BMI, a widely used measure, has long been criticized for being too simplistic. It calculates obesity based only on height and weight, often misclassifying individuals. For example, athletes with high muscle mass may have a high BMI despite having normal fat levels.

According to a September 2024 data brief from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 40.3 percent of U.S. adults were considered obese between August 2021 and August 2023.

A group of 58 researchers is calling for a new, better way to measure obesity and excess body fat that goes beyond BMI. Here's what they recommend using instead.

People with higher body mass indexes say they're relieved by experts' new guidance to downplay the use of BMI in diagnosing people with weight problems or obesity.

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CDC officials say they extended the guidance now because they are seeing more H5N1 patients whose illness they cannot track back to an infected bird or cow.

As of March 2020, nearly 42% of US adults had obesity, with the report estimating that more than a billion people are living with obesity worldwide.

A group of experts from around the world are proposing an alternative way of defining clinical obesity, eschewing the commonly referenced body max index (BMI) and instead approaching the condition

MORE: Obesity prevalence among US adults falls slightly to 40%, remains higher than 10 years ago: CDC The report further outlines the diagnostic criteria for obesity, combining elevated BMI with ...

Racial discrimination, bullying, sexism and other forms of discrimination have also been shown to increase the risk for eating disorders. “We've had patients who have remained ill for years,” Richmond told Salon in a phone interview, saying the pandemic “was just an unbelievable psychic wound.”

Belly fat — both the visible kind and the deep kind that sits around your organs — is caused by a combination of factors.

A global group of experts has suggested a new approach to diagnosing and treating obesity that does not rely solely on the much-contested body mass index (BMI).