Fitness and nutrition coaching for military women, from a Navy veteran

How do I prepare for my PT test and body composition assessment as a woman?

Start earlier than you think, train for the test you're actually taking, and leave crash cutting out of it completely. A steady plan over a few months will get you further than the two-week scramble a lot of us learned in our first years in.

I was in a constant state of dieting back then, and I went to extreme measures to make sure I'd make weight. I didn't know any better.

With clients, we work backward from your test date. Strength training 2-4 times a week builds the muscle that helps your body composition and keeps you strong for the events, and we add run training that matches your test, adjusted to how many weeks you have. Nutrition sits at a conservative deficit, or at maintenance if you're already close, with protein high enough to hold on to muscle. We watch your weekly averages, never one weigh-in.

Every service and every test is a little different, and standards change, so always check the current requirements with your command or your service's official guidance.

How do I stay consistent with deployments, PCS moves, and field days?

You stay consistent by having a plan for the crazy week before it shows up. Every FitHer client gets a plan for a normal week, a plan for a crazy week, and a plan for when she's fallen off and needs help getting back on.

For a PCS move, that might mean switching from the FitHer Gym program to FitHer Home for a month while your household goods are somewhere between duty stations. For a field week or a long stretch of watches, it might be the Daily 20, 20-minute workouts done at least 5 of 7 days a week. And some weeks it's bare-minimum goals: hit your protein, get your steps, sleep when you can. Seasons for a reason.

I've had pretty much every schedule. Shift work, deployments, travel, early morning workouts, late night workouts, no workouts. The military taught me how to adapt, problem-solve, and get things done no matter what comes up, and that's exactly what I bring to coaching.

How should military women eat to lose fat and still perform?

Eat enough, prioritize protein, and keep carbs in your plan. It's really hard to train well and recover on 1,200 calories, and a lot of the women I work with have spent years eating less, running more, and wondering why they're exhausted and stuck.

For fat loss, calories come first, then protein, then fiber. I usually anchor protein around 1 gram per pound of goal body weight, filled with real food first and a protein shake or bar when you need one. Nothing is off limits, which matters a LOT when dinner is the galley, the DFAC, or whatever's still open near the hotel.

Fat-loss phases have an end date. When yours is done, we reverse diet back to maintenance so you keep your results. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with maintenance.

If your energy, sleep, or cycle feel off no matter what you do, the labs add-on lets us look at hormones, thyroid, cortisol, and insulin. Anything that needs treatment is a conversation with your doctor.

Can an online coach work with me while I'm stationed overseas?

Yes. Everything in FitHer happens in the app, so as long as you have internet, you can be coached from Germany, Japan, or a base I've never heard of. Your workouts, food logging, weekly check-ins, and the group chats all live in one place.

I've coached women through international moves and new jobs overseas, and the plan moves with them. If you go from a full base gym to a set of dumbbells in temporary lodging, tell me and we'll adjust the program.

One thing to know before you sign up: the full lab panel is a blood draw at a location, which is only available in the U.S. If you're overseas, you can send me labs you already have from your doctor and we'll take a look at those instead.

What's a realistic fitness plan for a reservist?

A realistic plan for a reservist fits around your civilian job and family first, with enough strength and running built in that the PT test is never a scramble. Reserve life is its own kind of chaos, because a drill weekend or a set of orders lands on top of a schedule that was already full.

For most reservists I'd start with 2-3 strength sessions a week, 7k+ steps a day, and one or two runs, then build from there. Shorter workouts done more often build the habit, which is why so many women do well on the Daily 20.

On drill weekends we plan around it. Pack your protein, get your steps in, and skip the strength day without guilt if the schedule is packed.

Is FitHer veteran-owned, and do you coach military spouses?

Yes, FitHer is owned and run by me, a U.S. Navy veteran. I spent about 9 years on active duty and I'm still serving in the Navy Reserve. I started FitHer in 2021 while I was in uniform, coaching on the side, and before that I was a military analyst with an M.S. in operations research. Once a nerd, always a nerd.

Military spouses are absolutely welcome. You're living through the same PCS moves and deployments, often solo parenting through them.

And military culture didn't get everything right about health. My first job was on a ship, where people compared how little sleep they got like it was a badge of honor, and weigh-ins meant extreme measures. We need to do a better job teaching military women how to fuel their bodies and prepare for fitness tests in a sustainable way. That's a big part of why I do this.

Written by Lindsay Clements

I'm the coach behind FitHer. I've coached 300+ women online over the last 5+ years, and I healed my own binge eating and postpartum metabolism issues before I ever coached anyone else.

Functional Nutrition and Metabolism Specialist · Certified Nutrition Coach · Certified Personal Trainer · M.S. in data analysis · U.S. Navy veteran (12+ years)

How we work on this in FitHer

Every client runs on the same 3-phase FitHer system. In Foundations we build the basics: tracking, protein, fiber, sleep, and workouts that fit your schedule and your equipment, whether that's a base gym, a hotel gym, or your living room. Most clients spend at least 4-6 weeks here.

In Progress, we adjust your macros and movement for fat loss and track progress weekly, with plateaus and diet breaks planned for. If you have a test date, we plan the phases around it. Then we reverse diet back to maintenance so you keep what you built.

On FitHer Coaching ($279/month), I review your check-in every week and we adjust together, with a private call each month. FitHer Custom ($349/month) adds a training plan written only for you, the best fit if your equipment or schedule changes a lot or you're working around an injury. FitHer Self-Guided ($99/month) gives you the full program and the community at your own pace. Self-Guided is month to month and the other two have a 4-month minimum. You can compare them here.

What women say

Read all 49 reviews on Google

Questions I get a lot

More from FitHer

FitHer coaching covers nutrition, training, and habits; it isn't medical care or official military fitness guidance, so confirm current PT and body composition standards with your command and talk to your doctor about anything medical.