July 24, 2024 — It’s nice, really. People are paying attention to obesity, its definition, and the bias they bring to the subject. If you need evidence of this, look no further than a series of three new editorials in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They’re wrestling with BMI and the definition of obesity. The authors present a range […]
October 18, 2023 — We’re starting to feel pity for the poor, tortured metric of BMI. Put BMI into your Google search box and the top suggestion is “BMI inaccurate.” The top news about BMI right now comes from Nature and it explains “Why BMI is flawed – and how to redefine obesity.” And therein lies the problem. BMI […]
March 5, 2023 — Defining obesity is a tricky enterprise for the simple reason that we are all easily fooled by appearances. But obesity is not a disease of size or appearance. It’s a disease of dysregulated adipose tissue. This fact doesn’t stop people from thinking – falsely – that they can size up a person’s metabolic health based […]
June 6, 2022 — It’s great sport or a great folly. Body mass index – BMI – is a simple measure and an easy target for so many people. It saves many people for many reasons from having to think about obesity. Clinicians who don’t want to think too hard about obesity might use BMI, mistakenly, all by itself, […]
