Thread: A staggering number of troops are fat and tired, report says

A staggering number of troops are fat and tired, report says

By: J.D. Simkins  
1 day ago 3.4K



The number of overweight military personnel paints a grim picture of the military's fitness standards. (Mike Morones/Staff)

A 2018 RAND report on health promotion and disease prevention has painted a grim picture of the military’s physical fitness and sleep standards.

The study, featuring roughly 18,000 randomly selected participants across each of the service branches, showed that almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or obese, based on the military’s use of body mass index as a measuring standard.

While the number of overweight service members is a cause for concern, it correlates with the obesity epidemic plaguing the United States, where, as of 2015, one in three young adults are considered too fat to enlist, creating a difficult environment for recruiters to find suitable candidates for military service.

Broken down by service, the 2018 report lists the Army as the branch accounting for the highest percentage of overweight troops, with 69.4 percent of soldiers falling under this category.

The Army was followed by the Coast Guard (67.8 percent), Navy (64.6 percent), Air Force (63.1 percent) and Marine Corps (60.9 percent).

Another glaring area of concern highlighted in the study was the inability of service members to get adequate sleep.

Nearly 9 percent of military personnel reported taking sleeping medications either “daily” or “almost daily.”



A 2018 Rand study highlighted the prevalence of sleep deprivation and the use of sleeping medication among service members. (Senior Airman Cliffton Dolezal/Air Force)
The Army reported the highest rate of sleep concerns, with 10.6 percent of soldiers routinely consuming sleeping aides. Marines (9.9 percent), airmen (7.5 percent) and sailors (6 percent) rounded out the troubling category.

In terms of problematic sleeping patterns, 59.4 percent of soldiers reported getting less sleep than needed, and 33.2 percent answered that the lack of sleep contributed to being regularly bothered by an energy deficiency.

Personnel from the other services, especially the Navy and Marine Corps, reported experiencing the aforementioned sleep issues at a similar rate.

An extensive 2017 review of inpatient and outpatient records, dating from 2005 to 2014, for active-duty military personnel found that both insomnia and sleep apnea are on the rise, according the Journal of Sleep Research.

“Sleep disorders are a serious problem that interferes with the ability of soldiers to do their jobs effectively,” Harris Lieberman, study author and military nutrition specialist at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Massachusetts, told Reuters.

Similar sleep concerns in the Navy’s surface fleet were heavily scrutinized this year in the wake of the service’s fatal collisions involving the destroyers Fitzgerald and John S. McCain.

In response to sailor reports of sleep deprivation due to the Navy’s furious operational tempo, top brass implemented a policy featuring overhauled watch schedules that better align with sailors' circadian rhythms, a move designed to allow for improved rest periods.

The RAND report’s Health Related Behaviors Survey has been issued periodically for 30 years by the Department of Defense in an effort to best gauge the condition of the country’s fighting force.

Survey items traditionally examined include health promotion and disease prevention, substance use, mental and physical health, sexual behaviors and deployment experiences.

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-du...d-report-says/

Shocking New Studies Find Young Americans Are Overweight, Unhealthy, Suicidal, & Addicted To Alcohol And Drugs



"In order for a nation to be great, it needs to be made up of great people, and at this moment it is very difficult to be optimistic about the future of our nation..."

The bars need to be restricted on how many "shots" they sell to young people. They get drunk too fast, shots are highly addictive and the shots aren't diluted with any mix of soda or water, which means hard liquor is going straight into the stomach undiluted and into the liver. I've been concerned about this trend in bar drinking for awhile. The young people don't know the harm in this type of drinking. It's very bad, it's what lost cause alcoholics do and should never be a social drinking style. Establishments selling the shots love it, because it's so easy to serve and much cheaper to serve than all the time and expense of making an actual drink.

This is something people need to discuss with their kids and the "social engineers" and liquor regulators need to figure out what to do about it.

As to military obesity, I don't know what to say. The military has rules, they have weight and health standards, if they can't enforce those, then we've got a really big problem and it's not the soldiers, it's their superior officers who aren't enforcing physical standards.

As to civilian obesity, I don't think that's not from fast food. It's from more calories than you burn. Get Americans back to work, and you'll see that obesity problem subside. People overeat for a lot of reasons, it's usually from snacks and munchies passing the time, routinely eating too much at a meal (usually home-cooked and so good you eat seconds plus a dessert), and just enjoying food when your metabolism isn't going to burn it off and over time, it adds up and then one day, you're overweight. If you like seconds, try buying smaller plates, like the little old-fashioned ones, and then if you still want more, you can have seconds. If you start out with these huge plates and then want seconds, as many people do when it's really good food, then you're going to be in a heap of trouble pretty quick.

I think the real key to much of this is just get Americans back to work. That's going to solve a lot of problems that people are turning to food, booze, sleep aides, and drugs to deal with. The stress and worry of unemployment, underemployment, low wages, job and financial insecurity has a toll most Americans can't bear, so solve the problem at the root and do everything to get every American who needs a job and a better job back to work at those jobs.

Tell all the H1Bs, the TPSs, the DACAs, and every other foreign worker here with a "work permit", time to go home where you belong, we have Americans who want and need those jobs and we're going to make sure Americans have those jobs including the seats in our colleges and universities that paved the road for many of them.

We also need to tell DemoQuacks to stop creating these phony fake "crises" in our country. Republicans and Democrats have been going at it since the Republican Party was formed to stop the bad acts of Democrats. But what is going on now mostly at the hands of women, which is very disappointing to me as a woman, is just plain vulgar, vile, nasty, harmful and unproductive.

I listened to Senators today telling reports about all the women who have been victims of sexual assault who never told anyone about it until they decided in the past 2 or 3 weeks to tell a member of Congress. REALLY??!! You would take up the time of a member of the US Senate and US House of Representatives to reveal and discuss a sexual assault after years of keeping it to yourself?? A total stranger, a politicians, you tell this stuff to? HONESTLY??!! What is wrong with you?!! And who knows what the "sexual assault" actually was, and who knows what it involved or when it happened or what the circumstances were surrounding it, and of course, even whether any of it was true or sort of true or mostly true but not exactly true or mostly false or totally false.

WOMEN, GET A GRIP!! If someone does something to you that is against the law, REPORT IT TO LAW ENFORCEMENT who can do something about it, NOT A DC POLITICIAN who can't do a damn thing about it.

Human beings are sexual creatures, both men and women, men are no more sexually-oriented than women. In this world, men are going to make advances just as women do. So for women, learn how to deal with it when you aren't interested and ward it off without an incident or harm. Learn this early. In defense of our men creatures, always be polite, always make sure it's what the woman wants, if she changes her mind, stop and leave.

Dads, set good examples for your sons and explain to them the risks of misbehaving that can turn into crimes real fast. Moms, set good examples for your daughters and make sure they know how to avoid situations that could turn very risky, really fast. If something turns into a crime, REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY.

There is a lot of garbage and chemicals in our food now. This causes a lot of health problems.

We are lucky we have Farmers Market here to get home grown vegetables, but a lot of people do not have access to this food.

Kids used to run and play all day with no fear in the neighborhoods, too many weirdo's in our society now and IMPORTING more of them is just plain sick! And now these kids are on cell phones all day, another big problem in our society.

Army Chief: Pass New Combat Fitness Test or 'Hit the Road'

"We don't want young men and women to get killed in action because they weren't fit."

Yes, our troops need those fitness tests. It jeopardizes them not to be fit and healthy. I thought we had those already. I know we used to. Military leadership needs to wake up and get straight. Letting troops over-eat to their own detriment, not taking care and caution to ensure our military weapons systems can't be hacked, using "chips" made in China .... what in the hell is wrong with you people? And then you blame the troops and allow studies published to call them "fat and tired" insulting them this way? YOU SUCK!!!

GRRRR!!!!

An estimated 71% of all young people in the U.S. between the ages of 17 and 24 do not qualify for military service.



taskandpurpose.com

Generals Again Warn That America’s Youth Are Getting Too Fat Or Dumb To Join The Military

GENERALS BETTER WATCH THEIR DAMN MOUTHS. Your job as Generals is to turn them into lean mean machines, quit whining about recruits and do your damn jobs. No one turned anyone away during the draft because they were too fat or too dumb, they put them on a diet and into a heavy work out program and made them fit.

Not sure what they mean by "dumb", but it's not a word that any General of the US Armed Forces should ever use towards a citizen of the United States who wants to serve their country.

SHAME ON YOU ELITIST AIR-HEADS, no wonder you can't win a damn war any more, you're so stuck on yourselves you don't know how to do your jobs.

Obese Millennials Are "Threatening National Security," New Study Finds



The Army missed its recruiting goals for the first time since 2005...


Mon, 10/15/2018 - 22:10
53 SHARES

Once again, millennials are making a mess of things, and this time it could "threaten national security," according to a new report which found that approximately 71% of millennials aged 17 to 24 - the prime age to enlist in America's armed forces and fight a foreign war in the Middle East - are non-recruitable, with obesity disqualifying about 31% of them.


The Council for a Strong America, a nonprofit team of law enforcement leaders, retired admirals and generals, business executives, pastors, and prominent coaches and athletes who promote solutions that ensure America's next-generation is "citizen-ready," published the study on Wednesday, called "Unhealthy and Unprepared," warns that America's rising number of overweight millennials are going to have a significant impact on the military's ability to win a future war.
"Out of all the reasons that we have future soldiers disqualify, the largest - 31% - is obesity," Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, head of Army Recruiting Command, said Wednesday at AUSA's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.



This year, the Army missed its recruiting goals for the first time since 2005, and the study warned: as the obesity epidemic grows, these recruiting challenges will continue unless immediate countermeasures are enacted to promote healthy lifestyles for youth.



The report offered several ideas on how to suppress the out of control obesity epidemic ravaging millennials. One solution is to focus on nutrition and physical activity from a young age, which can condition children to live healthier lifestyles to prepare for any career.
Proper nutrition and physical activity are the building blocks of a stronger and healthier generation that will ultimately increase the military's future recruiting goals before the next conflict with Russia and or China. The report said it starts with parents and educators that teach children about healthy eating and exercise habits, while state and federal officials must adopt public school programs that promote nutrition and encourage physical activity from an early age.



Meanwhile, American exceptionalism is waning, and it's not only due to fast food. The Army missed recruiting goals this year, which should serve as a warning: the US is ill-prepared to engage in a military conflict.
The study concluded and said: "trends in obesity must be reversed before our national security is further comprised." And while the report did offer some token solutions how to fix the obesity problem, the damage has already been done, and to reverse such a dramatic trend will take decades; the question is whether America's next armed conflict will wait that long?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ccording-study

DemoQuacks are behind this claim that "healthy lifestyles" are necessary to our national defense. SORRY, no. A good military that can recruit an earnest soul who wants to serve his/her country is what's necessary to our national defense. For the US military to turn away earnest people in the ages of 17 to 24 because they're overweight or can't read well enough or WHATEVER, is a national disgrace by the military. You sign 'em up, put 'em on a diet and work out program and teach them to read, so they can be the best they can be and whatever that is, will be enough.

Watch the movie, Remember the Titans. Check out any NFL team and tell me who can fight and who can't.