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You really cannot burn it off. Staying in shape is 90% diet.
Our food is so loaded with calories. One cheeseburger will negate that like three full on games of soccer, or even ice hockey. And normal people can only play for so long before needing to rest.
Pro athletes like Michael Phelps literally swims all day. They consume a lot of food. I doubt anyone in the Navy can exercise as much a professional athlete especially if they serve on ships.
That said, loads of Navy personnel spend a lot of time off ships.
They could eliminate sodas and snacks vending machines from ships. That would be a start. While some ships have a full gym complete with free weights and cardio equipment, smaller ships are more limited in exercise. In rough seas you can’t do many traditional exercises. Some of us learned to perform body weight exercises while on watch. Some jobs on the ship results in extremely limited amount of sleep when at sea. However once the ship has returned to home port then the excuses for not exercising is greatly reduced. Many Navy bases offer full gyms, jogging/walking paths, and sports programs. Some smaller bases don’t offer much in the way of recreational activities. I wonder how much alcoholism plays a part.
I realize some Navy ratings require more fitness, but in general being in shape isn't a priority. When I was in the fleet all we did was work, sleep, and eat crappy foods.
It can a bit more than that in that the Navy is about ships and one of the defences against sea sickness is to eat, not have an empty tummy.
Add to it that running laps on a pitching deck is murder on the legs.
Now, admittedly, it could be attitude as well. I remember when Physical Fitness Coordinator program first came out. They gave it to me because I was an athlete.......and the shi**y little jobs officer. No one else wanted to do it and it fell to me.
A and B. A: Getting people to run on shore, especially other officers, was like pulling teeth.
B: "Fat boy" running took place about 10 minutes after reveille. I was a fruit bowl eater, so I skipped breakfast in the wardroom regularly. By that time, I was essentially working for the XO. He was dismayed that after the morning run, and a shower, that I was still sweating out my uniform. To me, that was a sign of fitness but to him, he wouldn't allow me to appear infront of anyone until I stopped sweating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NJ Brazen_3133
........Pro athletes like Michael Phelps literally swims all day. They consume a lot of food. I doubt anyone in the Navy can exercise as much a professional athlete especially if they serve on ships.
Assigned to the ship as the PFT coordinator, when we were in port, I would get up around 3 or 4 and then run my miles in the dark. Then when I got to the ship for the "fat boy" squad, I did their miles with them. I wasn't a particularly fast runner but the miles I did with the ship were a lot slower than what I ran at. I was often running in place next to them.
Got compliments at time. I remember running on the base for my miles, there breathing like a horse through my nose, and went by two sailors to hear....."I wish I could breath like that.".
And then at a hail and farewell, I ordered this plate of nachos and the XO, not the one above, commented, "Well, if you are running ten miles a day, you can eat like that!".
I realize some Navy ratings require more fitness, but in general being in shape isn't a priority. When I was in the fleet all we did was work, sleep, and eat crappy foods.
On a Submarine, it can be a challenge to stay fit when deployed - there is a meal every 6 hours because many are on 18 hour days (6 hrs watch, 6 hrs sleep and 6 hrs qualification and other tasks like working out) due to small crew size and you may be awake for all of them. There are no free weights or exercise machines that make noise allowed so remain as quiet as possible and obviously, you can't run around on the deck since under water.
That said, there are many who work out regularly and most were reasonably fit. We even had a nationally ranked marathoner on board; one deployment, he ran in place so long that he bent a deck plate onto some control equipement.
I've just been to one Navy base and that was quite a while back when the Army sent me to Master Fitness Trainer School. Great school, but it was held at Naval Air Station Oceana for whatever reasons the military has for such items.
All my classmates of course were fairly serious fitness nuts, myself included. We were amazed at the big boys we saw all around us. Amazed.
But really the Army and Marines are fighting services, the Navy and Air Force are services that fight with machines for the most part. One AF guy long ago told me "The Air Force isn't a fighting service." And in fact it's the officers who do most of their fighting.
[Heresy flag on] Then there's that dratted government approved "food pyramid" that is actually contrary to health.
The removal of fat from the diet was based on bogus research, and now we're suffering from it.
Carb-Loaded, a film
. . . You can be trim and fit, but slowly dying from carbs . . . https://youtu.be/lBb5TFxj1S0
>> Americans are victims of a public policy and propaganda campaign that resulted in a change in diet, a rise in sickness and disease, and an increased burden. <<
FAT is not the bad guy. Never was.
CARBS (refined) are the problem.
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles...-you-after-all
[R]esearchers wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine, that the sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to downplay links between sugar and heart disease, and instead play up the emerging science about saturated fat as a more likely contributor to heart disease problems than sugar.
. . . [expletive deleted!] . . .
There are essential proteins.
There are essential fatty acids (fat).
There are no “essential” carbohydrates.
FAT IS HEALTHY http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...olesterol.aspx
The latest science suggests healthy fats (saturated and unsaturated fats from whole food, animal, and plant sources) should comprise anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of your overall energy intake.
"There has never been solid evidence for the idea that these [saturated] fats cause disease. We only believe this to be the case because nutrition policy has been derailed over the past half-century by a mixture of personal ambition, bad science, politics, and bias."
I live in a Navy town. Never saw anyone in a Navy uniform I would consider overweight.
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