Thoughts on the obesity rate (going up to over 50% next year) as a national security issue?

2020-08-16T20:59:27-04:00

For the last ten years the obesity rate has skyrocketed in the country. Experts estimate at this pace next year half of the United States population will be considered in the obese category. What can we do about this? Thoughts? Plans? If the rate continues to grow we will even have a smaller percentage to fill the ranks of the military.

Response by PO3 Phyllis Maynard made Aug 16 at 2020 9:04 PM

2020-08-16T21:04:11-04:00

SPC Private RallyPoint Member I simply think, that from the tradition of fitness, health, and PT the armed forces depend on a force of men and women who can rise to the challenge of fighting men and women that do not have extra weight to carry. Life and death depends on agility, speed, and mental acuity.

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Aug 16 at 2020 9:43 PM

2020-08-16T21:43:59-04:00

It's a concern. We can help those who would be otherwise eligible change. Obesity doesn't have to be lielong. Part of it is education. Nutrition and lifestyle. We caput young people in our DEP and work with them

Response by Maj Robert Thornton made Aug 16 at 2020 10:03 PM

2020-08-16T22:03:42-04:00

SPC Private RallyPoint Member unfortunately all we can do is to educate folks on proper nutrition, exercise, and making proper choices. We cannot mandate any of those things. Trying to get these ideas across to my clients at the free clinic is an uphill battle. So far though, with the free meds we are able to obtain from big pharm, we are getting our diabetes under 6.5 on their A1c's, keeping our hypertensives under control, and starting a smoking cessation initiative.

Response by CSM Darieus ZaGara made Aug 17 at 2020 6:24 AM

2020-08-17T06:24:04-04:00

It started with the poor decisions made by politicians and local leaders who began to take varying activities away from schools. It was further exacerbated by the advent of video games and kids staying inside rather than outside. Now this kids and the generation that followed are still playing games as adults and stuck in the house. My kids, in there 30’s were encouraged to be outside (forced if necessary), while one of them still enjoys playing these games he works out every day. Unfortunately that cannot be said for his and the subsequent generation. The final nail in the wooden box is that these two generations don’t like to cook, and eat fast food along with processed foods. I could go on, but these are issues at the core of the problem. Failed government decisions based on budget, the advent of technology, poor diet, and lazy/poor parenting.

I will close by saying that there is a large segment of society that break this norm, unfortunately not enough.

Response by MAJ Ronnie Reams made Aug 17 at 2020 8:30 AM

2020-08-17T08:30:35-04:00

As I recall the whole Ht/Wt thing was used after Vietnam to cut the size of the force. Remember, if you are old enough, or read about if you are not, that there were many military personnel that tried to eat their way out of going to Desert Shield/Storm. Did not work. When they returned after winning a remarkably short conflict, they were dealt with. But obesity was not on the radar of those that were preparing for a conflict.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Aug 17 at 2020 12:04 PM

2020-08-17T12:04:24-04:00

In the last 20+ years, over several deployments, I can honestly say that I've seen dozens of missions fail because a Soldier/Leader was dumb/incompetent.
However I have never seen a mission fail because a Soldiers APFT score or Weight...
Our institutional priorities are wrong.
Stupid Soldiers will destroy the Army long before overweight Soldiers can mange to.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Aug 17 at 2020 2:45 PM

2020-08-17T14:45:51-04:00

What is interesting is in the thousands of pictures of soldiers in war, none of them were fat.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 17 at 2020 5:40 PM

2020-08-17T17:40:58-04:00

I feel like the way that our society calculates people as obese is archaic and needs to be updated. There are a lot of people who are being qualified "obese" that aren't.

Since I can't comment on the post you replied with this: "We are all in the best shape our country has to offer; however if the pool of picking new service men and women begins to shrink I can see this being a issue. "

I'm in worse physical shape after 16 years of the Army than I was before I joined. Guaranteed. Both knees are crap, my back, my hip, shoulder. I feel like I'm 10 years older than I am...