US Air Force cuts body fat requirements for recruits to 26% BMI for men and 36% for women

• The Air Force allows recruits to have a higher percentage of body fat to expand its recruiting pool as it struggles to find new members
• Male recruits may have 26% body fat while females may have 36%.
• It comes as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention says obesity among young Americans ‘has an impact on national security’

The Air Force allows recruits to have a higher body fat percentage to “broaden the pool” of Americans they can call into service as it struggles to find new members.

Male recruits are now allowed to have up to 26% body fat from 20%, while women can have 36% from 28%.

According to medical experts, however, a high percentage of body fat can increase the risk of diabetescardiovascular disease and other health conditions, with the proposed percentage points reaching “dangerously high” levels.

Air Force recruiting service spokeswoman Leslie Brown said it’s hoped the changes will encourage more people to join, although they will still have to meet the same fitness standards.

“The Air Force seeks to open the door on qualifying a broader pool of young Americans for service in the Air Force. These changes bring the Air Force into compliance with DOD policy,’ Brown said. FoxNews.

“While recruits are allowed to join higher body fat percentages, they will still need to meet the same fitness standards as everyone else to remain in the service. That means meeting the height-to-height ratio requirement announced by the Air Force in January and implemented this month.

The military service branch is expected to miss its “active duty” recruiting target by 10% this year after plunging into a pool of late-entry applicants to meet last year’s target.

Brown said the new standards are one of several initiatives aimed at increasing the candidate pool without “lowering the standards.”

“We recruit today’s generation, not my generation who joined over 30 years ago, where a tattoo may have been taboo but is now a societal norm,” she told Fox News. .

“Or where young people are now living a more sedentary lifestyle than before – we can take these new recruits and promote fitness and healthier lifestyle decisions into their daily routines as Airmen.”

THE Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that obesity is a scourge on American youth and “has an impact on national security”.

It indicates that one in three young adults between the ages of 17 and 24 are too heavy to serve in the military.

“Of young adults who meet weight requirements, only 3 in 4 report physical activity levels that prepare them for the challenges of baseline training,” he said.

As a result, only 2 out of 5 young adults are both healthy and active enough. In 2018, the latest figures showed that 71% of young people could not join the army if they wanted to.

Retired US Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said: “The Army is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit soldiers due to physical inactivity, obesity and malnutrition. among young people in our country. Failure to address these issues now will impact our future national security.

The Department of Defense (DOD) spends approximately $1.5 billion a year in obesity-related health care costs for current and former military personnel and their families, as well as replacement costs for unfit personnel.

Lost workdays due to overweight and obesity for active duty military personnel are 658,000 days per year, costing the DOD $103 million per year.

New research from World Health Organization found that obesity in the US military increased during the pandemic, in the military alone nearly 10,000 active duty soldiers developed obesity between February 2019 and June 2021. Increases were also seen in the US Navy and Marines.

More recent data won’t be available until later this year, Koehlmoos said. But there is no sign that the trend is ending, underscoring longstanding concerns about the readiness of US combat forces.

Military leaders have been warning of the impact of obesity on the US military for more than a decade, but the lingering effects of the pandemic underscore the need for urgent action, the retired brigadier general says of the Marine Corps Stephen Cheney, co-author a recent report on the problem.

“The numbers haven’t gotten better,” Cheney said during a November webinar hosted by the American Security Project, a nonprofit think tank. “They just get worse and worse.”

In fiscal year 2022, the Army fell short of its recruiting goal for the first time, falling short of 15,000 recruits, a quarter of the requirement.

That’s largely because three-quarters of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 aren’t eligible for military service for a number of reasons, including extra weight. Being overweight is the biggest individual disqualifier, affecting more than 1 in 10 potential recruits.

Brown told Fox News that up to 100 additional recruits will now be eligible to join the Air Force each month.

The body mass index (BMI) is a rough estimate of body fat percentage. It is useful as a rough guide. It has limitations, for example, people with high muscle mass can have high BMI without high body fat.

Accurately measuring body fat is essential for assessing health risks.

The newly proposed percentages exceed “dangerously high” levels for both men and women according to Medical News Today.

For women aged 20-69, 36% reach dangerous levels while men 20-39% reach dangerously high levels.