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“There is a problem,” said Scott Taylor, editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps, an independent Canadian military magazine.

You’re going to get guys taking the bus and eating pizza

Taylor, a former infantryman, says that Canadian combat troops are extremely fit but that there are relatively few of them in the Canadian military. “We’ve got one of the worst ratios of headquarters to combat units anywhere,” he said. And it’s at headquarters in Ottawa, he said, that “you’re going to get guys taking the bus and eating pizza.” Taylor says the Canadian military is so top-heavy that there are now more personnel in Ottawa headquarters than there are in all of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Because it’s an all-volunteer force, the Canadian military is worried about retention, so it has trouble enforcing fitness standards for aging members and has even given up on fitness standards for recruits. Instead, Taylor says, it will send recruits who aren’t fit enough to what he calls “the fat farm,” a special program to get newcomers up to standard before they start basic training.

Arya Sharma, an obesity expert at the University of Alberta who has worked with the Canadian Armed Forces, says that what’s happening with Canadian soldiers is indicative of the weight problems affecting the population at large, noting that many soldiers have desk jobs or other sedentary positions.

He also says that BMI can be a poor indicator of excess weight because some people have a high BMI because of muscle mass. “You can be big and healthy,” he said. And he noted that members can be in stressful jobs, have a lot of shift work and, in some cases, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, all of which can contribute to weight gain.

Malcolm said the Canadian Armed Forces are improving on healthy food options in military cafeterias and aboard ships and trying to make physical fitness part of the daily routine. But, he adds, “behavioral change is a challenge.”