One Marine's Own Battle of the Bulge

By Michael Mattson
Special to the Times
Marine Pfc. Michael Underwood’s struggle with weight gain has been his personal battle.
Standing six feet tall, he signed in to boot camp weighing 225 pounds. He was put on a restricted diet initially, but it was for a brief two-week period. Daily aerobic activity — in the form of a 3- to 6-mile run in the morning, multiple sets of pushups, sit ups, swimming and a restricted caloric intake — slowly burned away his excess stores of body fat during the 12 weeks of boot camp.
Underwood graduated boot camp at a trim 172 pounds. But then his real weight trouble began.
He was assigned to Food Service as a cook and stationed at Kaneohe Bay Marine Base, Hawaii. His excess eating started innocently enough — half of a sandwich between the lunch and dinner service, an extra helping of beef tips and potatoes at dinner or a few cans of Coke instead of a glass of water.
The moment of truth arrived in Underwood’s eighth month of service.
A surprise inspection was called. Underwood and his fellow cooks had 15 minutes to suit up in their parade dress uniforms for the big brass who were rolling in that day. By this time, Underwood was a portly 217 pounds.
He realized something was wrong as soon as his leg slid into the pants that he had worn on graduation day. With no time to get the uniform taken out, he had to resort to having his wife and two cooks wrap him in clear Saran Wrap so he could squeeze into it.
By the end of Underwood’s first year in the Marines, he had gained all his pre-enlistment weight back.
A struggle shared by many
Many of us battle weight gain. Experts say fluctuations in body weight can be triggered by stress, exacerbated by poor diet or a lack of exercise. According to the Department of Agriculture:
--80 percent of Americans consume higher than recommended levels of fat every day.
--Total meat consumption (red meat, poultry and fish) amounted to 201 pounds per person in 1999; 24 pounds above the level in 1970.
--Nearly 40 million Americans are obese and the numbers are climbing. Over 50 percent of Americans are overweight, compared with 45 percent in 1991.
--Sugar consumption per person jumped 6 percent from 1995 to 1999. We currently consume 89.1 pounds of corn sweeteners per person.
What can other service members learn from Underwood’s experience?
Sustain those workouts
Even though an airplane-hangar’s worth of exercise equipment was on the base, Underwood rarely took advantage of it.
"Big mistake," says Linda Van Horn, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School and a registered dietician. "The biggest misconception that people have about exercise is that all they have to do is aerobic activity and that’s it. They can then eat or drink all they want," she says.
Van Horn says the key to good health is Lean Body Mass (LBM). A high LBM equates to a high basal metabolic rate. That means that we burn calories at a higher rate during the day, even when not exercising. You can achieve a high LBM by doing sustained aerobic activity for 30 minutes 3 times per week and by including a component of weight training.
Watch out for hidden calories
What doomed PFC Underwood to his fate of inevitable weight gain? Drinking six to eight cans of Coca-Cola per day and eating dinners late at night.
"Our society has been invaded by a sugar army," says Dr. Van Horn. "Drinking eight sodas per day will add 1,200 calories to your diet — that is 48 percent of your daily caloric intake."
"The only time-tested way to lose weight and maintain your health is by exercising and watching your caloric intake."
Trading in those sodas and flavored fluids for pure spring water, replacing that mid-morning chocolate bar with an apple and cranking up on the consumption of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables will go a long way towards helping you maintain your health and weight.
Despite his weight issues, PFC Underwood was "fit" by Marine Corp standards. His average score on the Physical Fitness Test throughout his military career was in the 290’s (with a maximum score of 300) and his supervisors consistently gave him high marks in proficiency and conduct.
PFC Michael Underwood was honorably discharged from the Marines a number of years ago and, as of this writing, weighs approximately 270 pounds. "I’ve always had a problem with losing weight," he said. "The discipline of the service kept me in shape but I realize now that I was just barely able to control it." He works a job that keeps him walking most of the time but he still snacks and hasn’t exercised consistently since leaving the service. He has gone to eating only two meals a day in order to shed some pounds but admits that he is discouraged, "I know what I should do but I don’t always do it." Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. It’s the "little things" that have the greatest impact.

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