Obesity takes its toll on the military

updated 12:44 p.m. ET July 5, 2005

WATERTOWN, Wis. - With America at war and in need of a few good men, Jon Schoenherr expected a warm reception when he walked into an Army recruiting office in this Midwestern farm community, intending to enlist.

But a sergeant gave the 17-year-old some surprising news.

“He told me I’d have to lose a little bit of weight,” said Schoenherr, who dropped 50 pounds to qualify.

Besides terrorists, germ warfare and nuclear weapons, military officials increasingly worry about a different kind of threat — troops too fat to fight.

Weight issues plague all branches of the military, from elite Marines to the Air Force, often lampooned as the “chair force” because of its many sedentary jobs.

Thousands of troops are struggling to lose weight, and thousands have been booted out of the service in recent years because they couldn’t.

However, one of the biggest worries concerns those not even in uniform yet: Nearly 2 out of 10 men and 4 out of 10 women of recruiting age weigh too much to be eligible, a record number for that age group.

“This is quickly becoming a national security issue for us. The pool of recruits is becoming smaller,” said Col. Gaston Bathalon, an Army nutrition expert.

Unless weight rules are relaxed, “we’re going to have a harder time fielding an Army,” he said.

Today’s soldiers are supersized, averaging 37 pounds heavier than their Civil War counterparts. Military officials say that’s not all bad, because most of it is muscle, not fat, and the result of better nutrition. “Large and in charge” makes soldiers look more formidable to the enemy, they note.

'Unfit or overfat'
But at an obesity conference in Las Vegas last fall and in interviews since then, Bathalon and other military officials detailed the heavy burden that excess pounds are causing for some troops and taxpayers.

Weight problems add stress to already stressful jobs, costing many soldiers promotions and leading some to try desperate measures like rubber suits and risky pills to shed pounds.

Problems don’t end when active duty does, either. The Veterans Affairs health system increasingly is strained by vets piling on pounds and developing weight-related diseases like diabetes.

Ironically, the big concern used to be soldiers not weighing enough. Congress passed the school lunch program after World War II, worried that too many high schoolers were malnourished and unfit to fight.

“This is the same deal in reverse. We’ve got young kids who are not going to be qualified for military service. They’re either unfit or overfat,” said Col. Karl Friedl, commander of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick, Mass.

USARIEM, as it is known, has 170 doctors, dietitians, psychologists and other scientists who study military medical issues, from preventing heat exhaustion to coping with sleep deprivation. They view soldiers as specialized athletes whose physical condition can be a life-or-death matter. Increasingly, they deal with weight.

It starts with new recruits. Each branch of the service has its own entry rules, but by federal weight guidelines, 43 percent of women and 18 percent of men in prime recruiting ages exceed screening weights for military service, Bathalon said.

Army standards are based on body fat, using a chart for body-mass index — a ratio of weight and height — as a screening tool. If soldiers or recruits exceed chart limits, body fat calculations are done using a formula based mostly on waist size.

Marines can be as much as 10 percent over weight standards to ship to boot camp.

“The Marines say, ’Send us anybody and we’ll turn them into a Marine.’ They’re pretty successful at it,” Friedl said.

Schoenherr, the Wisconsin Army recruit, was pretty successful, too. After weighing in at 215 pounds, he did his own boot camp during his senior year in high school, going to the recruiting center for 6 a.m. workouts, then downing a boiled egg or two and orange juice before heading to class.

Lunch would be “tuna fish right out of the can” or a low-carb wrap at school, he said. After school, he’d lift weights. He’s now a svelte 165 pounds and about to join a special forces unit.

“I’ve had some people who have lost close to 100 pounds to join,” said Sgt. Chad Eske, his recruiter.

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