US Army Accession and Retention Standards: Impact on Obesity and Medical Readiness

Army body composition standards are generous, extending to the limits of increased metabolic health risks and providing underestimates of actual %BF based on the behavior of circumference-based methods of body fat estimation. However, current standards do not accurately select or track physical readiness, especially for women, and should be updated. Modernization of physical readiness standards to meet the needs of the Army of 2030 could include adoption of new technologies that directly assess central adiposity, adequate muscle mass, and replace fitness testing with cardiac output metrics. With half of US adults projected to be obese by 2030, it is time for a review of the strategic goals of modernized military readiness standards.