Need to lose 2 inches on my waist by Dec 8

[userB8YZOECWEPA]

Im in the army and the body fat composition program is really bad. I can pass and meet the physical demands of all my tests, but they still hang on to the old ways of taping to deal whether you are “ In shape “ or not. I previously had to do some outrageous things to pass height and weight as I’m 5’11 268 at the moment. I’ve done sauna and stair master for about 2 hours a day. I really need help finding a better diet which right now is whatever I can afford since I don’t really make good money. Any and all helpful tips are greatly appreciated. Also my age isn’t 52 don’t know why it’s like that, I’m 24 years old

[Camarija]

Not going to happen brother.

Your obese weight probably has a daily maintenance around 2,500 or higher depending if you workout, but it seems unlikely, so for theory purposes lets stick with 2,500 caloroes a day.

A deficit of 3,500 calories is about 1 lb lost.

On average about 4 lbs lost is 1 inch lost around the waist.

You need to lose at least 8 lbs of body mass in 10 days.

In 10 days you would burn 25,000 calories.

If you ate NOTHING that would only be a bit over 7 lbs lost.

Even if you ate nothing for 10 days straight, I don't think it's physically possible to lose that much body mass.

And you cannot out exercise a bad diet.

So sorry brother, not happening.

[TolerantLactose]

The most I've ever lost in that kind of time frame was half an inch and I thought that was damn fast.

[EliKoehn]

I'm taller than you by a few inches and weigh a little bit less. I'm clearly somewhat overweight right now even by normal looks standards, but would still need to lose 25 or so pounds to look "fit," because I did at about 235, and am stronger now than I was then.

Nevertheless, I concur that the height-weight requirements in the military are annoyingly tunnel-visioned. 235 is still 20 pounds over most of the entry requirements for a 6'2" man. There are lots of 25-28% bodyfat people who are not strong at all and in relatively poor athletic shape weighing <215 lbs, and they're regarded as desirable candidates in spite of everything else, because it meets that one criterion.

At 240 pounds last year, I could run 10 continuous miles without lapsing into a walk, do several clean, full range of motion pullups, had faintly visible abs and maintained good strength across the board, calisthenics and otherwise. None of that matters to the bureaucracy of the military, though, and they'd still prefer to have an untrained 200 pound guy with a higher BF% as a member of the armed forces. It likely has more to do with the simplicity of uniformity and the lack of much loss from cutting all people out of the "above normal weight" pool, owing to the rarity of exception and the liability of the norm.

I scored in the 98th percentile on the AFOQT earlier this year but my application was thrown out the window because I exceeded their arbitrary weight limit in spite of any actual performance metric, runtime or otherwise, all of which means zilch if you're outside of their singular cookie-cutter criterion. Needless to say, that was demoralizing and very frustrating.

Of course, at 260 now it's not close and I followed that news up with complacency, so I doubt you're close, right now, but those standards are for people who don't seriously lift unless they are competition shape bodybuilders.

EDIT: Actually, if the Air Force just used waist/height instead of height/weight, my rant would be null.

[xsquid99]

Im in the army and the body fat composition program is really bad. I can pass and meet the physical demands of all my tests, but they still hang on to the old ways of taping to deal whether you are “ In shape “ or not. I previously had to do some outrageous things to pass height and weight as I’m 5’11 268 at the moment. I’ve done sauna and stair master for about 2 hours a day. I really need help finding a better diet which right now is whatever I can afford since I don’t really make good money. Any and all helpful tips are greatly appreciated. Also my age isn’t 52 don’t know why it’s like that, I’m 24 years old

I was is the Navy and it was the same deal with the measurements. But instead of trying to find a quick "just to pass" solution (which is not going to happen by 8 DEC) now is the time to find a long term solution to your obesity issues. I imagine failing your body fat test will result in some type of remediation exercise program, which I hate about the military because they think you can out-train a bad diet, which you can't. If they bothered to put more emphasis on diet they would probably have a lot more success with their weight challenged soldiers/sailors/airmen. A quick fix now will not only likely fail to get you into standards, but its not going to set you up for passing your next test in 6 months.

Generally you need to lose between 4-7 pounds of BODY FAT to lose an inch off your waist. Body fat is not the same as "scale weight", so don't think you can just go sweat out 5 pounds and lose an inch. Set up a goal calorie level (2500 is probably a very realistic number for you), get a food scale and a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal or something similar, and learn to count calories. The most important thing is consistency, yes you can have some days when you go over your limit, but if you only track calories for 4-5 days and then you blow it out on the weekends you're not going to see any long term success with weight loss. Eat primarily whole foods, staying away from ultra processed things like cookies, chips, candy, soda (zero calorie is fine), etc. Cut out or drastically reduce any alcohol intake, since those are not only empty calories (no nutritional value), but alcohol reduces your inhibitions and can lead to overeating.

Read this:

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=165843261

[air2fakie]

I imagine failing your body fat test will result in some type of remediation exercise program, which I hate about the military because they think you can out-train a bad diet, which you can't.

I thought everyone else except the one who fails has to do the remedial exercise.

[Camarija]

It likely has more to do with the simplicity of uniformity and the lack of much loss from cutting all people out of the "above normal weight" pool, owing to the rarity of exception and the liability of the norm.

My Mom's Father was a 6'3'' farmer and woodworker from a small German community in middle Missouri.

The day he joined he was 245 lbs.

Tested off the charts, and they made an exception for him.

They were looking for someone to join a special Army unit who could be the muscle to carry heavy equipment and protect the nerds when they went in.

This was back in the 60's, he told me they were the hypersonic weapons unit, mostly explosives.

Thought it was neat hypersonic weapons existed back then.

He passed away earlier this year.



I guess my point is, I think they should be able to make exceptions to the weight standards like they did my Grandfather.

[xsquid99]

I guess my point is, I think they should be able to make exceptions to the weight standards like they did my Grandfather.

They can/do, this is when they move to the tape test (neck and waist). If your neck/waist ratio meets a certain criteria then then weight requirement can be pretty drastically exceeded. My friend was nearly 50 pounds overweight throughout most of his career, but with a 19 inch neck he was always "within standards".