--- title: Navy Body Fat Restrictions Loosen to Retain Sailors description: Thousands of sailors who exceeded body fat limits are being given another chance by the Navy, which loosened its body fat restrictions canonical: https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-05T20:53:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:39:06.364Z article:section: Politics og:title: Navy Loosens Body Fat Restrictions to Retain Sailors og:description: Sailors will get a chance to pass a more lenient test this spring og:url: https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cb0585d69943e7e/69888058cf40a84b5ac42479/496944882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US secretary of the navy Ray Mabus. Veteran's Day in New og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Navy Loosens Body Fat Restrictions to Retain Sailors twitter:description: Sailors will get a chance to pass a more lenient test this spring twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cb0585d69943e7e/69888058cf40a84b5ac42479/496944882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Navy Loosens Body Fat Restrictions to Retain Sailors  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 5, 2016 8:53 PM UTC  U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus speaks on Veteran's Day in New York City. . U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus speaks on Veteran's Day in New York City. .Andy Katz—Pacific Press/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 5, 2016 8:53 PM UTC Thousands of sailors who exceeded body fat limits are [being given another chance](http://bigstory.ap.org/d120992af74941ceaf3395f61f698047) by the Navy, which loosened its body fat restrictions in January. The military branch is giving sailors who repeatedly failed physical fitness tests another chance to pass a more lenient test this spring, the Associated Press reported on Saturday. Sailors were previously kicked out for failing three physical fitness tests, but the Navy said it was losing too much talent, even as sailors used liposuction or diet pills to pass. “It’s far more realistic,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said, according to the AP. “We were kicking more people out of the Navy for failing that, than for drugs. The move could indicate a larger trend, especially as jobs that don’t rely heavily on weight and fitness—cyber warfare or drone operation, for example—become more common. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/"},"headline":"Navy Loosens Body Fat Restrictions to Retain Sailors","datePublished":"2016-03-05T20:53:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:39:06.364Z","description":"Sailors will get a chance to pass a more lenient test this spring","url":"https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/","keywords":["Military"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cb0585d69943e7e/69888058cf40a84b5ac42479/496944882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cb0585d69943e7e/69888058cf40a84b5ac42479/496944882.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US secretary of the navy Ray Mabus. Veteran's Day in New","caption":"US secretary of the navy Ray Mabus. Veteran's Day in New","creditText":"Andy Katz—Pacific Press/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4248744/navy-body-fat-restriction-loosened/","name":"Navy Loosens Body Fat Restrictions to Retain Sailors"}}]}] ```