An international commission made the case for focusing on body fat quantity and the illnesses people experience.

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Using body-mass index to tell who is overweight or obese is not reliable and can result in misdiagnosis, the Commission on Clinical Obesity says in a new paper in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya/ Pexels The way obesity is diagnosed needs to become more sophisticated, an international commission has concluded.

A crude measure of weight relative to height, BMI is commonly used to diagnose obesity—even though many experts and professional groups agree it’s an imperfect tool that on its own reveals very little about someone’s health.

Relying on BMI alone to diagnose obesity is problematic as some people tend to store excess fat at the waist or in and around their organs, such as the liver, the heart or the

More than a billion people are estimated to be living with obesity worldwide and prescription weight-loss drugs are in high demand. The report, published in The Lancet Diabetes &

An international committee of scientists has proposed changing the way obesity is defined and diagnosed. The proposal adds more ways to measure body composition and fat.