# Body Fat



## hoote (27 Oct 2004)

Hello everyone. 
In order to do well in basic and in the infantry (officer), does one need to be rid of almost all his/her excess fat?  I am 5'8" and 212 pounds.  I want and can lose another 30-40 but was wondering if I keep running and doing my strength training (can do 30 pushups and 50+ situps), can I just sit back and let the fat come off slowly or should I really being pushing hard to get that excess fat off in time for basic next september.  

Does anyone know of anyone who was a bit chubby who did well or do all chubbies fall behind.  

      (Now where did I put that donut... ;D)


Thanks!


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## Gouki (27 Oct 2004)

I can't directly answer your question if overweight people can do well because I don't have that experience, but I can for certain say that exercise and such is only half the battle. 

With exercise and a bad diet, you'll neither gain nor lose fat.
With no exercise but a good diet, you'll neither gain nor lose fat.

See a pattern? You didn't mention diet, so I wanted to point out that a clean diet is half the battle in losing fat and that you can never successfully do it if you don't eat right.

Since you mentioned basic next september (that far off? whats up with that?) there is no need to rush. You can easily accomplish a body transformation in that period of time if you are consistent (the most important thing of all), eat cleanly and exercise intensely and smartly.


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## hoote (27 Oct 2004)

The next BOTC is September 05 since I don't have my application in yet.  The board will meet again in May and then the BOTC is in Sept after that.  I missed the November board meeting so I can't do the January BOTC.

Thanks for the input.  I know all about the diet thing, that's the hardest part.  I lost a lot in the beginning few weeks, now I am just on a plateau.  Apparently (according to Dr. PHil), this is a physiological thing when the body adjusts to losing fat and slows it down thinking I am going to starve to death.  He said that once my body realizes I am not starving and that the diet and exercise thing are here to stay, it will begin to let the fat go again.  ANyone see "the biggest loser" reality show last night?  Same thing happened to them.  Really fat people (like 300 pounds) lost 20 pounds in the first week, then the next week they only lost a few (some even gained a few).   Well, I am going on and on here. :


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## EasyCo (28 Oct 2004)

Excuse my ignorance.  BOTC?


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## NavyGrunt (28 Oct 2004)

Basic Officer training course before that stuff gets out of hand.

Now. Id go as far as to say diet is 80 percent of the battle. As an officer you are expected to be a leader, and if your huffin and puffin' no matter how great a leader you are the guys are gonna have a hard time following a chubbie. 'Specially when you are brand new. Maybe 10 years into your career it wont be AS important(it'll still get some flack though) but when you are young you should try and be fit and trim and ready to win.

Do it for yourself first and foremost though. Nobody wants to look like a dick in the uniform....

Cheers,

Aaron


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## axeman (28 Oct 2004)

I was 16 years in the army and Ive always been heavy set never the fastest but always finish . Ive seen the skinny guys finish fast but there are time that when you need the extra oomph , there time the extra mass Ive hauled around has helped. Ive never really need much help moving 45 gallon drums. Ive loaded / handled dummy toboggan loads by myself as an infanteer its keep yourself in shape . I'm in shape ...  pear is a shape ........ but seriously if your fit your in shape . but if your not able to do these things your able to do   your not fit or in shape .


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## NavyGrunt (28 Oct 2004)

ARMYboi69 said:
			
		

> *NEVER STOP WORKING OUT WHEN YOU'RE DIETING*
> 
> When you're dieting you will usually have less energy, but the worst thing to do is stop exercising.   When you go onto a diet your body will go into a sort of shock mode, and it will want to conserve whatever it can to stay alive.   To make more room for what it has to conserve it has to get rid of something it doesn't so, since Muscle is lighter then fat, you get rid of your muscle instead of fat!!!




You really need to stop posting about things you have no idea about. First off proper dieting never shocks the system. Thats called crash dieting. Proper dieting is a gradual reduction in calories. You figure out at what intake you neither gain nor lose and then you reduce by 500 cals a day. If you still lose minus 200 more.

Secondly muscle is waaaaaay denser than fat and there for what you said is incorrect. Im not even really sure what you were getting at since a pound is always a pound.... The board looks down on bunk advice. Maybe you should read for a bit and not be so quick to reply and make stuff up. You're welcome to be here and learn, and share your opinion....but keep the "stories" to yourself.


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## Gouki (29 Oct 2004)

Do not listen to armyboi69.. as Aaron pointed out he doesn't know too much about what he is talking about as muscle has much more mass/weight to it than fat does. It muscle weighed less than fat, you'd have guys like Flex Wheeler or Lee Priest weighing in at 160 lbs which is totally hilarious.

Second, his explanation makes no sense whatsoever. Because its lighter the body gets rid of it? No.

The real reason is because your body gets catabolic, which basically means it will consume itself to survive. Muscle is protein rich and has more nutrients than just fat has, so if you starve yourself your body begins to feed off it's muscles in order to make ends meet so to speak.

The only thing he was right about was not stopping the exercising when dieting, cause as I pointed out it's kind of a two pronged approach: diet and exercise combined.

And another wrong thing was how your body enters shock when dieting. This is partially true: your body does get somewhat shocked if you begin off by dropping 500 calories from your daily intake or so, but not to the point of catabolism. If you eat right that is, because you can either eat 2000 cals of junk or good stuff and it will make or break you, so if you eat good clean foods while cutting by 500 cals, you won't really feel an energy loss. Quite the contrary, if you diet properly you should feel cleaner and more energetic.

Just wanted to clear up this misinformation..


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