Programs hope to battle military obesity, retain troops

Tyndall Air Force Base has a program to help people lose weight

From Elizabeth Cohen
CNN Medical Correspondent

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida (CNN) -- America's armed forces are supposed to be a fit crowd.

So fit, in fact, that the military kicks out its members who become obese. Every year, some three to five thousand service members are fired because they're overweight.

Now that the military is short-staffed and begging for new recruits, some officers are working on ways to get people to slim up before they're shipped out.

"It's a shame to lose somebody that you've invested a lot of money in -- and it's their career as well -- simply because they can't meet these standards," said Lt. Col. Karl Freidl, an Army expert in weight loss issues. He said the military needs to provide some kind of obesity counseling or adopt new programs to combat the trend.

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There are trial programs that attempt to address the issue.

At Tyndall Air Force Base, near Panama City, Florida, dieticians started a multi-disciplinary weight loss program last year. Today, records show fewer people have been fired for failure to meet weight guidelines.

Air Force captain Amie Furlong said the key to the Tyndall program is a balanced lesson plan of low-fat grocery shopping and cooking, mixed with exercise classes. The people who run the obesity sessions focus on the positive, Furlong said, by acting "like cheerleaders for everyone."

Air Force Technical Sgt. Matthew Standish lost 22 pounds with Tyndall's program

The plan worked for Technical Sgt. Matthew Standish, who was about to be kicked out of the Air Force for being too fat until the new obesity sessions helped him lose 22 pounds in four months.

Today, Standish says he's happy to have saved his military career. Also, he's on the verge of buying a smaller sized uniform -- something he's "really happy about."

The Navy is doing something about obesity, too. Starting this year, one person in each naval unit will be specially trained in fitness and nutrition.

Naval officials said the idea is that when a ship or a submarine goes underway, the crew will have someone on board who understands how to exercise properly and follow a sound nutrition plan.

The Pentagon hopes pilot programs like these will help people shed pounds so that the U.S. military can keep staffs in tip-top shape.

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American Obesity Association
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Marines

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