Navy body composition study may finally settle tape test debate
By Hope Hodge Seck
Mar 13, 2025, 11:10 AM
Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Samuel Hill weighs Intelligence Specialist 3rd Class Nathan Perrin during body composition assessments aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln. (MCS Joey Sitter/Navy)
Later this year, the Navy plans to review results of a wide-ranging comparative test spanning two years and involving nearly 800 volunteers that may bring it — and perhaps the other services — closer to scientific consensus on the best way to measure body fat.
The default method of ensuring troops are within height and weight standards is the tape test — a simple and inexpensive way of measuring body fat circumference at key points and calculating body fat through a ratio equation.
But service members have long complained that the test can be inaccurate, as body builders and those with thinner necks tend to fare worse in these ratio-based calculations, and can sometimes improperly jeopardize military careers. Women, at least according to Marine Corps data, receive inaccurate body fat estimates far more often than men do.
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