BMI Alone Falling Out of Favor as a Way to Assess Healthy Weight

Physicians are reevaluating the use of body mass index (BMI) as a measure of weight status. During the American Medical Association's annual meeting, concerns were raised about BMI's limitations and its impact on patient care. The reliance on BMI, influenced by insurance reimbursement, was criticized for hindering access to treatment options. Experts highlighted that BMI fails to accurately measure body fat and overlooks variations among different racial/ethnic groups, sexes, and age ranges. In response, the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health recommended combining BMI with other valid measures like visceral fat, body adiposity index, body composition, relative fat mass, waist circumference, and genetic/metabolic factors to assess risk more effectively.

The shift in thinking reflects a growing recognition that BMI alone is insufficient for assessing health and that its use may perpetuate inequities in healthcare. Certain races and ethnicities had a greater chance of obesity misclassification with BMI than others, the researchers added. Specifically, Asian and Hispanic adults were more likely to have a normal BMI, but have DEXA-confirmed obesity according to their body fat percentage, compared with white adults. Asian and Hispanic adults were also more likely to have a greater proportion of abdominal fat. On the other hand, Black adults with a normal BMI were far less likely to have high body fat percentages and tended to have less abdominal fat...Read more

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