National Defense

What Is Better, Strong Or Skinny? The US Military Is Under Pressure To Define Fitness

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The U.S. military is struggling to define and measure physical fitness as recruits and serving members show up with body composition and fitness test scores that challenge the current evaluation methods, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Service members can be booted or forced to conduct extra physical training if they fail regular “tape tests,” girth measurements that are intended to serve as a proxy for the proportion of body fat a service member carries. The military has begun facing a new problem: so-called “skinny-fat” potential recruits who appear fit and healthy but, due to a lifetime of sitting and poor nutrition, lack the muscle mass and skeletal integrity required to meet the physical demands of service, according to the WSJ.

Each branch of the armed services uses a different method of measuring size and body fat and requires service members to pass tailored fitness tests. Sometimes, a soldier or sailor might score high on the standard fitness test but be deemed unfit because he or she has a waist measurement that exceeds the standards.

The tape test measures waist circumference and is typically used in conjunction with height to determine a service member’s body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of a person’s excess weight. BMI is thought to disadvantage larger, more muscular individuals who will naturally have thicker waistlines, but may be as lean as someone with a normal BMI who doesn’t perform as well on tests of strength and endurance, according to the WSJ.

The services have struggled to tamp down on cheating; a subject can suck in their waist or be let off easy by a friendly test administrator, the WSJ reported.

Each service measures a little differently, and none can agree on where the “waist” actually is on a person, according to the WSJ. Such disparities have prompted the services to seek alternative methods of measurement.

The Pentagon’s top-down guidance only requires that measurements be “consistent with established scientific principles of physical training,” the WSJ reported, citing a Pentagon official.

Inside the Pentagon there have been “no specific discussions” about standardization, a defense official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “However, we continually assess standards,” the official said.

The #USArmy has published a new tape test based on findings and recommendations from its recent Comprehensive Body Composition Study.

The Army will use a more accurate body circumference-based tape method to estimate Soldiers’ body fat. Visit here: https://t.co/eRt68foaWZ. pic.twitter.com/tabizgDHrY

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) June 16, 2023

U.S. military leaders have not always been concerned about overweight recruits. During WWI, the military focused more on weeding out underweight, weak recruits, according to the WSJ. But, as Americans grew larger over time, attention shifted to restricting excess weight.

“Each soldier is a representative of the United States Government,” a 1976 physical fitness and weight regulation stated, according to the WSJ. “Waistlines that stretch the front of an otherwise well-fitting blouse or shin, and ‘pot-bellies’ detract from good military appearance.”

Lately, an influx of “skinny-fat” recruits has compelled the Army to take new measures. New soldiers at At Ft. Moore in Georgia now take calcium supplements to counteract loss of bone mass, a response to a recent rise in leg and foot fractures, the WSJ reported, citing senior soldiers in charge of training.