Army Ready?? Soo not.. :(

Are you being honest with your calorie counting? Weighing everything?

As far as the PT side of it, start with C25K. It will get you to at least running 30 minutes, which will carry you into boot camp and help lessen the chance of injuries such as stress fractures. Not sure on the time you need for the 2 mile run, but you should be able to hit it if you start training early enough. I can't remember if the Army does push-ups and sit-ups or if it is pull-ups and sit-ups, but if you have access to a gym then focus on Lat-pulldowns, chest presses, push-ups, etc.. Think push/pull exercises. Another good options is start exercising with the DEP people.

What is your BMR? It might be you aren't eating enough and it's causing your weight loss to stall. Try gradually raising your calories to something a bit higher and focusing on your macros to make sure you are taking in the nutrients you need.

Are you only doing treadmill or are you doing other workouts like lifting weights? I've been doing generally 1-1.5 hour long work outs 3-4 x a week that include both aerobic and anarobic exercises (I will do 30-50 minutes on an Arc Trainer at medium resistance and incline followed by 25-35 mins of free weights followed by stretching. Like mrsharris said, doing PFT at home will likely help you a lot and better prepare you for boot camp.

Hey all!!!

I am looking for support on here. I really want to join the Army but I was told that I need to lose 40 lbs 1st or 1" off my neck (?? how??) 1" off my waist and 5" off my hips.

My problem is that the weight does not seem to want to come off.. I try to keep my net calories under 1200 and I exercise..

Oh also I was told that you shouldn't go over 45 mins when exercising.. Is this true?? They said that anything more than 45 mins is burning muscle not fat.. IDK if I believe that one.. But what is a good amount of time to workout?? I tend to walk a lot on the treadmill at 3.8 and a 3.5 incline or I bike..

A little info on me..

5 foot 5 inches
196 lbs
Waist 31.5 inches
HIps 44.2 inches
Also I have huge boobs so that accounts for a good percent of my weight, that I know


Any tips or pointers would help a lot and be greatly appreciated..

Whats true for the army is not necessarilly true for the rest of civilization, take it from me, I am military. I went in 170 and drop to 130 in just 6 weeks, why.... because They drill you hard in basic training. You wake up at 4am and you go to bed at 2230...That said all those hours in between you will be working out. Morning PT, Marching, Drill practice, walking from one side of base to the other, and dont forget those fun workouts in between where your MTI puts you on your face to do push ups. This is all on about 800calories a day because you get 3 meals a day and about 5minutes to eat it while a MTI is screaming in your face telling you to hurry the F*** up and shaking the table. Your only option for drink is water & gatorade.

You need to be able to run a mile 1/2 in atleast 15minutes and thats slow...its better you learn how to do that now on your own before they drill it out of you later. The good news is, if your recruiter is that interested in making his quota of recruits for the month then if you talk to him, he will most likely offer to help get you in the shape you need. But the fitness requirements dont change once you make it through basic, you will need to maintain it to pass your PT test. Good luck!!

I was in the Navy for 25 years and constantly fought to keep my weight under the limit, so you can't just diet to get down to a weight -- you have to maintain it which is hard to do on field rations and situations where there is lots of junk but no fresh veggies around. I lost almost 40 pounds over the last 9 months by exercising more and eating less (I'm 5.0 so around TDEE - 20% is around 1200 calories). I find I am less hungry when I eat quality protein and complex carbs than junk food even though I do believe what people say about deficit being the most important, but for me if I eat better food I don't go looking for junk snacks as often. Building muscle and being able to do pushups and situps before bootcamp is really important. Running in formation takes more effort than running by yourself, so I recommend you exceed the minimums so you don't end up struggling and being as much of a target for the DIs. (Everyone is a target for some reason, but the pick on the weakest even more). Congrats on your wanting to serve your country, but this is just the start of a physical fitness journey.

Hey all!!!

I am looking for support on here. I really want to join the Army but I was told that I need to lose 40 lbs 1st or 1" off my neck (?? how??) 1" off my waist and 5" off my hips.

My problem is that the weight does not seem to want to come off.. I try to keep my net calories under 1200 and I exercise..

Oh also I was told that you shouldn't go over 45 mins when exercising.. Is this true?? They said that anything more than 45 mins is burning muscle not fat.. IDK if I believe that one.. But what is a good amount of time to workout?? I tend to walk a lot on the treadmill at 3.8 and a 3.5 incline or I bike..

A little info on me..

5 foot 5 inches
196 lbs
Waist 31.5 inches
HIps 44.2 inches
Also I have huge boobs so that accounts for a good percent of my weight, that I know


Any tips or pointers would help a lot and be greatly appreciated..

First off, take a look for any official guidance from the recruiting system on fitness, the British Army indicate a full training plan for selection and entry at http://www.army.mod.uk/join/20261.aspx which you might find useful. Clearly it's not going to be exactly the same, but it'll give you a guide.

Secondly, your new entry training will be intense, as described above, although in the British system they're planning on feeding you about 3000 calories per day, to allow you to make it through training. We have a slightly different philosophy of training.

Much of your training will be outside, so get off the treadmill and start running in the fresh air. Get to the stage that you can comfortably run for 30-45 minuites. As has been suggested upthread a Couch to 5 K programme will probably help you with that, but you need to complement that with the strength training exercises as well. Much military activity involves upper body strength as well. Walking with a patrol pack, weapon and ammunition, lifting your bergen in and out of wagons, lifting and carrying parts, ammunition, stores, food etc.

Joining the military is about lifestyle, so work up your fitness, watch your intake and the weight will come off. If you get too religious about the weight, you won't get fit enough.

And from experience, aim to be better than the minimum standards for fitness. If you're at the minimum, everything else is harder. If you're not struggling to hit the targets, then you have capacity to think about the other stuff more.

Hi, Im new here, but saw this post and thought Id give you my thoughts. I was in the British army myself in an airborne unit.
I am a fitness instructor now and from my experience. The army is focused on endurance rather than fat loss.

If you can run 20 miles with a weighted backpack, they won’t care how heavy or what your dimensions are.
If I was you, I would set get a solid all over body resistance workout going in the form of circuit training about 3 times per week and I would hit a steady state cardio session every single day.
This way, some days you will be training twice per day.
It may be hard at first, but after a few weeks of this you will start to get used to it. It is the consistency that will get you good results.

Diet wise, I would eat at least 4 times per day and lay off all sugary drinks and snacks. Sugar is in everything and it is a major “hidden” food that packs on weight.
I wouldn’t over complicate things with calculated diet formulas just yet, Get the basics right first and then you can start to tweek it.
I can help out more if you want, just give us a shout.
Good luck, would be good to hear how it goes
Jim

Actualy this part is incorrect "If you can run 20 miles with a weighted backpack, they won’t care how heavy or what your dimensions are." Now they tape your waist and loose points on your PT test depending on the size. If you fail 4x you get generally discharged. But the rest of your advice I can get on board with

My unit was at a very high fitness level so I guess I missed that. I do know that they had “remedial” PT for normal units though but I never heard of people getting discharged for being overweight.

That would light a fire under anyone who wanted to stay in. How long do they give you to lose the weight? Is it just in basic training?

(Sorry if this is a bit off topic but, just interested)

Its been a huge subject of controversy the past two years, when did you get out? The military put it into effect roughly 3 years ago and started enforcing it 2 years ago as a way to foreshape there moto is "get fit or get out" Soldiers that have 1/2 years till retirement are pissed because they are so close and now if they dont run fast enough, or their waste is too big they get discharged with no retirement. Regardless if you pass the fitness portion or not, you can run an 1133 mile 1/2 but have a 36" waist and you will fail. Now we have to PT test twice a year every six months, and squadron commanders who are being scolded for poor PT results in their unit have started inforcing mock PT tests EVRY MONTH!!! Can you believe it, so every month I have to be in shape to their standards...Alot of people have got out just because they are sick of it. To make matters worth, if you dont pass the mock PT test they reprimand you with LOCs/LORs and your supervisor is in charge of enforcing a weekly workout plan for you and making sure you follow it and pass the next mock test...if you fail the supervisor gets reprimanded for dereliction of duty. Its so rediculous

when did you get out?

He, and I, were Brit military. Our fitness tests are output based, rather than input based. If you pass the standards then you pass, regardless of your size. That said medicals are now putting people on remedial work for BMI, which is a bit meaningless.

...supervisor is in charge of enforcing a weekly workout plan for you and making sure you follow it and pass the next mock test...if you fail the supervisor gets reprimanded for dereliction of duty. Its so rediculous

So Chain of Command is being expected to exercise their command responsibilities, and if they don't then they are subject to action? Entirely correct IMHO, when one has a rank one should expect to fulfill the obligations of that rank.

And it doesn't sound like there is anything wrong with what you describe.

as someone technically in the Royal Navy reserves, this thread scares me :frown:

Very funny about only 45 minutes. Build up your exercise time gradually and if you are able to exercise longer than an hour go for it. Otherwise, 1 hour is the minimum. A lot can be said for lower your carb intake also. But what ever you do with your diet make sure it's something you can live with. Don't forget to drink water!! Drink at least 8 oz before each meal and when exercising drink 16oz before and after. good luck, you can do this.

Thanks for the info on the US. Its really interesting to learn, I had no clue of the changes, It does seem a bit harsh to me though. (I am a civvie now after all) :-)

The unit that I was in prety much left us incharge of our own fitness at troop level but we had no real regular tests, everyone had to pass "p coy" to get there and the mentality to push yourself just got better, the longer that you stayed with the sqn

The moment that you cant do your job because of your fitness level, you have a problem and you get kicked out of the squadron so I suppose its the same thing

I got out of the army about 6 years ago and only spent time in the squadron so Im out of touch with what goes on now.

Someone mentioned earlier that "If you only aim for the minimum requirments, you will find it hard", this certanly seems like good advice in light of the new rules rather than getting in and living in fear of losing your job.

That is what I was refering to in your post, as the standards are much different here in the US, so its easy to say there is nothing wrong with it, when you dont have to live by it.

Ok, understand what you mean now. My observations were around how CoC is managing the issue, but then I've come from an environment where BFT opportunities were held weekly and the officers were expected to attend, and pass well, every week.

Fwiw if the originator works on hitting the test performance standards she should find the measurements coming down anyway. Fwiw as far as training approach is concerned I know that TRADOC have been taking lessons from the modernisation of Brit and Aussi training over the last five years. Similarly USMC, USN and USAF have done the same.

I agree with you

Oh also I was told that you shouldn't go over 45 mins when exercising.. Is this true??

Yes, that's correct. That's why, in war, there are always recess breaks every 45 minutes.

Bottom line - you're eating too much. If it were me, I'd start logging all food intake, diligently, as the first step.

Love the humor here! :-) If it was me, I'd try the 5:2 lifestyle. Cut out all junk, lower the carbs, and yes logging for a few days will let you know where you are as far as calories.

^^^^ THIS

If you are logging everything correctly staying under 1200 is a no-no!

I would personally look at Eat More to Weigh Less as you will need the extra calories if you're going to intensify your workouts.