Nearly seven out of 10 US service members are considered either overweight or obese — which may compromise the nation’s military readiness and undermine national security, according to a new wide-ranging study.
The American Security Project, a Washington-based nonprofit, found that 68% of US troops qualified as either “overweight” or “obese” under the Body Mass Index, which takes into account a person’s age, height and weight.
It also determined that the number of troops in the “obese” category have more than doubled over the course of the past decade — from 10.4% in 2012, to 21.6% last year.