No more neck or hip tape test to measure body fat, Army declares

The new formulas call for only body weight and an abdominal measurement, according to publicly-available implementation documents. The previous test calculated body fat by measuring multiple sites. Both men and women were taped around the abdomen and neck, though the formula for female soldiers required a hip measurement.

However, the legacy tape test was inaccurate, according to research data provided to Army Times. More than a third of men and a quarter of women inaccurately passed or failed body fat standards, the service’s ballyhooed body composition study found after measuring subjects’ “true” body fat using a body scanning device.

Women disproportionately faced false failures under the old test — which critics attributed to the hip measurement equally punishing those with excess fat and those with strong hamstrings and glutes — at 5%, whereas only 1% of men incorrectly failed and 35% falsely passed.