Weight Loss

Hi all,

I just started this website today.  I am a college student at LSU and I am applying for the Navy's BDCP program to go to OCS after college.  I wanna be a Seabee, yes like John Wayne in "The Fighting Seabees."  According to this site with my body size I should be taking in ~3200 calories a day, but I am actually doing from 1200-1800 a day.  I am going for a certain body percentage, so when I do cardio should I try to go for a slower/long distance run (4 miles) or a faster/shorter (1.5 mile) run?

I'd rotate the workouts.  Have a long run day, a short run day, and a day to do intervals. 

It's not a good idea have a caloric deficit bigger than 1000 calories/day.  So, if you're burning 3200 a day, please eat at least 2200 a day.  Even eating 2200, you can still lose 2 pounds of fat a week.

Hi, You didn't say weather you were over weight or not. I'm sure the navy does their weight the same as the army. When my hub and I were in and my son just got out of the army they would do what they call "taping".  My son is 6'2 and big and my hub is 5'10" and muscular.  They would tape (measure them) it has to do with muscle mass instead for fat. My son has an 18" neck 6'2" and 215lbs,  he boxes and according to the weight stardards he is over should be 195lbs. but if they tape him he meets theirr equirements the same with my hub 5'10 and 185lbs. alot of muscle. They take that into consideration. I have girlfriends that were taped also. Don't know if this helped. If you go too low on your calories your body will go into starvation mode (but you probably know that) May alternate days up calories. Keep working out. Good luck with your goal.

Well I am overweight, and yes the Navy does do taping.  They tape your neck and waist to get a number that matches a fat% on a chart.  I am just trying to loose size mostly.  This site says I burn about 4000 and some change, so I upped my daily allowance to 2600-2800.  Does that sound better?

That sounds a lot better.  Good luck!

Regarding the run, here's two points I have to make.

1. You want a good, varied run program. I don't know what the Navy uses for their PT test, but I figure it's either a 1.5 or a 2 mile timed standard. So one of your goals should be to pass that with a cushion of at least 30 seconds. But keep running longer distances, do some sprint-jog intervals, etc. It'll take a while and it'll suck, but your cardiovascular system will get used to the strain. Before I joined the service, I had never ran a mile in my life. Now my resting pulse is around 50~55.

2. To lose weight and actual mass, you want to keep your heartrate around 120-135 BPM. This allows you to run longer, and continually burn energy (and eventually pure body fat.) Try to find a workout buddy who focuses on that instead of pure cardio improvement, as the latter may just disenhearten you when you're not losing weight and your run time is not improving. Also, if you have the time, spend a day or two a week just biking at moderate effort for hours. Eat buns during that time, they're relatively healthy, good energy yield, and portable. It'll wittle you down in no time.

I've always heard the Navy is ridiculously strict on their tests.

The Navy should be like the army where the run times and required repetitions are set standards.  It also sounds like their taping standards are the same, which amounts to if you have a big neck, you can have a gut, otherwise you'd better make weight. 

I don't know how healthy this is, but right before a taping, those of us that tend to be close on body proportion use saran wrap around the waist the night before and I'm serious you will lose a little volume.  It's like your own little sweatbox. 

Here we go. The skinny on the Navy physical test and BCA approach. The BCA for men is tape measured at neck and waist based on your height. The run is 1.5 miles, sit and reach, push ups, and situps. We usually start situps first. The rule is to do as much as you can in 2 minutes, same with the pushups, and then the 1.5 mile run. Seabees tend to run more so get the running going. I know some of them at least do 5 miles a day. Always try to run farther than the 1.5 because it is much harder after doing the push ups and situps. You can google OPNAVINST 6110.1H. It has all you need to know about the Navy Physical Fitness standards. Everything from BCA, height and weight, and the actual test. Hope this helps.