Hegseth: US Military Will Be 'Fit Not Fat'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Friday that US military personnel will be "Fit Not Fat."

Hegseth reposted the cover of a report in Military Times that said "two-thirds of reserve troops are overweight."

Hegseth made it clear, that won’t work. "Completely unacceptable. This is what happens when standards are IGNORED - and this is what we are changing. REAL fitness & weight standards are here. We will be FIT, not FAT."

The Times reported on a baseline study published by the American Security Project (ASP). The short ASP study pointed out that the primary statistic on reservists who are overweight is an estimate based on trends from the last verified data. "As of the latest data published in 2018, about 65% of reserve component personnel are overweight or have obesity," the study said. "Based on recent data on active component body composition trends, ASP researchers estimate that this number is now nearly 68%."

All U.S. military service branches and reserve commands have personnel fitness requirements. There are even civilian training programs like Mountain Tactical Institute geared toward helping people meet those benchmarks to boost their chances of being accepted into a branch of the service.

In mid-March, Secretary Hegseth ordered a full review of military fitness standards and, more importantly, soldiers meeting the standards. Hegseth wrote in a related Pentagon memo, "We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world's most lethal and effective fighting force."

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