U.S. Army
AR 600-9 — Army Body Composition Program
Data updated: 2026-08-19 (verified vs primary service regulations)
How the screen works
The Army uses a one-site abdominal circumference tape test at the navel (adopted 2023) scored against an age/sex body-fat table. In 2026 the Army is transitioning toward the DoD WHtR < 0.55 screen (Army Directive 2026-13); confirm the current implementation with your command. Soldiers who score 540+ on the ACFT (minimum 80 points per event) are exempt from the circumference assessment.
| Initial screen | Threshold | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) | must be < 0.55 | Below passes with no tape test; at or above → secondary body-fat evaluation |
Maximum allowable body-fat % (age / sex)
| Age group | Men (max %) | Women (max %) |
|---|---|---|
| 17–20 | 20% | 30% |
| 21–27 | 22% | 32% |
| 28–39 | 24% | 34% |
| 40+ | 26% | 36% |
Reading the age-normed ladder
The table above is a ladder rather than a single number, and the width of that ladder is worth knowing before you compare yourself against a colleague. Across the 4 bands listed for Army, the men's ceiling spans 6 percentage points and the women's spans 6. That spread reflects how body composition shifts with age, and it is the reason a measured value can fail against one band and pass against another without the measurement itself changing at all.
The Waist-to-Height Ratio gate here sits exactly on the DoD baseline of 0.55, so this service applies the joint standard without tightening or relaxing it. A WHtR is waist divided by height, so the arithmetic has a concrete consequence: at 70 inches tall, the DoD baseline of 0.55 tolerates a waist of up to 38.5 inches while the gate applied here tolerates 38.5 inches.
DoD Instruction 1308.03 also sets an outer corridor: no branch may be stricter than 18% (men) / 26% (women), and none may be looser than 26% (men) / 36% (women). For Army the tightest men's band is 20% and the most permissive is 26%, with women's bands running from 30% to 36%. Every band here sits inside the corridor rather than pressed against its limits. The most permissive band reaches the loosest end of the corridor, so older personnel are held to the joint ceiling rather than a service-specific one.
Check your measurements
Run your numbers against the Army standard in the multi-branch go/no-go checker.
Open checker →Printable scorecard
Take a clean one-page summary of this branch's screen to your weigh-in.
Get scorecard →Source & verification
- Primary: AR 600-9, Table B-2 (Army.mil ABCP)
- Retrieved and verified: 2026-08-19. Standards change — confirm with the official regulation or your command before any official assessment.