I am considering going into the Military. I have heard as of late (because of the government cutbacks) that the recruiters are being very strict on the height/weight ratio. I am only 6'0 so the heaviest "average" is 186. That's a joke.

I have a very large frame and carry a lot of natural muscle - I'm currently 242 lbs. so almost 40 lbs over where the chart says I'm supposed to be. Although, I'm in very good shape. I can meet all the physical requirements easily (2 miles, push-ups, sit ups).

So my question to you guys is - is my weight (even though it's carried well) going to be a problem?

I can only tell you about the Army, so if you mean one of the others ignore the following:

The Army doesn't care how heavy you are. If you are over the "allowed" weight, you will be subjected to the most inaccurate body fat assessment you can imagine. Your waist and your neck will be measured. The numbers will be thrown into a cauldron with an eye of newt and some sugar-free Monster, and a number will be returned that the Army thinks is your body fat percentage. As long as you are below that percentage, nobody cares.

It's like 25% for ages up to 25, and it goes up from there. Think about that. A full quarter of you can be fat (according to the aforementioned rubric) and the Army thinks that's neat. But, you don't "officially" have to meet this standard until the end of basic training.

I would bet that you'll be fine.

can you play linebacker

ABAT - I did in college about 15 pounds ago. I was a thumper in the middle at 257. Pass coverage sucked though. So no, eligibility is up!

Tango - that's what I was looking for! Thank you, my friend. I'm looking into Special Forces. I appreciate your help.

Regarding the Army's BF measurements, you can actually be way of 25%, but as long as you have a fat neck, relative to your waist, you'll be fine. Or if you don't have a fat neck, as long as you don't have an overly huge gut, you'll be fine.

Where'd you play?

I loved Tango Mike's description of the process.

What you'll want to read cover to cover is AR 600-9. It looks like there were some changes a few months ago. I can't access the document but Google comes up with this link.
http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r600_9.pdf

From the perspective of somebody who was a frequent flyer with the weight control program, I can tell you that if you're above the screen weight it sucks. I'm 6'2" so my screen weight was 206 lbs from age 21-27 and then it went up to 211 at age 28.

When I graduated, commissioned, etc. at age 23, I weighed exactly 202 lbs. My neck was reasonably large 17-18 inch range but my gut was/is and always haws been massive.

So, I was always weighing in and then getting my waist and neck measured. Then waiting for some voodoo calculations to come back to let me know if I was a fatass or not.

If you're super workout guy and that's always going to be part of your life, you'll be fine. But, if you get distracted, lazy, de-motivated, or just plain hate working out and dieting, this will become a chronic hassle.

So the height-weight is one part of it. How is your running?

Take a look at the Army Physical Fitness Test and see how your performance would score. You'll want to be capable of achieving 80-90 points in each event (or higher if you can) and maybe 100 points in one event (yeah, of course ideally 100 points in all events). A lot of people can do well in 2 of 3 events but might have problems with one event. While you might be able to knock out 90 push-ups in 2 minutes can you also run a mile in less than 7 minutes? You probably already checked it out but here are the details on what you need to score in each event.
http://usarmybasic.com/army-physical-fitness/apft-standards

It kind of sucks but, your performance on the APFT and your height/weight situation will be a portion of your leadership evaluation. I'm not here to debate the merits of this system, I just want to make you aware that this is something you need to consider.

Just remembered that I wanted to mention that I had one soldier who was ridiculously fat but... he was really old and his head was fused to his shoulders. I think this guy's neck measurement was something like 24 inches. He looked terrible but had no problems taping out on the Army's body fat calculations.

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Just remembered that I wanted to mention that I had one soldier who was ridiculously fat but... he was really old and his head was fused to his shoulders. I think this guy's neck measurement was something like 24 inches. He looked terrible but had no problems taping out on the Army's body fat calculations.

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There was a MSgt who was the recruiter instructor at the station where I was assigned in 1994 who was the same way. He looked terrible. To give you a better idea of what he looked like picture Gru (complete with the nose) from Despicable Me wearing a khaki shirt and blue trousers with a strip down the side.



As luck would have it, he went for his five year physical exam and the doctor took one look at him and started palpating his neck and ordered exploratory surgery. Come to find out, Top had massive (but non-malignant) tumors on his thyroid which had made the girth of his neck grow to those ridiculous dimension. The tumors were successfully removed and after the swelling abated he had a neck skinnier than Shelly Duvall's. He decided it was time to retire before he had to face the tape again.