(14 Jan 2025)
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seattle – 10 January 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. David Cummings, University of Washington:
"So the commission proposes to change the definition of obesity from simply being relatively heavy for your height to being ill because of having too much fat."
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago – 9 January 2025
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Robert Kushner, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine:
"Yes, so that the new term of clinical obesity is when someone has excess body fat by their BMI and another measurement of body size along with a symptom or sign that’s impairing their health or their reduced quality of life."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Robert Kushner, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine:
"We’re hoping to change discussion and awareness that BMI is insufficient to diagnose obesity and to get help for those who have clinical obesity earlier."
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seattle – 10 January 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. David Cummings, University of Washington:
"Everybody has known for a long time that BMI was flawed, but people couldn’t figure out a way to replace it. We have gone to the mat and rolled up our sleeves in the effort to come up with that replacement."
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STORYLINE:
A group of global experts is proposing a new way to define and diagnose obesity, reducing the emphasis on the controversial body mass index and hoping to better identify people who need treatment for the disease caused by excess body fat.
Under recommendations released Tuesday night, obesity would no longer be defined by solely by BMI, a calculation of height and weight, but combined with other measurements, such as waist circumference, plus evidence of health problems tied to extra pounds.
Obesity is estimated to affect more than 1 billion people worldwide. In the U.S., about 40% of adults have obesity, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report introduces two new diagnostic categories: clinical obesity and pre-clinical obesity.
People with clinical obesity meet BMI and other markers of obesity and have evidence of organ, tissue or other problems caused by excess weight. That could include heart disease, high blood pressure, liver or kidney disease or chronic severe knee or hip pain. These people would be eligible for treatments, including diet and exercise interventions and obesity medications.
People with pre-clinical obesity are at risk for those conditions, but have no ongoing illness, the report says.
BMI has long been considered a flawed measure that can over-diagnose or underdiagnose obesity, which is currently defined as a BMI of 30 or more. But people with excess body fat do not always have a BMI above 30, the report notes. And people with high muscle mass — football players or other athletes — may have a high BMI despite normal fat mass.
Under the new criteria, about 20% of people who used to be classified as obese would no longer meet the definition, preliminary analysis suggests. And about 20% of people with serious health effects but lower BMI would now be considered clinically obese, experts said.
The new definitions have been endorsed by more than 75 medical organizations around the world, but it’s not clear how widely or quickly they could be adopted in practice.
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