Experts weigh in on ‘flawed’ BMI as global report says obesity needs new definition

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Experts are proposing a new way to define obesity, calling for an overhaul on the controversial body mass index (BMI). Medics warn people are being “overdiagnosed” with obesity because the BMI score is not a “nuanced” enough measure of the condition.

A new global report claims using BMI as a sole measure of obesity can lead to both overestimates and underestimates of the number of people living with obesity.

The new Lancet Commission – made up of more than 50 experts from around the world – said that a “radical overhaul” is needed in the diagnosis of obesity.

Under the proposed diagnostic criteria, roughly 20% of people currently classified as obese would no longer meet the definition, preliminary analysis suggests. “Some people who are today classified as having obesity by BMI (but) they might play sports, they’re very active, they might have very strong bones – saying that those people have obesity and then classifying them as having a disease would obviously be an overdiagnosis,” said Professor Francesco Rubino, chairman of the commission and chairman of metabolic and bariatric surgery at King’s College London. “This commission has been trying to deal with a more accurate way of diagnosing and classifying obesity in the first place. “But we are calling for a change, a radical change, because obviously, in the context of one billion people being classified as having obesity in the world today, and with a number that is projected to increase, no country is rich enough to be able to afford inaccuracy in the diagnosis of obesity.” The authors propose that other measures should be taken to diagnose obesity, such as waist to hip ratio or waist to height ratio, and called for two new “diagnostic categories” of obesity.