Watch out terrorists or we will sit on you!!!!

Brilliant! Just think of the civilian applications!

Ennuipoet: FTA: An estimated 75 percent of today's young Americans are either too fat, too sickly or too dumb to serve

God Bless America!

Perhaps they realized that they wouldn't die horribly in a third world hellhole that way. They can die peacefully in their parents' basement playing COD instead.

"Tangos in sight. Eating bacon in 5... 4..."

What happened to PT?
Is the submitter positive this article came from Wired? Maybe it's from the Onion?

Ennuipoet: FTA: An estimated 75 percent of today's young Americans are either too fat, too sickly or too dumb to serve

God Bless America!

I was not over weight and graduated H.S. and scored well on ASVABs, I just had too much orthopedic hardware to be fit to serve back when I was prime enlisting age.

Go have pins and screws in your bones somewhere else would basically be what they told me.

Drta, but I'm guessing they are talking about injecting or changing 'white fat' to 'brown fat' since it actually burns a lot of energy and is something you lose as you age.

That is nonsense, I had to check the link to make sure I wasn't reading an onion article. They're in the military, can't you just order them to lose some weight?

"An estimated 75 percent of today's young Americans are either too fat, too sickly or too dumb to serve."

I had to laugh at the last part.

How smart do you need to be?

That photo can't be real, right? I mean, I was in the army not so long ago, and I was the fattest person in my platoon, maybe my whole company, but compared to that guy I was Schwarzenneger in his prime. Yeesh.

Fat is easy enough to fix. Especially if you live in a controlled environment where your food is entirely dependent on someone else and you must remain physically active.

It's not rocket science. Maybe it'll take another month or two before a new draftee is ready for regular training but I'm pretty sure you can cure anyone of obesity (even those with 'glandular disorders') in that span of time if you're really trying.

jaylectricity: An estimated 75 percent of today's young Americans are either too fat, too sickly or too dumb to serve

And how many of the remaining percentage are actually willing?

Don't necessarily need to be willing; just unemployed.

flyinghouse99: That is nonsense, I had to check the link to make sure I wasn't reading an onion article. They're in the military, can't you just order them to lose some weight?

I think it has more to do about the time frame/cost/benefit ratio.

When you have someone who is really out of shape - they *can't* just do the regular military training. They are a year of solid training away from being a useful soldier. The US military doesn't want to be running extended fat-camps, they want to be kicking ass and doing military stuff.

I know some of my Soldiers who would be good candidates for human trials.

They should only offer uniforms in normal sizes. If your fatass can't fit, lose some weight until it does.

watson.t.hamster: ther month or two before a

I remember basic training. During the first week, we had weigh-in. I gained about 3 pounds that week. The master sergeant called me in, and asked me if I was used to eating 3 meals a day. I told him I usually skip breakfast. He then said, don't worry about it, we'll work it off you.

I lost 25 pounds in 17 weeks, eating everything they fed me. Just grab the fat kids and PT the hell out of them. They'll get skinny enough.

Aigoo: Actually, they've been turning away stupid people for 18 years that I know of. Don't score high enough on the ASVAB, buh-bye.

In my high school, I was one of three that aced the ASVAB. We were all like "I don't farking think so!" when asked if we wanted to join the military. That was around the first Desert Storm.

malaktaus: That photo can't be real, right? I mean, I was in the army not so long ago, and I was the fattest person in my platoon, maybe my whole company, but compared to that guy I was Schwarzenneger in his prime. Yeesh.

The photo in the article? I sent the article to a co-worker who is a Major in the PAARNG (and a bit portly, mainly due to a back injury he got in Iraq) and he was quick to point out that the uniform in the picture is not, nor was it ever, an Army uniform. He also pointed out that PT hasn't changed much since he got in (in the late '80's). The changes made were because the Army realized the exercises themselves were causing too many injuries: sit-ups are awful for the back, squats and leg lifts blow out knees and backs, etc. He also refuted what the article said about running. Running requirements have remained the same.

Hmmm. Few misconceptions in here about what life is like in the Army. Its not nearly as controlled an environment as you might imagine so simply telling someone to "unfat yourself" is not instantly effective.

That being said, things really must have changed a bit since I was in if you can't set up PFT's as often as you want. I guess the problem might be that they were obscenely low standards to begin with and body composition had almost no bearing on a person's ability to pass. I was always able to max out the PFT and I was usually carrying an extra 20-40lbs (sounds a lot, but I weigh 280 and am about 45 over weight at the moment so its kind of relative).

Mandating specific body fat percentages is probably the next logical step for maintaining certain pay grades and I wholeheartedly agree with the Army's move in that direction. Now if they do it off BMI, they're farking idiots, but actual body fat percentage calculations make sense.

I'll be interested to see how this Captain America experiment progresses.

amindtat: The photo in the article? I sent the article to a co-worker who is a Major in the PAARNG (and a bit portly, mainly due to a back injury he got in Iraq) and he was quick to point out that the uniform in the picture is not, nor was it ever, an Army uniform.

I think it's an airsoft/paintball/whatever player.

I think altinos is right. Chubby boy is probably an Airsoft player. See that green sack on the back of his belt? It's a dump pouch, where you put empty magazines. You can also see the magazine holder on his left thigh, with a white BB just visible in one of the mags.

Tumunga: watson.t.hamster: ther month or two before a

I remember basic training. During the first week, we had weigh-in. I gained about 3 pounds that week. The master sergeant called me in, and asked me if I was used to eating 3 meals a day. I told him I usually skip breakfast. He then said, don't worry about it, we'll work it off you.

I lost 25 pounds in 17 weeks, eating everything they fed me. Just grab the fat kids and PT the hell out of them. They'll get skinny enough.

People act like there's some huge secret to losing weight.

Burn more calories than you take in. Yeah there are other details (we don't utilize calories in the exact same way from different sources and so on). But generally if you stick to that you will burn fat. Or else end up in a physics lab being studied for your miraculous ability to break the laws of thermodynamics.

And as long as you're in the military they can take the whole "free will" thing away from you that stymies so many weight loss attempts out here in the real world.

smrtone: I think altinos is right. Chubby boy is probably an Airsoft player. See that green sack on the back of his belt? It's a dump pouch, where you put empty magazines. You can also see the magazine holder on his left thigh, with a white BB just visible in one of the mags.

That and all his gear looks brand new.

A lean, mean, fighting machine!

Just remember....Stormin' Norman had to have his BDUs tailored because the Army didn't issue any in his size fatass.

/11MC2

Yo dawg, I herd you wanted to get thin, so I put some fat in your fat.

Snarfled a little at the name of the pic during mouse roll-over.

Tumunga: "Just grab the fat kids and PT the hell out of them. They'll get skinny enough."

Training costs money and time. Doing it that way, basic would have to be preceded by several months of weight-correction (if not more).
They want to avoid that if possible. Enter: R&D.

My guess is that this brown fat thing will end up working in the sense that steroids and speed 'work'.
Which is to say it won't be policy, because regular use has steep drawbacks, but they'll slip it to people when they feel they need to.

/ would be surprised if they weren't already slipping speed to the bigguns in basic

smrtone: I think altinos is right. Chubby boy is probably an Airsoft player. See that green sack on the back of his belt? It's a dump pouch, where you put empty magazines. You can also see the magazine holder on his left thigh, with a white BB just visible in one of the mags.

I thought this would have been common internet knowledge by now

timujin: altinos: Aigoo: Actually, they've been turning away stupid people for 18 years that I know of. Don't score high enough on the ASVAB, buh-bye.

In my high school, I was one of three that aced the ASVAB. We were all like "I don't farking think so!" when asked if we wanted to join the military. That was around the first Desert Storm.

Just curious, what was your score?

Be patient he's gotta go look up how it's scored.

Brown fat is what polar bears have to keep warm, it burns calories into heat, instead of for cell kinetics. There was an enzyme they put out in the 70's as a weight loss drug that essentially converted white fat to brown fat, and people died like crazy from excess body temperature. It's good to see ti being tried again.

idk sounds racist

Rolander: Brilliant! Just think of the civilian applications!

shouldn't this have replaced liposuction a long time ago?

Robespierre: Brown fat is what polar bears have to keep warm, it burns calories into heat, instead of for cell kinetics. There was an enzyme they put out in the 70's as a weight loss drug that essentially converted white fat to brown fat, and people died like crazy from excess body temperature. It's good to see ti being tried again.

I imagine that the army's a bit more controlled than that. Not much, but I'm sure they'll do things like make them hang out in the meat locker for a while.

Yeah we had a way of dealing with the fatties when I was in back in the 90's, it was called "Mandatory PT." Oh and even as low as the standards have dropped in the US military, there is absolutely, positively no way that the tub-o-lard in the picture is a US serviceman.

Galvatron Zero: "An estimated 75 percent of today's young Americans are either too fat, too sickly or too dumb to serve."

I had to laugh at the last part.

How smart do you need to be?

To join or to be successful? Some of the most brilliant people to be found are either in or have once been in the Armed Forces.