"One-Third of Youths Too Obese for Military Service, " Topic

….Study Finds

"A third of American youth are ineligible for military service today because of unhealthy lifestyles and rising obesity rates, according to a new study. And the Army wants those interested in enlisting to know that unfit soldiers do not make good battle buddies in intense environments.

The services are making it a priority to promote "healthy lifestyles at an early age," said retired Army Lt. Gen. Samuel Ebbesen during a panel Wednesday at the annual Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. "It's crucial … to our national security that those willing to serve must be prepared to meet the standards of eligibility."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Two to four weeks of intensive training and bootcamp should fix that.

Heck, just send them out on a survival course for three weeks, without any food, and just water, and see how they fare. They'll be shedding pounds in no time, if the "Naked and Afraid" episodes are any measure.

Three weeks is all it takes, and imagine the savings to the US taxpayers on their food budgets.

Thresher, these are the snowflakes and they would survive, unless you took away their smart phones. Then they would be reduced to sobbing, twitching thumbs, jelly.

It is not just losing weight. Their bodies are weak and untrained. They will ger injuries as their bodies arent used to hard work. It takes quite some time for an unhealthy untrained individual to become healthy and with good stamina and strenght

I'm angrily shaking my fork at this news!

I'm with Soledad….

Amicalement
Armand

Soledad is spot on. I had this conversation last week with a few Army (active duty) warrant officers and NCOs. One of the NCOs had just come from a training job and said the number of injuries recruits sustained was eyewatering. The US military can't undo decades of excuses for everything, no more mandatory gym classes, and high school sports for elite athletes only. Eight weeks of basic training and a few weeks doing extra PT in the fatboy platoon won't fix this problem.

pjm

Can they be trained as human sand-bags?

Mister Muppet, please, at least call them 'biodegradable pop-up targets' or 'self-deploying sandbags'…

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

After 6 months of basic I doubt they would still be obese…..!!

Problem is they won't make it through six months without getting injured. Fat people, especially young fat people are usually not only fat but untrained. An untrained body cannot take military training without getting injured. Even if they lose the extra pounds their muscles, ligaments, joints, tendons et cetera cannot take the strain. I would say it takes at least a year of careful training for an obese person to become fit enough for military training. You have to "ease" them into shape to avoid an unacceptable rate of injuries. Note, not everyone will get injuries but percentage wise too many.

The US needs to change its lifestyle for its youth, less tv, computer games and junk food and more healthy food and a much more active lifestyle.

One must look beneath the surface. This is not just about Body Mass Index (BMI), or fat to lean ratio, or total muscle mass. Without weight bearing exercise in their formative years they will not have developed a bone structure capable of safely supporting the loads which they must carry. Without sustained exercise in their formative years they will not have developed lung capacity to sustain prolonged exertion. Without activity in their formative years they will not have developed the balance and agility to recover in situations requiring these abilities. All these deficiencies will contribute to higher rates of injury and lower rates of deployability.

Agree with Walking Sailor. It took me a LONG time before I was in any approximation of shape to go to boot camp, and I still spent far more time on the 'sick, lame, and lazy' list than I wanted to while I was there.

Though at least I had the lung capacity due to singing.

Agree 100% with walking sailor.