Spooked by obesity trends, the U.S. military is redefining its basic fitness standards

I think every branch needs to just have one standard across them all, be uniformed in one standard as today we continually work together more than in the past, typically Logistics career fields in the AF deploy with Army and Marines and vice versa depending on the mission requirements. As a whole you fitness should be determined based off what you can do not what you look like. I personally have stayed in the gym my entire life thus far and I have never had a waist measurement less that 36 without the aid of some severe training techniques that could have put me in the hospital or shut down some organs. Unfortunately that is what is expect for everyone in all branches to do if their waist doesn't meet the standard but they blow out the rest of the test. I've always given the idea that a waist meaurement should be used a insurance for the government to disqualify you from certain benefits when you separate or retire and what I mean by that is, to first have just a run, push ups, sit ups and pull ups, that's your test but when you take your test they also measure your waist and if you are over the standard it is simply noted as an official record in your medical records, not should you down the line develop an injury or disease that can be directly and I mean significantly related to being obese then the government doesn't cover your or at least not 100% as it was self caused over years.

Working in health you see how bad the obesity epidemic has gotten. I actually saw a child, a 12 year old child, she weighed 225 at like 5 foot even. I don't understand how it has gotten so far out of hand. The standards we have are working. They can be passed by just doing the right thing. It's not the standards but how our society views things that needs to change.