Airman loses 100 pounds with ‘Fit to Fight’

By Master Sgt. Buzz Ritchie
341st Space Wing Public Affairs

MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. -- It took an Airman in missile maintenance at Malmstrom nine months to fix one of the Air Force’s most important weapon systems, and he did it out of uniform, without technical orders and after duty hours.

Senior Airman Norman Barore, a member of the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron since October 2001, lost 100 pounds in nine months, dropping from a super-sized 276 in August 2003 to a low-carb 176 in May. He did it without surgery, supplements or the latest fad diet. He did it the old fashioned way. He simply ate less and exercised more.

“I was supposed to sew on senior airman on Sept. 11, 2003,” the husband and father of two said. “I knew I’d probably get weighed, and I knew I was way over.”

He was.

When the six-footer tipped the scale at 276 pounds, his commander told him to lose the weight. Barore found himself enrolled in the Health and Wellness Center’s Sensible Weigh class.

Sensible Weigh was part of the Air Force’s weight management program at the time. An Air Force program that combines health risk and fitness has since replaced it, said Maj. Theresa L. Gilbert, a registered dietitian at Malmstrom’s Health and Wellness Center.

The Body Composition Improvement Program, or BCIP, contains the same principles as Sensible Weigh, but is shorter and more interactive, she said.

“There is a greater focus on goal setting, lifestyle changes and group activities to help people make changes in their eating habits,” Gilbert said. Monthly follow-ups are mandatory with BCIP; they were not mandatory with Sensible Weigh, she said.

Barore attended Sensible Weigh classes every Friday for four weeks. Half of the class is devoted to fitness, half to nutrition. Barore wasn’t very familiar with either topic, he said.

“I always knew I needed to work out,” he said. “But I never knew how hard or how frequently. The class showed me how to hit my target heart rate for a certain duration.”

Malmstrom’s exercise physiologist and fitness program manager at the HAWC said hitting your target heart rate for the right length of time is the most efficient way to train.  “People should strive for four workout sessions per week to meet their fitness goals,” Kirk Clark said. “When they’re exercising, they should make sure they’re achieving an intensity level high enough to make a physiological change in their body.”

That’s why target heart rate is important, Clark said. It’s a measurement people can take while they’re exercising that tells them if they’re working hard enough to lose weight and improve their fitness.

“To make changes to your body, you should train at your target heart rate for at least 35 to 45 minutes,” Clark said.

People can determine their target heart rates by subtracting their age from 220 to get their maximum heart rate. Their target heart rate is 50 percent to 80 percent of their maximum heart rate.

Clark added that it’s important to pick the right exercise to hit your target heart rate while maintaining a level of comfort and interest.

Staying interested in a fitness program was a challenge for Barore.

A graduate of Great Falls High School in 2000, Barore was always big. He played football and wrestled, but never bothered with a fitness program. That changed in August 2003 when he started a fitness regime that included a cardio-vascular workout on an elliptical trainer, weight training and a 2,000 calorie diet.

“My goal was to lose weight,” Barore said. “Before I joined the Air Force, I had to lose 14 pounds to meet standards. I’ve been on diets before, but in my opinion, diets are short-term.”

Gilbert agreed.

“Diets are typically short-term solutions to long-term problems,” she said.

Diets often require a person to make major changes in the way they eat. That works over a short period of time, but eventually becomes boring, Gilbert said.

A slow, steady weight loss is the most effective way to lose the pounds and keep them off.

“Short-term diets will do nothing for you in the long run,” Gilbert said.

Instead, she suggested people who want to make changes to their diet should keep a daily diary of the food they eat. A food diary will show people what eating habits, like skipping breakfast, are getting in the way of their fitness goals.

They should also set specific and measurable goals each week, objectives like eating fruit as a snack or drinking water instead of soda.

Barore still keeps a daily food diary. And he knew he’d have to establish a series of goals he could reach quickly if he was going to stay motivated and on track.

“My ideal weight for my height is 207 pounds, so my goal was 207 pounds,” he said.

The Air Force’s weight management program gave Barore three months to reach his maximum weight. He did it in less than that.

“But I wasn’t satisfied,” he said. “I didn’t want to be right under my max. I wanted to be in a safe zone.”

After slimming down to 207, Barore decided 200 pounds “sounded good.” He was hitting the gym late at night four times a week, rearranging the groceries in his cupboards at home to avoid reaching for a candy bar instead of an apple, and reading the nutritional labels on packaged food. When he stepped on the scale 76 pounds lighter than he weighed in August, he set another, lower goal.

“I asked guys at work my height how much they weighed,” Barore said. “I got an average of 185. So that was my next goal, to hit 185. That’s my kill zone, 20 pounds under my max.”

He’s still in his kill zone. He’s weighed 176 pounds since March.

“I look at pictures of me before, and I can’t imagine ever weighing that much again,” Barore said. Not only is he lighter than before, his work has improved.

“I have more energy when we deploy to the field,” he said. Maintenance work on ICBMs in Malmstrom’s missile field includes climbing ladders from one level of the launch facility to the next. When he weighed in at 270-plus, Barore had to stop and rest from one level to the next. But not anymore.

When he ran his mile and a half fitness test in February, he finished third in his duty section, turning in a time of 12 minutes and 36 seconds for a mile and a half. Three months later, he lowered his time 33 seconds.

Friends and family have noticed the change in the young airman, too.

“My wife tells me ‘you look really good’ and guys at work say I look a lot better. People ask me what my final goal is, but I haven’t really reached the end,” he said. “I’ve changed my lifestyle and turned my life around. I’m not going back.”