TIMES, UK - As U.S. troops prepare for war in Iraq a report is about to reveal that more than half of them are overweight. A panel of nine medical experts commissioned by the Pentagon is expected to say that 53.9 per cent of US military personnel over the age of 20 would be classified as too fat to fight under federal obesity standards. A fifth of those aged under 20 would also fail the fat test, The Times has learnt. . .
A Pentagon document seen by The Times says: "If at some future time (the federal guidelines are adopted), the impact will be to shift a sizeable group of personnel from a category of meeting weight standards to a category of being overweight. . . The panelists are, however, expected to provide a loophole, recommending that the Armed Forces ignore the federal standards and continue to use their own, more flexible, guidelines.
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