Army Food =(

kwhite32

Hi my Name is Kristina White. I am currently deployed to Iraq. You would think that because I'm in the Army I would be in the best shape of my life right? Oh so totally wrong. Currently thi is the heaviest I have been. I am 5'7" and weight about 165. I gained a lot of weight right before the deployment. I am 20 and my body is already starting to catch up to me. I used to be able to eat whatever and never gain a pound. I held steadily at 145 for a few years then gained 10 pounds and held at 155 until just last year. I want to try to stop the 10 pound weight gain and take charge of my body. I started running more and doing light weight heavy repition weight training. Also when I get back from leave I will start the Insanity program. I tried to start before but I was so out of shape it kicked my butt just doing the diagnostic test. This program helps me when it comes to the Chow Halls here. There is somewhat of a variety but you know what the choices are before you get there. Now I can see exactly how much of what each day I put into my body. This is a great program I'm glad I stumbled on to it! I'm welcome to friends adding me and hearing your stories. I think hearing about other people is inspirational and when I get lazy or unmotivated hearing about someone else gets makes me realize why I'm doing what I'm doing.

betharose7

Howdy! My hubby is in the army and has just left for Afghanistan, all we seemed to do the few weeks before he left was EAT and I mean eat! We were constantly having takeaways and over indulgent meals out. It was like he was building up a fat reserve before he went (even though he said some of the food is quite nice out there) and felt I should play my supportive role and join in lol pizza, Chinese, fried chicken u name it we ate it, any way I think u get the idea! The thing is that he finds it really easy to lose the weight so he always comes back from tour really fit and I just end up at home on my own with a big tub of Ben and jerrys feeling sorry for myself. Not this time! I've joined this site to help me along the way! That's my story, I'll send u a friend request and in the mean time stay motivated

dougstevens

First, thank you for serving. Appreciate it.

I was in the army from '88 to '92. At one time, during an add-on course for my MOS, we were on a small, week-long field exercise. We were constantly active and doing things; each of us probably got 40 to 45 minutes of sleep that entire week (not per night)! Typically the field chow would be a hot breakfast, a MRE for lunch and hot dinner. However, our group was being monitored for the new MREs (well new at that time); so we had 3 MREs each day. So say that those meals are loaded with calories would be an understatement. The odd thing was; I don't recall any of us (male or female) gaining any weight.
My point, that experience has led me to believe that the army's diet plan is from the perspective of sustaining a young active fighting soldier; someone who can potentially burn 3,000 or 4,000 calories per day.
Therefore, be cautious, the mess hall's menu probably designed to give you more calories than the average person may need. (I wonder if the mess hall can post the menu with calories and other nutritional data. There's gotta be a printer and someone on KP needing to do something.)

Also, I congratulate you on taking responsibility for taking control of your health and nutrition; and so early on in your life (well early from my perspective). When I was in, I was young and (stupidly) ate anything I wanted (e.g. loaded chili cheese dogs; medium pizzas, etc. etc.) without gaining weight. So, nutrition and weight gain was never a factor. However, when I go out, entered college, my appetite remained the same but my activity dropped. So my "freshman fifteen" (typically the 15 lbs most freshman gain); was more like the freshman 20 or 25.

Congratulations on your marriage; come back safe.

ejohndrow

I can relate. Well except I'm not deployed
Anwyay, I'm Navy myself and ever since I've gotten to this base I have struggled with my weight. I thought that joining the service would help me to stay in shape as well and I haven't struggled as much in years. I work security/LE so unless I take about 1-2 hours out of my day to cook a lunch and pack fresh fruits and veggies I am stuck with shoppette or galley food.
I know my circumstances aren't the same as yours because I do have the option to make my own food (even if it is a pain), but it still gets frustrating when the military takes so much time out of your day for everything and by the time you get a couple of hours to yourself all you want to do is sleep. It sounds like you're taking the correct steps to fix things and like dougstevens says a lot of chowhall food is packed with calories in order to ensure troops are getting enough calories to sustain them. If you happen to have one of the more sedentary jobs then obviously less calories need to be taken in.
Keep everything up, with watching what you eat and exercise I'm sure you will be ok. It's also good to get this under control now, I'm 30 and these past two years have been a big struggle. I learned the hard way that I do not have the metabolism of a 22 year old male
Anwyay good luck and return home safely!

littttlelaurra

I was in the Army and I enlisted at 5 ft 2 in tall and 105 lbs. I gained 10 to 15 lbs a year from all the foods I was not use to eating at home that was served in the mess hall. I wont say I didnt like carbs but it seemed like it was starches galore , meats with sauces or gravies, veggies also with butter or sauces, and breads, muffins, the works. First few weeks I was physically sick from the foods being so rich and heavy and had bowel issues to boot making me a regular at the clinic. I honestly dont know how much just plain fresh foods are offered now compared to years ago but I left weighing about 150 then just keep going after I got married, and eating out. Who knew eating out was so dangerous, I would of never expected the calories they list now to be in most meals being between 750 and over 1000 calories per meal , thats 3/4 of a day to a full day right there worth. So now I am at a whopping 240 and need to drop 120. I think my years of mess hall food set my body up for failure in the food department it went into all out war on itself from the overload of highly processed carbs. Glad to see your taking action right away to avoid my outcome. Good Luck to you and God Bless.