Posts Tagged ‘obesity in the military’

A Festival of Fat Shaming in Political News This Week

October 3, 2025 — “The Hegseth hypocrisy: Fat-shaming top generals in land of McDonald Trump.” That headline delivers the essence of fat shaming in the week’s political news. It started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and quickly spread to detractors of the administration. Hegseth explained that he can’t stand the sight of fat people in the military: “Frankly, it’s […]

Can We Stop Judging People on Their Weight?

April 25, 2025 — It’s back. Weight talk about the U.S. President has returned, with reporters judging whether President Donald Trump’s reduced weight came “the hard way” or with “help.” The Daily Beast writes: “In the White House, there are whispers that the new slimline Trump used a little pharmaceutical help to lose 20 lbs since his last presidential […]

Military Readiness at Every Size?

August 7, 2024 — The U.S. military has a problem with obesity and frankly has no clue of how to deal with it. The prevalence of obesity in the population has grown so that the services cannot run from the problem. Simply expelling service members because of their size no longer works to maintain military readiness. The supply of […]

The Military Has Gotten No Exemption from Obesity

December 20, 2023 — Military service in the U.S. has mostly dealt with obesity in a pretty simple way. Keep it out has been the overarching strategy. Every branch of service has different standards, but the fact is that obesity disqualifies many otherwise eligible recruits. For example, a male of average height (5’9″) cannot meet U.S. Army height and […]

Discipline Doesn’t Prevent Obesity in the Military

June 28, 2016 — We sometimes hear from people who should know better that obesity results from a failure of self-discipline. It’s a conviction that’s hard to shake. But a new study in Obesity finds a rising rate of obesity in one of the most highly disciplined populations in the world: the U.S. military. Clearly, discipline does not protect people […]