However, according to recent studies, obesity may also protect against death from all causes, as well as death due to stroke , heart failure and diabetes.
A paradox that generates a great deal of controversy. Advances to improve the measurement of obesity and related factors will help determine the optimal weight for an individual, taking into account factors such as age, sex, genetics, fitness, pre-existing diseases, as well novel blood markers and metabolic parameters altered by obesity. People with a BMI of 30 or more, i. A team of researchers at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, found better post-surgical short-term survival rates among obese people than patients of normal weight 3.
Patients with a BMI of This results in tall people believing they are fatter than they really are 4 , and short people thinking they are thinner. BMI was devised in the s by Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet , a Belgian mathematician, sociologist, statistician and astronomer.
Trefethen wonders why institutions today on both sides of the Atlantic continue using the same flawed-BMI formula. Study leader, Dr Claudia Langenberg and team suggested that waist circumference should be measured more widely for estimating type 2 diabetes risk.
They pointed out that a non-obese, overweight male with a waist circumference of at least They would have a BMI of Now, imagine a sprinter who is also six feet tall but weighs lbs. So, according to the BMI, the sprinter is more overweight than the sedentary person. But as I said earlier, a glob of muscle weighs about 18 percent more than the same size glob of fat, so this is clearly not an accurate statement. BMI is also not reliable to use on elderly adults, who generally have lost some amount of muscle and bone mass.
When compared to white Europeans of the same BMI, Asians appear to have a four percent higher total body fat. South Asians, in particular, have especially high levels of abdominal obesity, which can throw off the BMI measurement as well. A person whose BMI says they are overweight, or even obese, is generally considered unhealthy, while people with normal BMI are generally categorized as healthy. But research published in suggested that this was incorrect for 75 million Americans.
Researchers found that 54 million Americans had been classed as overweight or obese, but with further investigation, they found that other cardiometabolic measures blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. This is often not the case. The reverse is also true. The researchers of this study estimated that nearly 75 million adults in the United States have their health misclassified on the basis of BMI.
The BMI does provide some information. The main issue is, when people hear that a higher weight is linked to chronic conditions, they tend to assume that being heavy is the reason a person gets sick. This seems to be the case with Type 2 diabetes, for example: Weight gain is a symptom of insulin resistance rather than the cause. The BMI is a straightforward numeric ratio and doesn't take into account how any particular body is put together. Lee, and these factors matter when it comes to determining a person's health.
One may be a bodybuilder with high muscle mass, while the other may have higher fat mass. Though a greater BMI is linked to poorer health outcomes, the location of fat on the body may make a bigger difference. Those with fat stored around their stomach area, known as android or apple-shaped body types, have a greater risk of chronic disease than those with fat stored in their hips, buttocks, and thighs, known as gynoid or pear-shaped body types 26 , 27 , 28 , For example, in a review of 72 studies that included data from more than 2.
Those with higher BMIs more often report that their doctors focus only on their BMI, even if their appointment is for an unrelated concern. Often, serious medical issues go unnoticed or are incorrectly seen as weight-related problems This can lead to late diagnoses, treatment, and care Despite the wide use of BMI among all adults, it may not accurately reflect the health of certain racial and ethnic populations.
For example, numerous studies have shown that people of Asian descent have an increased risk of chronic disease at lower BMI cut-off points, compared with white people 34 , 35 , Numerous studies have shown that these alternative cut-off points better identify health risk among Asian populations.
Still, more research is needed to compare these cut-off points with multi-generation Asian Americans 39 , 40 , Also, Black people may be misclassified as overweight despite having lower fat mass and higher muscle mass.
This may suggest that chronic disease risk occurs at a higher BMI cut-off point than in people of other races, especially among Black women 35 , 42 , 43 , In fact, one study found that Black women were considered metabolically healthy at cut-off points 3. Finally, relying only on BMI ignores the cultural importance of body size to different groups.
In some cultures, higher fat mass is viewed as healthier and more desirable. A larger waist circumference — one greater than 35 inches 85 cm in women or 40 inches A high ratio greater than 0.
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