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More than 65% of National Guard and Reserve personnel can be classified as overweight or obese, which presents a “threat to manpower, mission readiness, and service member well-being,” according to a recent American Security Project report, citing 2017 data.
“The varied and unpredictable nature of the reserve-component’s responsibilities makes the impacts of obesity on reserve readiness particularly problematic,” says the report.
Weight-related issues were the leading disqualifier of applicants for the National Guard and Reserves in 2017. That year, about 26% of potential recruits were disqualified due to health issues related to being overweight, according to ASP.
ASP said 68% of active-duty personnel were overweight or obese in a September 2023 report.
The more recent report prompted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to post a Military Times article, then comment on X: “Completely unacceptable. This is what happens when standards are IGNORED — and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here.”
The report, however, cautions policymakers against prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach to the problem given there are “unique logistical and lifestyle challenges to consider,” including a lack of reliable health insurance, access to experienced health care providers, and having to finance fitness on their own time and dime.
According to ASP, less than three out of four reserve component personnel receive their mandatory annual physical examination and 8% lack “any form” of health insurance, which limits access to and ways to pay for solutions to obesity or nutritional counseling.
The report underscores the detrimental impact on service members of having insufficient or no health insurance.
“A lack of health insurance for any service member is a critical issue on both an ethical and practical level; total mission readiness relies on the health of each individual warfighter, and the military should ensure that all its service members are able to access health care,” state the authors.
Even Guard and Reservists with health insurance face challenges in accessing timely care.
“Reserve-component service members seeking care through military treatment facilities may experience long wait times to see a provider, as priority is given to the active component and activated reserve personnel,” says the report.
An underappreciated obstacle to making strides on improving reserve component health and well-being is the “enormous gap in data and research” related to the reserve component. For example, the most recent data compiled by the Defense Department on obesity in the Guard and Reserves is from 2018.
“Publicly available, reserve-specific health data is extremely limited, making it difficult for researchers, commanders, and policymakers to parse the precise toll of obesity and other medical issues on reserve readiness,” concludes the report.
The report notes that the infrequency of body composition screenings — once or twice annually dependent upon the service branch — can result in service members engaging in negative behaviors. To meet body composition standards, service members may misuse diuretics and laxatives, saunas, or other methods to produce quick weight loss.
Those can lead to “short and long-term health consequences, such as increased risk of depression and suicide, reduced bone density, and cardiovascular complications.”
The report downplays the concerns about body mass index misclassifying muscle, therefore leading to overstatement of obesity rates.
Conversely, the report adds, “Military studies have shown mixed results regarding the relationship between elevated BMI and physical performance indicators, such as speed, agility, and muscular strength, endurance, and power.”
─ By Jennifer Hickey
