Question

[rproctor922]

My son in law was supposed to leave for Boot monday, but when he weighed in at MEPS he was 18 lbs overweight. He had problems in the past with the weight, but worked hard to lose it. When he did not ship on his original date in August, some type of paperwork snafu, he slacked off.

He was told at MEPS that he has until the end of the week to lose the weight. How is that possible? I have never heard of anyone losing 18 lbs in less than a week, at least not a away that is healthy.

Any help?

[jgorosco]

I was on a weight waiver while in the Corps. To get to go on Det I had to lose 15lbs in 4 days. I did it cause I hit the sauna rode the bike hit the sauna crunches jogged in morning and evening. I didnt eat but multivitamins and drank 2 glasses of water a day. I was in the gym for 2hrs in the morning jogged then in the evening I was in the gym for 4hrs. If he wants it; it is possible. As far as health wise it didn't bother me one bit. But then I was already in the Marines. Hope it helped a little

SEMPER FI
IYAOYAS

[miguelito]

If your Son in law is held from shipping out because of his weight, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if he was allowed to ship out while being overweight, he would most likely go to PCP(physical conditioning platoon) before he begins training until he gets back down to his weight limit or would become a diet recruit during training which would result in daily rationed chow. In my opinion, attempting to lose 18 pounds in one week is not healthy and I think it would be more beneficial for your Son in law to try and ship out on another date where he has a sufficient amount of time to lose the weight.

[Riven37]

I find this thread a bit hard to believe. The USMC still has Motivation PLT., may have a new name but it's still there. I don't think the Corps would pull such a stunt. The requiremnets arespelled out for you or any Boot before you sing up. My own son could not get in because of his 4" scar on his stomach. Stop BS this Marine...Stop ****ing down my back and telling me its raining.:no:

[rproctor922]

I am not kidding he is still at home right now and they will not let hiom ship until he loses the weight. He has lost 5lbs so far anfd has about 13 more to go. I was just looking for advice that may help him, not trying to BS anyone.

[jgorosco]

I think Riven37 just wanted to hear himself rant on. But when I was getting ready to ship I seen with my own eyes poolees get held back cause they were 3lbs and 7lbs over the weight requirement. So just tell your son to lay off the sodas and Mom's homecookin and drop the weight. It will not be easy but neither is being a MARINE.

SEMPER FI
IYAOYAS

[jegries]

Have him weighed on in gym shorts and a regular t-shirt for his true weight. No shoes.

[oconnoraw]

Tell him just keep pluggin away......better ship late, than never!

OC

[PTWARRIOR]

Thats why we are the"Few the Proud" he has to climb that mountain watch the commercial it speaks for it self. Be there for him motivate him push him he can do it . MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL SEMPER FI.

[Joseph P Carey]

God, I love it! The kid supposedly wants to go into the Marines, and he knew he had to stay at a specific weight, and yet he ballooned up to 18 plus pounds. He is not wanting to be a Marine; he is expecting to be a Marine, and there is no Supreme Court ruling that will make the US Marines accept anyone that the Marines do not want, nor who do not want the Marines! the owness falls on him alone.

Everybody is looking for a quick fix now days. They did not like the Boy Scouts being only for boys; they did not want all the men's clubs to be only for men; and, they did not want the football teams to be only for males, so, they go to court, and the court changes everything. Well, Marines are steeped in tradition, and are not subject to changing their rules for anyone!

Maybe, that 20 extra pounds may not mean much to your son, but it is something to the Marine Corps. The Marines think being 20 pounds lighter will enable him to get through Boot Camp to make it as a Marine. The Marines spend a lot of Dollars to train Recruit Marines, and it costs more to have a recruit sitting in a weight reduction Battalion working to come under the weight requirments. This involves man-power, and special training, special meals, segregated living quarters, and individual training that is not required of other Marines. It is just not cost effective to take in a man that will not have the self-discipline to maintain his own weight.

Should your son REALLY want to be a Marine, he will find a way to lose the unwanted weight, and he will do it inside of a week. It may take an effort of the entire family, and his friends, to work him down to the required weight, but he can do it if he wants to do so! It is all up to him! No one can do it for him; they can just help him help himself.

J G Orosco said it best: "...when I was getting ready to ship I seen with my own eyes poolees get held back cause they were 3lbs and 7lbs over the weight requirement. So just tell your son to lay off the sodas and Mom's homecookin and drop the weight...To get to go on Det I had to lose 15lbs in 4 days. I did it cause I hit the sauna rode the bike hit the sauna crunches jogged in morning and evening. I didnt eat but multivitamins and drank 2 glasses of water a day. I was in the gym for 2hrs in the morning jogged then in the evening I was in the gym for 4hrs. If he wants it; it is possible. As far as health wise it didn't bother me one bit. But then I was already in the Marines."

[rproctor922]

Originally posted by Joseph P Carey
God, I love it! The kid supposedly wants to go into the Marines, and he knew he had to stay at a specific weight, and yet he ballooned up to 18 plus pounds. He is not wanting to be a Marine; he is expecting to be a Marine, and there is no Supreme Court ruling that will make the US Marines accept anyone that the Marines do not want, nor who do not want the Marines! the owness falls on him alone.


Should your son REALLY want to be a Marine, he will find a way to lose the unwanted weight, and he will do it inside of a week. It may take an effort of the entire family, and his friends, to work him down to the required weight, but he can do it if he wants to do so! It is all up to him! No one can do it for him; they can just help him help himself.



First off He is my son in law


Second I agree with everything that you said. He was spoiled by his adopted father and expects everything to be handed to him. I was extremely proud of him when he worked so hard the first time to be ready to ship, but was not suprised that he slacked off after he did not ship the first time.

I was asking for advice for him from People who have already been through boot camp in hopes of actually motivating him to get off his butt and do something about it. which he has actually been doing.

[Nagalfar]

Motivation is something he must have to start with, if he is getting his motivation from you and those around him.. what happens when you are not around to give it to him? you can help with it, but he has to take the steps.. and if he can not do that for himself.. what will he ever do for the corps?? he will only get back what he willing to put into it.. and nothing more. Discipline always demands payment up front, there is no other way to get it.

[Osotogary]

I have heard of situations where a persons height and body weight didn't fall in line with the height and weight requirements for getting into the Marine Corps and they were still allowed to be forwarded on to Boot Camp.

The below scenario is almost totally hypothetical with a minor degree of fact inserted for the sake of discussion.

Say, if a prospective recruit is 5'-8" tall and weighs 250 pounds. The guidelines for that recruits height to weight ratio might have a max out weight of 200 pounds allowed. Any poundage over the 200 pounds would, according to the guidelines, be excessive and disqualify that recruit from shipping off to Boot Camp. How about if those excessive 50 pounds were due to muscle mass and not fat? From what I understand allowances can be made and the recruit will be able to pass on towards Boot Camp. I also understand that even though the excessive poundage is muscle mass the recruit will be placed on a diet based on the official height to weight ratio dietary procedures.

I imagine that if the excessive weight was due to body fat instead of muscle mass there would not be any allowances made for the recruit.

[Joseph P Carey]

Gary,

You seem to forget that the Marines are notoriously Cheap and history minded! They will only go so far to accomdate people of a certain body discriptions. For the longest time they had a minimum height requirement of at least 5'8", and they were, at one point, planning on boosting the height to 6'00" as a minimum height. I can only imagine that they got a deal on old horse blanets that they could dye olive drab green, but only had the pattern for large size uniforms when that was proposed. :-) Perfect eyesight was also a requirement up to a certain point in time, and good teeth were another requirement. This was probably due to them not wanting to pay for those stylish military glasses they issued, and the fact that DIs needed something to knock out of a recruit's head, and still leave him able to chew something. :-) They Marines most certainly do have some silly reasons for doing things, but they are the Marines, and they can ask anything they wish of the people that what to become one of them, and still people would line up to join.

[GySgtRet]

Joseph P Carey,

I always wondered why some of my stuff wouldn't fit correctly...!!! At least I faired better than someone my size. I fit into the 6'.0 foot mark, but I could still get stuff that wouldn't fit me at least at Parris Island. Whenever I bought new uniforms because of changes I always would have them looked at by a taylor when I got some experience behind me so at least I would look like something.

Semper Fidelis

[Riven37]

Originally posted by jgorosco
I think Riven37 just wanted to hear himself rant on. But when I was getting ready to ship I seen with my own eyes poolees get held back cause they were 3lbs and 7lbs over the weight requirement. So just tell your son to lay off the sodas and Mom's homecookin and drop the weight. It will not be easy but neither is being a MARINE.

SEMPER FI
IYAOYAS


EXCUSE ME !!! I am not ranting as you put it. Sounds like Bootcamp scuttlebutt to me.

:marine:

[MarineMom5]

Originally posted by miguelito
If your Son in law is held from shipping out because of his weight, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Even if he was allowed to ship out while being overweight, he would most likely go to PCP(physical conditioning platoon) before he begins training until he gets back down to his weight limit or would become a diet recruit during training which would result in daily rationed chow. In my opinion, attempting to lose 18 pounds in one week is not healthy and I think it would be more beneficial for your Son in law to try and ship out on another date where he has a sufficient amount of time to lose the weight.


This is a solid recommendation. Your son in law needs to want this though. He would have an easier time getting the weight off and doing PT to get in shape BEFORE shipping than after.

We have 12 recruits from our area in various stages of Boot right now including my son. One of the kids was told he had to lose 8 lbs before shipping which he did. When he did his 56 hr weigh in he was told that he needed to lose 4 lbs more (his height was incorrectly recorded). After 3 days of no food, sauna and PT he lost 3 lbs....somehow on ship day he "grew" 3/4 of an inch which let him weigh in at the next height level.
He shipped on his scheduled date!

Keep your son in law motivated to lose the weight and ship out. Once he gets to Boot....the Corps will keep him motivated!

[greensideout]

What a cry baby society we have become. Just tell the fat boy to loose the weight or forget his idea that he will become a Marine.

[Joseph P Carey]

If you ask any Marine, what a Marine should be, They will most assuably tell you with no uncertain words: No excuses; get the job done!

We all may not be as good as we were, but we are ALL better than those that never tried!

[jryanjack]

GSO, its been a long time since I heard the term "fat boy" - too funny, but true!

The mission is simple, drop the pounds or drop the dream, better to know now than latter.

[enviro]

I personally think if you have no solid advice to offer other than to tell someone to give up or you just re-state the obvious than you should keep your piehole shut (just my opinion that isn't addressed to anyone in particular - if the shoe fits, WEAR IT!).

Since I DON'T know the entire circumstance as to why this young man is overweight, I will only comment on what I do know and dispense advice accordingly as requested.

1. He can't ship to boot camp unless he meets height/weight or body fat standards. 5'8" is a max of 181 lbs and males have to meet a minimum of 18% body fat.

2. Many young poolees face this problem and will dangerously try to lose the weight in a very short amount of time. They aren't doing themselves any favors as they will be weighed in again in bootcamp and will be assigned to a Physical Conditioning Platoon that will delay their training even further. IF it takes 9 months, then he will be there for 9 months. It is NOT somewhere he wants to be for 9 months - trust me.

Lose the weight now with proper diet and exercise. He will be able to ship when he is ready and meets the standards. Recruiters are under a lot of pressure to ship their poolees on time, whatever it takes to do so.

If he wants the title bad enough, he'll have to earn it like the rest of us around here. Some of us had an easier time of it than others, nevertheless, he'll have to do what it takes. Keep him motivated.

WE ALL need motivation. Some of us more than others. If we didn't, there would be no need for boot camp to be structured the way it is - we would all just have gone to a bunch of classes to learn how to shoot, salute, and wear the uniform.

Also, remember that weight can effect your career long after boot camp is over. being a "fat body" at any stage in your career will hurt very badly. If he is "naturally" larger than Marine Corps standards, he will have to fight this battle his entire career. Take that for what it's worth. It can be done and has been done.

[Joseph P Carey]

Enviro,

You are a lot younger than I and many others on this board. It appears that the younger people seem to know their limits where us older guys never did. We grew up with heroes like Archie Moore (He was a professional boxer that held titles in all different weight divisions). Sometimes he had to lose a certain amount of weight just before a fight, and he always found a way to do so. It was the same with our generation, we always found a way, or we would die trying, we knew no limits on what we could do, and we would have too much pride to have anything handed to us!

You younger guys are the realists, you know boundries and constraints, and we older guys were the dreamers and the romantics, nothing was impossible to us. That is the difference!