That said, one way that the military subtly kicks people out of the service when it's downsized, and I've seen a couple waves of this, is that they change the BMI standards slightly, making it harder to make weight. Believe it or not, a lot of folks can't lose 10 pounds for the life of them. Then, when you need retention, they change the standards back to a looser one again. At the height of the Iraq War, you saw some porkers, but after the 2013 "Sequestration," they tightened the standards as a way to reduce the size of the service after budget cuts.