Experts wants new definition of obesity, less emphasis on BMI

A heavily-muscled athlete weighs 250 pounds with a body fat percentage in the single digits. He can sprint like the wind and sports a six-pack, but according to the Body Mass Index (BMI), he’s obese.

Doesn’t make much sense does it?

Head-scratching inconsistencies like the one described above have prompted a group of global experts to come up with a new way to define and diagnose obesity.

Their new report, published in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Journal, suggests reducing the emphasis on the flawed BMI approach, and shifting the focus to evidence of health problems tied to extra weight from body fat.

The researchers are suggesting two new categories: Clinical obesity and pre-clinical obesity.

People with clinical obesity would not only meet BMI markers, but have evidence of organ or tissue damage and/or other problems caused by excess body fat, like heart disease, high blood pressure, liver or kidney disease or chronic and severe knee or hip pain.

People with pre-clinical obesity are at risk for those conditions, but have no ongoing illness, the report says.

The report’s authors say the new definitions would target the people who need treatment the most.

“The whole goal of this is to get a more precise definition so that we are targeting the people who actually need the help most,” said Dr. David Cummings, one of the 58 authors of the report which was published Tuesday.

“It wouldn’t dramatically change the percentage of people being defined as having obesity, but it would better diagnose the people who really have clinically significant excess fat,” Cummings said.