That's actually super surprising to me. I lost like 20 pounds in bootcamp because it's literally all cardio. I guess this is partially due to the higher ranking guys not doing the same amount (any) PT.
From what I remember about basic was that everybody over a certain weight lost pounds, where everybody under a certain weight gains pounds. I gained a good amount, but I was like super skinny before. And most guys like me probably put on muscle(except for one small guy who just put on a lot of pounds, but it was most likely fat. Not trying to be mean, though.
But the part about higher ranking guys not doing PT is most likely correct. That being said, on my base, barely anyone did it. And when ever they try to make PT mandatory, it turns out badly. And usually, it's mostly lower ranking guys for many different reasons ranging from waivers to my shop needs me to I just don't want to go...
I don't know anyone who gained weight in bootcamp. We ran miles and miles and did nothing that would promote weight gain.
I think the gain was usually muscle. It's was only the smaller guys. Like the ones who couldn't really afford to lose weight. Haha. I'm like 5'3 and weight probably 100 or so joining up. I don't think losing weight would have been healthy. But gaining weight would, especially if I gained muscle...
It's because they put everyone on the same regiment of eating, sleeping, and training. It 100 makes sense that the weight of everyone would normalize (the fat people lose weight and the skinny people gain weight). It's all about net energy balance, there's actually very little difference in basal metabolism from person to person. ---