Nearly 70% of the US Military is Overweight or Obese, According to New Report Measuring BMI Among Soldiers

The majority of all active service members in the U.S. military are overweight or obese, according to a new report. 

A white paper released Thursday by the American Security Project, a nonprofit public policy and research organization focusing on national security, says nearly 70% of all active-duty service members are considered overweight or obese on the body mass index (BMI) scale, which positions a person’s weight against their height. 

The report, which pulled data from the Department of Defense, notes that overweight service soldiers tend to “leave 18 months earlier than their normal-weight counterparts on average.” 

Obesity also might decrease combat readiness, according to the report. In fitness tests conducted by military officials, soldiers with higher BMIs were able to bear more weight and lift heavier than soldiers with lower BMIs. But they also exhibited less speed and agility than soldiers with lower BMIs. 

Military obesity rates have more than doubled over the past decade among active-duty service members, according to the report. In 2012, the military obesity rate measured 10.4%, compared to the 21.6% in 2022. 

The BMI has been a controversial tool to measure body fat, with the American Medical Association (AMA) acknowledging earlier this year that it’s an “imperfect” measure that’s steeped in racist ideology.

Still, the report’s author, Courtney Manning, defended the BMI, telling the Military Times in an interview that it remains a strong indicator that a person should be screened for chronic conditions related to high body fat percentage. 

“It’s important to note that the AMA hasn’t called for doctors to step back from BMI,” Manning said. “The report that led to their most recent recommendation actually found the opposite, that BMI is more accurate than other commonly used measurements.”

The AMA said in a news release that the BMI is not as reliable on the individual level as it is on the general population level. 

“They also reiterated that a BMI above 30 remains a key indicator that someone should be immediately checked out for conditions highly correlated with obesity, such as insulin resistance, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, and vascular dysfunction,” Manning said.

Manning in her report outlined a series of recommendations for the U.S. military officials to take to reduce the BMI among its troops. The recommendations include the promotion of obesity as a chronic disease and the regular review of body composition among soldiers and military personnel, among other points.