape test which as many studies have shown is not a good way to measure body fat, though the easiest for the Army to implement across a large force. I have always felt that if PT focused less on PT tests and more on keeping people healthy the number of overweights would go down.
Each and every one of us are responsible for the crap we eat and our level of/aversion to exercise. Blaming mommy or the government is just embarrassing.