As described in the recently revised Department of Defense (DOD) Physical Fitness and Body Fat Program Procedures (DOD, 2002), the four components of fitness assessment are: (1) aerobic capacity, (2) muscular strength, (3) muscle endurance, and (4) body composition, which is influenced by other measures of fitness. One of the considerations most relevant to the issue of fitness in the military is how fitness should be assessed. However, the likelihood of overnutrition leading to overweight and obesity and increases in inactivity have raised new concerns about the impact of fatness on health and military performance. Advances in health care and improved nutrition over the past 75 years have resulted in increases in mean height, weight, and fat-free mass of soldiers. Prior to the Korean Conflict, these standards were used primarily to exclude underweight candidates. These data were later published in Statistics, Medical and Anthropological (1875, as reported by Love et al., 1958). Baxter, chief medical officer in the Office of the Provost Marshall General (Johnson, 1997). Anthropometric measurements of Civil War draft recruits were collected at the end of the war by Colonel Jedediah H. military were created during the Civil War. The first height and weight tables for the U.S. Weight-for-height has been used as a key measure of a potential recruit's fitness for military service for almost 150 years.

The idea of a strong, trim military soldier is certainly not a new concept. The primary purpose of fitness and body composition standards in the military has always been to select soldiers best suited to the physical demands of military service, based on the assumption that proper body weight supports good health, physical readiness, and appropriate military appearance.

Us army body fat calculator