Dishing out the fitness tracker is all part of the plan to get the army fighting fit
Fitbit’s fitness trackers are being handed out to British soldiers in the hope that it will help them lose weight and avoid being thrown out of the army for carrying too much timber.
We don’t know whether troops are being given a new Charge 2 or maybe something more rugged like the Fitbit Surge, but it’s hoped that wearing a Fitbit tracker will prevent soldiers from failing military fitness tests.
Between 2011 and 2014, more than 32,000 male and female officers failed the basic fitness test with 60 soldiers said to have been discharged for being considered obese since 2002.
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According to the Mail on Sunday, one infantry unit has already given out the fitness tracker to soldiers letting them monitor steps and how many calories they’ve burned.
It follows the recent news that a 28-stone soldier was sacked for not being fit enough to fight. According to Ministry of Defence figures, around 25,000 soldiers (18% of the Armed Forces) are said to be overweight or obese. In addition to that, 1,000 troops are suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Along with dishing out the fitness tracker, special ‘fat clubs’ are being set up as well as hiring fitness instructors to help burn off the calories. So what’s to blame for the drop in fitness levels? Apparently it’s down to poor diets being dished out in military cookhouses.
Fortunately, Fitbit does let you log meals and create food plans as well so soldiers can keep a closer eye on calorie intake while they ramp up those daily steps counts.
Source: The Telegraph
