Spc. Kumar Ramsarupe, assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, receives a height and weight assessment as part of the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command Best Squad Competition at Fort Polk, La., May 3, 2026. The Army on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, released its new waist-to-height ratio requirements. (Kai Servance-Smith/U.S. Army)
The Army on Tuesday released its new waist-to-height ratio requirements and ordered troops to get measured on the new standards within the next three months.
The service is the last to replace height-and-weight tables with the waist-to-height ratio after the Pentagon in December called for the change. The Army matched the 0.55 ratio called for in the Defense Department’s memo — as did the Navy and Air Force. The Marine Corps chose to go slimmer with a 0.52 ratio.
“This is about lethality and health,” said Sgt. Maj. Edgar Monsanto, deputy chief of staff in the Army personnel office’s Directorate of Prevention, Resilience and Readiness, in a statement. “We are adopting new metrics to ensure our soldiers are healthy and physically fit to fight and win.”
The new Army directive also removed past workarounds to body fat standards, such as the ability to score high enough on the physical fitness test to be exempt, and the ability to use alternative methods to assess body fat.
Troops will be measured twice a year, and meeting the ratio should keep them within the allotted body-fat standards between 18% and 26% for men and between 26% and 36% for women, as described in the Defense Department’s memo.
Any ratio above .55 will send the soldier to a new team for measuring within the same duty day. If the soldier still fails, the unit will place them into the Army’s remedial program and order a medical assessment.
Medical exemptions for pregnant and postpartum soldiers do remain in effect.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed the new directive July 1, and it is effective immediately upon its publication Tuesday. Troops have 90 days to record their measurements on the new standard.
“Units may initiate separation actions for a soldier flagged due to failure of the [Army Body Composition Program], but no soldier will be separated until an 180-day assessment is completed by [Department of the Army Headquarters] and further guidance is disseminated,” according to an explainer posted on the Army’s website Tuesday.
The directive also removed the requirement to designate a noncommissioned officer to run the program and called on commanders to directly oversee its execution and quality control.
The Army did not immediately respond to questions about the new directive. However, an explainer of the changes stated the ratio is a “more accurate health predictor.” The single calculation improves fairness and is simpler, according to the Army.
