I won't diet for my country.

[Amp34]

I haven't seen a BMI scale used since I joined, as you said it is largely irrelevant and some of the fittest people are indeed classed as 'obese'

That's because it's designed for the average person that does the average amount of exercise, not marines or Gym rats... Unfortunately on this forum most people still insist they are in the latter categories even though their idea of exercise is moving their mouse and getting beer from the fridge...

 

[shiver]

My brother is in the Royal Marines. He was nowhere near unfit before he joined but he went through a massive transformation during the training period. He's maintained that.

I definitely don't think fitness is on a back seat for them. A lot of them smoke like chimneys though!

 

[Energize]

I used to be a prison officer, plenty of fatties there even with an annual fitness test! Mind you a one legged chimp could get to 5.4 on the beep test which was the standard, lol even if you were in the riot squad it was only 7.2

Shocking, it should be at least 12 to be in any kind of police or military service.

 

[RetiredGreyFox]

WILL SOMEBODY THINK OF THE IDIOTS?

I've got some idea what you may be on about when talking about 5.4, 9.1 and 12 (is it running between two points that make a ding?) but somebody explain the scale please.

 

[Begbie]

WILL SOMEBODY THINK OF THE IDIOTS?

I've got some idea what you may be on about when talking about 5.4, 9.1 and 12 (is it running between two points that make a ding?) but somebody explain the scale please.

The bleep test (British Military anyway, it can alter at times) is 20M point to point. It will bleep at each interval in which you must touch the line. So will bleep at 1 and then 1.1 and so on. It is based so each level is roughly the same amount of time, meaning the higher levels have 12 parts with the lower 10.

It speeds up each time meaning by about level 9 your kind of 'sprinting'. It feels like you are, but I don't think it's that fast.


http://www.topendsports.com/testing/beep-table.htm#

 

[touch]

That's because it's designed for the average person that does the average amount of exercise, not marines or Gym rats... Unfortunately on this forum most people still insist they are in the latter categories even though their idea of exercise is moving their mouse and getting beer from the fridge...

Even still, it doesnt measure 'fitness'.
I'm overweight on a BMI scale and I cant use the "muscle is heavy innit" excuse. The rest of my family are very skinny. My mum and dad are both right at the lower end of the scale and my brother is into the underweight category.
I'm far fitter than all of them though.
Weight isnt directly related to fitness, it's just a function of input vs output.

 

["andy"]

if they are not on the frontline then is not being fat really important ?

surely whoever is best at the job is better than someone whos the 'right' weight.

 

[Josh]

Yeah it's laughable it's not even a run as far as I'm concerned it's a quick warmup!

Even a prison service pti only needs lol 10

I know loads of people who were medically retired after failing at 5.4 ridiculous

I saw a female officer fail at 3.2! That's not even a fast walk, when she looked for sympathy after I'd done the 7.2 I told her I never wanted to work with her.

Some backup aye, shocking. It got worse when I left, if you fail twice you get to do the test on a treadmill or bike. Jesus

 

[Kronos]

if they are not on the frontline then is not being fat really important ?

surely whoever is best at the job is better than someone whos the 'right' weight.

I would imagine in an all out war then these people may well find themselves on the frontline and if they are too fat or unfit then they become a liability to everyone.

 

[Zefan]

Can confirm, RAF is embarrassing. Like has been said, one can do absolutely no fitness for the year and still pass it really. The place I work is small so although we have a lot of failures I don't think it is particularly representative of the bulk of the armed forces. I blame a large proportion of the failures throughout the military on the downright dangerous drinking culture.

 

[tom_e]

if they are not on the frontline then is not being fat really important ?

surely whoever is best at the job is better than someone whos the 'right' weight.

Every soldier is a soldier first and foremost, therefore they should be able to pick up and run with frontline duties to at least a basic standard whether they signed up to spend their life being a REMF or not.

 

[wordy]

When I was in the navy I remember quite a few people used to fail their annual fitness test so that doesn't surprise me. I could do no CV over the entire year and still pass it on the day without issue but I guess it depends what branch you are in.

Annual fitness test.... Wait, what?! I was in 1993-1999 and don't remember 1 annual fitness test. I always thought it as personal pride though, if you're going to put on an armed forces uniform you should be in good enough shape to wear it.

However I spent time on the swimming team and the PTI's on the ships I was drafted to knew it so I was expected to train during lunch and do dog watch phys.

 

[Kronos]

Annual fitness test.... Wait, what?! I was in 1993-1999 and don't remember 1 annual fitness test. I always thought it as personal pride though, if you're going to put on an armed forces uniform you should be in good enough shape to wear it.

However I spent time on the swimming team and the PTI's on the ships I was drafted to knew it so I was expected to train during lunch and do dog watch phys.

I did not have annual fitness teats either (1970's) but as you say personal pride was a factor. I used to jog a few miles when on leave, long before it became the fashionable thing to do, to keep up my fitness levels.

 

[gettothechopper]

in my experience most forces people are very into their own fitness etc (see Op MASSIVE)

you do meet tubbier ones, they tend to be the "spend their whole lives in the forces at a lower rank" type people who like their daily duff (sometimes double duff!) and shirking work / responsibility (40 year old Navy leading hands im looking at you )

 

[tom_e]

I've got a mate in the int corp and on his first tour of Afgan he went out with every intention of getting on Op MASSIVE.
This quickly turned into Op Oooo they've got Pizza Hut on base!

 

[gettothechopper]

that pizza hut was the only thing that gave me the runs lol

blue px had better pizza!


edit : actually a lot of the problem is that the diet available for you is designed for your Inf guy who has been out on patrol with a 50kg pack all day in 40 degree heat and so needs the calories to keep going - as a guy in camp who sits around a lot you have to be pretty careful not to get tubby

 

[Kronos]

edit : actually a lot of the problem is that the diet available for you is designed for your Inf guy who has been out on patrol with a 50kg pack all day in 40 degree heat and so needs the calories to keep going - as a guy in camp who sits around a lot you have to be pretty careful not to get tubby

A very valid point . I used to eat loads but I was charging about Dartmoor and the like so pretty much burned off everything I consumed. Drank and smoked also with little effect. Not the same these days. Not that I smoke or drink or have much weight to worry about.

 

[wordy]

A very valid point . I used to eat loads but I was charging about Dartmoor and the like so pretty much burned off everything I consumed. Drank and smoked also with little effect. Not the same these days. Not that I smoke or drink or have much weight to worry about.

Another valid point is the slop the cooks (used to, dunno if it's still as bad) churn out is disgusting. High fat, poorly cooked crap, especially on board. So naturally the lads end up living on crap from the naafi and takeaways, as pork chops with all the meat removed and fat left on, veg that's been boiled into mush and potatoes that are hard enough to be used as 4.5" amuntion aren't appealing to anyone, even the cokcroaches used to leave that ****.