thedrifter
05-16-06, 06:48 PM
May 22, 2006
Army may ease body fat rules
Standards don’t account for race, gender, critics say
By Jim Tice
Times staff writer
A pending revision to the Army’s weight control regulation is expected to include relaxed body fat standards for women.
recommended changes to AR 600-9 are under review at the Pentagon. the revision will include body fat equations issued by the Defense Department in November 2002, according to Hank Minitrez, spokesman for the Army G-1.
Soldiers who do not comply with weight standards are subject to various personnel actions that can block or delay promotions, set bars to re-enlistment and service school attendance, and even result in involuntary separation.
Minitrez said in 2005 that the Army separated 840 soldiers because they failed to comply with AR 600-9 and provisions of the Weight Control Program. Minitrez said he did not have data on how many women were among those separated.
No date has been set for publication of the new regulation, which last underwent major revision in 1987. But a change issued in 1996 eased the maximum allowable body fat for women across all age categories, while retaining standards for men.
The male standards range from 20 percent for soldiers ages 17-20 to 26 percent for those 40 and older. These measures are within the Defense Department guidance, which stipulates a range of 18 percent to 26 percent.
Army standards set a maximum allowable body fat content of 30 percent for women ages 17-20; 32 percent for ages 21-27; 34 percent for ages 28-39; and 36 percent for female soldiers 40 and older.
These standards are within the Defense Department parameters of 26 percent to 36 percent. However, critics say the Army standards are too strict for midcareer soldiers, and the procedures used to measure female body fat are flawed, particularly for black women.
The 2002 Defense Department instruction on body fat equations is based on scientific studies conducted by the military in the 1990s, and addressed in reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the General Accounting Office.
In a report prepared for Congress in 1998, GAO said the procedures used by the services to calculate body fat were inconsistent, outdated and did not account for racial and body type differences among women.
As an example, GAO officials compared Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps body fat equations to measure the same woman. Under Army equations, her body fat content was calculated to be 42 percent. Navy and Air Force procedures pegged her at 29 percent, and the Marine Corps, 27 percent.
GAO investigators noted that in developing its equations for women, the Army largely used Caucasian test subjects because it could not find a suitable population of black and Hispanic soldiers who could swim and participate in underwater weighing tests to validate body fat measurements.
The equations were incorporated into regulations just as the nonwhite female population of the Army was increasing. Today, 39 percent of the Army’s 72,700 women are black, and 11 percent Hispanic. Blacks account for 42 percent of the female enlisted force, and Hispanics, 11 percent.
The National Academy of Sciences also reported in 1998 that the equations used by the Army failed to adjust for the heavier bone densities of minorities, and potentially could result in overstating a female soldier’s body fat. The Army and other services routinely use a “tape test” to determine body fat by measuring the circumference of various body sites. the Army measures the neck and abdomen of men; and the hips, forearm, neck and wrist of women.
The GAO reported that while this approach yields consistent results for men, it does not for women. “The female body equations do not adjust well for the variety of female body types and thus do not consistently provide accurate predictions of the percentage of body fat,” the GAO report said.
The Pentagon’s tape-measure sites for women are neck, waist and hips, eliminating the wrist and forearm sites that the Army continues to use.
In 2000, Army medical researchers conducted weight and physical fitness evaluations of a random sampling of 1,038 male soldiers and 347 nonpregnant women. Using Army measurement equations, 11 percent of the men and 17 percent of the women were declared over their screening weights and exceeded body fat standards.
When the Defense Department equations were applied, the number of women who were rated as having too much body fat dropped to 12 percent, nearly mirroring the male figure of 11 percent, according to a report in the December 2002 issue of Military Medicine.
In October 2005, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records overturned the 1997 ouster of Sgt. 1st Class Marnita L. McGruder, a black woman, for failing to meet fat standards. In issuing that decision, the board said it was time for the Army to adopt the Defense Department body fat standards, especially as regards measurement sites.
“We presented a lot of medical evidence to the board, and I think it’s important that the Army conducted its own study ... and found that about 30 percent of the Weight Control Program women it surveyed would not have been in the program if the Defense Department standards were in effect,” said McGruder’s lawyer, John Wickham.
Jim Tice covers the Army.
Ellie
Army may ease body fat rules
Standards don’t account for race, gender, critics say
By Jim Tice
Times staff writer
A pending revision to the Army’s weight control regulation is expected to include relaxed body fat standards for women.
recommended changes to AR 600-9 are under review at the Pentagon. the revision will include body fat equations issued by the Defense Department in November 2002, according to Hank Minitrez, spokesman for the Army G-1.
Soldiers who do not comply with weight standards are subject to various personnel actions that can block or delay promotions, set bars to re-enlistment and service school attendance, and even result in involuntary separation.
Minitrez said in 2005 that the Army separated 840 soldiers because they failed to comply with AR 600-9 and provisions of the Weight Control Program. Minitrez said he did not have data on how many women were among those separated.
No date has been set for publication of the new regulation, which last underwent major revision in 1987. But a change issued in 1996 eased the maximum allowable body fat for women across all age categories, while retaining standards for men.
The male standards range from 20 percent for soldiers ages 17-20 to 26 percent for those 40 and older. These measures are within the Defense Department guidance, which stipulates a range of 18 percent to 26 percent.
Army standards set a maximum allowable body fat content of 30 percent for women ages 17-20; 32 percent for ages 21-27; 34 percent for ages 28-39; and 36 percent for female soldiers 40 and older.
These standards are within the Defense Department parameters of 26 percent to 36 percent. However, critics say the Army standards are too strict for midcareer soldiers, and the procedures used to measure female body fat are flawed, particularly for black women.
The 2002 Defense Department instruction on body fat equations is based on scientific studies conducted by the military in the 1990s, and addressed in reports by the National Academy of Sciences and the General Accounting Office.
In a report prepared for Congress in 1998, GAO said the procedures used by the services to calculate body fat were inconsistent, outdated and did not account for racial and body type differences among women.
As an example, GAO officials compared Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps body fat equations to measure the same woman. Under Army equations, her body fat content was calculated to be 42 percent. Navy and Air Force procedures pegged her at 29 percent, and the Marine Corps, 27 percent.
GAO investigators noted that in developing its equations for women, the Army largely used Caucasian test subjects because it could not find a suitable population of black and Hispanic soldiers who could swim and participate in underwater weighing tests to validate body fat measurements.
The equations were incorporated into regulations just as the nonwhite female population of the Army was increasing. Today, 39 percent of the Army’s 72,700 women are black, and 11 percent Hispanic. Blacks account for 42 percent of the female enlisted force, and Hispanics, 11 percent.
The National Academy of Sciences also reported in 1998 that the equations used by the Army failed to adjust for the heavier bone densities of minorities, and potentially could result in overstating a female soldier’s body fat. The Army and other services routinely use a “tape test” to determine body fat by measuring the circumference of various body sites. the Army measures the neck and abdomen of men; and the hips, forearm, neck and wrist of women.
The GAO reported that while this approach yields consistent results for men, it does not for women. “The female body equations do not adjust well for the variety of female body types and thus do not consistently provide accurate predictions of the percentage of body fat,” the GAO report said.
The Pentagon’s tape-measure sites for women are neck, waist and hips, eliminating the wrist and forearm sites that the Army continues to use.
In 2000, Army medical researchers conducted weight and physical fitness evaluations of a random sampling of 1,038 male soldiers and 347 nonpregnant women. Using Army measurement equations, 11 percent of the men and 17 percent of the women were declared over their screening weights and exceeded body fat standards.
When the Defense Department equations were applied, the number of women who were rated as having too much body fat dropped to 12 percent, nearly mirroring the male figure of 11 percent, according to a report in the December 2002 issue of Military Medicine.
In October 2005, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records overturned the 1997 ouster of Sgt. 1st Class Marnita L. McGruder, a black woman, for failing to meet fat standards. In issuing that decision, the board said it was time for the Army to adopt the Defense Department body fat standards, especially as regards measurement sites.
“We presented a lot of medical evidence to the board, and I think it’s important that the Army conducted its own study ... and found that about 30 percent of the Weight Control Program women it surveyed would not have been in the program if the Defense Department standards were in effect,” said McGruder’s lawyer, John Wickham.
Jim Tice covers the Army.
Ellie