BMI is actually quite accurate in measuring American overweight, the study reveals

The body mass index can be a more accurate measurement than it was usually thought. New research shows that a large majority of people with a BMI that implies overweight have significant excess fat fat.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University conducted the study, published This month in Jama. In a national representative of the Americans, they found that adults with a thick BMI almost always met the criteria for overweight in terms of waist circumstances or body fat percentage, too. The findings suggest that BMI remains an important population level tool for overweight evaluation, scholars say, and many people are trying to do it.

Researchers analyzed data from the national health and nutrition survey (NHANES), a study of Americans’ lifestyle diet and lifestyles are regularly directed by centers for disease control and prevention. As part of the NHANES, some people are given broader examinations, which include tests that measure their body fat or waist circumstances.

The researchers looked at the latest NHANES data (2017-2018) that included people who took these tests other than to control their BMI. Obesity is usually determined that there is a 30 and more BMI (27 for people of Asian origin). But it can also be determined by having a 25% body fat percentage for men and 35% for women, or a 40 -inch waist circumstance for men and 35 inches for women.

More than 98% of people who were considered obese using only BMI also adapted to the bill when considering waist circumstances or body fat percentage, researchers found.

“Although some patient populations (eg, athletes) can guarantee further evaluation, our results suggest that these individuals make up a very small part of the population,” the researchers writes.

The findings are especially important given the latest developments in the field of overweight medicine. Earlier this January, a large group of experts asked a considerable change in the way overweight is diagnosed.

They have driven doctors to stop using BMI as the only criteria for measuring overweight. Instead, they say, doctors should either use two body size measurements (one of which may include BMI) or a direct body fat measurement to diagnose overweight. They further demanded that the overweight be grouped into two broad categories, depending on whether a person’s overweight is actively causing related health problems: Predatory and clinical overweight.

Researchers and other lawyers in body positivity and fat receipt movement have long called for BMI to leave, and the conclusions of the group were strongly supported by many public health groups, including the American Heart Association and the World Obesity Federation.

However, study researchers note that direct body fat tests require specialized equipment and may be more expensive for patients in terms of out -of -pocket costs, and given their findings, many people may not benefit from performing these other tests. Be that as it may, it seems that the scientific debate over the benefit of BMI is not yet quite resolved.

“For almost all of us adults with elevated BMI, there may be a limited tool to confirm excessive adiposity,” the authors writes. Currently, according to the current BMI criteria, around 40% of adults in the SH.BA are considered thick, though the norm may have started finally fallsThank you partly for the arrival of newest, most effective weight loss medicines like Wegovy.