Hang in there, bro. It is a very, very good feeling.

 

All bodies are not created equal....that is just the facts.
I played college football at 265 and about 10% body fat....

literally had to starve myself to make commissioning weight...
Lightest I ever was about 191 AFTER a week in the mountains during survival..
Was on waivers my entire AD career.... BMI of 8-10% ... but MY body was comfortable at 225that was 21 over my limit at the time...

I dont have problems with standards but I think using a waist measurement is crap. AND there should always be available waivers for obvious issues. I am sure there are those that disagree....

 

I also think there should be commander discretion. We have an individual in my unit who has the type of job that never deploys. He is probably the best I've seen at his job. Yet, he is severely obese. He is a reservist. So far, my commander has been able to keep him in. And I think it should be that way. Otherwise, we'll end up with a young person who has no idea what they're doing.

 

There may be a bigger-picture view on something like this...public trust and confidence.

Regardless of whether he can do his job well, the public assumes the military members must be fit in order to perform. Therefore when they see an obese/unfit service member is collecting a paycheck despite not being able to do his job they assume the military is letting him get away with it, and where there's smoke there's fire...ie all kinds of fraud, waste, and abuse.

I think military members should look fit, but unlike the AF I think there's a wide range of fit...weight-lifter, swimmer, marathon runner, SOF hard-man and everything in between. I have to lose a few pounds twice a year because I'd exceed the weight/height tables. The navy has a provision to evaluate muscular types who fall outside the table limits, and I have no problem on body-fat but that's one more admin PITA I don't have time for, so I adjust my cardio/weight regimen in favor of cardio for a couple weeks.

If the guy in question is truly that important and truly non-deployable, they should just make him a GS.

 

I was on the fat boy program about half-way through language school at Monterey due to waist circumference. I went on the Atkins diet to beat the rap.
I had a 500 pt physical fitness test at OTS back in the day, and maxed out push-ups, sit-ups, and beat nearly everyone else on the run even when I was 45, but always was near the waist limit.
The USAF will win the tale of the tape. The boxing match is another question.

 

The Corps didn't use waist measurement. If I recall, if you were overweight they'd have a metric that used waist and neck size as well as weight. This accounted for heavy lifters that were low body fat pct but heavy weight. If it still didn't work then you could get calipered for body fat. We had a few folks who needed that, mostly those under 6' tall, over 200# but benching 400+.

In all it was a good program. Weight was the basic metric but there were fail safes in place for those in great shape (with body fat/bmi to prove it) who were over the "standard".

 

i think it would be worth the low cost to do underwater weight (most accurate body fat composition test) to keep the most valuable soldiers in the military. Just set a max body fat %, and if you fail the tape test, then your last resort is the body fat test.

It is a lot cheaper to give a $250 body fat test versus the $50,000 it costs to recruit, train, and retain an new soldier.

 

At least one service does just that.

 

Boy Scouts???

 

I'm glad this is effecting high ranking officers.

If anything, hopefully it will show how asinine the waist measurement is. For me, it is an easy 20 points, but that doesn't mean I'm in any better shape than someone who can only barely pass/can't pass this item.