Singapore Shapes Up
	The Lion City's aggressive government programs show the benefits of a concerted, nationwide war on fat
	By Bryan Walsh

Posted Monday, November 1, 2004; 20:00 HKT
As a draftee in Singapore's citizen army three years ago, Muhamad Azmi was poised to join the bulwark that defends the Lion City. But months of sedentary studying at his university—plus all the pizza he gobbled at his restaurant job—had left him overweight as his induction date drew near. At age 19, the 1.67-m recruit tipped the scales at 87 kg, leaving him wondering how he would survive training. "I knew that when I joined the army I would really have to get fit," says Azmi.

His trepidation is shared by an increasing number of other young Singaporeans. When the city-state began requiring military stints for all 18-year-olds in 1967, recruits were more often underweight than overweight. But the country's growing prosperity changed that. By 1989, more than one in 10 army inductees were obese, nearly double the rate just five years earlier. This trend led then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to warn: "If we are not rugged, fit and healthy as a society, we will not be able to withstand the pressure of competition, endure the rigors of military training and survive the heat of battle."

In 1992 the government launched an attack on fat, rolling out its National Healthy Lifestyle Program. "Our economic development had been fast," explains Dr. Wee Wei Keong, deputy director of clinical service at Singapore's Alexandra Hospital. "We could focus on other health issues, like lifestyle." One initiative was the government's Trim and Fit Scheme, which subjects schoolchildren from age 9 to regular weight and fitness checks through a standardized national test. Those who fail are assigned to group running or aerobics programs for an hour a week. Away from school grounds, the government also urged the city's ubiquitous food-stall operators to use more vegetables and less oil, salt and syrup.

Out-of-shape military recruits receive more aggressive intervention. In 1993 the army set about "salvaging as much combat manpower as possible," in the words of Chief Army Medical Officer Dr. Surya Kumar, by assigning overweight draftees an additional six weeks of fitness work on top of the usual 10 weeks of basic training. They begin the program with brisk walks, then work up progressively to standard field training. Though the physical-performance requirements are often reduced for overweight recruits, Kumar insists the program is no mere stroll on the parade ground. "We're not running a slimming center," he says. "We're producing soldiers." He estimates that about half of the army's overweight recruits can be brought up to fighting trim through the program.

This somewhat mixed result is typical of those achieved in Singaporean society as a whole. The percentage of overweight schoolchildren has dropped from 14% to about 10% in the 12 years since the National Healthy Lifestyle Program debuted. But the proportion of obese adults rose from 5.1% in 1992 to 6% in 1998 and continues to worsen.

Still, Singapore stands out as a model for the rest of Asia by addressing obesity as an urgent and treatable health problem. Azmi, the pizza-packing draftee, shed 16 kg during his extended basic training. Today, he has a new job—as an instructor at the army's Officer Cadet School, he whips other soldiers into shape.

With reporting by Douglas Wong/Singapore

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