ok, here's the problem. i'm 6'2, 255 lbs. I can run, push, sit-up and everything just fine, but i'm just larger. I get flagged all the time for being overweight, but in the real world, i'm not at all. I can do what everyone else does, but twice as well. I get told all kinds of names for being overweight but its not gonna change anything. I work out twice a day and I am on a full time diet of soup and salad, and meat every 3 days. in the gym, i'm light years, physically, ahead of everyone else. squats, bench, curls are all me working out with myself. no one can keep up in reps or weight. but i'm still way overweight to the army. Special pops is just a nicer workout for me. it doesn't affect me at all. i can run miles with sandbags and im still fine. i can do 1,000 pushups a day and its not too bad. i dont get sore at all. And yes, i drink a ton of water. Nothing but water. Water water water.
To make matters worse, I met someone, awhile back and she and I have become very serious. Probably married in the next year. We haven't really set a date, because they always change in the ARMY. but i am engaged and all that. She is a doctor and says that I am completely healthy. I can't pass tape or weight but I am healthy? she actually likes larger guys, so to her, i am perfect. to her, i don't need to lose any weight.
I joined the army for the money. money for college, money to travel, money for nice things and of course, money for my family. I take leave because my family is what drives me. They use that to dangle in front of me like "if you dont loss weight, we won't let you go on leave....." I'm at the point that either becoming anorexic or having liposuction are my only options left. my fiance hates to hear that they want me to be smaller, and i can see why.
i used to be hell bent on making Corporal and being a bad ass NCO, but now I just want to get these next few years over with so i can get out.

What do I do? I have 2 1/2 more years of this. Ya, i'm fresh out of AIT. in AIT, they were really into combatives, so i would do tear apart anyone that commented on my weight.

You may not necessarily find the answers you're looking for here because it's for spouses, but as somebody whose husband doesn't make weight and only passes tape ...

Has an NCO ever worked with you on the proportions necessary to pass tape - the exercises and whatnot that you can do? I would imagine that if you are all over muscle, then you don't have the proportions - what is it, neck to shoulders, or shoulders to waist? There are exercises that you can do to work with that, my husband's recruiter told him about them way back when. There's even an art to how you hold yourself when you're taped.

Also - working out with only weights in high reps/lbs is going to build bulk muscle - which is HEAVY! You may need to stick to a workout that uses your body for resistance like pushups, situps, etc because that builds leaner muscle (hence the reason girls love yoga, pilates, etc, it doesn't give them bulky muscle because it uses the body as resistance).

You are absolutely right that until you pass weight or a tape test they will not let you go on leave - been there done that with my husband's PT tests. Since that is the case, that means it's obvious that your command is aware of the situation. Ask an NCO to help you, or ask to go to a nutritionist (depending on where you're stationed there should be at least 1, we're a tiny post but we have 1 for everybody). It's certainly not impossible, but you may need some help figuring out what workout & diet (I can tell you right now the diet you're on is NOT healthy and isn't going to get you anywhere good fast) will best cater to your personal situation/size.

Good luck!

Are you saying that you eat every 3 days or 3 times a day??? Either way, for the amount of calories you're burning daily--neither diet plan is good for you. If you don't eat enough, your body eats YOU--sounds odd, but that is the truth.

Also, I concur with Allie in the bulk dept. Too high of weight will bulk you up, not slim you down. Heavy weights=bigger body. Low weight and high reps=slimming down.

Also concur with Allie---get your NCO or nutritionist involved. Despite what your fiance says, it's not them, it is indeed the Army and you. Army only slides or puts you in the infamous Fat Camp for so long (usually 6 months) before they'll chapter yer butt out. They gave my husband 6 months his first time around with the Army. Then he was chaptered with a RE3---not a good exit code.

First, you really need to follow the food pyramid.

Second, you actually are a little overweight. I understand that it could be from the muscle, my husband is all muscle and by charts he is oveweight but has a 6 pack. Taping though, he is fine. If you are not passing tape, then that's where the problem is. You do have to tone down some.

You need more cardio and lighter weights. It's not always about who is the strongest, especially when you are trying to loose weight. I would set up an appt with a nutrionalst like ABC said. They are going to be able to help you much more than a normal dr and any of us.

Good luck.

see, the thing is, being under the weight limit would mean i would have to go back to the weight i was in the 10th grade. i will go to a nutritionist as soon as i get back, but i know all about doing more reps and less weight. i have been working out since like the 9th grade. i'm just so shocked because when i was a civilian, at my old job, i was regarded as like this machine that could work faster than anyone else. its kinda shocking you, know? i have no desire to get kicked out, but really, fat camp doesnt really do anything for me. i can do an extra hour in the morning, and hit the gym at night with a few of my sargents everyday and i'm still the same. i count calories and have pretty much eliminated carbs. i probably take in 200 calories a day.
so i go back from leave in about 6 days. i'll just tell them, send me to a nutritionist.

What's wrong with being the weight you were in 10th grade? This may be a woman thing but damn I'd kill to have the body I did when I was 16. But regardless, you are not being told to lose weight, you're being told to re-distribute it to pass a tape test (tape has NOTHING to do with weight, it's about proportions of body parts. Furthermore, yes you may have been working out since the 9th grade but you still obviously are missing SOMETHING, due to the fact that you can't pass your tape test.

Anyways - you've been told 3 times now and you seemed to have missed it - YOUR DIET IS NOT HEALTHY. 200 calories a day plus working out (especially weight training) is not only not healthy, it is incredibly dangerous. Your body is in starvation mode, so even if you COULD lose weight, your body currently cannot. A man your size should be taking in 2000+ calories just to maintain weight, that wouldn't even put you at gaining. You definitely need to speak to a nutritionist before you make yourself sick or injure yourself during a workout.

I understand that a lot of this is a self esteem issue - it's one of those things men struggle with. You want to be the strongest, best, etc., and anybody telling you that you need to decrease in those areas is going to be difficult, especially when you've got a woman you're trying to impress. But screw the Army, your health is of utmost importance here, and what does it matter that you have a girlfriend who loves you and likes the way you look if you're going to pass out and crack your head open on some iron and die in the gym because you don't have enough physical sustenance to support your exercising. She needs you to be healthy so that you can be around in the future!! So put your body "issues" aside and go talk to that nutritionist ASAP!

So, since I don't know your age, you should be at 201-214. That's about 50lbs you're being required to lose...

Here's the thing: you're stuck in a civilian mindset still. It's not about "my civilian job" or "in the civilian world" any more. You're now a service member. You've GOT to get out of the comparison between the two, because quite frankly: there IS no comparison.

Secondly: your diet is crap. 200 calories a day?!!? There's NO WAY you can lose weight or even maintain at 200 calories a day for very long. You're starving your body--pure and simple. So everything you're taking in is being converted to fat. That's all there is to it.
Your body NEEDS carbs. Carbs convert to energy.
Your body needs protein, carbs, fats, and sugars, and you get those by eating a variety of foods: lean meats (think chicken and pork), seafood, breads (whole grains only), veggies, fruits. All of this is required to make the machine work properly.
Think of the body as a machine....a high performance car. It needs oil, water, fluids...all those things make the vehicle run smoothly and efficiently. Let the oil get low or tranny fluid get low and what happens: it breaks down. By not feeding your body properly to run efficiently, it WILL break down. It's just a matter of time before that happens.

Do as you said: get to the nutritionist when you get a chance. You can even ask your 1SGT to go during the day. They'll be happy to send you over there when you explain your dilemma.

Good luck!

You saw starvation mode mentioned a couple of times in here. When you deny your body the proper amount of nutrition, it assumes that food might not be coming so it converts everything it can to storage for later use when the food isn't there. That storage is fat. You would probably start losing weight if you started eating more because your body wouldn't think that it needed to store this energy.

Ditto the rest...go see the nutritionist and listen to him/her.

I know as a women I am not allowed to go under 1200 calories because it will put me into starvation mode. For a man it is higher, maybe 1500 because you guys are allowed 300 more a day just becuase your male. The amount of calories you eat now, is like eating just a sandwich a day. That is FAR from healthy.

I will say this again, you NEEEEED to follow the food pyramid. They didn't make that thing up for now reason. That includes carbs. And lay off the protein shakes or anything else like that. Your body needs real food, not chemicals. LOTS and LOTS of fresh fruits and vegetables to help get it going again with out all the extra fats that some carbs and meat have. But really a nutrionalist will help you more than you can imagine. And try and listen to him/her. They know what they are talking about.

Have you had your body fat measured?

And I agree with everyone else, you really need to start eating more calories. If you work out like you say you do, you probably need 10 times what you are currently consuming. My husband does 1-2 hrs of pt every day, is over the weight limit because of muscle and bone structure, needs at least 3000 calories per day, and is not over fat by any stretch.

well, in my defense the diet has been working. i was a big 275 lbs after we got back from the field. i lost 20 lbs. i did make tape last time, but it was just barely. i have this ability to flex my neck to 19 1/2 inches, so its my only savior. in addition, i don't drink anything but water. i eat salad without dressing. i eat chicken noodle soup.
the thing is, i dont look bad. i dont look like over weight. when i was in the overweight program, i was the only person that didn't have a problem with anything we did. i actually asked my sargents if i could stay on the overweight diet that way i could get the extra workout, but after i passed my tape, they told me i had to come off of it.
i am home on leave right now. i will be headed back in 6 days.

Husband was mentioning to me earlier that the soup/salad/meat diet you're on is actually called The Heart Diet....it's for people who don't/can't exercise at all--sounds like I'll be doing that one after my surgery. lol...
But seriously, when I told him about you, first words out of his lips: he's starving! His body will not burn anything because it's too busy trying to save its self.

While I do not advocate starving yourself, I have personally found that if you eat less for a little while, your stomach shrinks and then you are not as hungry as much as you used to be and you also can't eat the same amount as you used to. So don't starve yourself, but make sure you are getting proper portions. 1 serving of meat is supposed to be the size of a stack of cards, but if you go to most restaurants and order a steak, you get something much larger than that.

I appreciate your dilemma, my DH actually had a similar problem where he could do more pushups than everyone in his squad and he does PT everyday in addition to going to the gym, but at one point in time he had trouble passing his tape test as well. Personally, I think the system is a little unfair because there is another guy in his squad who is honestly just chunky and he could pass his tape test because he had a thicker neck. My only advice is to try and do neck exercises to bulk up your neck and anything that will help flatten your stomach/love handle area. I hope you can figure something out!

Let me say I feel for you. My husband has the same problem. He has always been a big guy. In shape and healthy but considered overweight by the military's standards.

First of all he likes to eat! He can eat with the best of them. But he likes to eat healthy with his occasional "bad" days. He is a meat and potatoes guys but he makes sure to eat his veggies and he loves fruit! But he also goes to the gym pretty much everyday. He calls it his "happy place". A few days without the gym and he gets grumpy! He's not the best runner in his company but the rest of his PT test he can blow everyone else out of the water. He's the go to guy for the heavy lifting and physical intimidation when needed...lol. His nickname is Smash :-)

For him, he's had to figure out to proportion his body. He knows he won't ever pass the weight standard but as long as he has the correct proportions he passes the taping. And it doesn't always work as planned...there are times he's been taped and he'd been working out extra hard for some reason and he doesn't pass. For the last school he attended he had to get his battalion CO and battalion SgtMjr's approval to go because he was overweight and over body fat by military standards. I can't tell you how many times he's had to put on his chucks and has been put to the "military appereance" test.

I definately agree with the advice you've been given about seeing a nutritionist and also working on different exercises. I hope things work out for you!