By the Numbers - Oct. 24, 2016
1 in 10.
The number of Army soldiers "considered clinically overweight," according to a recent article in Military Times -- And the fattest U.S. military service is ... Although the Army has highest prevalence of overweight troops, the article noted that the Air Force was "a close second," followed by the Navy. Even the Marine Corps, with its "culture of fitness and vigor," has more than 4,800 members who "appear to be heavier than regulations allow."
The Pentagon's data is based on body mass index, or BMI. Individuals with a BMI greater than 25 are considered clinically obese. And within the U.S. armed forces, that rate has soared since personnel began deploying for months at a time to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As Military Times first reported in September, 7.8 percent of the entire military — roughly one in every 13 troops — has a BMI that is too high. This rate has crept upward since 2001, when it was just 1.6 percent, or one in 60, according to Defense Department data.
According to the article, BMI "is often criticized as a blunt tool" because it only uses height and weight to determine "who might have unhealthy levels of body fat," misidentifying "bodybuilders with heavy muscle mass as being fat while missing flabby and unfit people with lanky body types." This may soon change; military health officials "plan to publish a new policy later this year, and it is likely to likely to scale back the Pentagon's reliance on BMI as a primary measurement of health and fitness."
The article notes that the prevalence of overweight military members is far smaller than in the civilian population. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), "70 percent of the adult American population has a BMI above 25, meaning they are clinically overweight or obese."
1 in 10.
The number of Army soldiers "considered clinically overweight," according to a recent article in Military Times -- And the fattest U.S. military service is ... Although the Army has highest prevalence of overweight troops, the article noted that the Air Force was "a close second," followed by the Navy. Even the Marine Corps, with its "culture of fitness and vigor," has more than 4,800 members who "appear to be heavier than regulations allow."
The Pentagon's data is based on body mass index, or BMI. Individuals with a BMI greater than 25 are considered clinically obese. And within the U.S. armed forces, that rate has soared since personnel began deploying for months at a time to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
As Military Times first reported in September, 7.8 percent of the entire military — roughly one in every 13 troops — has a BMI that is too high. This rate has crept upward since 2001, when it was just 1.6 percent, or one in 60, according to Defense Department data.
According to the article, BMI "is often criticized as a blunt tool" because it only uses height and weight to determine "who might have unhealthy levels of body fat," misidentifying "bodybuilders with heavy muscle mass as being fat while missing flabby and unfit people with lanky body types." This may soon change; military health officials "plan to publish a new policy later this year, and it is likely to likely to scale back the Pentagon's reliance on BMI as a primary measurement of health and fitness."
The article notes that the prevalence of overweight military members is far smaller than in the civilian population. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), "70 percent of the adult American population has a BMI above 25, meaning they are clinically overweight or obese."