Obesity takes its toll on the military

But often, making it into the military is just the start of the struggle. The military even has its own version of the “freshman 15” — after basic training, Army women gain an average of 18 pounds in their first year and often have problems with annual weigh-ins that determine whether they can stay.

A survey Bathalon and others did of 1,435 troops referred to Fort Bragg Hospital for weight loss helps show the drastic measures some try. Roughly three-fourths did things doctors recommend — eating less, exercising more and downing more fruits and vegetables.

But many resorted to potentially harmful things. Nearly half tried using rubber suits or saunas to sweat off pounds, a third of men and half of women tried appetite suppressants, and 1 in 5 tried laxatives. Eleven percent of women and 6 percent of men had tried vomiting.

Half of the troops said stress was a reason they had gained weight, and half had come for help because they’d been denied promotion.

“The Air Force is not escaping the national trends,” Maj. Christine Hunter said at the obesity conference, showing a photograph of the new Baghdad Burger King, already the third busiest in the world.

Losing income, retirement benefits
About 1,500 troops were involuntarily separated, or kicked out, of the Air Force from 2000 to 2003 for failure to maintain weight, she reported.

In 2003 alone, more than 3,000 people were kicked out of all branches of the military for failing weight standards, Bathalon’s study reports.

“You lose your income, you lose your retirement, you lose your medical benefits,” he said.

Even those with long military careers sometimes develop weight problems afterward, burdening the VA health system, which treats about 5 million veterans each year, half of them over 65.

They tend to be sicker than the general population. More than 70 percent are overweight and 33 percent are obese, said Richard Harvey, a health psychologist at the VA Center for Health Promotion. Pain is the biggest reason they give for not exercising, and 31 percent say a disability prevents it, he said.

About 20 percent of veterans have diabetes, compared to 7 percent to 8 percent of the general population

“We knew that there were enormous costs with that,” Harvey said, so he developed MOVE, a comprehensive program of psychological counseling, nutrition, exercise, medications and even sometimes bariatric surgery.

Parts of it started in October 2003 at 17 pilot sites, and the hope is to have a standardized program available to all veterans, said Dr. Steve Yevich, director of the VA health promotion center.

It will be a big improvement from 2001, when a survey by chief of staff Mary Burdick revealed that only 37 of the VA’s 160 major medical centers had weight management programs, ranging from intense programs “down to just a little old dietitian sitting there,” Yevich said.

Sending soldiers home healthy is the top goal, said Friedl of the Army research center.

“It’s not enough to recruit healthy young men and women and later return them safely to their families,” he wrote in a recent medical journal article. “We now try to return them better than when they joined the Army with the promise that they will ’be all they can be.”’

Increasingly, that means weighing a little less.

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