Tuesday, October 4, 2005

U.S. military, fighting for fitness, issues an order to shape up

By Abby Ellin / New York Times News Service

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Ask Airman Amanda Powell, who works in finance at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., about her memories of boot camp, and she will smile proudly and reply, "I was in the top of my flight, fitness-wise."

But once she was finished with basic training and in charge of her own fitness, she fell out of shape. This 5-foot-4 airman barely exercised and overate at the cafeteria until her weight skyrocketed to 210 pounds, from 143.

"When I came home, my family was like, 'What are you doing?' " said Powell, 22, who grew up in a military family in Raleigh, N.C.

Her problem was not just about health or appearance. If she couldn't meet the Air Force's fitness and body-fat standards, she would lose her job.

Discharges drained the ranks

All of the armed services require members to pass periodic fitness and body fat tests. And, until this year, several thousand service members annually, in all branches except the Marines, were being discharged for failure to meet the fat standards alone, said Cmdr. Karl Friedl of the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. In 2003, more than 3,000 washed out of the service for being overweight or unfit, according to the latest numbers from the Defense Department.

But now, with commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, American military leaders have concluded that they can no longer afford the drain on personnel. They are stepping up the creation of new programs to whip service members back into shape, and they are requiring participation, whereas in the past soldiers were left on their own to do their own sit-ups or plan runs, which many avoided.

"Now they're saying we're going to work more intensely with you to try to keep you," says Dr. Richard L. Atkinson, the president of the American Obesity Association, who oversaw a review of military weight management programs for the Defense Department.

The Army has led the way, instituting a required weight-management program four years ago for anyone who fails a fitness and body-fat test. A soldier has three chances to pass a fitness test and six months to pass the body-fat test before being asked to leave. Last year, the Air Force began requiring thrice-weekly workouts for all airmen. In July, the Navy started to demand that out-of-shape sailors take fitness classes on base.

Negative losing behaviors

Master Chief Petty Officer Terry D. Scott, who was responsible for the initiatives in the Navy, noted, "No enemy, whether it's an opposing force or a natural tragedy, is going to give us time to get fit."

Left to their own devices, soldiers do not always take a sensible approach to weight loss, according to a study by Col. Gaston Bathalon of the Army Research Institute. Seventy-one percent of the more than 1,400 troops referred to Fort Bragg Hospital for weight loss reported skipping meals, and 31 percent reported fasting. Other weight-loss methods included using appetite suppressants, laxatives and rubber sauna suits.

"A major concern is that some of the weight-loss behaviors we identified in the study could negatively impact health as well as performance," Bathalon says.

Lt. Col. Joanna J. Reagan, the chief of the nutrition care division at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., said the military reflect's the public obesity epidemic.

"We want to educate them and give them weight loss and fitness strategies that are healthy," Reagan says.

Today, every member of the military, no matter how many years he or she has been in the service, is required to pass a fitness test that includes a run, pull-ups and push-ups, once a year in the Navy and Air Force, twice yearly in the Marines and Army. Service members also must undergo a "tape test" -- a measurement of the waist for men, and the waist and hips for women -- that is used to calculate body fat. The results are compiled into a composite score that tells whether they still qualify for the service. The minimum score varies according to age and sex.

Those who fail the Navy's test are placed in a 26-week fitness program, which includes cardiovascular exercise, strength training and nutrition instruction. The Navy is renovating its exercise facilities to make sure that the proper equipment is available to sailors no matter where they are. "It's tough to run laps around a submarine that's deployed," Chief Scott notes.

In July the Navy also began giving all sailors one hour three times a week to exercise during work. Previously they had to train on their own time, and many did not.

Last year, in an effort to rid itself of its "chair force" moniker, the Air Force created Fit to Fight, a program requiring airmen to work out three times a week with their units. Fitness instructors or unit leaders run the hour-long sessions, and attendance is taken. Disciplinary action is taken against those who don't show up.

Service members get help

Airmen whose fitness is classified as marginal or poor -- as it was for about 14 percent of those tested last year -- must attend a workshop on behavior modification, nutrition and fitness. If, like Powell, they are in the "poor"category, they must exercise four to five days a week, either with their unit or in a class on base. And they must submit to more testing every three months. After a year, if they have not steadily improved, they are discharged.

Sgt. Anthony LoBianco III, an electrician in the Army who served in Afghanistan three times, saw his weight shoot up to 199 during a seven-month stint earlier this year, a gain of 34 pounds. "It was winter there, bone-chilling cold," says LoBianco, who is 5 feet, 9 inches and now stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C. "I kept eating like I was before, but I didn't have the energy to go work out."

In July, he failed the tape test; his body-fat level was 23.5 percent, 1.5 percentage points over the limit. "It ticked me off more than anything that I let myself get that way," he says. "I was disappointed."

Soon after, LoBianco was sent into the Army's three-week Weigh to Stay program, which includes nutrition classes, weigh-ins, and visits to a dietitian. He also increased his exercise, running three to four times a week.

His fitness and body fat were tested again a few weeks ago, and although he remains overweight, he passed with a body-fat measurement of 20.9.

Sometimes soldiers hire personal trainers or join gyms. Cmdr. Carol Chavez of the Air Force National Guard in Richmond, Va., hired Stew Smith, a former lieutenant in the Navy Seals and a fitness instructor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., to help with her her conditioning after she turned 40. As the commander of a squadron of 150, she felt it important to lead by example.

"It's important to me to be physically fit and have a professional image," she said. "Everyone in town knows I'm a military officer."