The tables are dead almost everywhere
Two Secretary of War memos in late 2025 ended height-and-weight tables across the Department of War and replaced them with one number: your waist divided by your height. Four services landed on 0.55. The Marine Corps went tighter at 0.52. And the Coast Guard — which most coverage gets wrong — never switched at all.
| Branch | The standard | Governing reg | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | Waist ÷ height under 0.55 | AR 600-9 / Army Directive 2026-06 | 2026 |
| Navy | WHtR 0.5499 or below | OPNAVINST 6110.1L + PRP Guide-4 | 1 January 2026 |
| Marine Corps | WHtR under 0.52 — the tightest in the force | MARADMIN 066/26, amending MARADMIN 613/25, on MCO 6110.3A w/ Admin CH-4 | 1 January 2026 (retroactive) |
| Air Force | WHtR under 0.55 | AFMAN 36-2905 (retitled from DAFMAN) | 2026 |
| Space Force | WHtR under 0.55 | SPFMAN 36-2905, Human Performance and Readiness | 2026 |
| Coast Guard | BMI screening weight — NOT waist-to-height | COMDTINST 1020.8I, Body Composition Standards Program | Still current as of COMDTINST 6100.1 (16 June 2026) |
Every figure verified 2026-08-18 against the primary regulation, not secondary reporting.
At six feet even, a Marine tops out around a 37-inch waist. A Sailor the same height gets about 39.5 inches. Two and a half inches, same body, different uniform. If you're a Marine, use the max-waist table printed in MARADMIN 066/26 rather than doing the ratio math yourself — the table already accounts for rounding, and the Corps says to use it.
Branch by branch
Single measure: waist at the navel divided by height. The tape test and the height/weight tables are both gone.
If you exceed it: None — WHtR is the sole assessment.
Full breakdown on our Army page.
Two steps. Step 1 is WHtR — waist at the umbilicus ÷ height, rounded down to four decimals. 0.5499 or below passes and you are done. The old three-step process (max weight → single-site abdominal → neck/waist/hip tape) is gone; no neck or hip measurement is taken anymore.
If you exceed it: Step 2 only if you exceed: body fat from a height-waist difference table. Max 26% male / 36% female, not age-adjusted.
Semiannual WHtR screen replaces the height-and-weight requirement. Waist measured at the navel, parallel to the deck, with a self-tensioning tape. Use the max-waist table printed in the MARADMIN — it is authoritative and already accounts for rounding.
If you exceed it: Body-fat evaluation for anyone who exceeds the ratio.
Weight is still recorded through calendar 2026 so the Service can assess the change, but per SECWAR guidance weight is not used for body composition.
WHtR = waist ÷ height, both in inches, truncated (not rounded) to two decimals. There is no height/weight screening table at all — height and weight are recorded, but weight is not a pass/fail screen.
If you exceed it: Body-composition follow-up per the manual.
AFMAN 36-2905 explicitly does NOT apply to the Space Force.
Separate publication from the Air Force. Body Composition Assessment is its own chapter, split from the Human Performance Assessment.
If you exceed it: Per SPFMAN 36-2905 Chapter on BCA.
Change 3 implements the 30 Sep 2025 and 18 Dec 2025 Secretary of War fitness memos.
The Coast Guard exception
The Coast Guard did not switch to waist-to-height, and plenty of articles say it did. The Coast Guard is Homeland Security, not the Department of War, so those fitness memos don't bind it. Semiannual Body Composition Screening. Step 1 is a BMI-based screening weight (age- and sex-neutral, BMI 19.0 min / 27.5 max). Exceeding it triggers a body-fat assessment; there is also an abdominal-circumference path to compliance. ALCOAST 079/26 in March 2026 called the new waist-to-height requirement “currently under review.” If you're Coast Guard and someone tells you the tape is dead, they're reading someone else's regulation.
COMDTINST 1020.8I, Body Composition Standards Program, March 2022. Still current per COMDTINST 6100.1 (16 June 2026).
Joining: the DoD standard vanished
The DoD-wide height, weight, and body-fat standards for JOINING are no longer in DoDI 6130.03.
The current edition (DoWI 6130.03 Vol. 1, base 30 March 2018, Change 6 effective 3 February 2026) contains no "Body Build" section, no height minimum or maximum, no accession weight table, and no accession body-fat percentage. Accession body composition is now set at the service level rather than DoD-wide. So if you're trying to find out whether you can enlist at your current weight, the honest answer is that there is no longer a single DoD number to look up — ask the branch you're actually joining, and get the answer in writing.
Where this came from
- The Marine Corps is running a comprehensive body-composition study later in 2026 to refine standards — the 0.52 figure may move.
- The Coast Guard says the WHtR requirement is "currently under review" (ALCOAST 079/26, March 2026). Re-check the COMDTINST 1020.8 series periodically.
- Navy PRP Guide-4 is being revised frequently (JAN 2025, DEC 2025 and JUN 2026 editions all exist). Check the edition date printed on the PDF, not the URL.
Quick answers
Every standard on this page was read off the primary regulation on 2026-08-18, not summarized from secondary reporting — which is how we caught that the Coast Guard never switched. Standards move; re-verify against your branch's current instruction before making a decision that matters.