More about the news

BMI is derived by comparing an individual’s weight to his or her height and can easily determine if one has a low BMI, normal BMI, high BMI, or Obesity BMI, although it has been found to be an imprecise predictor of body fat mass.

Doctors told to stop using only BMI to measure obesity due to overdiagnosis | @scoopit https://t.co/rSSWHcwcZP

— Enzo Calamo (@EnzoCalamo) January 15, 2025

More than 50 contributors to the report released Tuesday in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal suggest a different approach for physicians to classify obesity and screen patients.

About new recommendations

As much as the new recommendations still apply BMI as a screen for Obesity in a “first pass,” it goes deeper and asks whether one has pre-clinical Obesity or clinic obesity with other tools of measurement, according to Dr. Céline Gounder, who is the CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News.

“So what that means is, do you actually have excess fat?” Gounder states that there are three main ways to measure this, according to CBS News.

NEW PROPOSED DEFINITION OF OBESITY WOULD SIDELINE BODY MASS INDEX

Narrative A: The new definition provides a more nuanced and accurate approach to obesity diagnosis, moving away from the outdated BMI system to focus on actual health impacts. This change will help reduce… pic.twitter.com/3NY1aE52sG

— Verity (@improvethenews) January 15, 2025

1. Waist circumference, or a waist-to-hip ratio: “So if your waist is over 35 inches for a woman or 40 inches for a man, that means you do have excess fat, or are you apple-shaped versus pear-shaped?” Gounder said.

2. Directly measuring body fat: “Some older women might be familiar with a DEXA test to assess for bone thinning or osteoporosis. That can also be used to measure body fat,” Gounder said.

3. Effects on your daily living activities: “Can you climb up and down stairs? If you’re not able to because of your weight, that would be clinically obese,” she said. “Do you see damage to your organs, your kidneys, your heart, et cetera because of your Obesity? That would be clinical Obesity.”

What more are the experts stating?

New recommendations have been supported by 76 scientific societies and patients’ associations all over the world, the authors of the report pointed out, but it remains unclear how quickly and to what extent the amendments could be implemented.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BMI is an “inexpensive and easy screening method” that happens to be “strongly correlated” with weight-related medical conditions.

Move aside BMI: There's a better way to define obesity, a commission finds #fatass https://t.co/eBW4GDZPLk

— $mokecheddathaassgetta (@Latino69Heat69) January 15, 2025

However, BMI has attracted criticism in the recent past, with people condemning the identification method as not only inept but also as having prejudiced inclinations, specifically on gender and ethnicity.

“BMI is really looking at how much you weigh relative to your height. But not every, say, six-foot man who has the same weight is obese or healthy. Some of them may actually be strapping, muscular guys versus somebody who is truly overweight or obese. So we’re trying to distinguish between this,” as Gounder noted.

For instance, most professional players are clinically labeled as being obese even when, using the BMI scale, they are unable to differentiate between muscle mass and fat.

The post Is BMI Obsolete? Experts Reveal SMARTER Obesity Screening Methods appeared first on Fitness Blue Prints.

More about the news

Obesity levels, which have been steadily increasing over many years, declined for the first time among nearly 17 million adults across the US, overseeing from 46.2 percent in 2021 to 45.6 percent in 2023, according to a survey conducted by researchers from Harvard University.

Overweight was classified using body mass index (BMI), which has a range of 25 to 30, and obesity was any BMI of 30 or over.

Meanwhile, prescription rates for GLP-1 drugs, such as Wegovy and Zepbound, have risen, although the authors could not definitively establish a link between the two tendencies, US News reported.

What more are the experts stating?

The researchers note that “The most notable decrease [in obesity] was in the South, which had the highest observed…dispensing rate” for GLP-1 medications.

The study was authored by Benjamin Rader, an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, and was published on Dec. 13 in the JAMA Health Forum.

“The prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has increased for several decades. Some long-term forecasts estimate that this upward trajectory will continue, while others forecast a plateau,” Rader’s team added.

Nonetheless, the entry of GLP-1 meds, for example, semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound), has emerged to be a perhaps unexpected new element of the market within the past few years, US News reported.

The injected medications have been selling like hotcakes, and the outcomes in terms of weight loss have been striking more often than not.

The drugs act as a copy of a hormone present in the intestine that, amongst other roles, aids people to feel satiated.

The new study followed health insurance records from 2013 to 2023 from nearly 17 million adults, mainly between 26 and 75 years.

These metrics involved near to 48 million BMI assessments, plus minor BMI-GLP-1 medication usage of the participants. The data contained nearly 48m BMI assessments, while 125,208 participants were also followed for any GLP-1 treatment.

But then, in 2023, the population’s average BMI lowered to 30.21 – the first time it has gone down in the last 10 years, as estimated by Rader’s team.

It’s shocking to note that the percentage of Americans who were obese also decreased slightly in that same year.

The post GLP-1 Drugs Miracle? Obesity Rates Drop for First Time in Decade! appeared first on Fitness Blue Prints.