thedrifter
10-31-06, 12:23 PM
November 06, 2006
New Army tape test gives some women slim chance
Proportion limits are unrealistic, soldiers say
By Kelly Kennedy
Staff writer
Last month, just to be sure, Staff Sgt. Errica McKinney did a quick tape test to make sure her body-fat measurements met regulation 600-9.
She was scheduled to leave for the Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course on Oct. 18, and she wanted to make sure she was qualified.
In September, she was. But when the new fitness regulations — including a new tape test — went Army-wide in October, she missed the mark.
“I went from 1.7 percent under the mark to 4 percent over,” said McKinney, with the 55th Combat Camera unit. “I was flagged, and I didn’t get to go to BNCOC.”
That marked the first time McKinney had failed the tape test in 12 years. But, at 5 feet 5 inches and 190 pounds, she always missed the weight standards and had to be taped.
“I know I could stand to lose a few pounds,” she said, “but the Army wants you to have a big butt and a small waist, according to these standards.”
As Army officials predicted when they enacted new fitness regulations Oct. 10, some people who before could pass the tape test now cannot. But it works in reverse, too: Some women who didn’t pass before now will.
Allowable body-fat percentages have not changed, but the way women are measured has. Rather than being measured at the neck, forearm, wrist and hips, women are now taped at the neck, hips and waist. That incorporates the best predictor of future health problems, Army officials said.
The new test is a better measure of a person’s health because, by measuring the waist, the test shows where people store their weight, they said.
According to Col. Gaston Bathalon, deputy commander at the U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine, several studies show that people who carry excess weight around their waists — as opposed to in the hips or legs — face higher risks of heart disease. For men, beer bellies shouldn’t go above 40 inches. For women, the magic number is 35. Men’s tape tests have not changed.
“This is setting them up for healthy lifestyles beyond their careers,” said Lt. Col. Teresa Hall, chief of the Army’s health promotion policy branch.
But Maj. Elena Howard with 4th Brigade, 91st Division, said it’s setting Army women up to look like Barbie — and she suggested “Army pretty,” rather than “Army strong,” as a new recruiting campaign.
“The example in the new reg doesn’t really reflect what a normal human looks like,” she said. “Normal people don’t have really big butts and really small waists.”
Howard, who said she passed the tape test, said she hasn’t seen anyone pass under the new standards who failed under the old standard.
“Lots of people are worried about it and think it’s insane,” she said.
But researchers said the new regulations make it easier for women to pass the test — or not to have to take the tape test at all.
When Army scientists saw that 54 percent of women in the Army failed the weight test in 1998, something seemed off balance — and it wasn’t the scales.
“Over half the women in the Army had to be tape-tested,” Bathalon said. “We were surprised by the proportion of women who were needlessly taped. That’s a large burden on our training NCOs and certainly our women for having to go through that.”
Most female soldiers who failed the weight-scales test passed the tape test, Bathalon said. But 92 percent of men who fail the tape test and have to go on the weight-control program have waists over 40 inches.
“These are men who need intervention,” Bathalon said.
Seventy-eight percent of women who took the tape test had waist circumferences above 35 inches.
To avoid needlessly tape-testing women who will pass the body-fat index, the Army has adjusted the weight tables based on the new tape-testing standards.
Women are now able to weigh five to 19 extra pounds, depending on their heights and ages.
In the past, the Army based body-fat measurements on water-displacement tests that did not predict body fat as well.
The new taping system — which incorporates information gained in the Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry body-fat test, which Bathalon called the “gold standard” — is used throughout the Defense Department, rather than different tape tests, body-fat indexes and weight standards for each service. Each commander is required to report where his soldiers stand for fitness: Have they passed the weight test? The body-fat index test? Have they been flagged as nonpromotable? Are they in the weight-control program?
The first report is due March 31, but it will include only the last three months of 2006, when the regulation was in place.
Hall said she suspects a lot of women will be eager to weigh in under the new standards but said there might be a few surprises for those who carry most of their weight around their middle: “Some women who were just barely making it before may not make it with the new standards,” she said. “You still have to exercise, diet and just be motivated.”
Ellie
New Army tape test gives some women slim chance
Proportion limits are unrealistic, soldiers say
By Kelly Kennedy
Staff writer
Last month, just to be sure, Staff Sgt. Errica McKinney did a quick tape test to make sure her body-fat measurements met regulation 600-9.
She was scheduled to leave for the Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course on Oct. 18, and she wanted to make sure she was qualified.
In September, she was. But when the new fitness regulations — including a new tape test — went Army-wide in October, she missed the mark.
“I went from 1.7 percent under the mark to 4 percent over,” said McKinney, with the 55th Combat Camera unit. “I was flagged, and I didn’t get to go to BNCOC.”
That marked the first time McKinney had failed the tape test in 12 years. But, at 5 feet 5 inches and 190 pounds, she always missed the weight standards and had to be taped.
“I know I could stand to lose a few pounds,” she said, “but the Army wants you to have a big butt and a small waist, according to these standards.”
As Army officials predicted when they enacted new fitness regulations Oct. 10, some people who before could pass the tape test now cannot. But it works in reverse, too: Some women who didn’t pass before now will.
Allowable body-fat percentages have not changed, but the way women are measured has. Rather than being measured at the neck, forearm, wrist and hips, women are now taped at the neck, hips and waist. That incorporates the best predictor of future health problems, Army officials said.
The new test is a better measure of a person’s health because, by measuring the waist, the test shows where people store their weight, they said.
According to Col. Gaston Bathalon, deputy commander at the U.S. Army Institute of Environmental Medicine, several studies show that people who carry excess weight around their waists — as opposed to in the hips or legs — face higher risks of heart disease. For men, beer bellies shouldn’t go above 40 inches. For women, the magic number is 35. Men’s tape tests have not changed.
“This is setting them up for healthy lifestyles beyond their careers,” said Lt. Col. Teresa Hall, chief of the Army’s health promotion policy branch.
But Maj. Elena Howard with 4th Brigade, 91st Division, said it’s setting Army women up to look like Barbie — and she suggested “Army pretty,” rather than “Army strong,” as a new recruiting campaign.
“The example in the new reg doesn’t really reflect what a normal human looks like,” she said. “Normal people don’t have really big butts and really small waists.”
Howard, who said she passed the tape test, said she hasn’t seen anyone pass under the new standards who failed under the old standard.
“Lots of people are worried about it and think it’s insane,” she said.
But researchers said the new regulations make it easier for women to pass the test — or not to have to take the tape test at all.
When Army scientists saw that 54 percent of women in the Army failed the weight test in 1998, something seemed off balance — and it wasn’t the scales.
“Over half the women in the Army had to be tape-tested,” Bathalon said. “We were surprised by the proportion of women who were needlessly taped. That’s a large burden on our training NCOs and certainly our women for having to go through that.”
Most female soldiers who failed the weight-scales test passed the tape test, Bathalon said. But 92 percent of men who fail the tape test and have to go on the weight-control program have waists over 40 inches.
“These are men who need intervention,” Bathalon said.
Seventy-eight percent of women who took the tape test had waist circumferences above 35 inches.
To avoid needlessly tape-testing women who will pass the body-fat index, the Army has adjusted the weight tables based on the new tape-testing standards.
Women are now able to weigh five to 19 extra pounds, depending on their heights and ages.
In the past, the Army based body-fat measurements on water-displacement tests that did not predict body fat as well.
The new taping system — which incorporates information gained in the Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry body-fat test, which Bathalon called the “gold standard” — is used throughout the Defense Department, rather than different tape tests, body-fat indexes and weight standards for each service. Each commander is required to report where his soldiers stand for fitness: Have they passed the weight test? The body-fat index test? Have they been flagged as nonpromotable? Are they in the weight-control program?
The first report is due March 31, but it will include only the last three months of 2006, when the regulation was in place.
Hall said she suspects a lot of women will be eager to weigh in under the new standards but said there might be a few surprises for those who carry most of their weight around their middle: “Some women who were just barely making it before may not make it with the new standards,” she said. “You still have to exercise, diet and just be motivated.”
Ellie