Pete Hegseth says he has replaced overweight National Guard troops after a viral photo showed them deploying in Chicago . ‘Standards are back,’ the Secretary of War posted on X, confirming a screenshot of a story about the action taken against Texas National Guard troops.

A photo showing several heavyset soldiers deploying in the Democratic city went viral on social media last week as the troops deployed to bolster security around ICE facilities beset by left-wing protests. ‘Hegseth is going to lose his mind. I’m here for it… Texas National Guard arrives in Chicago….for the food I assume,’ one commenter wrote.

Two days later, the National Guard posted a statement on fitness standards for mobilization, saying all National Guard soldiers and airmen are required to meet service-specific height, weight and physical standards at all times.

‘When mobilizing for active duty, members go through a validation process to ensure they meet requirements. On the rare occasions when members are found not in compliance, they will not go on mission. They will be returned to their home station, and replacements who do meet standards will take their places,’ the statement continued.

Last month, speaking at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia , Hegseth told the country’s top generals that he was ‘tired of seeing fat troops.’ ‘If the Secretary of War can do regular, hard PT, so can every member of our joint force,’ the Secretary of War said.

Hegseth also said these new rules are ‘not about preventing women from serving,’ but added that the physical standards needed to be gender neutral. ‘If women can make it, excellent, if they cannot — then so be it … it will also mean that weak men won’t qualify. This is combat.’

Hegseth said standard training guidelines will be restored ‘to what it should be — scary, tough disciplined,’ and one where drill sergeants ‘can put their hands on recruits.’ He doubled down that each service member and department will require high-level physical requirements, adding a combat arms field test.

A Pentagon spokesperson tells Daily Mail that height and weight requirements depend on the service. They pointed to a body fat calculator for the army that was created in 2023. The website requires soldiers to put in information like their age, sex, weight, measurements and height to calculate a final number. Further instructions include a ‘one-site tape test’ or a ‘multiple-site’ body fat tape test.

If they fail both, they can request a body fat assessment via the DXA, InBody 770 and The Bod Pod. These are all formal body composition analysis tools, measuring things like body fat, muscle mass and more. The Pentagon says, if a soldier fails all of the above, they will then be referred to the army weight control program.

Still, there is no clear guidance on what exactly the failure threshold is for a BMI or Body Fat percentage test. A member of the military, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Daily Mail that the secretary is obsessed with physical training, overlooking other necessary skills. ‘I have two degrees, which should mean more than my exact specifications and exactly how far I can run,’ they told Daily Mail. ‘He’s a douchebag,’ the source added.

The Texas Military Department did not respond to a request for comment. It is not confirmed if any of the troops pictured in the viral X post were removed from duty. ‘In less than 24 hours, Texas National Guardsmen mobilized for the Federal Protection Mission,’ a department spokesperson told a military news website. ‘The speed of the response necessitated a concurrent validation process, during which we identified a small group of service members who were not in compliance and have been replaced.’