The U.S. Army’s desperate bid to bolster its ranks by bending its own body fat standards has hit a snag, according to a scathing February 18 report from the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General. The Army Future Soldier Preparatory Course, designed to whip recruits into shape within 90 days, is buckling under the weight of its own leniency—literally—allowing trainees far beyond acceptable fitness limits and risking their health in the process.
Launched by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASA[M&RA]), the program offers a lifeline to recruits who fall short of the Army’s baseline fitness requirements. Men can enlist with up to 26% body fat (6% above the standard 20%) and women up to 36% (8% above the standard 28%), with 90 days to shed the excess.
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But at the Army Training Center and Fort Jackson (ATC&FJ), where the initiative’s ARMS 2.0 pilot ran from February to May 2024, oversight crumbled. Of 1,181 trainees, 14%—163 individuals—exceeded even these relaxed thresholds, some ballooning as high as 19% over the limit.
The report pins much of the blame on Gen. Gary Brito, head of Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), who “unilaterally” bumped the allowable excess to 10% without authorization.
Meanwhile, ATC&FJ leadership let the floodgates open wider still, admitting recruits well beyond the ASA(M&RA)’s guardrails. Compounding the chaos, over a third of trainees arrived so overweight they were dismissed on the spot, clogging an already strained system.
The real kicker? Medical support couldn’t keep up.
Dieticians, tasked with guiding recruits to slim down, were stretched thin—some juggling 400 to 500 cases at once.
The Inspector General warned that rapid weight loss over 90 days, paired with “limited medical support,” could spell “adverse medical consequences”—including the risk of death. Internal memos from TRADOC’s Command Surgeon and ATC&FJ’s Medical Director flagged these dangers, yet the program churned on.
The Army’s fitness gamble stems from a deeper malaise: a years-long enlistment slump. From 2020 to 2024, the service consistently missed its targets, even as fiscal year 2024 saw a modest 12.5% uptick across the armed forces. The DOD paints a grim picture of a “disinterested” youth pool, with 77% of Americans unfit to serve without waivers due to obesity, per 2020 data. Against this backdrop, the Future Soldier Preparatory Course was billed as a lifeline—a chance to mold raw recruits into soldiers without watering down standards.
But the Inspector General’s findings suggest the cure might be worse than the disease. The report slams the program for compromising trainee safety and questions whether it’s even feasible to transform recruits this far out of shape in just three months.
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“Aggravating the issue with the lack of medical resources, ATC&FJ leadership allowed trainees into the program who didn’t meet the body fat percentage standards,” the report states, laying bare a disconnect between ambition and execution.
TRADOC didn’t duck the criticism. “We acknowledge the Department of Defense Inspector General’s report and are working diligently to implement their recommendations where applicable,” the command told the Daily Caller News Foundation. They’ve tapped the U.S. Army Audit Agency for a fresh review this quarter to clean up the mess. Still, TRADOC doubled down on its mission: “The FSPC was established to invest in America’s youth to overcome academic and physical fitness barriers… We remain committed to not lowering standards.”
That commitment rings hollow to some observers, who see the program’s lax enforcement as a de facto dilution of Army rigor. The tension reflects a broader dilemma: how to fill boots in an era when obesity is the norm, not the exception, without breaking the force’s backbone—its fitness ethos.
As the Army scrambles to recalibrate, the fallout could ripple beyond Fort Jackson. Lawmakers may scrutinize whether the Pentagon’s recruitment woes justify such risky experiments, while prospective soldiers weigh the odds of surviving the prep course intact. For now, the Future Soldier initiative shows that bending the rules to build an army might just break it instead.
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