A Growing Threat at Guantanamo? Detainees Fatten Up

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Fueled by a high-calorie diet, detainees at Guantanamo Bay are becoming fat.

Most of the prisoners arrived at the military prison in southeast Cuba slightly underweight but have since gained an average of 20 pounds (9 kilograms), and most are now "normal to mildly overweight or mildly obese," Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for the detention facilities, said Monday.

One detainee's weight has almost doubled to 410 pounds (186 kilograms), Durand said.

U.S. officials assess whether detainees are overweight by calculating their body-mass index, a measurement of weight in relation to height.

Human rights groups attribute the weight gain to lack of mobility in the detainees' small cells. They also cited accounts of released detainees who said they were at times allowed to exercise fewer than three times a week.

The detainees' meals total a whopping 4,200 calories per day. U.S. government dietary guidelines for weight maintenance recommend 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day.

Inmates at U.S. federal prisons receive about 2,900 calories a day, said Michael Truman, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, who added that weight gain is studied only where it poses a health risk, though it does not appear widespread.

"Most of them keep themselves in pretty good shape," he said.

Durand said detainees are served a wide variety of food and expected to choose what appeals to them.

"The detainees are advised that they are offered more food than necessary to provide choice and variety, and that consuming all the food they are offered will result in weight gain," he said.

About 460 detainees are currently at Guantanamo, including some held for more than four years on suspicion of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The meals include meats prepared according to Islamic guidelines, fresh bread and yogurt. With nearly all detainees fasting in the daytime during Ramadan, authorities have arranged for two separate meals -