Nutrition in BMT
-
Originally posted by Cdo & Pilot:
i know this question is off topic but since there are so many forumers here who have ORD or stil currently serving their NS, i wana know if i'm planning to take my napfa soon but have oredi receive my enlistment letter, can i request a change of enlistment date if i pass my napfa?
pass napfa, BMT batch. fail napfa PTP batch. no changing of Enlistment date unless you're going tekong, too many people so everyday on that week got intake. other than that, you report the day stated in the letter.
-
i think you get me wrong. in fact its my friend's problem, he wana take his napfa in toa payoh soon but receive enlistment letter asking him to report to pasir ris camp on 13 june. so is it possible to request a change in enlistment date if he pass his upcoming napfa? i assume its not possible from whats written in your post?
-
Originally posted by Cdo & Pilot:
i think you get me wrong. in fact its my friend's problem, he wana take his napfa in toa payoh soon but receive enlistment letter asking him to report to pasir ris camp on 13 june. so is it possible to request a change in enlistment date if he pass his upcoming napfa? i assume its not possible from whats written in your post?
that date is PTP batch date. if he pass it at tpy, he can defer himself to the BMT batch in july.
-
oh ok so it is possible la...so just give cpmb a call will do rite?
-
Originally posted by Cdo & Pilot:
oh ok so it is possible la...so just give cpmb a call will do rite?
I think call the number in the letter first. becos ur friend is posted to unit.. so if it doesn't work, call cmpb. :)
-
oh ok..thanks alot...
-
Originally posted by Croningfool:
Certainly, when I was in, I wasn't given enough nutrition. All that training and so little gains.
Inexcusable. Anyone knows how many calories are provided by BMT?
It cannot be much more than 2000+ calories a day. That is certainly not enough for someone in BMT. In terms of protein, I am not sure but again, I have my doubts.
Ha! Found!
[quote]MAJ Teo describes a ration scale, which follows Headquarters Medical Corps' guidelines, that determines a soldier's daily nutritional requirements. "We adopt an activity-based ration scale. That is, if there is rigorous strenuous activity on a soldier's programme, we will recommend two night snacks for him. Then, soldiers will get 3,500 kilo-calories (kcal). Otherwise, they will receive one or no night snack, and will be provided with minimally 2,500 kcal of food a day; a figure we call the baseline calorie intake level," she says.[/quote]
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/cyberpioneer/backissues_jun03_2.htm
My guess wasn't far off. In short, we are not given enough nutrition in BMT since there usually isn't night snack unless there is night training. 2500 calories is definitely not enough to deal with the rigours of BMT. I think they made a fundamental mistake here. A base line should be set if only to ensure minimal standards. However, what they need to do is allow soldiers to take as much as they want and be given enough time to consume what they have taken - this will cater for differing energy requirements.
Look at it this way, in the UK, the Recommended Daily Allowance for the average adult male is 2500 calories a day. That is for the average civillian, not a soldier. Even taking into account size and climate differences, it seems clear to anyone that 2500 calories is insufficient for a soldier going through BMT. This is expecially so if one takes into account quality control issues. The British Army provides 3300 calories to its soldiers in units. That will almost certainly be more during their BMT (albeir their BMT is more arduous).
if that was insufficient, i wonder how i got through it.
-
Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:
if that was insufficient, i wonder how i got through it.
You miss the point. I can find you people in Rwanda who's survived on roots and flour for the last year or so. The point is whether or not the nutrition provided is sufficient to maximize training gains.
I lost an enormous amount of weight during BMT. It takes only commonsense to tell one that if you are losing so much weight, your body cannot possibly be building as much strength as it should be.
This really is something that can be fixed like that *snaps finger for effect*.
However, the leadership in the SAF has always been lacking and I cannot see it changing anytime soon.
-
Originally posted by Croningfool:
You miss the point. I can find you people in Rwanda who's survived on roots and flour for the last year or so. The point is whether or not the nutrition provided is sufficient to maximize training gains.
I lost an enormous amount of weight during BMT. It takes only commonsense to tell one that if you are losing so much weight, your body cannot possibly be building as much strength as it should be.
This really is something that can be fixed like that *snaps finger for effect*.
However, the leadership in the SAF has always been lacking and I cannot see it changing anytime soon.
of course, but let talk about the majority. most NSmen have completed the BMT as per normal, that is what i mean.
losing weight doesn't mean losing muscles. it can be losing fats or losing water retention. doesn't mean that your body is losing so much weight, it is not building up strength. training takes time and it happens in stages. like they always say, you can't have best of every world, so either you lengthen the liability or do with what you can.
i feel there are other areas that are needed to be considered before implemeting. for example, whether is it necessary to pump every trainee up to become mesomorphic? will every trainee be able to become big and bulky? are the nsmen going to maintain after training phase? etc.
of course i agree the meals planned are not the best in the world. but i believe it is sufficient to get through and meet the demands of bmt. period.
-
Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:
of course, but let talk about the majority. most NSmen have completed the BMT as per normal, that is what i mean.
losing weight doesn't mean losing muscles. it can be losing fats or losing water retention. doesn't mean that your body is losing so much weight, it is not building up strength. training takes time and it happens in stages. like they always say, you can't have best of every world, so either you lengthen the liability or do with what you can.
i feel there are other areas that are needed to be considered before implemeting. for example, whether is it necessary to pump every trainee up to become mesomorphic? will every trainee be able to become big and bulky? are the nsmen going to maintain after training phase? etc.
of course i agree the meals planned are not the best in the world. but i believe it is sufficient to get through and meet the demands of bmt. period.
I am not saying that the nutrition is such as to make recruits unable to function. As you said, most ( I would say the vast majority) of the recrutis are able to pass BMT. You are right but I am not disputing that. What I am saying is the amount of food provided is inadequate if one wants to maximize training benefits.
The bottom line is, if you want performance gains, you need proper nutrition. I would, for instance serve soya bean drink instead of sugared, coloured water. I would also want recruits to be able to help themselves to one starchy item (eg rice, potato) at lunch and dinner. That will ensure that everyone has as much food as they need to function effectively.
I undwerstand the point about making best use of recources but this can be implemented rather cheaply. Rice and potato is dirt cheap. I would imagine soya bean drink or some other kind of protein supplement will not cost a lot. After all, one really only needs about 20+g of protein a day. This can be done easily and at a low cost.
Putting costs aside, we as citizens place our and our children's lives at the hands of the armed Forces. We lay the defence of the nation on the Armed Forces' shoulders. For that, we have paid in blood, sweat and enormous amounts of money. The Armed Forces therefore has a responsiblity to properly train our soldiers. Nutrition is a very important part of that process.
Before anyone says there is no link, I ask you to look at the food provided to the Commandos. I feel that during Basic training, everyone should be fed to that standard due to the enormous physical strain placed on our soldiers.
On the point of whether we need every soldier to be big and bulky, I feel that is irrelevant. You will almost certainly not get big and bulky from the training in BMT.
-
Originally posted by dkcx:
If you find tekong food bad, u really should try the food in many other camps. Airforce food is much more decent than most of the army camps and those worse than tekong are defintely high in numbers.
yea so i heard, my friend from stagmont camp complains to me all the time.
well i guess i'm thankful to have pork and mutton before.. only no beef..hahaha..
better still is the fact, that we always have someone going out to buy lunch from hawkers for us.
-
i know this question is off topic but since there are so many forumers here who have ORD or stil currently serving their NS, i wana know if i'm planning to take my napfa soon but have oredi receive my enlistment letter, can i request a change of enlistment date if i pass my napfa?
once you pass your napfa your enlistment date will be changed even if you have received an enlistment letter already. it should be automatically done int eh system, but for my case i brought my result to cmpb just to be safe..
Friday 13 june. I totally forgot my napfa back then in poly. Crap, PTP but I personally don't mind.
if you can pass with silver award and above, you should seriously try..got reduction in ns liability leh..only serve 1 yr 10 mths...enlist later and ord earlier..
-
Originally posted by nlwy:
once you pass your napfa your enlistment date will be changed even if you have received an enlistment letter already. it should be automatically done int eh system, but for my case i brought my result to cmpb just to be safe..
if you can pass with silver award and above, you should seriously try..got reduction in ns liability leh..only serve 1 yr 10 mths...enlist later and ord earlier..
agreed. esp if you got further studies plans. the 1yr 10 mths will give you just the time frame you needed. -
Originally posted by Croningfool:
The bottom line is, if you want performance gains, you need proper nutrition. I would, for instance serve soya bean drink instead of sugared, coloured water. I would also want recruits to be able to help themselves to one starchy item (eg rice, potato) at lunch and dinner. That will ensure that everyone has as much food as they need to function effectively.
i don't think they put the drinks into consideration. anyway, giving soya bean everytime will be plain boring. then there'll be another group of people complaining no variety.
I undwerstand the point about making best use of recources but this can be implemented rather cheaply. Rice and potato is dirt cheap. I would imagine soya bean drink or some other kind of protein supplement will not cost a lot. After all, one really only needs about 20+g of protein a day. This can be done easily and at a low cost.
i don't see saf not providing rice and potato. you can even ask for more.
Putting costs aside, we as citizens place our and our children's lives at the hands of the armed Forces. We lay the defence of the nation on the Armed Forces' shoulders. For that, we have paid in blood, sweat and enormous amounts of money. The Armed Forces therefore has a responsiblity to properly train our soldiers. Nutrition is a very important part of that process.
true. but i believe they seek out to the minimum requirements only, of course, unless you are a scholar? afterall, its all just for show.
-
knn so many complain about..jus diam diam and eat lah..wait till u eat stagmont food
-
Originally posted by fatone:
knn so many complain about..jus diam diam and eat lah..wait till u eat stagmont food
Which is why I think east side camp cookhouse better than west side camp cookhouse loh...Stagmont's EXCELLENT black carrot cake for breakfast left an ever lasting impression on me and my bowels
-
anyone knows whether the food at pasir ris and hendon camp are good? i seriously hope they serve good food to commandos...
-
Originally posted by Cdo & Pilot:
anyone knows whether the food at pasir ris and hendon camp are good? i seriously hope they serve good food to commandos...
You do have a lot of questions on the formation.Actually you just need to know one simple logic, when you're in green, you're a soldier and your life is sold to singapore for that 2 years. Bunk good or not, Food nice or not, Training tough or not.. Everything is beyond control. So what if you know everything about the formation?
You still have to go through it. Even if you know what's coming. It will bring nothing more than your excessive worries.
if you really want to know, all SAF personnels probably will choose a pack of hawker Fried Kway Teow than their plate of rice.