Posted on Oct 3, 2017
When will Body Mass Index (BMI) get a much needed revamp?
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Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 8
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I think all those standards are messed up. When I joined the Navy, I was 6'2", 220 pounds. HS-long varsity wrestling and football, got offers from major schools to play football. In other words, I was in very good shape. But the Navy had a chart at the time that said someone 6'2" could only weigh 180. So I had to get a waiver. When I went to the doc to get it, he laughed and said, "Yeah, you'll weigh 180 roughly 2 years after you're dead," and signed the wavier. BMI, weight, composition...all bullshit in the face of someone that meet the physical requirements regardless. Just this armchair admiral's opinion.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
For the last 40 years I've been 6'2" 190-195 and still have no physical limitations, somehow that seems fine to Me. I've never been overweight or ever failed a PT test. I'm not built to play football though, long distance running is more within My abilities.
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SN Greg Wright
SMSgt Lawrence McCarter - Exactly SMSgt. I have a buddy who, if you met him tomorrow, you'd think 'That guy needs to lose weight'. He's a little chubby. And yet...and YET...that bastard has met me, step for step, on every walk or run I've done with him in the last 20 years, and generally isn't sucking air as much as me at the end of it. I can't explain it. The bastard SHOULD fall out long before me. But he doesn't. So. I have very little faith in ANY of the weight-standards.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
I went to basic at 204 lbs. at 69 inches and I knew I was overweight. I came out around 175, which is only 4 lbs. off my maximum and I was probably 12 percent body fat at that weight. I came out of my Infantry Officer Basic Course at 166 lbs., but frankly wasn't carrying 8 percent body fat. After I started lifting, my lean body mass went to almost 170 lbs., so I just had them get the tape out every time they weighted me after that. Now I think they way they tape is only minimally accurate, but it worked close enough with my body type that I never came close to the body fat limits and I was around 205 lbs. when I left the National Guard (I also was over 40 and still scoring better than 270 on the 18 year old scale). I do understand that there are body types that don't tape well, but as long as they offer an alternative method of testing beyond taping, I'm not sure there is a much better system.
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This was made before the weight training days. I would be 215-220, at 72 inches, and was told I was over weight by doctors even though my BF% was around 10%. I would just laugh at them and tell them they needed to look in the mirror before calling someone over weight. They didn't like that very much.
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Ive seen soldiers get 28% body fat on the tape test...then go down to the On-Post nutritionist and have them do the water tank test and show up at 12%
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SGT (Join to see)
I always wanted to do one of those. That's funny, though. How did CoC deal with that?
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